EQ1979 - Neve 1073 strip modeling [jsfx]

[BellesOndes]

EQ1979 is a frequency accurate modeling of a Neve 1073 filter stage combined with an input gain-compensated saturation.

Major Update, new slick GUI by Fluidshell Design and redesigned preamp model
0.96 version is only available here and on Github, will be released on Reapack as soon as it gest to V1



EQ1979 models all the sonically appealing bumps and drops that shape the sound of these original console strips. Those analog filtering stages with many capacitance/inductors resonances are reproduced, including input transformer contribution.

It also includes an input saturation stage that provides smooth saturation with automatic gain compensation. The first two third of the control range add slik-soft arctan based saturation, whereas the last third adds some DC bias error just like in a real class A analog console strip. Input can be trimmed after saturation upon preference thanks to the Trim control.

- Neve-inspired GUI was designed by Steph at Fluidshell Design. Many thanks for his kind contribution to the project.
- All signal processing methods are derived from the excellent CookDSP library by Olivier Bélanger.
- Designed by cascading ~40 peq/butterworth filters to reproduce frequency response, bumps and drops of the original console strip,
- Neve-inspired GUI with big knobs and that slick Neve soft blue background.
- Input saturation based on brute "arctan" sat which is gain-compensated.
- Includes additional independant gain trimming.

Documentation : http://bellesondes.fr/wiki/doku.php?id=eq1979

Controls :
Drive: Input saturation from 0 to 100% : Mouse left Click - vertical drag
Trim : Input gain trimming from -24 to +24 dB : Mouse left click - Vertical Drag OR Mouse wheel
High : High shelf shaped filter Gain from -16 to +16dB : Mouse left Click - vertical drag
Mid : Mid Bell shaped filter Gain from -18 to +18dB : Mouse left Click - vertical drag
Mid Frequency : Mid Bell center frequency, “Off” means inactive : Mouse left click - Vertical Drag OR Mouse wheel
Low : Low shelf shaped filter Gain from -16 to +16dB : Mouse left Click - vertical drag
Low Frequency : Low shelf corner frequency, “Off” means inactive : Mouse left click - Vertical Drag OR Mouse wheel
HPF : High pass filter corner frequency, “Off” means inactive : Mouse left click - Vertical Drag OR Mouse wheel
EQ : Enables/Disables EQ : Mouse Left Click
Phi : Enables/Disables phase inversion : Mouse Left Click
On all controls, Right Mouse Click resets to default value. Notably, Drives comes back to 0%, Trim to 0dB, Filter Gains to 0dB, and Frequency settings to “Off”.
Right clicking on the lower right corner of the UI displays/hides reaper native slider controls.



Download V0.96 :
Standalone file : https://github.com/D4p0up/eq1979/releases/tag/beta096
Github : https://github.com/D4p0up/eq1979
Reapack (coming for V1)


Versions :
- Beta 0.96
* New slick GUI By Fluidshell Design !
* Improved saturation with progressive bias error
* Electrical components noise modeling added
* Frequency band controls can now be set/reset using mouse click too (mousewheel still).
* Right clicking on the lower right corner of the UI displays/hides reaper native slider controls.
- Beta 0.95
* Improved modeling of HPF and Low Shelf filter responses
* 10Hz parameter smoothing on Low, Mid and High frequency gain parameters for automation-safe operation
- Beta 0.94 - internal bugfixing stage never released
- Beta 0.93
* HPF frequency response tuned with expected bump
* Testing parameter smoothing on HPF
* Correcting minor GUI bugs on switching to +-16dB for shelfs
- Beta 0.92 :
* GUI : Added mousex lock on control change, no more control swapping when adjusting parameter
* Lowered low and high shelf EQ max gain down to 16dB as per original 1073 design
* Added EQ On/Off and Phase buttons as per original 1073 design
* minor tweaks
- Beta 0.91 - Low Shelf GUI Fix and Sat mouse speed increase by 25%
- Beta 0.9 - First release

