Photosounder SplineEQ is our new spline-based linear phase equalizer plugin (VST/AU), available now in a free version and a commercial version.

Photosounder SplineEQ - Spline-based linear phase equalizer

There are lots of great curve-based linear phase equalizers out there (e.g. Pro-Q) but I wanted to make one that's simpler (in a minimalistic sort of way) but nevertheless that affords a lot of control (something for which I believe Bézier splines are ideal) and perhaps more importantly something much more affordable. I also wanted to make a free EQ because there's a lot of great free EQs out there so I made a free version of it that is fully functional.

looks amazing and price as well will give it a try

nice sounding, great tight bass and very musical and shiny trebles.

Looks nice.
What are the limitations of the free version?

The free version only has up to 4 bands while the commercial version has up to 60 bands. Also the free version cannot open or save presets (well at least not using its own format thing, you can always save as a .fxp).

Maybe I should put that on the download page...

A_SN- By the way, that presets link on the main SplineEQ page is dead.

And thanks for the plug

Oops thanks for the heads up just fixed the link.

Does it have the usual pre-ringing artifacts that is normally associated with linear phase equalizers?

It can, yes, mostly if you have very sharp changes in gain.

Hi there,

I've tested out the EQ, and I can say one thing for sure...

There needs to be some sort of built in limitation on how high you can boost the EQ. 60db? It's far too high. I almost blew my headphones and ears, I tried to do a low cut and the thing ****ing send all the lows through the roof, defaulting to let all the lows through the level of the 'pivot point' band. Horrible design safety wise. If I do a cut, I want it to stay cut.

So in conclusion:

Give the option for db boost range. +12, +24 maybe.
Give it a cut, and make it stick.

Also, limiter doesn't work, and Live crashes every time I try to change the resolution knob.

That's what the limiter is for (only it's disabled by default so that people don't start wondering why it sounds limited, you have to turn the threshold down), I figured it should be enough protection. And +60 dB is great if say you want to boost some really weak harmonics.

I don't get how you got too much gain from doing a cut though.

The limiter doesn't work? How so? Also changing resolution works fine for me in Live 8.2.6 on Windows 7, what do you use?

I use Live 8.2.6 on OS X. The limiter does not work for me. I read somewhere that it is supposed to light up red when activated. Does do this. No matter how you set the limiter, even at zero, there is no change to audio.

With the resolution, every time I touch the knob Live crashes.

Well, the limiter can only work if the output signal clearly exceeds 0 dB, try to set some band to +60 dB and you'll see. And it lights up in white-cyan. I tried red but it didn't really work.

But you're right about the range, I should do two things: a selectable range for the visualisation and a hard-limit threshold for how high in gain the curve can go.

As for the Live crash I'll try to reproduce it on OS X then. Does it crash too if you change the resolution while processing is suspended (like when there's silence so the host suspends processing for plugins, or does Live not do that?)?

Hi there,


I'm not sure what you mean, but if you mean if there a pause in audio before a crash...

I actually tested it out without audio, just opening a brand new instance of live, adding the EQ to an audio track, and attempting the adjust the resolution knob (this is happening each and every time, with no fail) Live will stop what it's doing, and crash. The resolution knob does not even get a chance to move.

If there's anything I can do to help you test this let me know, I'd be happy to help out.

I spoke too soon when I said 'horrible design' safety wise, because I did not notice the limiter, but I seriously can not get the limiter to work. However, the concept is fine, if not absolutely necessary. I think without a doubt, the limiter should be activated and set at a safe default when the plug-in is opened. This will save blown speakers and ear drums, and your reputation for a sound product. Most people, I'm thinking, are going to be using this EQ with normalized levels of audio 95% of the time. I think people will not need +60dbs of gain often. Most probably will never need it.

Which takes me to my next point. Simplify. Or at least, consider it. I really like to concept of this product!!! That's why I tried it out, that's why I attempted (and failed) to reply to your thread on KVR and then finally found a thread on here to give you my feedback. I hope this product succeeds! But I think you should simplify the design. The coloured frequencies are amazing in concept, and it even works great in practice (good job). Use this as the selling point. People love colours. It helps them. Serato Scratch Live, anyone? That was one the few attributes that Serato (arguably) had over Traktor.

So in terms of being simpler, maybe like we said, adjust the option for gain boost resolution. +3, +6, +12, +60. The other thing is, I know you want to be very different, but with the colours, you already are. Look at Lives EQ8. +15 DB of gain standard. People like simple. And at a low price, you are probably trying to target a wider consumer base than the more expensive and specialized stuff, perhaps? If this is the case, maybe dropping the price and pushing the product as a "it's so cheap, you'd be stupid not to buy it, if all you have is XYZ's build in EQ".

