■ Brainworx bx_digital V3

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Brainworx's revolutionary flagship product, bx_digital, was the first commercially available Mid/Side equalizer plugin, and it still reigns supreme today as the EQ for mixing and mastering. The 11-band equalizer's forward-thinking feature set includes parametric bell, high- and low-shelving, and high- and low-pass filters for each channel; mono, dual-mono (L/R), stereo and mid-side modes of operation; a mid-side decoder (especially useful for recording acoustic instruments, drums and even bigger ensembles in a super mono-compatible and extremely natural way); spectrum-balancing Bass and Presence Shifters; the pioneering Mono Maker summing tool; and comprehensive imaging, monitoring and metering facilities for high-level mastering. The seminal plugin's first major upgrade, bx_digital V2, was voted #1 Best Plug-in of the Decade by Future Music and quickly became the standard by which other equalizers are judged.

Now Even More Powerful

With the release of bx_digital V3, the bar just got raised again. The major update extends the High Frequency band's upper range to 40 kHz to sweeten and add ‘air’ to high-resolution audio tracks, mixes and masters. A Dynamic EQ module, API-style Proportional Q filters and six notch filters (three per channel) have been added to handle any surgical mix or mastering task, making it a perfect tool for film mixing and post production as well. The unique Bass and Presence Shifters have been made much more versatile, each now offering a selection of three different tilt filters that balance and unmask hidden details in your mixes. V3's transparent high pass and low pass filters now provide alternate slopes to sculpt your tracks' high and low end and selectively weed out rumble and hiss with greater precision. And the new, global Gain Scale control makes proportional gain changes to all parametric, shelving, and Bass and Presence Shift filters at once—preserving your carefully wrought balance across all bands as you dial in the perfect overall amount of EQ.

All this power comes in two workspaces—separate component plugins for mixing and mastering—to help you work faster. On individual tracks that don't need surgical equalization, the "bx_digital V3 mix" plugin simplifies operation by excluding mid-side processing and additional meters. On your main subgroups and the master stereo bus during mixdown and mastering sessions, use the "bx_digital V3" plugin to roll out the big guns: a full complement of Mid/Side equalization controls and separate meters for pre- and post-EQ signal levels, L/R balance and correlation. Advanced imaging controls let you independently pan your mix's mid and side channels, widen the stereo image, swap left and right channels and center the phantom stereo image.

V3 for Clearer and Cleaner-Sounding Mixes and Masters

• Three operational modes: L/R (dual-mono), M/S Master (Mid/Side) and unique M/S Recording (processes Mid/Side signals in real-time and outputs L/R stereo)​
• Gain Scale control adjusts all gain controls for parametric, shelving, and Bass and Presence Shift filters at once; negative values invert the EQ curve to change boosts to cuts and vice versa​
• Dynamic EQ module boosts or cuts only when needed to correct undesirable, momentary peaks or enhance your signal with creative boosts​
• Added AAX DSP Support​

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■ SPL Transient Designer Plus

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In the late '90s, SPL revolutionized the recording and live sound industries with their introduction of the Transient Designer. Birthing a sea change in dynamics processing, the analog Transient Designer and its plugin counterpart both use SPL's Differential Envelope Technology to produce level-independent dynamics processing. Unlike compressors, Transient Designer can transparently shape the attack and sustain characteristics of sounds no matter their level—jet engine-loud or whisper-quiet, constant or fluctuating—and without the need to fiddle with threshold, attack and release controls.

In fact, Transient Designer uses only two primary controls—Attack and Sustain—to process dynamics. In mere seconds, you can increase or decrease the attack portion of a sound up to 15 dB and simultaneously amplify or attenuate its sustain up to 24 dB. Make trap drums slam harder. Tame a ringing snare drum. Reduce excessive cymbal bleed into tom mics. Increase sustain on soaring guitar solos. Enhance crunchy pick strikes on electric guitar vamps. Make legato rhythm tracks pulse. Reshape reverb envelopes for non-linear response. All with the twist of just two knobs.

Now, with the release of the next-generation Transient Designer Plus, this venerated industry staple has become even more powerful. The new plugin has all the straightforward ease-of-use and speed of the original but adds potent new features that expand its uses exponentially.

• Internal sidechain filter sculpts the frequency response of the trigger signal to enable selective processing of audio elements embedded in subgroups, stems and mixes​
• Parallel Mix control adjusts the balance of wet and dry signals for fast and hassle-free parallel processing ​
• Separate controls allow for ±15 dB adjustment to Attack and ±24 dB adjustment to Sustain​
• Added latency free limiter​
• Added AAX DSP Support​

■ Brainworx bx_cleansweep Pro

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Brainworx founder and CEO, Dirk Ulrich, has always emphasized the importance of accurate filtering when treating frequencies in a mix. During his long-lived days as a producer and engineer, working with the likes of Dream Theater, Toto and Michael Jackson, he found that some of the most critical parts of a mix lay within the sub-sonics and super-sonics of a sound. That is, by simply filtering out the imperceptible spectra above and below the desired core character of a sound, one could be well on their way to an immaculate sounding mix—even before the addition of any further dynamics or frequency treatment.