This was developped by analysing datasheet and pulling out in a retry-on error fashion an "equivalent" frequency response. This using both plugindoctor and ear tests VS the latest UAD 1073 emulation plugin.
Filter methods are derived from Oliver Belanger's COOKDSP library - Copyright (c) - 2014 - Olivier Belanger

Here are some of the final comparison diagrams, orange/blue curves are UAD Neve 1073 native plugin L/R channel, pink is EQ1979:

Raw static with mid engaged (with typical 1073 mid bump)


Typical Neve "Air" 14dB high boost (with its mid drop)


Typical Neve Mid "front push" 14dB 1.6k boost


To Do :
- Implement parameter smoothing to avoid glitches during automation,
- Low shelf filter bumps
- BLower high pass input filter to ear accurate model

[JonLinnarson]

Very nicely done! The GUI looks great, and the EQ sounds lovely.

Is it oversampled in any way? I couldn't see any oversampling code just by skimming through the code.

[BellesOndes]

Thanks for the nice words. No there is no oversamlping for the moment. I did add steep lpf around 20khz and nothing more considering that using Reaper's built-in oversampling would do the trick. I hope this is sufficient, otherwise I'll go deeper this way.

[elcalen]

Seems pretty nice! One or two very minor UI things I noticed when I briefly tested it: if I'm dragging a knob and my mouse happens to move sideways closer to another knob, it starts adjusting that knob instead. Also the drive knob seemed to move rather slowly compared to other knobs.

[BellesOndes]

Thanks for the feedback. Mouse management does not include parameter protection which is something UI lacks of, definitely. Will be adding this.

I'll look at gain movement speed. Saturation and makeup gain are things I tend to adjust at very slow speed during mixing to hear evolution, which is why it is slow for now.

[mawi]

Interesting, why did you choose the frequencies 50 Hz, 80 Hz , 160 Hz, 300 Hz for the low band and not 35 Hz, 60 Hz, 110 Hz, 220 Hz as in the original?

I compared 3 Neve 1073 plug-in emulations. They all make different curves.

[BellesOndes]

It actually mimics the original exactly, here is the setup:
- 50 Hz, 80 Hz , 160 Hz, 300 Hz is for the highpass filter (blue knob)
- 35 Hz, 60 Hz, 110 Hz, 220 Hz is for the low shelf (righmost grey knob)

In the GUI picture here, rightmost grey knob is "Off", using mouse wheel turns it on and you can chose among 35 Hz, 60 Hz, 110 Hz, 220 Hz

hope this clarifies.

[mawi]

Originally Posted by BellesOndes

It actually mimics the original exactly, here is the setup:
- 50 Hz, 80 Hz , 160 Hz, 300 Hz is for the highpass filter (blue knob)
- 35 Hz, 60 Hz, 110 Hz, 220 Hz is for the low shelf (righmost grey knob)

In the GUI picture here, rightmost grey knob is "Off", using mouse wheel turns it on and you can chose among 35 Hz, 60 Hz, 110 Hz, 220 Hz

hope this clarifies.

Not really, that's how it looks to me.



But all in one good work, thank you!

[elcalen]

Originally Posted by BellesOndes

Saturation and makeup gain are things I tend to adjust at very slow speed during mixing to hear evolution, which is why it is slow for now.

Yeah, that makes sense, and this is obviously a matter of taste. Super high settings here are probably not something you'd need very often in actual use. It just bugged me a little when testing it that I couldn't easily go from one end to the other to compare the sound.

[JonLinnarson]

Okay! That's why I asked. It's good to know if you should use 2-4x oversampling if you want to drive the plug-in hard

The only thing that sets this plug-in apart from some the best 1073 emulations that I've tried is that the saturation sounds maybe a bit cold/harsh, but the filters themselves sound absolutely perfect! This might just be the best free 1073 emulation I've heard actually. Maybe not that strange since it's so close to UAD's version

[TonE]

Thanks for sharing.

[JonLinnarson]

Originally Posted by mawi

Not really, that's how it looks to me.

True. Seems like it was mixed up with the values from the highpass filter! Should be a quick fix to just change the displayed values.

[BellesOndes]

Originally Posted by mawi

Not really, that's how it looks to me.



But all in one good work, thank you!

Oh you are completely right, this is a QA issue on my side : an old copy paste mistake on GUI side that I fixed but probably failed at git commiting at some point.

[BellesOndes]

Just pushed a fix for both the GUI values and mouse acceleration on sat control.
Thanks a lot for the kind feedback.

[Talagan]

Wow, the legendary 1073 as a JSFX ; this is a worthy plugin and the very nice UI is the cherry on the cake. Félicitations, @BellesOndes !

[fero@reaper]

Hey,Thank you for sharing,

quite an amazing FX,

just wanted to point out a behaviour,
when i click and hold anywhere in the GUI, and then move the mouse cursor, as shown in the GIF,
the knobs change according to the vertical space,

This is all while I havent left the mouse button, kinda thought that might not be the intended behaviour.

https://imgur.com/a/bPVbAuN

[Frank Lee Scarlett]

Excuse my ignorance, guys. This is going to be a very basic, and possibly very dumb question.

I've never used JSFX plug-ins, but this looks very interesting. How do I install it? I copied the file and put it in my effects folder, but it doesn't show when I try to call it up.

I'm obviously missing something that I need to do this. Do I need to install SWS or something?

[ggrey]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee Scarlett

Excuse my ignorance, guys. This is going to be a very basic, and possibly very dumb question.

I've never used JSFX plug-ins, but this looks very interesting. How do I install it? I copied the file and put it in my effects folder, but it doesn't show when I try to call it up.

I'm obviously missing something that I need to do this. Do I need to install SWS or something?

I am in the same boat as Frank. I don't even know what a JSFX plugin is.
Could someone please elaborate on what a novice needs to do to get this plugin (and others) working?
Thanks!

[todd_r]

https://reaperblog.net/2015/06/quick...ll-js-plugins/

[mawi]

Great, thanks! Will perhaps also still appear a Neve 1081 and 1084 emulation?

[Frank Lee Scarlett]

Originally Posted by todd_r

https://reaperblog.net/2015/06/quick...ll-js-plugins/

Thank you Todd! Oh my dog that was easy!

New rabbit hole just opened.

[Frank Lee Scarlett]

Originally Posted by fero@reaper

Hey,Thank you for sharing,

quite an amazing FX,

just wanted to point out a behaviour,
when i click and hold anywhere in the GUI, and then move the mouse cursor, as shown in the GIF,
the knobs change according to the vertical space,

This is all while I havent left the mouse button, kinda thought that might not be the intended behaviour.

https://imgur.com/a/bPVbAuN

I'm having the same issue.

Also, all my knobs say "off" even when moving them around. I don't see values changing at all.

I also don't hear any audible changes when I change the "mids" or the "lows".

I DO hear a change when playing with the "Drive", "high" and "high pass", but not "mids" or "lows".

[mawi]

Unfortunately, I do not have Neve hardware to measure the curves myself. But there are some curves on the internet. In this graph from a UAD Neve 1073 plugin I see that the HPF looks different from your emulation.

https://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2006/...er/index7.html

In this graph from a Neve 1073N hardware, the 18dB/oct HPF seems right with your emulation. I don't know what is correct now. You can also see that the mid frequency is +/-18dB peak filter and the high/low frequencies are +/-16dB shelving filters. In your emulation, these high/low frequencies are +/-18dB shelving filters.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/neve-1073n

It seems that you have also included a DC offset filter, which doesn't exist in the original. At least I can't see this one in the graphs. An EQ bypass and phase knob would also be nice in your emulation.

These are all small things. I hope I didn't upset you with this post. If so, just ignore me.

[BellesOndes]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee Scarlett

I'm having the same issue.

Also, all my knobs say "off" even when moving them around. I don't see values changing at all.

