Viator DSP offers LV 50A, a freeware equalizer plugin for digital audio workstations on macOS and Windows.
The LV 50A plugin is available in AU and VST3 formats and is compatible with the newer M1 Macs. To download the plugin, you’ll need to visit the developer’s Patreon page, and you’ll have the option to support the developer (Landon Viator) for $3 per month.
The plugin takes inspiration from several hardware units without losing its own identity.
At a glance, LV 50A has a neat and tidy GUI, which is always a good start. There are four EQ bands, each with proportional Q and 12 dB of boost/attenuation.
With a proportional Q design, the bandwidth narrows as the filter gain increases. As a result, you should get a smooth character at low gain settings and more aggression as you push the filter gain.
The low and high bands are switchable between bell and shelf via the button below.
To the right of the four EQ bands, you’ll find a Drive slider that introduces some saturation on the output. When the drive is set to 0 dB, the circuit disables, which is one of a few nice CPU-saving features. Next to drive is a trim gain slider to adjust the volume of the plugin.
Just like the drive circuit, filter circuits disable when the gain is set to 0 dB. It’s nice to see the developer add these CPU-saving touches that many others don’t consider.
The LV 50A plugin allows for 8X oversampling, which benefits the high frequencies while hitting the CPU a little harder, making the circuit disable features more valuable.
Another feature that enhances the impact of oversampling is a pair of high and low pass filters turned on/off via the button under the drive. The filters remove the highest and lowest frequencies that serve no musical/creative purpose.
There’s also a phase invert button to flip the phase of the entire circuit. Lastly, right in the middle of the EQ bands, there’s a reset button that resets the gain of each band to zero.
If the LV 50A plugin sounds good to you, you should also check out Landon Viator’s LV-60 analog-inspired graphic EQ, also found on his Patreon page.
Download: LV 50A (6.49 MB download size, ZIP archive, 64-bit VST3/AU plugin format for Windows & macOS)
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