1. Ableton Download

For meticulous mix engineers, few plug-ins are more crucial than EQ. While the market offers a wide range of powerful vintage emulations to surgical parametric tools, Live’s bundled EQ Eight provides a surprisingly powerful set of features. With Live 10.1’s incoming Channel EQ designed to bridge the gap between EQ Eight and the DJ-themed, performance-oriented EQ Three, it seemed a good time to take a deeper look under the hood of Live’s workhorse studio EQ.

I'm new to ableton live (2 weeks in) but getting pretty familiar with the program. I just noticed that I don't have eq eight in my audio effects list. Where would i get it? I'm not that familiar with what plugins are or how to download them, if that's even what it is. R/ableton: /r/ableton Resources, tips and tricks for all things Ableton. Ableton Live, Ableton Push, and Max for Live. Posted by 1 year ago. Can't find EQ Eight in Ableton 10. I'm using Intro version is it in the Standard version, or do I have to download it?

EQ Eight

With four bands enabled by default, EQ Eight supports up to eight bands, which can be activated via their toggle boxes along the bottom of the interface. Each band’s curve can be selected from Bell, Notch, High or Low Shelf, standard High or Low Pass, or steep High or Low Pass.
For most boosting or cutting, Bell is probably sufficient, but for complete removal at specific frequencies, Notch can eliminate selected ranges entirely. The shelving options provide full-band vintage emphasis above the selected frequency with High Shelf, or below with a Low Shelf; a slight dip before the shelf’s boost, or conversely a slight peak before a shelf is pulled down, emulates vintage shelving curves for more natural sonic results at extreme settings.
EQ Eight’s Low and High Pass are designed to eradicate problematic frequencies above or below a selected point, respectively. The default Pass curves provide a reasonably gentle and musical slope, but for more extreme filtration or precise cuts, try the x4 slopes.

Band Select

Whichever band is selected, either via clicking its tab at bottom or its corresponding circle in the frequency display panel, you can adjust that band’s Freq, Gain, and Q via the three dials at the left of the device. Freq determines which frequencies are being adjusted, Gain governs the degree of boost or cut in decibels, and Q controls the width, or specificity, of a band, with lower values widening the range of frequencies effected, and higher values narrowing it down.
At the lowest possible Q setting, a Bell curve boosts nearly the entire frequency spectrum, while the highest available Q setting narrows it to a precise needle-point, perfect for surgical edits. A band’s Freq and Gain and be adjusted simultaneously by simply clicking and dragging its dot in the frequency display; hold the Option key and drag the dot vertically to adjust a band’s Q factor.

EQ Eight with five bands enabled: a steep High Pass on Band 1, a gentle Bell boost on Band 2, a very specific Notch on Band 3, a boosted High Shelf on Band 7, and a standard Low Pass on Band 8; Band 8 is currently selected while Bands 4, 5, and 6 are deactivated.

EQ Eight’s output analysis displays the resulting frequency response in real time, allowing you to visually find the frequencies most in need of attention. I have yet to encounter a situation where it might be necessary, but on older machines struggling with CPU, EQ Eight’s analysis display can be switched off for CPU-saving purposes via the upper-right toggle.
At upper left, next to the device toggle, is a reveal button that opens EQ Eight’s expanded frequency display. Once opened, you can drag the top of the widened display to make it as big as full screen. Meanwhile, the standard device area in the Detail View below now provides concurrently accessible Freq and Gain dials along with a numeric Q slider for all eight visible bands simultaneously. Double-click the display itself to disable it.

At left of the Freq and Gain dials are advanced analysis controls for the number of FFT Blocks visualized and the rate they Refresh, both of which require more processing power at higher values. Increasing the Average value slows the rate of change, providing insight to more dominant ranges in the spectra rather than the rapid real-time response displayed by default.

Curve Selection

Not only does the expanded frequency display provide a more detailed view of the spectrum, but wherever the mouse hovers, a small read-out panel in the lower-left of the expanded frequency window now shows the mouse location in Hz, MIDI note (ie., C#4, etc.), and decibels. Hover over a problematic peak in the display to find its coordinates in the readout, then use a Bell or Notch curve to reduce or remove it as needed.

EQ Eight’s full-screen display, with frequency read-out showing the mouse hovered over 1.04 kHz, or C5, at 9.25 dB.

