Waves Curves AQ

With personalised spectral target curves, static and dynamic options, and a handy side‑chain function, Curves AQ’s tonal shaping tools are intended for engineers of all skill levels.

Another day, another AI‑powered plug‑in: meet Curves AQ, the second plug‑in in Waves’ Curves Spectral Series, following on the heels of their Curves Equator resonance suppressor. The literature claims that you feed the plug‑in your audio, and it will then do most of the hard work of EQ’ing for you. Depending on how much control you like to exert over your mixes, this prospect could equally be promising or terrifying!

While we’ve seen ‘smart’ EQs before — notably Sonible’s smart:EQ — Waves describe AQ as “the world’s first autonomous EQ”, and suggest that what sets Curves AQ apart from the rest is that it creates spectral targets that are specific to your audio. For them, this makes factory presets with descriptive names like Bright Acoustic Guitar or Delicate Female Vocal a thing of the past. Now, it’s all about personalising EQ curves based on the information you feed into the plug‑in, followed by suggestions in the form of five unique EQ profiles that the plug‑in generates based on analysis of your input signal. So just how autonomous is Curves AQ, what kind of result can it deliver, and how much control do you have over the outcome? Let’s find out...