About Raèld EQ
Raèld EQ is a clean, precise parametric EQ that's simple to use: a big curve display you work on directly, up to 24 bands of eight types, three phase modes, dynamic bands, mid/side, and a real-time analyzer. Its filters follow their analog curves right up to 20 kHz, so a band at 15 kHz looks and sounds the same at 44.1 kHz as at 96 kHz.
The CHARACTER keys under the display choose its sound: CLEAN (fully transparent), WARM or PUNCH.
Its face is friendly and modern: on a deep blue-grey, the curve fills most of the window, and three soft cards float under it: the view and character keys on the left, the selected band in the middle (FREQ, GAIN and Q, its type, ON, SOLO and REMOVE), the output on the right. The knobs are soft dark discs ringed by a thick arc of light in the band's colour; the keys are rounded chips that fill with colour when they're on.
Installing
- Close your DAW.
- Unzip
Raeld-EQ-2.0.0-Windows.zipfrom the download page or your purchase email, runRaeld-EQ-Setup.exeand follow the steps. The plugin goes intoC:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, and a standalone app is installed too. - Open your DAW and rescan plugins. DAW plugin lists show it without the accent, as "Raeld EQ", so type "raeld" in the plugin browser.
Requirements: Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) and any VST3 host, or the standalone app.
Quick start
- Double-click anywhere on the display to add a band there. At the far left you get a low cut, at the far right a high cut, anywhere else a bell.
- Drag its dot to set frequency (left and right) and gain (up and down). Hold Shift for fine moves.
- Use the mouse wheel over the dot, or drag the small edge handles either side of it, to make it narrower or wider (Q).
- Right-click the dot to change its type, slope, placement (stereo, left, right, mid, side), make it dynamic, or solo it.
- To remove it, Alt-click the dot, drag it right off the display, or press Delete.
Hover over a band to read its frequency with the note name (for example A2 · 110 Hz), its gain and Q. The piano along the bottom of the display shows which notes you're working on. If you see a peak in the analyzer, hover over it: a grab marker appears; drag from it and a narrow band is made right on that frequency, ready to pull down.
The knobs and buttons
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| FREQ, GAIN, Q | The selected band (click a dot to select it). They and the display always move together. For a cut, GAIN becomes SLOPE (6 to 96 dB per octave) and Q sets the resonance at the corner (0.71 is none). |
| Band type keys | Bell, Low Shelf, High Shelf, Low Cut, High Cut, Notch, Band Pass, Tilt Shelf. |
| ON, SOLO, REMOVE | Switch the selected band in or out; hear only what it works on; take it away. |
| OUTPUT | Level after the EQ, ±30 dB. |
| MIX | Scales the whole curve: at 50% every boost and cut is half as big. It never blends signals, so it never comb-filters. |
| AUTO GAIN | Keeps the loudness the same while you EQ, so you judge the tone, not the volume. |
| BYPASS, MONO | The untouched input (latency-compensated and crossfaded); the output folded to mono. |
| UNDO, REDO | Step through your changes (Ctrl+Z, Ctrl+Y). |
| A, B, COPY | Two complete settings to compare; COPY puts the current one in the other slot. |
| CLEAN, WARM, PUNCH | The CHARACTER (see below). |
| ANALYZER, RANGE, EXPAND | Analyzer off / output / input and output (with a peak hold); the display's gain range (6, 12, 18 or 30 dB); a taller curve, with slimmer cards under it. |
Knobs: drag up or down (Shift for fine control), use the wheel, or the arrow keys. Double-click resets. The value shows while you adjust and when you hover. Knobs follow circular drags is in the SIZE menu, with the window sizes (85 to 300 % of the size it opens at, 726 × 515; the size is remembered).