While the information revealed by EQ Eight’s analysis is incredibly useful, you might be cautioned against relying on it completely: any mix engineer will tell you, sometimes you simply need to do things by ear. To assist in these situations, clicking the headphone icon button next to the analysis toggle at the device’s upper right enables EQ Eight’s Preview mode.
When engaged, you can click a band’s circle in the frequency display to hear only the frequencies affected by it. This is great for simply hearing the result of a boost or cut – or for sweeping through the spectrum to identify frequencies in need of treatment. This frequency isolation is annoying if unwanted, so be sure to disable Preview mode and return to normal EQ functionality after manual frequency Preview scanning is complete.

M/S Mode

While eight EQ bands provide more than enough control under most circumstances, EQ Eight’s advanced Modes offer up to eight additional bands to further sculpt any sound in the stereo field. Just click the Mode drop-down to choose EQ Eight’s Left-Right or Mid-Side mode.
With L/R selected, the Edit toggle below is now active. By default, any bands already edited will be applied to the Left stereo channel, while clicking the toggle allows you to edit the Right stereo channel’s EQ bands separately. Easily imbue mono input with stereo information by, for example, boosting a High Shelf on the Left while cutting high frequencies with a Low Pass on the right, tilting the high frequencies left without panning the entire signal.

Editing the Right channel separately in EQ Eight’s L/R mode; the Right channel is color-coded yellow while the Left channel – greyed out here while editing the Right – appears blue.

The M/S mode can be edited in the same way, except the two edit modes now provide access to the Mid, or mono signal, and Side, or fully stereo signal, separately. Used most commonly in mastering, this mode can be used to remove unwanted low end stereo information, for example, by applying a High Pass on the Side curve. By the same token, you could boost a High Shelf on the Side signal to add a subtle, widening sparkle.
Ostensibly designed for late stage master channel alterations, the Mid-Side mode invites experimentation on individual tracks; toying with extreme settings may not be advisable in normal cases, but it’s a great way to get familiar with the fundamentals of Mid-Side processing.
Enabled by default, EQ Eight’s Adaptive Q toggle models classic analog equalizers by narrowing a band’s Q as the amount of Gain applied increases or decreases, providing a more consistent output overall. Turning it off may or may not be obviously audible, but with extreme settings, should at least result in a visible difference in the display.

Extreme EQ

EQ Eight’s surprisingly useful Scale control allows you to reduce or exaggerate the result of all bands simultaneously. Apply extreme EQ to multiple curves, then attenuate the Scale value to reduce the overall impact, sort of like a Dry/Wet control – until it goes down to negative values, at which point the band curves begin to invert. Try Automating the Scale degree (or even Modulating it with a Max for Live LFO) to generate creative custom filtration effects. Finally, a global Gain control compensates for any overall volume introduced or removed at EQ Eight’s output.

Boosting a low shelf on the Mid signal in M/S mode, with exaggerated Scale and reduced Gain.

EQ Eight’s device menu with Oversampling enabled; other options specific to EQ Eight allow copying bands from Mid to Side and back – or Left to Right and Right to Left in L/R mode – and to easily Reset All Gains at once.

With an abundance of advanced EQ plug-ins on the market, making a purchase is understandably tempting, especially if you’re seeking a specific vintage emulation. But after becoming familiar with EQ Eight’s deceptively powerful feature set, you may soon realize the only EQ you truly need has been hiding in plain sight all along.

Dynamic EQs are phenomenal. I use them all the time for precision mixing. They are for when the hard, static filter cuts and boosts won’t suffice. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had hands-on experience with many high quality EQs with some sort of dynamic capability or another over the years, so I wanted to share with you my favorites. Don’t worry if some of the bigger names aren’t in the budget right now, I have two free ones for you as well! Here’s my run-down of some of my favorite Dynamic EQs and a little bit about each of them.

What Is A Dynamic EQ?

First, we should talk a little bit about EQs, compressors and dynamic EQs. If you already know about these concepts, feel free to skip ahead. An EQ filter is generally static. It boosts, cuts and shapes incoming frequencies in a linear fashion. A compressor is non-linear. It “reacts” to incoming signals to boost, attenuate and shape sounds being fed through it dynamically.

A dynamic EQ takes the best of both worlds and combines them in one place. An EQ that cuts, boosts, or shapes the sound depending on what is being fed into it. So instead of just a frequency node, gain, Q, and filter types we have additional tools like threshold, attack and release which can drive those EQ parameters. They react to internal or external sources.

Internal mode listens to the sound source itself; de-essing is a common application for this as an example. External mode listens to a different sound source and makes cuts or boosts the audio. Alright? Now that we have basics out of the way, let’s check out some great dynamic EQs.

Neutron 2 by iZotope

Neutron 2 is pretty much the crème-de-la-crème of Dynamic EQs. It has incredible precision and many years of world-class algorithms developed by iZotope behind it. You have the ability to turn on Dynamic Mode for any of the 12 filters and either increase or reduce the gain of the filter node. That reaction is dictated by either an internal or external sidechain audio source. Not only that, but Neutron 2 has a number of different band presets for the sidechain options making things even more precise. Add to that the “Learn” and “Masking” features which will actually show you where you might want to pay attention to and place your filter nodes and you have a truly first-class Dynamic EQ.

Web: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mix/neutron/features-and-comparison/equalizer.html

SurferEQ 2 by Sound Radix

SurferEQ 2 is a different type of dynamic EQ than that in Neutron 2’s EQ when set up for external sidechaining. Skins pioneer download virtual dj. Surfer EQ, instead of responding to gain values, responds to pitch. That means the filter nodes follow the incoming pitch of a signal instead of the volume. It’s awesome. You can turn on the “Surf” function to follow the incoming audio’s pitch and you can choose which harmonic too. There are 5 main filters which can cover all the main harmonics (3, 5 ,7, 9) and the fundamental. This makes SurferEQ 2 great for precision when you are mixing similar sounds and want one to always stand out.

You have global controls for the pitch tolerance, pitch threshold, “surf time” which is how long the filter takes to move to the new pitch, as well as attack and recovery times. The filter’s gain value is more-or-less static though unless you enable GTE mode, which will use a gate, so the filter will only be active when the threshold is crossed giving you even further control.

For example, when I use the SurferEQ to carve space out of a pad for a vocal. Turning on the GTE mode and setting a good threshold means that the filter node won’t be active if there is no vocal which will let the pad remain completely full and unaltered. I only recently found out about this gem, but I’m really excited I did!

Web: https://www.soundradix.com/products/surfer-eq/

Trackspacer by Wavesfactory

I’ve been raving about this plugin for the two years I’ve known about it. It just does such a great job so quickly that it’s a must-have for all music producers! Also, the price tag isn’t too bad. Trackspacer has a 32-band dynamic EQ behind the scenes. Once you set up the sidechain you can instantly and easily carve out room for anything in the sonic spectrum. Each band reacts independently making for decently precise sound carving. You don’t have as much control of each one of those bands as you might in SurferEQ and Neutron but if you are looking for a quick and clean job, Trackspacer has you covered.

Web: https://www.wavesfactory.com/trackspacer/

Ableton Live & Max Dynamic EQ by Joshua Casper (FREE)

I actually wrote a long tutorial on how to build your own dynamic EQ in Ableton Live using Max and Live’s devices here on Ask.Audio a while back.
You should check it out. You can follow along with the tutorial or download the completed Effect Rack for free. It only has 4 bands, but it does the trick. Plus, there’s the extra bonus of following along with the tutorial to learn more than a few things about dynamic EQs, Live and Max along the way.

Web: https://ask.audio/articles/how-to-build-a-dynamic-eq-inside-ableton-live

NOVA by Tokyo Dawn Records (Free)

This is a completely free Dynamic EQ VST and works wonders. Many people swear by it. So if you don’t have the cash and want to see what the Dynamic EQ fuss is about, this is the right option for you. The free version is the younger sibling of a much more parameter-packed bigger EQ, but it still has the Dynamic EQ part and a boat load of other goodies; Parametric equalization, Dynamic equalization, Frequency selective compression, Multi-band compression, and Wideband compression to name a few.

Web: https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/

Disclaimer

While I have had hands-on experience with a large number of plugins, I haven’t tried them all. That means I might have missed your favorite. Not because it’s worse, but because I can’t speak from experience about it. So, if I did miss your favorite or something of note, please drop us a comment below to help us all.

Ableton Download