The release of the successor of the BootEQ equalizer plug-in is not that far away anymore and you will find the final spec and release info here (as well as a screenshot).
BootEQ mkII is basically the further improved and reworked successor of the already known and popular musical mixing EQ.
Beside some enhancements in the EQ department BootEQ mkII features a detailed modelled pre-amp section including finest transformer and tube style saturation emulation and audio coloring capabilities.
New EQ improvements are affecting the LF frequency range where now more control is given due to selectable frequencies and a switchable low-cut or peak mode. All other filters and curves remain unchanged.
Far more interesting is the brand new modelled pre-amp simulator section, which is added as a switchable option to the right side of the EQ. The pre-amp simulator offers some detailed control on non-linear behaviour such as saturation (volume compensated) and sonic color alterings of the audio signal.
The overall sound may firstly appear as a rather subtle effect but this device is capable of adding some really nice dynamic enhancements and also pleasant color alterings which are highly addictive. A tight bass response is easily dialed in as well as typical transformer LF distortion or HF detail enhancements.
The soundengine was developed around a further improved and reworked TesslaSE transformer algorithm, runs now in 4x oversampling mode and also contains massive SSE and assembler optimizations.
This plug-in will be available in VST format for SSE compatible PC’s and the release is targeted to the first half of february. Supported sampling rates are 44.1 and 48kHz.
Variety Of Sound 
Looks awesome!
sweeet
WOW Bootsie you never cease to amaze me fella!
when I saw this I almost creamed my pants LOL!! It looks absolutely bea-u-t-ful!
I love the colours and new gui, I can’t wait to try it out.
Hopefully it will be very low cpu usage so it can be used on lots of tracks at once??
Guess what my new screensaver will be π
This GUI is sick 8) ! A real piece of art, and that VU-meter… Gorgeous !
Bootsy, keep up the AWESOME work.
I hope that 2009 will bring us new GUI and features/sound enhanced versions of :
– Density
– TesslaSE
– Nasty plugins
Best Regards,
Jay Key
Sorry, I just drooled all over your webpage… *wipe wipe* Can’t wait to give that pre-amp section a whirl…
Not fair towards the competition – you absolutely have to set new standards, do you ?
Can’t you release something mediocre for a change ? π
Holy moley! You’re like some kind of beneficent VST all-giving God-like programming mind-reader guy! It looks absolutely delicious. Bring on the non-linearities!!! π π π
Not important, but shouldn’t the HF knob be the same colour as the Q knob ?
Man this looks awesome! Can’t wait!
What is this weird liquid on my face coming from my eyes? This has got to be the most beautiful plugin I’ve ever seen in my life!!! O_O
ThatΒ΄s look so pretty, i cant wait to hear it!
Nice GUI from a nice guy:)
I’m sure we won’t be disappainted.
ummm yummy .. looks funtasty .. hehehee good job bootsy man
my only criticism is that the text on the darker colored knobs i.e red is harder to read. perhaps lighter colored contrasting text or a lighter shade of button colors? My eyes are not what they used to be and I do so LOVEthe look of this plug in bootsie, it’s the only let down in my humble opinion.
Don’t read, listen!
π
How the hell do you expect me to see the dials on this stuff? It’s way too small as it only takes up half of my screen. Make it BIGGER, because everything’s big in Texas, Gooberville, Texas, that is. Yeah, spead out that crowded design and give it some breathing room, take up the whole resolution of 2560×1920, please! big, biG, bIG, BIG! That’s what I want, goddamn *B*I*G*
Now some people might say using big icons screams, “TARD,” (ala windoze), but don’t you listen to them, nosireee, bub. Big is good, damn good. In fact there’s nothing better than big.
In fact, why don’t you just change the name from BootEQ to BIGEQ!!! Or better yet, GAWDDAMNBIGEQ!!!
Haleighlula!!! Brothas and Sistas!! Can I have an AMEN?
Any projected release dates mon ami? Or is it still about early February? π
Bootsie, great job on graphics. I hope it sounds better (difficult but possible π ) than its older brother. waiting patiencely… π
2009 VST GRAMMY ANNOUCEMENT!
“And the award for best new vst plugin grahpics goes to…………………………………………………………………………………………………….BOOTSY and the BOOTEQ MKII!”
Great job!
beautiful, but sadly synthmaker based. takes ages to load. damn. i’ll still use it though, but it’d be so much more appealing if it were native (C++ or whatever..)
it is gorgeous though! π
+1 on what nitpicker said.
I was wondering why no support for 88.2 or 96kHz? This is what I do all of my projects in.
see here
erm… I love you.
Looking forward to the new version. Just found this site. Spent most of the day mixing with the tools available already and I am gobsmacked. Enormous.
Steve
Hey Bootsie,
I absolutely love the sound of BootEQ, it’s my go-to EQ for colour, I would probably use it on 60% or more of tracks in a project. But often find I want one band at ~180-350Hz and another at ~500-700Hz, which means I need to load 2 instances which is unergonomic.
I think the addition of a frequency control to the LF band will definitely help the situation, so thanks for that, but I’m wondering if the frequency range of the bands could be extended a little.
