Apti-Q
Apti-Q is a simple, easy-to-use equalizer that focuses on shaping tone through perceptually-named bands, rather than frequencies explicitly. The purpose of this is for the user to focus on spectral characteristic enhancement rather than become bogged down with finding frequencies that fit for a given tonal range.
Apti-Q is inspired by its author Andy Bainton‘s life experience with a learning disability called Dysgraphia, which makes it difficult to handwrite and operate complicated physical interfaces. While this plug-in is not “for” people with disabilities, as Andy is not a medical professional, his life experience plays a significant role in the plug-in’s creation.
The plug-in features 12 peak bands as shown above, with a custom Proportional Q-like character and ±15 dB of gain. It also features a high pass filter and a low pass filter (which have ranges of 20 Hz – 600 Hz, and 2 kHz – 20 kHz, respectively), a polarity inverter, auto makeup gain, and soft master bypass.
This design won First Place in MTSU’s 2021 Scholar’s Week as part of the College of Media and Entertainment Graduate division.
Curve EQ
Curve EQ is a simple three-band equalizer that features selectable stepped frequency controls, a wide proportional Q mid band bell, the same bell with shelf options setting for the high and low band settings, input and output gain, and a simple 12 dB/oct high pass filter fixed at 80 Hz. The numbers under the teal-colored sliders indicate the frequency position below the low, mid, and high bands, and the switches next to the “hpf” and “byp” buttons allow the bottom and top bands, respectively, to turn into peaks (the these bands are shelfs by default).
VoxComp
VoxComp is a simple compressor for musical vocal dynamic control, featuring Peak detection. While designed for use with vocals, it is effective and smooth as a group and master bus processor as well. VoxComp’s ratio is flexible from 1.5 to 10.0, and the Knee is fixed at 2.0 dB. The attack time ranges from 1.0 to 75.0 ms, and the release time ranges from 50.0 ms to 2500.0 ms. The polarity inverter allows VoxComp to become an expander rather than a compressor when used in parallel with an unprocessed copy of the signal.
Little Speaker
Little Speaker is based on the Fletcher-Munson curves, and features 113 peaking filters and a distortion unit to impart the sound of a “little speaker” box upon the audio one is processing. There is an independent input and output gain for enhanced saturation control of the device, a “Size” control (which maps to the dBSPL input of the Fletcher-Munson emulation), and a “Smooth” control (which maps to the “Q” width of each of the 113 filters).
Simply-Q
Simply-Q takes inspiration from Apti-Q’s simplicity. Simply-Q is designed to provide flexibility of frequency and gain across the audio spectrum. There are two peak bands with a custom Proportional Q-like character, a gain range of ±15 dB and a frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The high pass and low pass filters follow the same frequency range, and the input and output gains feature a range of ±18 dB. The plug-in includes a polarity inverter and a soft master bypass as well.