Airwindows SmoothEQ2: Free Mac/Windows/Linux/Pi CLAP/AU/VST3/VST2/LV2/Rack

TL;DW: SmoothEQ2 is a wildly intuitive vibe EQ with clarity and intensity.

SmoothEQ2 in Airwindows Consolidated under 'Filter' (CLAP, AU, VST3, LV2)

SmoothEQ2.zip (546k) standalone(AU, VST2)

Turns out there was a lot of potential in SmoothEQ.

The idea here was to go to a four-band, like the parametric in ConsoleX, but instead of peaks and notches make it fully use shelves in the manner of the original SmoothEQ, so it can deliver ultimate clarity when subtlety is needed.

Then, with the addition of a simpler type of filter (thanks to my livestream chat for knowing exactly how to specify these with great accuracy) it was possible to use even higher orders of filtering, even steeper crossovers for the shelves.

Then, the question 'still Bessel, or go with Butterworth for the Q factor?' got drastically derailed by the stranger question 'why not just have all these Q factors vary according to the frequency settings of the bands?'

Not the settings of the crossovers, no… the settings of the BANDS. Sweeping a band moves both crossovers bordering it. So does that move a flat shelf around, which sounds like a nice thing to do?

Nope, because if you make the resonances track how close each center frequency is to each other, you get shelves that are also tilt EQs accentuating where in the band's travel the band is. So if you push high-mid up, the cutoff against high gets steeper, and the cutoff against low-mid gets shallower, more Bessel-like. Hard to explain. You have a frequency band that is also a tilt EQ for just that shelf, and that follows a center 'resonant peak' which isn't actually there at all.

What does this mean? Try it. Boost or cut stuff, sweep the bands around, see how they act like sweepable resonances but are actually tilting shelves. If you can (I know it's unusual) and you have the four joystick design I had Yaeltex make for me, put fingers on all four joysticks and morph a sound into whatever you like on all bands simultaneously. The way this tracks your intentions with EQ, I think that would actually work. Or, any other way you can dedicate eight knobs to a bank of EQs, give that a try too. Or it'll work perfectly fine just in the DAW as sliders, it's just that this one lends itself incredibly well to hands-on control. There's controllers for cheap that have tiny vertical faders with panpots over them: have the vertical faders be band volumes, and the panpot above it be the corresponding frequency.

This one I'm building into a Console version just for me:cool: but here it is, way earlier than that, so you can see what's going into a Console version that comes after the promised ConsoleH. I told you I was going to let you swap out many different Consoles on a track-by-track basis, and I've got ideas for just that. Hope you like the preview that is SmoothEQ2.

Airwindows Consolidated Download

Most recent VCV Rack module

download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip

download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg

download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg

download LinuxVSTs.zip

download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi

download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip

download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip

download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip

Mediafire Backup of all downloads

All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.