The advanced panels
Three tabs under the display open panels that stay hidden until you need them:
- PHASE: ZERO LATENCY (minimum phase, no delay: for tracking and live use), NATURAL (analog-like curve and phase right up to 20 kHz, about 1 ms of latency), LINEAR (no phase shift at all, for mastering; QUALITY sets the filter length and latency). Also PROPORTIONAL Q: bells narrow as you boost or cut further, like many analog EQs (in CLEAN; WARM and PUNCH always have their own).
- DYNAMIC: make the selected bell or shelf act only when its frequencies cross the THRESHOLD; ATTACK and RELEASE set how fast. Past the threshold it moves 0.75 dB per dB, up to the band's gain.
- STEREO: where the selected band works (stereo, left, right, mid or side) and the output PAN.
Phase modes and latency
| Mode | Latency at 44.1 / 48 kHz | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Zero Latency | 0 | Tracking, live, anything where delay matters. |
| Natural Phase | 55 samples (about 1.2 ms) | Mixing: the analog curve and phase, with almost no delay. |
| Linear Phase | Low 2560, Medium 4608, High 8704, Maximum 16896 samples | Mastering, parallel processing, no phase shift. |
The latency is always told to your DAW, which compensates for it. At 96 kHz and 192 kHz the linear-phase filters grow with the rate, so their frequency resolution stays the same.
CHARACTER
| Character | Sound |
|---|---|
| CLEAN | Fully clean and transparent: the analog-matched curves and nothing else. |
| WARM | Gentle proportional Q, broad new shelves, and a trace of 2nd harmonic as you EQ (0.13% at 0 VU, 0.36% at −6 dBFS peaks with a +9 dB band). |
| PUNCH | Strong proportional Q, new shelves with a small shoulder, and 2nd and 3rd harmonics that grow with level (0.11% at 0 VU, 0.48% at −6 dBFS peaks with a +9 dB band). |
The colour comes only from bands that are doing something: with nothing active, the output is the input, bit for bit, in every character. Switching character glides, so you can switch while the music plays. See the three characters.
Presets
Vocal Clarity, Kick Punch, Bass Tighten, Remove Mud, Air & Shine, Master Polish, Podcast Voice and Tame Harshness: each a starting point for that job, plus Init (flat). Save your own with SAVE; they appear in the preset menu.
What we measured
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Bells against the analog curve, 20 Hz–20 kHz, Zero Latency, 44.1 kHz | +6 dB at 10 kHz: 0.135 dB; at 15 kHz: 0.138 dB; +4 dB at 18 kHz: 0.091 dB. High shelf at 12 kHz: 0.049 dB |
| The worst bell anywhere (10 Hz–20 kHz, Q 0.3–10, ±30 dB) | 0.48 dB at 44.1 kHz, 0.46 dB at 48 kHz, 0.26 dB at 96 kHz |
| Natural and Linear Phase against the analog curve | within 0.030 dB and 0.007 dB |
| Set flat, every phase mode and character | bit-for-bit the input |
| Fast sweeps of frequency, gain and Q | energy at the zipper-noise frequencies −107 to −136 dB |
| WARM / PUNCH, a +9 dB band, 200 Hz tone | WARM 0.13% THD at 0 VU, 0.36% at −6 dBFS peaks; PUNCH 0.11% and 0.48%. Fold-back: −113.6 dB |
| CPU (stereo, 48 kHz, 24 bands, % of one core) | Zero Latency 1.2%, Natural 2.6%, Linear (Medium) 0.4% |
Mono and stereo
Raèld EQ runs on mono, mono-to-stereo and stereo tracks; your DAW picks automatically. On a mono-to-stereo track the mono source feeds both sides. On a mono track, bands set to Side do nothing; Left, Right and Mid act on the one channel. The MONO button folds the output to mono, to check how a mix holds up on a mono speaker. It isn't saved in presets.
Activation and support
Paste your Raèld EQ license key, or your Raèld All Access key, into the activation window. A key works on 3 computers. Without a key the plugin runs as a demo with a short dropout every 45 seconds. See support, or email info@raeldaudio.com.
Raèld EQ is an original design and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any other manufacturer.