This opens up a lot of possibilities, including surgically removing small details related to specific frequencies in an audio file, such as hums and buzzes that may each involve several harmonic components, but for most people it's the ability to 'learn' the frequency response of an incoming sound and subsequently apply this to another audio file that's most intriguing. Once you have sufficient bands in an EQ, you can move beyond the peak and shelf responses of more traditional designs to generate any frequency-response curve you can imagine. Audio quality can also vary considerably, but there's plenty of choice, varying from freeware effects to complex commercial products let's have a look at what's on offer. Once in the frequency domain, you can also mathematically manipulate each band, at which point the results start to get really intriguing.The sonic ground covered by multi-band spectral plug-ins is quite considerable, ranging from delicate transformations and subtle effects all the way through to sonic mangling of the most extreme and unexpected kind. If a second audio file can be loaded into your plug-in, for even more advanced effects you could statically compare the EQ of your audio signal with it and attempt to match the two (aka 'EQ ripping'), or do this dynamically for vocoding or morphing effects that contain characteristics of both signals, such as 'talking' pianos or 'singing' drums. These can provide far more radical results than the more typical multi-band dynamics plug-in or, alternatively, more refined ones, depending on personal taste! At the simplest level, you could alter the static output level of each band, giving you an extremely flexible EQ, or alter these levels dynamically to create gating, compression or expansion effects in the spectral domain.
Today's computers give us the power to split audio into hundreds or even thousands of bands and give each one a different effect treatment. Are you brave enough to enter the frequency zone? Speed determines the modulation frequency.ĬF (Center Frequency) Modulation defines the intensity of the center frequency modulation.īW (Band Width) Modulation controls the amount of bandwidth modulation.Īfter making your adjustments, you can use the Gain slider to adjust the final output level of the processed signal.There are now quite a few plug-ins on the market that have the ability to split audio into hundreds or thousands of bands and treat them separately, paving the way for a variety of weird and wonderful effects. You can modulate the defined frequency band using the Speed, CF Modulation, and BW Modulation parameters. Use the High Level slider to blend frequencies above the defined frequency band with the processed signal. Use the Low Level slider to blend the frequencies below the defined frequency band with the processed signal. and Bandwidth parameters) with the processed signal. You can mix the frequencies that fall outside the frequency band (defined by the Center Freq. Use the Super Energy knob to control the level of the frequencies above the Threshold, and use the Sub Energy knob to control the level of the frequencies below the Threshold. The graphic display visually indicates the band defined by these two parameters.Īfter the frequency band is defined, use the Threshold parameter to set the appropriate level.Īll incoming signals above and below the threshold level are divided into upper and lower frequency ranges. Set the frequency band you want to process by using the Center Freq.