7.2.1 Advance EQ

Advance EQ (category EQ) is an automatic, music-aware EQ. It listens to the track it sits on and makes five kinds of moves on its own, each in its own layer:

Three things set it apart from an ordinary EQ:

• It says why. Every move is listed with its reason in words, for example Resonance · 412 Hz A♭4, “8.1 dB above its neighbours · persistent”.
• You can take over any move. Commit turns an automatic move into a fixed band of your own; Lock fixes a cut; Ignore tells a layer to leave a frequency alone.
• It is safe by default. It only cuts unless you allow Tone to boost, every layer has a limit, a “harm budget” backs everything off together when the total gets large, and the output is loudness-matched so the result never sounds better just because it is louder.

7.2.1.1 Adding Advance EQ and opening its editor

1. In the mixer, click an empty insert slot → EQ → Advance EQ.
2. At that moment the insert is told where it sits (track, group or master) and which instrument the track seems to be (§7.2.1.5) — whichever way it is added: the mixer, the DAW track strip (and its master view), the channel detail pane, Send to new FX, Copy inserts or the assistant.
3. The editor opens. Close it with ✕; reopen it by clicking the insert. Play the song: the first moves appear after a few seconds of sound.

The editor is its own window. Drag the empty part of its title bar to move it. It has no minimise button.

7.2.1.2 The editor at a glance

Knobs and keys

7.2.1.3 The five layers

Each layer has an on/off switch (the light by its title) and its own controls. A layer that is off, or not allowed in this context, is greyed and draws no curve. Every layer's controls belong to the current context's settings bank (§7.2.1.5).

AUTO CUT

• LOW / HIGH switch each cut on or off. The small knob beside each is its lock: at the bottom stop it reads AUTO; turned up, it fixes the cut at that frequency (LC 20 Hz–1 kHz, HC 1–20 kHz).
• MARGIN: how far below the lowest content the low cut sits, 2–8 semitones.
• SLOPE: 6 · 12 · 24 · 48 dB per octave.

How it decides: the low cut sits the margin below the lowest part of the sound that matters. It moves down at once when new low content appears and then stays down for 30 s — longer while that low content keeps coming back (a bass that dips to C1 every few bars keeps it there); only then does it creep back up. Role limits apply: a vocal's cut is at least 60 Hz; kick, bass and the buses keep their sub. If the content already reaches below 32 Hz there is no low cut. The high cut is placed only when everything above it is steady (hiss, not cymbals or breath), and never on roles whose top matters (vocal, snare, drum bus, mix bus) or on the master. It closes slowly, from the top of the range down; new content above it opens it at once, and it then stays open 30 s — restarted every time the top sounds again, so a hat every 12 s keeps it open instead of flapping. On the master the low cut is subsonic only (22 Hz).

On the stage, each cut has a handle at the bottom: drag it to lock the cut there, double-click it to return to AUTO. A locked cut shows LOCK.

TONE · slow, about 2 s

• AMOUNT (default 60 %).
• CUT ONLY / + BOOST: boosts are off by default. With + BOOST on, Tone may also lift a band that is below the target, by at most 3 dB, and only where the band stands at least 15 dB above its own quiet level — a steady band (a held pad, noise, hum) is never lifted. The other layers only cut.

Tone compares the track to its role's target curve (plus TILT, §7.2.1.4), corrects only where the track is outside the SPREAD, and moves at most 6 dB per second.

RESONANCE · persistent peaks

• AMOUNT (default 70 %).
• SOFT (wider, gentler notches) / SURGICAL (narrower, catches smaller peaks).

A peak must stand out from its neighbours and stay put for about 3 seconds before it is cut, so a melody's notes never build up enough to be notched; a new notch also waits 0.3 s before it cuts, so a slow sweep or riser is never taken for a resonance. Up to 8 notches at a time, never two within 1/6 octave (two peaks close together each get their own), up to 0.45 × the sample rate. Below 70 Hz only mains hum (50 or 60 Hz) is notched, so kicks, 808s and basses keep their low end; the hum's harmonics are notched higher up. With a song key set, an in-key pitch needs more persistence and gets half the cut. While the song plays, the notes, chords and sections protect the music further (§7.2.1.6).

UNMASK · sidechain key

• AMOUNT (default 55 %).
• AUTO / LEAD / FOLLOW: a LEAD never dips; AUTO and FOLLOW dip where the key needs room.

Unmask needs a key: feed the important signal (for example the lead vocal) to this insert's sidechain input (an assistant can do this for you). Where the key sits within 3 dB of this track (40 Hz–10 kHz), this track dips, so a kick keyed into a bass makes room at its fundamental. With no key, Unmask does nothing. It is off on the master (“not on Master”).

