Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

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sysrqer
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Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by sysrqer »

True analogue phase mastering/buss equaliser

A plugin EQ to rival analogue hardware

We wouldn't release a mastering equaliser unless it rivalled the sound and usability of the analogue hardware we have in our studio. But we are now ready with the Analog Magpha EQ.

This EQ is the result of years of mastering experience and has been a secret weapon in getting exactly the right sound for our clients. We hope it can help you too, whether placed on a track, subgroup or the master channel, this EQ delivers a silky smooth sound that's as warm as it is pure.
Features

Sound
Very open, smooth sounding curves.
True analogue phase behaviour right up to 20000Hz.
Optional very broad Q factors (<0.1), great for final wideband tone sculpting.
Technology
Extremely accurate match of analogue prototype curves in magnitude and phase.
Low latency performance.
Windows, Mac and Linux version available.
Interface
Minimal, zero-eye-candy interface reinforces the use-your-ears approach.
Stepped controls, carefully chosen to aid comparisons and guide decision making.
Stereo/Mid/Side band modes for full stereo field control.

http://www.balancemastering.com/plugins ... eq-plugin/
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by lucianodato »

It does what it advertises correctly. It introduce only 32 samples of delay. Very interesting coming from investigation in Queen Mary's university since everything they do is very well regarded. I wonder how they achieve phase accurate response without resampling. Interesting indeed.
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by funkmuscle »

lucianodato wrote:It does what it advertises correctly. It introduce only 32 samples of delay. Very interesting coming from investigation in Queen Mary's university since everything they do is very well regarded. I wonder how they achieve phase accurate response without resampling. Interesting indeed.
John, one of the devs was helping me out with the reverb unit and he asked me to try the EQ. Not that good at mastering but he wanted feedback. I'll invite him to join us here
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by balancemastering »

Thanks to funkmuscle for the intro, and to anyone who's downloaded/bought it so far.

For some info on the plugin, it uses a hybrid technique to design the filter coefficients that capture the phase (as well as magnitude) of analogue. I might prepare a blog post to explain in more detail if I have time but here's a graph where we compared against a well regarded competing plugin (a maker I respect). You can see our plugin matches analogue phase very well...

Image

This is a 9dB boost a ~6.3kHz and soundwise the difference is subtle but very audible. Basically our eq sounds smoother and more open than the competing plugin. Like it has removed a lid on the sound.

Zooming in on the magnitude we see some deviations of about 0.2dB. While it's hard to tell if a slight magnitude curve deviation like this would sound bad per se, it's good to know ours matches even more precisely to analogue vs. the competing plugin.

Image

We could have gone more accurate (but this adds more latency). This version uses a 65 sample filter which gives 32 samples latency. We've experimented as high as 513! This gives crazy analogue accuracy and probably is overkill and a bit tough on the processor. Although I'm proud of the achievement since traditional methods for this kind of phase capture need filter lengths of about 8000-16000 to match the performance of our 65 length design. Most mastering/mixing is done offline but 32 samples would probably be useable some realtime settings too.

Going the other way, we can actually get quite a decent version with just 5 sample length filter (2 samples latency). Going this short however approximates the phase only to about 10kHz at 44100 rate. That's still better than the competing plug in the above graph. In listening tests I liked the sound of slightly longer, and found about length 9 and above to sound good. 33 sounded very good so I doubled that to 65 for safety, in case there is some situation I haven't tested for.

Sorry, I could talk about the tradeoffs of filter lengths for a while, I'll leave it there :)

Thanks,
John.
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by lucianodato »

Hi John! Congratulations on your achievement! I can attest that it sounds really good at high frequencies. Much better that the Orfanidis peak filter. Are you familiar with those matched zero transform improved filters? Mzti? I've read a long time ago that paper and they were working in correcting precision (magnitude and phase) at high frequencies too. It sounded interesting at that time but I didn't heard of any eq that uses that technique. Yours seems to have even less error.
I love this kind of work since this is what advances the industry. Make sure to link your blogpost here if you do so. I will read it for sure.
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by balancemastering »

Thanks very much. Yes our method's similar to MZTi. The MZTi method seemed to be focussed (or at least somewhat concerned) with filter length, in that it was constrained to second order biquad filters (3 coefficients numerator/denominator). Since I'm a mastering engineer, I wanted to see what was possible when that constraint was relaxed, and see how far we could go quality-wise, with longer filters. Orfanidis was really groundbreaking for the time (1997!). In fact the MZTi was 2007 and I came up with our design in 2017, so maybe 2027 will be next...
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Update v1.2.0 – GUI

Post by balancemastering »

Image

Hi all,

We've taken a lot of the feedback on board to improve usability (and still fit with the original idea). Here's the new look, a bit more tactile but still minimal.

v1.2.0 is now available

- Optional non-stepped, continuous knobs/textbox values (in settings)
- Improved user interface:
- More tactile buttons & knobs.
- More usable in low light conditions.

v1.1.0

- Optional smaller, more compact user interface.
- Optional knob markers for extra visual feedback.
- Option to truncate textbox values to 2 decimal places.
- Fix issue where sometimes default JUCE widget controls display.

New users:
http://www.balancemastering.com/plugins ... eq-plugin/

Existing users (demo or purchase), please check your email for the direct link.
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Re: Balance Analog Magpha EQ plugin released

Post by CrocoDuck »

balancemastering wrote:For some info on the plugin, it uses a hybrid technique to design the filter coefficients that capture the phase (as well as magnitude) of analogue. I might prepare a blog post to explain in more detail if I have time but here's a graph where we compared against a well regarded competing plugin (a maker I respect). You can see our plugin matches analogue phase very well...
HOT! Don't forget to link the post when you get to write it. I think I will try your plugin soon.
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