In this week's Friday Free Plug-in, we are featuring Son EQ from Sonimus. SonEQ is a digital equalizer which combines elements from various vintage equalisers and combines them into one. SonEQ has 3 bands, bass, middle and treble and a preamp section for added colour.

Features

• 3 band Equalizer, Low, Mid, High.

• 2 Musical Filters, High-Pass Low-Pass.

• Preamp stage with bass booster.

• 64-bit floating point precision.

• Up to 192kHz sample rates supported

 In Depth

SonEQ provides musical tonal control with a number of unique curves available. SonEQ is intended for gentle sculpting of sound, not precise surgical correction as one obtains using a parametric EQ.

Input/Output

These control the input and output levels. These controls, in conjunction with the DRIVE control, are useful for saturation control − higher level of the INPUT control provides more saturation while the OUTPUT control can be used to compensate the output level.

Output Clip

When the output of SonEQ exceeds 0 dBfs, this LED is switched on. Note: SonEQ does not clip at 0 dBfs because it works internally at 64 bits, but the LED is useful for knowing when the signal has exceeded 0 dBfs which may be helpful if other plug-ins in the signal path cannot accept inputs exceeding 0 dBfs.

High-Pass and Low-Pass

These controls along the bottom edge of the front panel provide very soft and musical filters that assure sonorous quality. When these controls are set to a frequency value, the displayed frequency is the -6dB point of the filter. The LOWPASS filter is a high-quality design: it does not become deformed at the Nyquist frequency. You can use these filters boldly because they assure you high-quality audio results.

Lows: Boost/Atten

These are unique bass controls that provide boost or attenuation of low frequencies. The BOOST and ATTEN frequency curves are not perfectly aligned so that it is possible to get useful and surprising effects using both knobs together. The LOW FREQ selector below the BOOST and ATTEN knobs changes how the boost and attenuation filters interact when both controls are used. When only one of the bass controls is used, the control shifts the frequency of boost or attenuation.

Mid Gain Freq

The MID GAIN control knob adjusts the gain of the mid frequency from -12dB to +12dB. The MID FREQ slide control below the GAIN knob adjusts the frequency of the maximum peak or dip from 150 Hz to 4khz. The MID HIGH Q switch along the bottom edge of the front panel controls the bandwidth of mid frequency peak or dip; when this switch is 'on' (LED on) the bandwidth of the filter will narrow.

High Gain/Freq

The HIGH GAIN control knob adjusts the gain of a high frequency shelf filter from approximately -12dB to +12dB. The HIGH FREQ selector control below the GAIN knob adjusts the frequency of the “knee” of the shelf.

Drive

Controls saturation and the “bass exciter” feature which adds harmonics to low and mid frequencies without creating harsh high frequency harmonics. You can turn off the bass exciter (DRIVE ON/OFF switch set to off) to operate SonEQ without generating harmonics (“clean” EQ mode) or set the drive control at low values for slight “warmth” to low and mid frequencies.

Note the DRIVE control interacts with the INPUT control in creating more harmonics when both controls are set to high values (both controls set to full clockwise creates the most harmonics). The DRIVE control does not affect the level of the fundamental signal itself so that adjusting DRIVE after INPUT and OUTPUT levels are set will only change the harmonic content of the output signal making it easy to hear the effect without being influenced by a level change.

VU Meter

Displays a visual indication of the distortion amount. Readings from -20 to -10 indicate a soft saturation, which is ideal for buses or softening of an entire mix. From -10 to -4 the effect is more "bold", giving more "edge" to the sound. Readings from -3 to +1 provides stronger saturation with more high harmonic content, but still avoid "breaking up". Use readings over +1 at your own risk!

Woow

This control is an all-pass filter which generates a phase distortion to create a psycho-acoustic  effect. This is only suitable to be used in a final mix, and should not be used on individual tracks. Using this control incorrectly may cause phase cancellation of some sounds.

How Do I Get This Plug-in?

If you already have a Sonimus account you can log in and download, if not go to the Sonimus website and supply the necessary details and you will receive a link via email.