Acon Digital - Equalize 2

Equalize 2 is Acon Digital's 12-band parametric EQ plugin for Mac and Windows, aimed at mix and mastering engineers who want surgical control without a cluttered screen. Its party trick is a per-band slope you can set anywhere from a gentle 3dB/oct to a brick-wall 120dB/oct.

Slope as a parameter

Most EQs give you frequency, gain and Q, then a handful of fixed slopes on the cuts. Equalize lets you set the slope of every band independently, so a low cut can be a soft 6dB/oct roll-off on a vocal and a steep 48dB/oct wall on the kick bus, in the same instance. Eight filter types are on offer, including tilt, bandpass and notch.

Three phase modes

Minimum phase gives you zero latency for tracking. Linear phase keeps the phase intact for mastering, at the cost of latency and pre-ringing. The mixed phase mode is the clever bit: you set the latency yourself, from 5 to 120ms, trading phase accuracy against pre-ringing. Keep it under about 20ms and the pre-ringing is masked by the ear's own temporal smearing, so you get most of the linear-phase benefit without the smeared transients.

In the mix

Each band can work on the full signal, mid, side, left or right, which makes it handy on the master for tightening the low end in the middle while opening up the sides. It's clean rather than characterful, so it's for correction and precise shaping, not analogue colour.

Features

• Up to 12 bands with eight filter types
• Slope adjustable per band from 3 to 120dB/oct
• Minimum, linear and mixed phase modes, with adjustable latency in mixed mode
• Per-band channel mode: full, mid, side, left or right
• Two spectrum analysers, solo and bypass per band
• Optional automatic make-up gain and gain-to-bandwidth linking
• Surround formats such as 5.1 and 7.1, sample rates up to 96kHz
• Resizable interface and preset manager

System requirements

• Version: 2.x
• Mac: macOS 10.13 or later, native Apple Silicon and Intel; AU, VST, VST3 and AAX (Pro Tools 2018 or later); 1GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• Windows: Windows 10 or 11; VST, VST3 and AAX (Pro Tools 2018 or later); 1GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• Licence: activation code redeemed at acondigital.com

SOUND7 is an authorised Acon Digital reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email.

Demo