EQ is one of the most essential tools in any producer’s arsenal. Whether you’re making beats in your bedroom or producing Grammy-winning records, chances are you’re going to need a capable EQ plugin that lets you shape sounds to perfection, eliminating problematic resonances and enhancing specific frequencies to achieve clarity, punch and presence.
These days, the most powerful EQs are often dynamic equalizers. These are just like standard EQs, with various filters and controls for frequency, gain and Q, but they are capable of reacting in response to the dynamics of your signal. If you’d like to make a narrow cut at 600 Hz, for example, but only when the signal in that range reaches a certain threshold - that’s when you’ll need a dynamic EQ.
This type of EQing is hugely useful in allowing you to shape your audio with extreme precision. For instance, let’s say you’re working with a rogue hi-hat sound that’s producing a particularly nasty resonance at 5kHz on just a few hits in the loop you’re using. With a dynamic EQ, you can ensure that the problem frequency is attenuated only when the resonance occurs and exceeds a volume you’ve specified with your threshold control. This detailed level of control makes dynamic EQ a hugely useful tool in any producer or mixing engineer’s toolbox.
There’s a broad range of choices out there for producers on the hunt for a dynamic EQ. One of the most powerful, flexible and advanced options that we’ve come across is the Kirchhoff-EQ from Three Body Technology. This 32-band parametric equalizer is pretty much the ultimate dynamic EQ: with top-class sound quality, analogue-matched curves, 15 unique filter types, and 30 EQ types modelled on classic vintage EQs, there’s no mixing task that this plugin can’t handle.
So what makes Kirchhoff-EQ special? It’s a massively versatile processor that should be able to take on even the most demanding applications. The plugin’s 15 unique filter types include those you’d expect - low pass, high pass, brickwall low and high pass, allpass low and high pass, band pass, bell and notch - in addition to useful shapes such as flat tilt, flat top and sword, which is designed to precisely target resonances.
The slope of most filters can be continuously varied, from 0 db/oct, 6 db/oct or 12 db/oct up to 96 db/oct. Not found in most EQ plugins, this feature gives users the opportunity to adjust the shape of their filter with precision and accuracy.
Kirchhoff-EQ is also the first of its kind to offer ultra-high 117-bit processing. Utilizing a technique they’ve dubbed ‘Double-Double’, the plugin allows the user to switch between 64 and 117-bit processing, ensuring that their audio is being processed with supreme precision. And thanks to extreme CPU optimization, this won’t be a problem for your CPU - you’re free to use hundreds of instances of Kirchhoff simultaneously.
Kirchoff-EQ equipped with some highly innovative features that set it apart from the competition. Kirchhoff’s dynamic processing is second to none, and operates using advanced technology developed by Three Body themselves.
Delivering an ultra-low noise floor and enhanced sound quality through Harmonic Shifted Envelope Detection, Kirchhoff-EQ uses neural networks to avoid distortions typically associated with dynamic EQ, shifting most of the energy of odd-harmonics into even-harmonics through unique technology that’s not found in any other EQ.
The plugin also makes use of what Three Body are calling Detect/Relative Envelope Detection. This adaptive technology enables Kirchhoff’s dynamic processing to adjust the dynamics of a frequency range not only in response to the signal’s absolute dB value within that range, but also a value determined by considering the volume in relation to the signal’s overall level. This means fine-tuned dynamic processing that creates natural, organic-sounding mixes.
Kirchhoff-EQ offers four phase modes: analogue, zero latency, linear phase and mixed phase. When the band frequency point is low, mixed phase uses zero-latency, swapping over to linear phase when it’s high.
Through the use of a proprietary technology Three Body have named Psychoacoustic Adaptive Filter Topologies, this EQ delivers some of the finest sound quality we’ve heard from this kind of plugin. Avoiding the problems caused by round-off errors that plague many EQs, this technology adapts filter structures to a “best fitting” state, thus optimizing sound quality across all frequencies.
Kirchhoff-EQ offers custom-designed filter types that are modelled on classic vintage EQs. 8 vintage EQ hardware units are modelled, with a total of 30 types available. Thanks to Robust Nyquist-Matched Transform technology, each of these matches the original hardware as closely as possible while avoiding the high-frequency cramping that plagues many IIR EQs on the market.
In addition to its versatility and powerful feature-set, Kirchhoff-EQ benefits from an intuitive and flexible GUI that’s rendered using OpenGL to minimize latency and speed. And thanks to its Visual-Comfort Spectrometer, the interface is fully customizable, and users can adjust decibel range, resolution, refresh speed, frequency scaling, brightness and center frequency.
Kirchhoff-EQ is on sale now at Three Body Technology and is available for $149.
Find out more or download the demo version at their website.