Bertom Audio releases the updated EQ Curve Analyzer v2.0.0, a freeware plugin analysis tool.
Bertom Audio, if you don’t know them, are the developers of plugins like the Denoiser Classic and the Air Shelf dynamic EQ.
Both of those plugins are available for free with a pay-what-you-want option, as is the topic of this post, EQ Curve Analyzer.
EQ Curve Analyzer is a utility plugin that displays the frequency response (magnitude and phase) of any plugin or hardware unit you’d like to test.
To perform a test, you’ll need to open two instances of EQ Curve Analyzer.
The first instance acts as a signal generator, and the second as an analyzer. Once you have the EQ Curve Analyzer ready to go, you just insert the desired plugin between the two instances. You can adjust the latency if necessary.
Bertom Audio put together a short and sweet video guide detailing the process.
The developer highlights an interesting use case as a learning tool, analyzing classic EQ emulations, which is always pretty interesting.
One of the cool features of EQ Curve Analyzer 2.0.0 is the ability to compare two analyses on the same graph in real time.
For those of you who are in the habit of diving deeper than surface level with plugins, you’ll be familiar with tools like Plugin Doctor, a popular tool, albeit not without critics, that sells for around £40 (approximately).
Anyone who wants to try something different or doesn’t already use something like Plugin Doctor might see EQ Curve Analyzer as an attractive, free alternative.
Since we’re talking about utility plugins, I will go off on a very slight tangent and mention the Youlean Loudness Meter 2 (free and Pro versions available). I’ve had it for some time now, and it’s fantastic, but it took me a while to get on board.
I had previously used Mastercheck from Nugen Audio (also excellent) and a few other plugins, but I’d encourage anyone a little slow, like me, in getting YLM 2 to go grab it for free now.
Now I’m really going off on a tangent: for something completely different, check out the free retro rompler, Game Boi.
EQ Curve Analyzer v2.0.0 is available in AU, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS (10.9 upwards), Windows (7 upwards), and Linux.
Download: EQ Curve Analyzer (FREE/Name your price)
More:
6 Comments
Animus
onIt’s not perfect for analysis of everything (like with plugin doctor, certain nonlinearities aren’t visualized well, since it’s impulse-based), but it’s been my go-to for checking the phase offset of plugins in the DAW, which is extremely helpful in many instances.
The update provides helpful improvements.
<3 Bertom EQ Curve Analyzer!
Vik
onWhat prevents you from putting some kind of tone generator (for example, Socalabs) before the plug-in under study?
MRG
onThe Illuminati.
But seriously, I would say it might expect a calibrated signal for ‘absolute’ results.
If you just want to compare two signals, relatively, it -should- work with pretty much anything… I think.
NRG insanity
onNice to see that we now have a (partial) alternative to the ancient VST plugin analyzer. That one only scans 32bit plugins, which is the only reason why I still install 32bit versions of mixing plugins on my system.
If there would be options to view things like harmonic distortion and compression curve It’d be perfect….
alex
onSampleScience released the free Modular Synth VCO, a synthesizer plugin based on a Doepfer A-110-1 synthesizer module sample set:
samplescience.info/2023/08/modular-synth-vco.html
sparella
onIt’s such a convenient tool for comparison of linear plugin chains. Nice work Bertom.