Dave Gamble has worked on some of the highest-profile software EQs in the industry, including Focusrite’s Liquid Channel, Sonalksis’ Mastering Suite and Brainworx’s BX_hybrid, and he’s recently launched a new EQ plug-in under his own newly founded company, DMG Audio.
EQuality is described by Gamble as “the only EQ you’ll ever need”: a bold claim, but the list of specs and features hints at an extraordinary level of versatility. For starters, the plug-in offers linear-phase, minimum-phase, and “analogue phase-matched” processing options, and so should satisfy requirements for both a surgical and a ‘character’ EQ. Also unusual is the Shift slider, which allows you to move the resonant frequency of the high and low shelves above or below the turnover frequency.
The shelves are complemented by both high- and low-pass filters, which can operate in orders from first through to sixth (ie. 6dB, 12dB, 18dB, 24dB, 30dB or 36dB per octave), with a continuously variable bandwidth factor from 0.1 to 20 octaves. In addition to these, another high-pass filter is available with a similarly variable slope but a fixed Q, which DMG say is perfect for eliminating rumbles without using up one of the more flexible EQ bands.
On to the other bands, then, of which there are four bells/notches, each with a ±36dB gain range, and a variable Q of between 0.1 and 50 octaves. A graph provides visual feedback of all the bands’ positions (including filters and shelves), while a spectrum analyser can be switched to display either the programme material’s pre- or post-EQ frequency content. For fine-tuning, a Range slider on the left-hand side of the UI allows the graph to be scaled for greater or lesser gain ranges, and it can even go into negative gain, inverting your EQ settings so that boosted bands will cut, and vice versa.
There’s also a useful Gain/Q Interaction slider, which, as its name suggests, varies the amount of interaction between the bands’ gain and bandwidth factor, so that at its lowest setting the Q remains constant, and at its highest setting the Q increases along with the gain.
Gamble says that, in contrast to many digital EQs, which are based on ‘stock’ algorithms, EQuality has been written entirely from the ground up. Though he is understandably reluctant to share all the details, he does mention that his “next generation” approach completely eliminates fluctuation and asymmetry across the entire bandwidth, where other EQs only do so at a handful of key frequencies (DC, Nyquist and so on).
Of perhaps more relevance to the end user, however, is the ability to tweak the EQ’s operation to suit his or her needs and workflow to the Nth degree. Mouse wheel sensitivity, analyser opacity and meter ballistics are just a few of the parameters you can adjust to suit your tastes, while the meter can be selected to display input gain or output gain, with various modes of operation including Digital, PPM, VU and BBC. The meter’s scale can even be set to show dynamic range using Bob Katz’s K-system, making the plug-in suitable for use at the end of a mastering chain.
And finally, EQuality can operate in mono, stereo, or Mid/Side modes, with solo functions available in stereo and Mid/Side modes, for the left/right channels or Mid/Side components, respectively.
Available now for PC and Mac, in VST and AU formats (an RTAS version is apparently in the pipeline), DMG Audio’s EQuality plug-in costs £100, and can be bought directly from the DMG web site.