I also don't hear any audible changes when I change the "mids" or the "lows".

I DO hear a change when playing with the "Drive", "high" and "high pass", but not "mids" or "lows".

This is normal behavior: bands with configurable frequency are "Off" by default like in the original console strip. Use the mouse wheel to activate these bands when hovering the knob, enabling and selecting the acting frequency of the knob.

[BellesOndes]

Originally Posted by mawi

Unfortunately, I do not have Neve hardware to measure the curves myself. But there are some curves on the internet. In this graph from a UAD Neve 1073 plugin I see that the HPF looks different from your emulation.

https://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2006/...er/index7.html

In this graph from a Neve 1073N hardware, the 18dB/oct HPF seems right with your emulation. I don't know what is correct now. You can also see that the mid frequency is +/-18dB peak filter and the high/low frequencies are +/-16dB shelving filters. In your emulation, these high/low frequencies are +/-18dB shelving filters.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/neve-1073n

It seems that you have also included a DC offset filter, which doesn't exist in the original. At least I can't see this one in the graphs. An EQ bypass and phase knob would also be nice in your emulation.

These are all small things. I hope I didn't upset you with this post. If so, just ignore me.

I highly appreciate the effort of challenging the design, this is how constructive feedback works. Thanks!

- Input HPF is not show in the diagrams above (technically it is off), which is why it does not appear. But you highlight a specific point which I did not handle properly: the HPF has a smooth bump in the lows, especially on 330 setting, which is not modeled. That is definitely on my todolist.

- On the shelfs, this is a good point too. I did put 18dB because it adds more strength to the effect. The way I modeled it is that I arbitrarly chose a working point around 14dB of gain on the Neve UAD emulation and parameter matched a pack of digital filters. Control variation is a scalar portion of those parameters, which means that lowering the max range of both shelfs to 16dB would make it more "model accurate". I'm gonna either switch it to 16, or add an option to switch to 18/20 (i.e. ala 1081).

- DC offset filter was added on purpose to mimic the Carnhill 10468 input transformer DC rejection. I had trouble finding the proper cutoff frequency of this transformer (datasheet stops at 10Hz) so I took some equivalent transformer designs from Jensen website and finger-guessed 11hz of cutoff from the UAD model. It would not suffer from being lowered a bit, admittedly.

- Phase and Bypass are on todolist as well.

My priority is on solving the GUI issues at the moment, I'll be adding switches then, and then improve low frequency response.

Anyhow thanks a lot again, great feedback.

[Frank Lee Scarlett]

Originally Posted by BellesOndes

This is normal behavior: bands with configurable frequency are "Off" by default like in the original console strip. Use the mouse wheel to activate these bands when hovering the knob, enabling and selecting the acting frequency of the knob.

Thank you. I kind of feel stupid now. Didn't realize they were parametric-ish. I though they were fixed frequencies and couldn't figure out. Thanx a lot. I'm really enjoying this plug-in.

[mawi]

Originally Posted by BellesOndes

I highly appreciate the effort of challenging the design, this is how constructive feedback works. Thanks!

I enjoy analyzing plugins so I know exactly what they promise and what they really do. There is a lot of lying in the marketing.

- Input HPF is not show in the diagrams above (technically it is off), which is why it does not appear. But you highlight a specific point which I did not handle properly: the HPF has a smooth bump in the lows, especially on 330 setting, which is not modeled. That is definitely on my todolist.

Exactly, I missed this gentle hump in HPF. Glad you still want to do that.

- On the shelfs, this is a good point too. I did put 18dB because it adds more strength to the effect. The way I modeled it is that I arbitrarly chose a working point around 14dB of gain on the Neve UAD emulation and parameter matched a pack of digital filters. Control variation is a scalar portion of those parameters, which means that lowering the max range of both shelfs to 16dB would make it more "model accurate". I'm gonna either switch it to 16, or add an option to switch to 18/20 (i.e. ala 1081).