It was on this principle that Dirk designed the bx_cleansweep V2, a deceptively simple and yet powerful hybrid High-Pass and Low-Pass Butterworth filter that implements gently sloped curves (6 dB/octave) in order to achieve a musical and nonintrusive effect when zeroing-in on a sound’s intended character. A joystick control, much like an X/Y pad, helped facilitate intuitive and direct movements towards a cleaner sound stage. The bx_cleansweep design, like it’s bigger siblings – bx_digital V3 and bx_hybrid V2, features Anti-Crush technology. This analog model for filter curves prevents the harshness and aliasing found in certain other EQs.

Now, Brainworx has introduced a third reincarnation of the beloved filter plugin: the bx_cleansweep Pro. Sporting the addition of five filters with adjustable slopes and characters for each, and spectrum analysis with an advanced frequency/phase plot, this next generation in the bx_cleansweep legacy provides an accurate and intuitive tool for your mixing needs. Use it to tweak and tune the deeper regions of your mix, or create interesting spectral sweeps and effects when designing sounds. Make it the first piece in your chain on every single track, and you’ll be amazed at how just a little filtering can go such a long way

• Bessel, Chebyshev (Type I & II), Elliptical, and Resonant Butterworth​
• Each filter adjustable up to the 6th order
• New View Modes in graph panel with value callouts at each coordinate: Spectrum analyzer, Magnitude, Phase, Group Delay ​

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■ Dangerous Music BAX EQ

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The Dangerous BAX EQ is one of the smoothest sounding EQs you will use. Featuring a world-class design of Peter Baxandall’s legendary 1950’s tone control that has graced hundreds of millions of hi-fi systems, and 2 high pass / low pass filters to clean up your sources, this EQ is a fantastic tool for tracking, mixing, and mastering. Besides the ultra clean and natural sound, which is achieved through the minimized phase delay design, the BAX EQ provides broad tonal control that will not alter the intrinsic sonic character of the source. The added Link and M/S features make this a perfect master buss EQ and a tracking tool alike.

The Dangerous BAX EQ plugin utilizes the same seeds of inspiration from Peter Baxandall’s legendary 1950’s tone control as the original hardware version and is a fantastic tool for tracking, mixing, and mastering. The minimized phase delay design provides broad tonal control that will not alter the intrinsic sonic character of the source: instrument, recording path, stereo buss or final mix. For example, in tracking applications, add shimmer to a vocal without disturbing the character of the artist, microphone and preamp. On the stereo buss, tighten up the low end while accentuating the ‘air’. For mastering, craft sheen and punch without sacrificing phase accuracy. Even more, it adds helpful additional tools for the digital domain, like the M/S mode, the Link mode, and an Output Trim.

• High class model of the Dangerous Music BAX mastering-grade analog EQ​
• World-Class High-Fidelity Tone Control Equalizer​
• Master version with dual-mono and additional M/S (mid/side) mode for extended mastering possibilities (the hardware doesn't have the M/S mode built-in)​

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Prices:
bx_digital V3 - $299
bx_cleansweep Pro - $149
SPL Transient Designer Plus - $199
Dangerous Music BAX EQ - $249

Source

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2016

I tried SPL TD VST a while ago, and it's useless on material that would otherwise be a breeze for QuikQuak mashtactic and frei:raum EQ. I wonder if the PLUS version will fix this.

 

want

 

Funny, how bx digital came to live, actually. Dope plugin. Never was a fan cleansweep, though. It lacks the flavor I want from filtering. Maybe the new one sounds "better".

 

Wow, looks impressive!

 

Transient designer upgrade is $49 too.

 

I really love BX Digital. In my opinion, it's the best masterbus EQ.

I'm a bit disappointed that they have removed the Mid/Side features from the new mixing version, though...

I've been dreaming about a lightest version to use on regular tracks, but without Mid/Side, then it's just another EQ.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2016

@RMorgan

What? It's still there:
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Three operational modes:
L/R (dual-mono),
M/S Master (Mid/Side) and
unique M/S Recording (processes Mid/Side signals in real-time and outputs L/R stereo)
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No more de esser?

 

It was replaced by the Dynamic EQ Iit seems. But I bet you can use it as an de-esser as well.

 

Of course Mid/Side is still there in the main version!

I was talking about the mixing version of the plugin, though. I doesn't have Mid/Side as far as I can see.

If I did understand it correctly, the guy in the video also said that they've removed Mid/Side functionality of the mixing version, probably to make it lighter.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2016

@RMorgan

My bad. I had forgot the V2 had Mono version instead the new Mix one.

@5teezo

I hope is an evolution (I mean the Dynamic EQ) of the algorithm implemented in bx_dynEQ V2. Yesteday I tried to use it but TDR Nova GE is better.

 

Last edited: Jan 27, 2016

I hope so, too. dynEQ V2s Controls/Layout/Mode selection is totally unintuitive to me. TDR Nova totally beats it in this regard. As far as handling dynamics is concerned, I alway feel like brainworx can only do m/s EQing well. I don't really like their dynamic processors.

 

i think bx_dyneq is really good (i love bx_opto too!). its processing is as good as i have come across, but i agree the tdr nova eq is so much more intuitive. and ease of use goes a long way to getting the right sound.

 

Last edited: Jan 26, 2016

Any Linear Phase option for mastering?

 

fab dupont is a money hungry whore

 

Clean sweep pro upgrade is also 49 usd

 

Looks like some good stuff

 

Too bad for the UAD exclusivity on BAX... yet again...

 

May be wrong but I am pretty sure this is native. No uad needed