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In IIR mode, you get the same magnitude response as the hardware, and MOST of the phase response (above 12k, it might start to drift, because the two domains ARE different and without using a little CPU, it can't be identical). 2. IIR mode with Digital+ compensation should make barely any difference most of the time, but with some intricate high-end work, it can match the response clos er to the hardware. It works by measuring the analogue and digital xfer function s and designing a very short IR to compensate for any difference, which then get s a minimum phase transform, so there's as little phase delay through it as poss ible. Typically, this filter should be doing nothing. 3. As soon as you dial in FIR mode, it's all different. You've committed to spen ding some CPU, and now we can match both phase and magnitude responses. Analogue phase (or the ZL version) give you the phase response from the hardware. The ph ase response is UNIQUELY DETERMINED by the magnitude response (upto a 180 phase flip). So, you're getting what the hardware gives you. It's like going and sampl ing the thing. Same IR = same everything. And finally, these are EQs, which have for the past 40 years been designed with the primary goal of minimising harmonic distortion. Design intent with an EQ is ALWAYS linearity first and foremost. EQs are sold with their low THD+N figures d isplayed prominently. Only notable exception is the Pultec, which you /can/ drive a little, but the Pu ltec amplifier (it's a passive unit with a post-amp) is entirely AFTER the EQ ci rcuitry, so you can follow EQuilibrium with a distortion if that gets you in the pocket, without any loss of accuracy. [In other words, there's no distortion modelling, because there's no distortion to speak of. Unless you start building bizarre contrivances to overload the hard ware. In the which case all you'll get is straight op-amp clipping out of 99% of units. You'll have a time because not only are they designed to have no distort ion, they're also designed to have high headroom.] Dave. ----------------------CTRL + Click = Disable EQ Band ALT + Double Clicks = Remove EQ Band Shift + Click (on the knob channel) = Select EQ bands of choices together Right click = Auto-Listen mode ALT+Drag = modify the Q range with one click and drag ??? -------------------------------IIR gives you a standard digital EQ with no problems at all. It is remarkable be cause it's so unremarkable, it's a workhorse and combined with the breadth of cu rves you can get pretty much anything you could want out of it. You'd use it in the mix for everyday tasks, like a high quality alternative to the standard DAW EQ. Digital + compensation is similar, but does some magic with the top end, it makes it sound more detailed for some reason. Really good for brighter percussio n/drums, etc - for everything else I'd probably stick with normal IIR mode. Of the FIR modes there's a fair bit of variation. The linear phase mode gives yo u the sound of many of the top end digital EQ's available, very recognisable plu s you can tweak it into new territory - really good for transparent adjustments. I might use it to deal with a technicality on a drum mix, like to perform the h igh pass on some overheads, because it will keep the phase intact and I won't ha ve to worry about that further down the chain. Then there's free phase, which is great because you can create some really stran ge effects out of the phase interaction on certain filters - certainly not a mod e that I'd choose if I was doing serious work but a great addition that delivers

some interesting sonic possibilities. The minimum phase mode is great but I always pass on it for the mother of all pr ocessing modes, the DMG Analogue Phase mode - probably the most prized EQ algori thm. When people talk about musical EQ's I always think of this, it's simply bea utiful and it's capable of boosts that others just can't get away with. Try A/B' ing a 6-12db boost using that mode against pretty much any other digital EQ and you start to get a flavour of why people go so mad about DMG products. You only need an impulse length of about 8k or above to get the vibe. You use Analogue Ph ase because if you didn't you don't have another tool that could salvage the sou rce material and also for final mixes/busses. Incidentally, what Bob was saying about EQ's raising the volumes slightly - EQui librium models this behaviour too, I spotted it on one of the modes recently whi lst measuring output! Strange to see these problems that were mainly caused by p oor buffering of EQ stages replicated into the future! ------------------------------You'll need to try this out yourself, as the settings will vary from system to s ystem and depend on how many instances your projects need. For general mix work, I'm personally more than happy running EQuilibrium in IIR mode, and it's hoggin g close to nothing of the CPU. For buss work, I usually set it to Analogue 32K a s it sounds great to me and runs well on my system. For setting up a FIR Analogue mix system, I'd start at a value (for example 8K a s suggested previously) and duplicate that EQuilibrium instance to all channels you want it on. Check the CPU. Now, in accordance with the higher-must-be-better doctrine, adjust the FIR setting until you reach a value just before your compu ter explodes. Et voila. Your're home. (The boring and sober approach would be to just mix down a project with EQuilibr ium FIR Analogue set at value A across all affected channels, then set it to val ue B, then to value C etc., and then compare the bounced files for yourself and draw your own conclusions, but hey - it's Saturday.) For what it's worth, I just set up 32 audio channels in Reaper with a 44.1K/24 b it WAV file playing through all channels. Each channel had an instance of EQulib rium with 8 active DMG peak bands set randomly in FIR Analogue mode with Impulse Length set to 32.768. Reaper showed just over 20% with everything playing. This on a 3.33 GHz six-core Mac Pro, buffer size @ 1024, and faders and knobs were s till very responsive. --------------------------------What is a good setting to balance CPU usage and sound quality as I tried it but it is a really CPU intensive? -I use between 8000 and 16000 for the impulse response, seems to be a good compr omise. --------------------------Q: I tried automating a Pultec Hi Shelf boost and my 8 core MacPro went from aro und 10% to overload. It bounced OK but that shouldn't be right I don't think... A: If you're automating an FIR with a long response, then that's pretty much exp ected because you're trying to generate lots of long impulses on the fly. Soluti on is to use IIR mode for automation. --------------------------Set up Equilibrium exactly the way you want it, then go to the Set Up menu, and then Global Prefs, and at the bottom you want to click on "Save Current State as Default". Now everytime you load Equilibrium it will be set up exactly how you want it. --------------------------One cool and very useful thing it that you can easily stack instances and it kee ps sounding good through multiple layers of EQ - mixing some vocals now where I have a fixer eq, then a shaper eq, then a sweetner eq and still sounds natural.

--------------------------Oh man, clicking on the keyboard and have it add a band at that freq rules! Low C# too big, click the keyboard and bam! There it is. Saves me a referencing step . This thing is worth its weight in gold. ---------------------------