And continuing in the vein of simplicity, maybe lower the bands offered? 60? The general producer consumer is probably overwhelmed by the thought of 60, if they are not even used to using 8. I don't know about everybody, but for me personally, sometimes the perception of over-complexity sends me running for the hills, and I never end up even downloading a demo (for thought that I may never use it, because I dont want to learn the complex product).

Hopefully you like my ideas! Again, if there's anything I can do to help. Maybe hook me up a full version and I'll help you with some marketing

-PRESSPLAY

Good news everyone! In the spirit of Christmas I slashed the price from $39 to $19. Ho ho ho!

$19 was my original price tag but I was talked out of it. I guess I shouldn't have listened to them.

It would help if I could see a crash report since you're on Mac OS, but I'll have a look at it myself. Did you use the AU or the VST version?

The limiter isn't the best way to limit things anyway, I think it's much better to add a dial to limit how high things can go. Now I'm planning a new version with that and a dial to change the zoom/range and L-R/M-S editing and probably other things. And making the visualisation area more rectangle since apparently peopl hate it as a square.

I don't think that the number of bands is a problem since naturally most are disabled by default. In fact ideally you'd be able to have infinite bands, alas each band needs 4 VST parameters (which might be a problem when I add Mid-Side editing as I'll need twice more parameters in all) and I found out that having more than 256 parameters can be problematic (for example Reaper doesn't show all of them).

I like your ideas, and I intend to make sure that the next (major) version of SplineEQ takes everyone's ideas into consideration. I developed SplineEQ with only one tester (as I couldn't find anyone else interested into testing it thoroughly) and most of his ideas have been put into it, so if I can get to a consensus on what to do next it's even better!

As for the marketing, I always need help in that domain since basically I have strictly no idea what to do about marketing. So let me know what you can do about that .

Good news, I've got the crash happening here too. Only on OS X and only with Live, not sure why but I'll find out.

Nice first one!
I like the GUI and workflow
Same bug in Live but only with AU version
I'm sure you'll find lots of betatesters to help you with the development here at GS
Any RTAS/AAX planned?
A.

OK I've sort of fixed the problem, however I haven't uploaded the fixed version yet. The real reason for the problem is that for some mysterious reason the semaphores (some sort of mutex) that protect areas of code from a thread to another don't work at all in Ableton with the AU version. I have no idea why, I just moved the code for the change in resolution to another thread where it won't conflict with anything, but the semaphores problem isn't fixed. Until it is fixed you might see slight graphical glitches when moving things around, or possibly even crashes although that probably wouldn't happen.

No not as of now. I think RTAS requires something from Avid, I forgot what it is but it sounded like a pain in the neck to get. Is it a big deal? I've never heard of AAX.

EDIT: Concerning Ableton Live, are you okay with the VST version working right?

I understand that.
AAX is the new RTAS
I ran Spline with some others LP EQs but couldn't quickly match the settings so I can't compare the sound, however I really liked what I heard
I can see many creative uses thanks to the huge possible boosts, special curves shapping + clean sound
In the middle of the vintage emulations warzone this plug's very refreshing, thanks!
A.
PM sent concerning VST

If WDL/IPlug starts supporting AAX (which I don't think it does at the moment) then I can consider an AAX build. It supports RTAS but you have to add the RTAS SDK which is tricky to obtain, plus it's with the one version of WDL/IPlug I've had issues with.

And I know what you mean, I loathe the words vintage, analog and emulation in the context of computer music. We now all own machines of awesome unexplored capabilities yet people focus on recreating the past at a lower price rather than exploring the new possibilities. This being said I'm young and have never made any music (except with real instruments) so I have no nostalgia for what is old. In the case of equalisation all I know is that linear phase equalisation is the more correct way to equalise, as for the other aspects of it I just decide what I think is the better approach (splines, that rainbow visualisation thing, a large gain range). I think that having just enough disregard for what has been done before is a good thing.

looks good any demos?

I've just uploaded a new build that should fix the issues in Ableton Live on OS X.

Working on an examples page at the moment, I'll let you know when it's done.

The page is work in progress (I need to add some details and make it look better) but here it is Photosounder SplineEQ - Spline-based linear phase equalizer

New version, it does a better job at addressing the issue with Ableton Live OS X (by fixing the code protection thing that was lacking) so it shouldn't crash anymore.

Also I've added a visible version number in the lower corner of the screen to help know if you're up to date. It currently reads 1.0.1.

Great support, thanks!
A.

Good news everyone, I've just written the manual! Hope it answers all your questions, and if it doesn't let me know about it.

http://photosounder.com/splineeq/manual.pdf

This is a seriously good-sounding EQ.

However, I tried the latest, free version (1.0.1) and it crashes validation in Logic 9.