Maag EQ4 plugin out. - GET SOME AIR BAND.
by brainrox   12th February 2012

mm in the website says that it will be rtas, but no mention on tdm?anyway.. time to check the demo

Plugin specifications:

Nominal Input Impedance (XLR)
48 K Ohms, balanced
Nominal Output Impedance (XLR)
50 Ohms, balanced

cool...

Good catch, where do I put the cables heh.

I've had the pleasure to work with Dave Reitzas many years ago and heard the Maag then for the first time. I was blown away by its air. Congrats on the plugin, I think it sounds fantastic in all frequency bands and the air band puts it in a league of it's own. As far as modeling gear, I think you guys are really onto something, after the VSC and now this one, excited to hear what else is in the pipeline.

Can't wait to demo it ! I'm looking for a colour-eq plug-in right now. If it's as good as Vertigo I'll take it !

alright, downloaded the demo, using it at the moment with a voiceover for a tv advertisment and a el gtr track. Didnt expect that, but maag is VERY musical.I really like that eq.

ps. there is option for tdm/rtas and aax as well.all platforms covered.good job.

very nice air indeed but I'm even more impressed by the low end. really solid! (electronic music)

How many time do you have for demo?

I think they give you 10 days.

Brainworx has been killing it lately! More excited to get my hands on the hardware version though, but this might have to tide me over!

The air band is great!

Waiting for the plug!

I want the hardware as well.

It's hard to believe it could be replicated in the digital domain. But Brainworx is an impressive company and I'm sure if anyone could do it, they could.

I'm psyched about trying this plug-in.

- c

As am I!

The Air band is very good. musical and unique. been trying to recreate it with some EQ's I have (HW & SW) beside the Sontec, none came close to the unique combo of sprinkle and cleanness.
if those who believe that all digital EQ's are the same need to be challenged, well here is your challenge.
the Bass is tight and although very Strange and restricted EQ frequencies selection (40,160,650,2.5) somehow they work quite well in shaping and muscling sources. the 650 is surprising on guitars.
the only reason i'm not buying it straight away is that i feel Air Band is some sort of a promo for the real thing, considering the real deal coast about 4 time the price of a plugin, that make it a hard decision to buy the plugin.

I came pretty close with two instances of EQuality. Especially in the higher frequencies. I have a lot more problems to match the bass.
Problem is, that even if all bands are set to zero, something is going on. Frequency and phase shift. A slight push in the higher frequencies, like a 0.5db high shelve at 3.5k. I tried to match the zero gain curve as close as possible and then it was not so hard to recreate the air band with a second instance of EQ.
To match the bass is a lot more problematic because of some weird phase shift. But again, the air band seems not sooooo magic...

I can upload the two EQuality presets matching an AirBand push of 6 at "40khz" if anyone is interested.

love to hear ~

Here you go. Its not 100% close but something like -40db in a null test and as you can hear, most of the difference is in the midrange, not HF and most of it comes from the "sound" of the EQ itself (everything at zero), not from the HF boost, which is (in my quick and dirty scenario) basically a bell EQ (+2.4db, Q0.76) at nyquist and a slight overall gain push.

just put two EQualitys in series, load the "zero" preset in the first and the "+6@40k" preset in the second and don't hesitate to do a null test with the Maag EQ.

Happy tweaking

Good luck "copying" the far-from-standard behavior of this EQ this way.
(especially when using several bands, etc.)

BTW: we have digital filters in the EQ4 who don´t have problems giving you the original sound of an analog EQ even ABOVE the Nyquist frequency. Michael has presented them in an AES paper in New York last year.

Proper frequency response of 40kHz boosts at 44.1 sessions. ;-)
Dirk.

PS: EQ4 trials are 14 days, no USB dongle needed (demos & full licenses)

I wouldn't ever try to copy the sound of a real EQ!
I'm just playing around with some digital filters.

While I completely understand how a EQ can be matched to some degree I think that one of the advantage of a design like this is not having to put 2-3 eq's in series just to get at 90% of that result.

While I don't get the PA's new pricing so much (endless discussion but that's the market these days they really need to price things lower), I respect what BX are doing and how they are doing it and think that EQ plugins like this (easy to dial in) with already musical bands at your disposal are actually very creative.

Not having to waste time that can be a vibe killer doing a performance, or having less stress getting a nice high freq boost can be absolutely marvelous!

If you want something like Equality or Pro-Q there's always Equality or Pro-Q heh

I absolutely agree! I just wanted to help finding out if this "above 20k" thing is THE new magic trick.

This being said, I consider it a very inspiring EQ because of its unusual choice of frequencies.

Sorry, but: Hunh?

This is a digital eq plugin operating on a 44.1 KHz signal that you're selling, yes or no?

Could you please explain how that could even be relevant to anything we actually hear with our human ears? Is "40kHz boost" just a fancy term for a hi-shelf?

Damn it if this doesn't just sound amazing. Not just the air band but the entire thing sounds great. My only real complaint is that the gain compensation should have more than 5db. The bands are fairly wide and the amount of gain generated when boosting is considerable, most of the time 5db is just not enough to compensate. And you really can abuse it because it seems to remain musical pretty much no matter what, I will definitely be buying this when the 14 day are up.
Great stuff

I think I'll buy it soon. Really nice sounding EQ and very easy to find the right settings. But gain compensation shuld be fixed.

Hi Dirk,

This is what I found on your site :

So the EQ4's trial differ from this ?

Thanks,
G

No, you found a small mistake in the website, I fixed it.
It´s 14 days for all plugins.
Thanks! Dirk.

The gain compensation goes down to -24dB.
If anyone find less gain (like the -5dB you mention) please let us know via the tech support form as we need some details then and we´ll look into it right away. It "should" be the same in every host though, of course...

Dirk.

I might have considered buying this if I could get any support whatsoever from your company. I can't set up an account for my existing SPL and Brainworx plugins under your new system because emails to the address associated with my iLok account don't make it through. I've put in two tech support requests including an alternative email that I know works (because I've tested it with the account system) but have received absolutely no replies. And there seems to be no way to associate plugins with that account. I know, I could put in a tech support request, but...what would be the point? I don't get any replies in the first place.

Oh, and I tried using the phone as well: the Brainworx number as I can't find any listed number for Plugin Alliance. But no-one answers: it just rings.

Maybe you'd like to explain how someone moves an iLok licenced plugin to your new system or purchase a new one if you won't actually communicate with customers.

If it's Brainworx is interesting