I understand, having 18dB is better than 16dB of course. I also see in the graphs that they vary in strength depending on frequency and boost or cut. Difficult decision depending on whether it really needs to be 100% true to the original.

- DC offset filter was added on purpose to mimic the Carnhill 10468 input transformer DC rejection. I had trouble finding the proper cutoff frequency of this transformer (datasheet stops at 10Hz) so I took some equivalent transformer designs from Jensen website and finger-guessed 11hz of cutoff from the UAD model. It would not suffer from being lowered a bit, admittedly.

Interesting, I think the lower the DC offset filter sits, the better it is. But that's just a guess. Is a DC offset filter even necessary? You are using a symmetrical distortion, so there is no DC offset. Or am I mistaken?

- Phase and Bypass are on todolist as well.

Great.

My priority is on solving the GUI issues at the moment, I'll be adding switches then, and then improve low frequency response.

Anyhow thanks a lot again, great feedback.

I find your GUI totally great! Thanks a lot for this!

[BellesOndes]

0.92 release : Fixed all GUI issues and missing buttons

Working on frequency bump within the WE. Thanks!

[sockmonkey72]

Originally Posted by BellesOndes

0.92 release : Fixed all GUI issues and missing buttons

Working on frequency bump within the WE. Thanks!

Thanks. I saw the 0.9 is on ReaPack, but not 0.91 nor 0.92 -- will they be showing up at some point?

[BellesOndes]

Sure, I'm just less familiar with how reapack works which is why it took a little longer. It is under approval process.

[todd_r]

This looks very interesting, but Im on a laptop with no mouse wheel. Any other way to change frequencies?

[BellesOndes]

Right clicking on the UI bottom right corner (like 10 pixels inside) switches reaper parameter display on and off. You can reach the parameters there if you don't have a mouse.

[slangbein]

great GUI, great plugin. Thanx

[Zeno]

Thanks, sounds good and looks good too

There are still some inconsistencies in the parameter control. Currently, its design is a bit confusing IMO.

I'd define a more limited interaction range for frequency selection and band gain and give the parameters full mouse control. Pseudocode-example for Low Band:

(mouse_x>510)&&(mouse_x<590)&&(mouse_y>60)&&(mouse_y<140) ? (adjust_lowgain (mouse_drag, mouse_wheel, reset) );
(mouse_x>520)&&(mouse_x<580)&&(mouse_y>140)&&(mouse_y<180) ? (adjust_lowfreq (mouse_drag, mouse_wheel, reset) );

Instead, you could also try something like this (never tried it myself, so not sure if it works):

lf_knob = gfx_circle(pos_x,pos_y,r=0.8*diam/2,fill=1);
(mouse_x == lf_knob) && (mouse_y == lf_knob) ? (adjust_lowgain (mouse_drag, mouse_wheel, reset) );

BTW good idea to use sign() for mouse_wheel. I never thought about it.

[Zeno]

Related to the harmonic series:

EQ1979 with ~75% drive:


EQ1979 with 100% drive:



Shouldn't it look more like this to accurately represent a 1073?

With ~75% drive:


With 100% drive:

[mawi]

Zeno did you measure a real 1073 EQ? I see even and odd harmonics and a DC offset at 0 Hz. Your measurement looks more accurate to me.

[Zeno]

Originally Posted by mawi

Zeno did you measure a real 1073 EQ? I see even and odd harmonics and a DC offset at 0 Hz. Your measurement looks more accurate to me.

No, I inserted HorNet Harmonics in series after EQ1979 and added the 2nd harmonic.



Quick and dirty, but it is close to the harmonic series of a hardware Neve 1073 as I remember it.

[MonkeyBars]

What review process are you waiting for? ReaPack is open source …

[sockmonkey72]

Originally Posted by MonkeyBars

What review process are you waiting for? ReaPack is open source …

I assume he's using the ReaTeam repos, sometimes submissions take a while. Anyway 0.9.2 is up now on ReaPack, thanks!

[MonkeyBars]

Cool, will give it a shot!