Empirical Labs Inc (ELI) has announced BIG FrEQ 1.0, its first EQ plug-in, partly derived from its Lil FreQ hardware EQ and joining the company’s first foray into the software arena Arouser – presently the only available Distressor-derived compressor plug-in.
With 12 sections of processing, BIG FrEQ offer to handle all tonal and spectral-shaping needs for single tracks, as well as on buses and as a mastering tool. Additionally, BIG FrEQ has ability to create modern ‘flat-top’ EQ curves with an analogue workflow and added controls for more tone-shaping possibilities than a typical EQ plug-in.
Each of the six parametric bands has a Slope control that allows flattening the EQ shape to include a wider range of frequencies, while switching on the Focus function offers fine tuning of frequency adjustment – which the selected frequency and reducing the range of the Freq knob to hear what frequencies are being affected with the simultaneously switchable Solo buttons available on each parametric band. Elsewhere, each parametric section’s gain knob can be expanded from ±15dB to ±30dB with the Range button, while parametric section settings can be copied and pasted from one to another for quickly moving and duplicating bands. The the Finisher section adds ‘organic saturation’ and provides for up to 8x oversampling (tested up to 768kHz operation).
Other features are also worth highlighting are Hi-Pass and Lo-Pass filters with adjustable Q and selectable filter orders from 6dB to 96dB (per octave); Lo Shelf – smooth bass boost or cut, centred around 120Hz – and complimentary Hi Shelf controls; Widthslider – controls bandwidth or, inversely, Q; and master Phaseswitch – inverts the phase of the audio.
A spectral display shows cumulative EQ shape as well as coloured individual bands, while the built-in preset management system (with proprietary preset format for cross-DAW preset access), smooth automation of all parameters, available direct entry for all parameters (by double-clicking on any parameter to type in a value), un-linkable stereo version for dual mono operation, and an ability to bypass any section (to monitor changes and free up processing) rounds out BIG FrEQ’s fattened features.
BIG FrEQ is available as an AAX, AU and VST3-supporting 64-bit plug-in for macOS (10.7 or higher) and AAX- and VST3-supporting 64-bit effect plug-in for Windows (7 or higher).
More: www.empiricallabs.com