DYNAMIC · when it happens

• AMOUNT (default 50 %).
• HITS (fast jumps) / SUSTAIN (slower build-ups) / BOTH.

From 60 Hz up, a band that rises clearly above its own usual level — steady noise is left alone — is cut while it does, and returns to 0 between. Below 150 Hz only slow build-ups are ridden (a bass's boom), and not on Kick, Snare, Drum Bus, Mix Bus or the master, so punch is never pulled down. With BOTH, the row says which of the two fired.

7.2.1.4 Target, Amount and Output

The guards (always on)

• Limits per layer and context (table in §7.2.1.5).
• Confidence: Advance EQ needs about 6 seconds of audible sound before it acts at full strength; the status reads LEARNING until then, then LISTENING.
• Silence: below about −60 dBFS nothing is learned and every move holds (SILENT · HOLDING).
• Harm budget: when the total of all moves gets large, all of them back off together. The meter shows how much of the budget is used.
• Loudness match: the output level is matched to the input (±6 dB) by perceived loudness, measured the way loudness meters measure LUFS (ITU-R BS.1770), so you compare sound, not level. It measures the automatic layers only — your own committed bands and manual moves are never pulled back.
• Bad input: if a faulty plugin before it sends broken audio, the bad samples are dropped and the EQ carries on.

7.2.1.5 Track, Group and Master

Advance EQ keeps three settings banks — one for each context — and uses the one that matches where it sits. When you add it:

• on the master → MASTER;
• on any bus (groups and FX returns) → GROUP;
• otherwise → TRACK.

The MODE switch shows AUTO when it follows that placement. Pick TRACK, GROUP or MASTER to force a bank; the chip turns amber (OVERRIDE). MODE cannot be automated, so it never changes while the song plays.

The detected role

When you add Advance EQ, it also reads the track's name (first match wins):

With no match: a drum-kit track is Drum Bus, an HPS Piano track is Keys, the master is Mix Bus, anything else uses the context's default. Your own choice in the ROLE box always wins over the detected one.

Placement and the detected role are written only when the insert is added — renaming the track later does not change them, and loading a project keeps what was saved.

7.2.1.6 Notes, chords and sections

While the song plays (not a pattern) and Music-aware is on, Advance EQ knows what is sounding:

• on a track: that track's own MIDI notes — exactly the ones the song plays: a muted note, a muted or un-soloed sub-lane and a note that starts before a clip's trimmed start are left out — plus the chord lane (in any meter, the lane's own cells) and the markers (sections);
• on a bus or the master: the chords and sections, and the notes of every track routed into it (through outputs, sends, other buses and track-to-track routes) when all of them are MIDI tracks.

It uses them to protect the music:

The map updates by itself when you edit notes, chords or markers (only the tracks you edited are rebuilt). On an audio track, Advance EQ hears the notes being played in the sound itself (up to three at a time) and protects them the same way, so a riff, a bass on its root or chord stabs are never notched. When the song is stopped, the chords and sections are not used. If a song is very long, the hint bar says when it can no longer follow every note, and the end of the song is worked from the sound alone.

The NOTES overlay

While the map is live, the stage draws each sounding note as a thin gold line at its pitch, with its name, and short ticks at its harmonics 2–8 along the floor. A notch sitting on a tick is exactly the case the on a note rule protects. A chip at the bottom-left reads, for example, NOTES · SECTION 2 · Am · A2 E3, or NOTES · rest between notes.

7.2.1.7 The MOVES panel

Each row is one move the EQ is making right now: layer colour, frequency, note name, a cut/boost bar and the dB. Committed bands are listed first, labelled COMMITTED, so they are always reachable. A broad Tone move is one row at the middle of its span. A move its layer now ignores (you pressed IGNORE or COMMIT) leaves the list at once. The header counts them: 5 moves · 1 committed. Select a row to read it in the inspector:

Status: CONFIDENCE, HARM BUDGET, LOUDNESS MATCH and the state — LEARNING, LISTENING, SILENT · HOLDING, or EXTERNAL (driven by something other than its own listening). RE-LEARN forgets what it has learned and starts again (also automatic when the context changes).

7.2.1.8 Commit, Lock and Ignore

Select a row; the buttons under the inspector follow the selection.

Along the bottom: COMMIT ALL (every Resonance and Tone move shown, as one step; a move within 1/3 octave of one of the same layer already taken is covered by it, so bells never stack; if there is not a free band and ignore slot for every move, nothing is written) · UNDO / REDO · “n ignored (m by commits)” with CLEAR, which gives back every ignore except the ones holding committed bands in place.

There are 16 bands for commits and 16 ignore slots. When they are full the action is refused, with the reason in amber in the inspector, and nothing is written.