My personal preferrence would be LF = 40-350Hz, HMF = 700Hz-8900Hz
I understand this will reduce knob resolution, but I think it would by endlessly more useful.
I also understand that 350Hz is no longer “low frequency”, but again, for the sake of flexibility, I think it’s worth ignoring words and only listening to the sound.
Now, a few other recommendations.
*Instead of an Output control, you’re better off to have an Input control. This will improve headroom, providing the same net result (output level) with a reduction in the likeliness of internal clipping.
Maybe a trim control could be used on the ouput of the preamp emulation for level matching when performing A/B comparisons.
*On/Off switches per band for A/B comparisons. This is a big one for me. Since each band is so powerful, I really think we need to be able to easily audition the difference made the to end result.
*Correct automation labels. This one is obvious, but I thought I’d bring it up again.
*Not for me personally, but the ability to switch off VU meter would be very handy. It turns out that FX-Teleport becomes quite inefficient when it has to send lots of graphical data back to the host PC.
Nitpicker said:
“beautiful, but sadly synthmaker based. itβd be so much more appealing if it were native (C++ or whatever..)”
If you’d like, I can have a word to Sascha Eversmeier (Digital FishPhones & now Samplitude DSP programmer) to see if he’s interested in working with you to show you how to program your work in C++ or something.
All the very best, mate!
Dax Liniere.
How much longer? π Valentine’s Day release, because you love us all so much?
@Dax:
There is no internal clipping as everything is computed in floating point math. The output volume control is basically there for A/B level matching. On/off switches per band: At least you can easily switch off each band by using the ctrl+click feature. The automation labelling should be fine with mkII but I would like to send you a beta copy to test/prove it.
I’ll put the VU thing on the list.
Concerning the programming language/framework diskussion I will probably post something during the next days to clarify that from my side.
Hey mate,
I’d love to participate, you have my email address.
As for the on/off switches; When I’m A/B-ing a change, I will listen to A, then listen to B, then listen to A again. Sometimes changing back and forth numerous times until I’m satisfied I’ve made an improvement.
I know that CTRL+click resets back to default position, but that doesn’t really help the cause. Sure, I can listen to A, then B, but if I want to listen to A again, I need to guess the position I had the knob in originally.
The solution, as I see it, is to make CTRL+click reset to default, but then another CTRL+click of the control sets it back again.
Not sure if this is attainable in SynthMaker, but it would certainly be the best solution.
Please send me the beta when you are ready.
Thanks!
Dax.
that would be indeed cool!!
Are you playing “spot the difference” with us ? π
2 nice little changes, one insignificant (but necessary) and one very interesting …
Thanks !
Not intentionally – at least not this time π
We have just finetuned and finished the GUI and today I also finalized the LF curve responses so that they match now precisely to the concept as a whole. Check the blog for news/posts on this later on since the LF department is pretty much exciting and offers some real cool tricks and things you probably won’t expect from such a ‘small featured’ EQ (it’s still basically a 4-band EQ with proportional Q and rather limited control, workflow-wise), but ….
I know it seems like such a trivial thing to comment on, but I noticed and REALLY LIKE the new knob colour scheme. It’s very unifying.
As for the Modern/Vintage switch – bring it on, I’d love to hear your take on the “modern tube sound”.
(P.S. About a month ago, I bought a Pendulum MDP-1…. wow. See my mini-review here: http://www.3daudioinc.com/3db/showthread.php?t=16169 For me, this is the modern tube sound.)
Looking forward to checking out the “tube” and “modern/vintage” options on this!
I’m currently looking for an EQ to compliment my DDMF IIEQ Pro, Colour EQ and LP10. This looks like it could be it!
Bootsy!
While I think of it, I have a couple more requests, one minor, one major.
Besides the extension of frequency ranges of some bands (LF = 40-350Hz & HMF = 700Hz-8900Hz) that I mentioned, I would really LOVE IT if you would put a high/low Q switch on the HMF band too.
I think the colour this EQ imparts is lovely on many sources including guitars and drums, but I can’t use it on kick drum because there’s no high Q setting for the HMF band.
That’s not the only reason for adding that switch, I’ve had plenty of call for it on other occasions, so I think it’s very valuable.
My second request is tiny. I like the graphical representation of the LF band’s lowcut/bell switch. For the LMF band, why don’t you do the same? A wide and a narrow bell curve would look great and would also help unify and unclutter the interface.
Lastly, a question. Can you shed some light on the LF knob on the right panel please?
I just added an article here which covers the LF stuff.
And I can’t accept any change requests for this release no more …
Dax,
I have to question what you use to track the kick drum,when you make a statement like this
“but I canβt use it on kick drum because thereβs no high Q setting for the HMF band”
I have recorded rock and metal since 1979,and this EQ sounds better on any kick drum recording I have ever done.
With the new addings to the original version,I can only say that this plugin will cover even the most critical recordings,
if you know how to use it,that is.
I am so greatful that someone put so much effort into this creation,and gives it away for free.
Terje Refsnes
Hi Terje,
Hope you’re well.
