ElliptiQ – Elliptic Equalizer by HoRNet

This week we have a very special type of equalizer, an elliptic equalizer. This type of processing tool has its roots based in the history of vinyl cutting. Cutting vinyl made for stereo recordings will inherently produce a sound meant for two channels, left and right. If lower frequencies like bass or kick happen to be out of phase then this can cause cancellation problems and decrease the quality of the recording. An elliptic equalizer works on the stereo field of low frequencies to avoid phase issues. Allow the developer to elaborate,

“A tool like this is needed because if the bass frequencies goes in anti-phase or the difference between left and right channel are too wide the needle may jump outside the groove in the final vinyl master, so an elliptic eq works on the difference of the two channels removing part of the low frequencies and preventing this problem.”

It is a preventative method to ensure the vinyl can cut smoothly. If you aren’t aware, vinyl is making a come back in a major way so there is not a better time for this kind of plugin to be made available! So what is different about this than say your ‘Utility’ tool in Ableton? The ElliptiQ can process frequencies up to 2000Hz instead of just the 120Hz in Live 10 (this plugin should be even more attractive for anyone still on Live 9 or other DAWs). It even has a correlation meter in the upper right corner that shows seven key frequencies for you to identify issues with anti-phase within different areas of the spectrum.

Elliptic equalizers alter the Side components of the incoming audio signal – ElliptiQ encodes the stereo signal in its Mid/Side matrix and extracts the difference from the left and right channels, then filters the side part of the channel with a low shelf. This then leaves you with only the mid part so that you get a stereo signal output with a reduced wideness in the low frequencies. The final neat feature is an “auto width” feature that continuously evaluates the difference between the mid and side signals so that if the side is too high it automatically reduces it. Below is a full list of features:

• Elliptic eq from 20 to 2000 Hz.
• Three different slopes: 12, 24, 48 dB/octave.
• Stereo wideness for low frequency from 100% to mono.
• Automatic stereo wideness setting.
• Correlation meter with 7 frequency bands.
• Mac OS X (>=10.7) and Windows support.
• 64-bit compatibility both on Mac and Windows.
• Audio Units VST2.4, VST3, AAX format.

ElliptiQ is available to download now for 7.99 Euros at the Hornet website.