OTODESK releases LowCutPolice, a FREE surgical EQ plugin for Windows

OTODESK has released LowCutPolice, a free and open-source equalizer plugin for Windows.

The repository name is HighPrecisionEQ, which I think gives you a better idea of what the plugin is actually doing. LowCutPolice is mainly built around low-end cleanup, but it is also a full-range surgical EQ with filters and bell bands extending up to 25 kHz.

We’ve already covered a few OTODESK releases on BPB this summer, including ANATOMY, Quad Morph Filter, and Ambience.

LowCutPolice continues the same open-source Windows plugin run, and this one helps you see and remove low-end mud that can be hard to judge with a normal analyzer.

The main feature is the 1 Hz high-resolution analyzer. Instead of using a standard FFT display, LowCutPolice uses an 800-band filter-bank analyzer, with the 1 Hz to 60 Hz range analyzed in 0.2 Hz steps.

That is pretty much overkill for most jobs, but it makes sense if you are trying to spot narrow sub-bass resonances, rumble, or kick/bass conflicts that don’t show clearly on a regular spectrum analyzer.

The developer also notes that there’s a tradeoff. The filter-bank approach uses more CPU than a typical FFT analyzer, and the very lowest bands take time to settle.

On the EQ side, LowCutPolice uses a zero-latency minimum-phase IIR engine. The plugin has no processing latency, so no plugin delay compensation is required, and the developer says the design avoids the pre-ringing you can get with linear-phase EQs.

The low-cut filter covers 1 Hz to 500 Hz, while the high-cut filter runs from 1 Hz to 25,000 Hz. Both offer slopes from 12 to 96 dB/oct. You also get four parametric bell bands covering 10 Hz to 25,000 Hz, with +/-12 dB of gain and Q values from 0.3 to 120 for anything from broad tone shaping to extremely narrow cuts.

I liked that LowCutPolice includes several monitoring and workflow tools that should help with more precise EQ moves. Listen Diff lets you hear the Dry-Wet difference signal, so you can check exactly what the EQ is removing or boosting. Solo-Sweep lets you Shift-drag an EQ point to monitor a narrow band while hunting resonances.

There are also Auto V and Flat display modes for making small low-frequency changes easier to see, peak hold, waveform, and phase display modes, direct graph editing, note readouts, zoom shortcuts, and 10 selectable color themes.

LowCutPolice is built with JUCE 8 and licensed under the AGPLv3. It is a 16 MB download and is available as a 64-bit VST3 plugin for Windows 10 and Windows 11, with AVX2 CPU support required.

Ableton Live 11+ is the only fully tested and verified host, while other VST3 hosts may work but are not officially supported. It worked without issues in Studio One on my test machine.

Download: LowCutPolice (FREE)

Deal of the day 🔥: Get SSL Native X-Comp for only $10!

More: