MAAT thEQorange

Linear Phase Without Compromise

A remedial linear phase EQ with unparalleled clarity. For mastering ears, and other discerning engineers.

A Dream Come True

Many mastering engineers, including MAAT founder Friedemann Tischmeyer, were fans of Algorithmix's legendary original Linear Phase PEQ Orange.

Unfortunately, the Algorithmix EQs were available only as 32 bit VSTs for PC and our workstations and our industry has evolved since then. Tischmeyer's students repeatedly asked for alternatives, which caused him to scan the market for other high class EQs.

Colleague Bob Katz recommended EQuilibrium, an insanely versatile tool, which Tischmeyer used for teaching.

However, he could not find a satisfying alternative which would take the place of his original PEQ Orange.

The idea was born to reissue this masterpiece and make it available as 64 bit in all common formats and for macOS.

An agreement with Algorithmix was made, and MAAT started up in mid–2017. Algorithmix fans heard of that and reached out to us, saying "…just redo it as it is; no extras, no nothing. We just want to have it back in 64 bit and for Mac." That was encouraging.

As a power user, Tischmeyer had some other ideas in mind regarding the UI.

He wanted to make it more flexible and faster to use because there is no other tool in the mastering chain an engineer spends so much setup time with.

The result? "I think we have achieved that. The UI allows super fast setup and has a number of unique features which help to do so: The positive & negative Contribution function including absolute difference, the adjustable sonogram which makes detecting energy spots you want to clean up easy, and the possibility to play a note on the piano you have in your head and just push the respective frequency to the active band section with one right click are just a few of the new features. What I like too is that I have an overview of all Sections as opposed to just one Section at a time."

In order to not end up with a strange Section order when using many filters, we also added the SORT button so your Sections are always in ascending order.

Unobtrusive Power

thEQorange's powerful features hide behind its clean and simple UI.

Eye candy is great for newbies, but thEQo isn't typical.

It packs all the advanced features you need into one resizable window that's easy on the eyes.

Not only does the UI "get out of the way" so you can be more productive, we've incorporated industry-first features that speed your workflow, neatly packaged to make thEQorange easy and intuitive to use.

An example is the ability to freely assign Sections to either stereo [left/right] or sum/difference [L+R/L-R] at the same time.

Subtle Functionality

We've brought pristine fidelity and innovative user interface design to what used to be an unremarkable product category.

With four monitoring modes, an ergonomic and uncluttered interface, intelligent monitor auto-gain plus crazy good sound, you've got to try thEQorange for yourself.

Better By Design

Whether you're looking for surgically precise repair, colorless correction, or simply baggage-free spectral contouring, our proprietary, precision algorithm delivers on the promise of linear phase correction.

For clean up and control duties, bring the power and purity of thEQorange to bear for all your surgical equalizing tasks.

Features

thEQorange sounds more natural, organic and open. Listen for the difference, it just sounds correct.

• Exclusive Contribution Control - positive addition only, negative addition only, EQ contribution only, and "normal" EQ out helps to aurally keep track of your progress
• Proprietary algorithms result in extremely low noise and vanishingly small nonlinear distortion
• Unique EQ design results in no perceptible unwanted coloration with mixes (processing artifacts well below -100 dBFS) - work with clarity, transparency, and definition
• Equal delay at all frequencies regardless of filter settings, perfectly preserving the time relationship of harmonics in the original signal
• Operates at up to 384 kHz sampling rate, suitable for high resolution audio (HRA), DSD or DXD production and post
• Extended resonant or center frequencies up to 174.14 kHz, for processing in ultrasonic and near ultrasonic for all HRA production and post
• Exceptionally transparent ELF response, perfect for DC removal
• 12 sections with 5 freely assignable parametric filter types; bell, low shelf, high shelf, low cut, and high cut
• 5 freely assignable Panorama modes; stereo, mono (sum), L-R (difference), left–only and right–only
• 80 bit internals (long double floats) virtually eliminate rounding errors
• Adjustable Q for bell and high/low pass filters make musical adjustments easy
• Adjustable slope for shelving filters improve precision in the pass and stopbands
• Double the stopband attenuation (ripple) compared to other filter implementations
• Additional low and high pass filters can be overlapped to achieve steep "brickwall" slopes
• Special oversampling for reduced aliasing when working with baseband (44.1 & 48 kHz) sample rates
• No coloration or amplitude bumps even at very low frequencies
• Optional inbuilt tone generator makes for quick location of trouble spots
• SORT function organizes active Sections in ascending order
• TUNE function aligns center frequencies to Western tunings
• Sections have Solo and FLIP to quickly find and address trouble spots
• Grid snap toggles between surgical and musical applications, emulating popular hardware resonant frequency choices, including Maselec and Manley
• True Peak metering to avoid overs
• AutoGain for effortless A/B comparisons
• Resizable frequency response display for easy, high precision adjustments
• Exclusive dual view, monochrome/color real time spectrogram with user adjustable temporal wiper lets you choose "when" to transition to low clutter monochrome
• Choice of parametric editing via numerical fields or directly on the graphical display
• Complete setup exchange across multiple instances

Applications

thEQorange is a highly specialized tool for mastering engineers who have access to diverse high end EQs for different tasks.

There are very few forward/backward linear phase EQs on the market and thEQorange, with its wide, 80 bit double precision processing and optimized-for-fidelity algorithm, will bring a new sense of transparency to your work.

With all the features and functionality of Algorithmix's beloved original LP PEQ Orange, the feature–packed thEQorange brings so much more. Use its powerful processing and double precision I/O for:

• Mastering and remastering tasks on complex, high fidelity mixes
• Equalizing of instrumental group stereo sub-mixes
• Clarifying the midband and rescuing dense mixes
• Addressing resonances and peaky instruments without tonal degradation
• Tight, transparent low shelf and presence boosts
• Removing unwanted ultrasonic content from HRA recordings
• Identifying resonances with ease when sweeping, due to the low inherent ringing
• Putting mixes with too much DC or a super fat kick on a diet
• Tightening up loose or crowded mixes

All true linear phase EQs have similar specs. Dirac spikes and other artificial test signals will produce about the same results regardless of whose product you try.

A solo chime or kick drum track is also not what thEQorange was designed for…It excels at equalizing actual music!

What not to use thEQorange for is tracking or mixing! thEQorange is a low channel count plug-in, designed for the master buss and mastering.

Due to the insane complexity of the algorithm, thEQorange has a high CPU demand. It is not a "light weight"!

Essentials

thEQorange fits in with all modern workflows:

• Supports LPCM sample rates up to 384k for DSD and high-end postproduction
• All standard formats: AU, VST 2 and 3, AAX
• Compatible with macOS and Windows
• Low fatigue visual design
• Resizable user interface for every screen resolution