MAAT has announced the release of the fifth generation thEQblue professional audio software. This update marks the debut of MAAT’s equalisers, optimised for both x86 and ARM-based digital audio workstations, bringing native speed and stability improvements.
Building on the legacy of Algorithmix’s original and the modern reference quality MAAT is known for, thEQblue v5 is a powerhouse collection of 12 minimum phase architectures. Employing proprietary 80-bit floating-point algorithms and advanced signal windowing, thEQblue v5 offers an expansive palette of sound qualities and characters.
The new version includes enhanced licensing security, improved graphics performance and instantiation speed, along with reliability reinforcements and global optimisations.
For visually orientated engineers, a new PicturePerfect mode displays or conceals numeric Section controls, highlighting only the frequency versus amplitude curves of the active bands. Also, a new universal Profile for the FiDef feature has been added, designed specifically for wide dynamic range material and solo instruments. As the first MAAT equaliser to be Universal Binary 2 (UB2), thEQblue v5 is fully native on Apple Silicon, ensuring top-tier performance on the latest macOS machines.
‘thEQblue ticks so many boxes,’ says Diego Acosta, audio engineer and producer at Sound Nuts in Miami, Florida. ‘It sounds great, and it’s fast to use. It is extremely flexible and versatile, and has per–band M/S and solo options, plus auto–gain, meters and the cherry on top is the inclusion of FiDef.’
The software is available in all modern plug-in formats, including cross-platform native AAX, VST 2, 64-bit VST 3 and UB2 Audio Units for macOS. Sample rates up to 384kHz are supported for High Resolution Audio (HRA) and game audio workflows. Perpetual licenses for thEQblue v5 are available in two tiers – thEQblue6 offers six series equaliser architectures, while thEQblue12 extends the licence to include the set of all ten series plus two parallel architectures. Existing licence holders need only install the latest build to gain new speed and stability boosts.