7.2.1.9 Presets

Click the PRESET chip in the title bar. It reads PRESET until a preset is loaded, then the preset's name, with * once a setting really differs from it (undoing back to the preset clears the *).

• SAVE AS… (the first row) saves the current sound under a name, as a User preset. If the name exists it asks before replacing it. A factory preset's name is refused (a load by name would find the factory one); a name is made file-safe (a Windows device name such as CON gets a _). If the save fails you are told why. Every open Advance EQ editor's menu shows the new preset at once.
• Below: the factory presets by category, then your User presets. Scroll with the wheel; Esc or a click outside closes the menu.
• Loading is one undo step.

What a preset holds and does not hold:

• A factory preset is a starting sound: layer settings, role, amount, tilt and spread, written into all three banks so it behaves the same on a track, a group or the master. It leaves MODE on AUTO and has no committed bands or ignores.
• A User preset holds everything you set, including committed bands and ignores.
• No preset holds where the insert sits (the context and the detected role). Loading a vocal preset on a bus keeps it a bus.
• Loading sets every setting: whatever the preset does not mention goes back to its default, so nothing from the previous sound is left behind.

The factory presets ship with the program (locked, never written). Your presets are saved in your User folder, <User folder>\Presets\Advance EQ\<Name>.hsprst — the same format as Shape EQ and Harmonic Space. The menu's last row, Open presets folder, opens that folder (it is made if it is not there yet); presets you copy into it show in the menu within a second. Where the folder is changes only in Settings › Locations. If the User folder you chose is not there, saving (and opening the folder) is refused and says which folder — nothing is saved anywhere else.

7.2.1.10 DELTA, BYPASS and RE-LEARN

7.2.1.11 Saving

Every setting — both override and context, the three banks, committed bands, ignores, locks — is saved with the project and comes back exactly. The music map is not saved; it is rebuilt from the song after loading.

7.2.1.12 Asking the assistant

With Nimi, everything in the editor can also be done by asking: reading what the EQ is doing, explaining a move, committing, ignoring and un-committing moves, clearing ignores, locking cuts, switching layers, setting the mode and role, loading and saving presets, re-learning and DELTA.

Name a move by its frequency (and its layer, when two layers are near the same frequency), not by its row, because the list changes while the song plays. Say “master” to reach the master; if a track has two Advance EQs, say which one. Each change is one step on the studio’s undo list; saving a preset, re-learning and DELTA are not undo steps.

The assistant follows the editor’s rules exactly: the same 9 rows (committed first, ignored moves gone), the same refusals (a move committed twice, a full bank), COMMIT ALL covering neighbours and writing all or nothing, and the same bell shape.

Examples: “what is the Advance EQ on Lead Vox doing?”, “commit the 412 Hz resonance”, “lock the low cut on the bass at 40 Hz”, “turn Dynamic off on the drum bus”, “load Kick - Tight on the kick”.

7.2.1.13 Known limits

• Unmask works from the sidechain key only. Seeing every track at once (session-wide unmasking and a master “mix diagnosis”) comes in a later update.
• Targets and factory presets are provisional until a later update.
• Zero-latency processing only; the Phase setting has one choice for now.
• A resonance very close to a sounding note's harmonic is not counted while that note plays, and a notch next to a partial is held so the partial loses at most 0.8 dB — a resonance right beside a bass note's harmonic is cut only lightly while the note sounds (300 Hz under a held A1: −1.6 dB instead of −5.6 dB).
• Hum at 50 or 60 Hz and hum made of odd harmonics are notched; a full 50 Hz series (every harmonic, 50 Hz apart) is too dense to separate and is only partly notched.
• The high cut can close on steady, bright synthetic material (a held sawtooth pad): lock it (drag the HC handle up, or switch HIGH off) if the top matters.
• The editor's own UNDO list holds its actions only; every change is also on the studio's undo list (§7.2.1.8).
• If you move the insert to another slot while its editor is open, the editor closes; open it again.

7.2.1.14 Quick recipes

Clean up a vocal

1. Add Advance EQ on the vocal track (named “Lead Vox”, the role reads Auto (Vocal)).
2. Play the song for 10 seconds. Read the MOVES panel.
3. Like a resonance notch? COMMIT it, so it stays even if the automatic layer changes its mind.

Make room for the vocal in the guitars

1. On the guitar bus, feed the lead vocal to the Advance EQ's sidechain.
2. Set UNMASK to FOLLOW; keep the vocal's own Advance EQ on LEAD if it has one.

Keep your own low cut

1. Drag the LC handle on the stage to where you want it (it reads LOCK).
2. Double-click it later to give it back to AUTO.

Start from a preset, save your own

1. PRESET → Drums → Kick - Tight. Adjust.
2. PRESET → SAVE AS… → “My Kick”. It is in the User list for every project.