United Plugins has announce FireEQ from founding partner FireSonic, promising ‘an advanced EQ plug-in that can not only boost and cut frequencies but also change the overall dynamics of the track to give it additional space’.
FireEQ combines several established EQ techniques suited to both mastering and mixing. Its use a centres on trio of main controls, starting with the Magic knob that applies a complex dynamic processing process. Working in harmony with this is a Dark/Bright balance control used to determine the overall colour of the mix; users can change the mood of a track, making it brighter or darker as desired. The Depth control adjusts the overall amount of processing in a similar to a dry/wet control, but, because of the phase shift that EQs induce, this is implemented in a more complex way.
Distinguishing FireEQ from other EQs, the Low Cut filter features a Sidekill function that specifies the low-cut frequency of a filter and only affects the ‘side’ signal of the stereo image. In turn, this helps remove all stereo content for low frequencies that may cause problems on bigger playback systems.
Each of FireSonic’s FireEQ’s eight core frequency Bands (with virtual faders stepped in ±12 dB steps) has an associated Side/Mid control that defines the gain of the filters affecting neighbouring frequencies, with opposite gain for mid and side signals. Sandwiching those eight core frequency bands are Low Shelf and High Shelf filters modelled on vintage-style analogue EQs.
The Out [dB] fader defines FireSonic’s FireEQ’s output gain, providing convenient control over output volume given that applying EQ is likely to increase it. ADC (Automatic Gain Compensation) quickly adapts to current settings and ensures that the Out [dB] (output) sounds as loud as the In [dB] (input).
In keeping with its fellow United Plugins partners’ software siblings, FireSonic’s FireEQ plug-in uses internal 64-bit audio processing and an ability to handle any sampling rate up to192 kHz or higher. Similarly, the photorealistic yet flexible (resizable) nature of its GUI gives the impression of working with real hardware as opposed to being a virtual effect plug-in.
The FireEQ plug-in is available to purchase for €99 as an AAX, AU, VST and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from the FireSonic webpage, where a 15-day, fully-functional trial version for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10/11 can be downloaded FOC.