I’m glad you find HMF without Q control suitable for your mixing purposes. Unfortunately, I don’t. To get the type of click (attack) that I hear in my head, I need to go to another EQ.
Please feel free to check out my website and listen to my showreel to get an idea of the types of sounds I’m talking about.
Many of those would not be possible without high-Q in the 2k5-3k5Hz band.
Incidentally, I’m not sure how you use BootEQ on kick without any LF shelf.
On my own I’m differencing between musical and technical EQ’s and BootEQ was right from the beginning clearly designed to be on the musical side and not to be a technical EQ. If one needs more steep or surgical control to handle difficult audio material my recommendation would always be to improve the source (e.g. in a recording situation or if wrong/inferior samples were used) or – if that ain’t possible – to choose a more technical EQ, maybe a linear phase EQ with much steeper and deeper frequency control and without affecting the tone of the source.
Given this you maybe understand why I’m ignoring certain feature requests which would make sense for a technical EQ but not for BootEQ.
When I’ve learned mixing audio at that time I had two important break throughs concerning EQing: The first was to ditch those EQ’s with graphic curve and spectrum representation and to learn to rely on the ears only and the second was to work with EQ’s with a really limited feature set and to make fast decisions on what they just offer and what the source actually needs. Some of the UAD replicas gave me really deep insights on that.
And of course the BootEQ concept and development is highly influenced from that.
Hi Dax
Just out of curiousity, what plugin do you go to, to get that
kick sound that is in your head?
Terje
When things are recorded correctly,this EQ is just superb
to add or remove that little , to get that sound your looking for.
If things are badly recorded,well…..not sure if I have been there π
Terje
“If one needs more steep or surgical control to handle difficult audio material my recommendation would always be to improve the source.”
Hey Bootsy,
The need for high Q factors for the “click” frequency band of a kick drum does not indicate a flawed source. It’s just necessary to achieve that sound.
I understand.
Use a tecnical EQ for that, it’s more safe at high Q settings in the HF spectrum.
release it already…
LOL! He said this week. Chill.
Okay, it’s Wednesday. How much longer Bootsy? π (Sorry, I had to ask).
I’ve got Friday on my mind …
Hey Bootsy,
Did you get my email regarding the Drive knob’s graphic being cutoff on the left side?
Cheers mate.
Alright, gonna download it after my afternoon piano gig. π
” I got friday on my mind”
Lyrics sounds familiar,…..Easybeats or maybe Gary Moore
even David Bowie,
What a good thing to have in mind on such a perfect friday
the 13th……..
This weekend I will spend with my beloved………….EQ!
Thanks again!
varosound
Iβve got Friday on my mind β¦
that’s funny, I had Thursday in my mind!!
wishful thinking huh?
it’s just that I have been creaming my pants ever since I seen the new gui and have to change everyday.
Better let us have soon Bootsy or will be responsible to buy me a whole new set of underwear!
π π π
Finally,I got it.
Feels good to be the first to say:
Its amazing!!!!!!
Terje
Thanks again, Bootsy
Waves of grateful love!
kev
Just missing a low shelf and variable Q factors. Dropping the low cut minimum to 20Hz would also be nice. Soundwise it’s brilliant, so thanks.
GREAT !!!
This is a very, very nice plug.
It is better than some I have paid good money for, and I will certainly be making a donation.
The previous version was unusable for me because I could not load any saved settings making like awkward and thankfulkly (this was my only niggle too) this is no longer an issue in version 2.
It sounds very similar in many ways to an old Trident console I used to use & love in a studio near to me that has sadly gone under now.
Top work – very high quality tools.
I can’t download, the links are broken for all of your great plugins π¦
I have used all of your plugs and I do like them. I am a UAD user so in that respect I first go there but You have two plugs that I think are fantastic and they are The BootEQ MK2 and Epic Verb. You must start selling these plugs! I do not want to feel guilty using them. A good starting price would be $30.00 US even though they are worth much more I believe this would be a great introduction and something I could afford. All the best to you!
Spanish review of BootEQMKII: http://sonimus.com/articulos/analisis/9/analisis-el-ecualizador-booteqmkii.html
great article – muchas gracias!
This is such a good piece of software. I don’t use it on everything because as soon as I open it up, whatever I’m working on starts sounding like Ode to Joy.
That’s my review, but I probably won’t get it published anywhere.
That’s funny, everything I put it on starts sounding like Sgt. Pepper’s. Maybe you’re using an older version than me… π
Great, thanks for the update !
It’s always been stable for me here (C5, XP64, 24/44100), but it’s nice to see you keep on caring about your fine products. :tu:
I’ll update immediately.
Sounds good, has inspiring GUI and quite usable presets. It’s a “must have”.
Thanks for these!
… still having problems with Reaper 64 bit. I love this plugin a lot, but sometimes it mutes randomly and it makes it unusable. Don’t you know how to fix it? ( before you ask – reaper did not mute the track, the audio signal dissapear in booteq itself. Changing preset fix it temporarily. ).
Just to let you know, I also use the plugin under Win8 64 with Reaper 64 and there are no problems at all! I ran hours and hours mixing without any dropouts or freezes.
cool! but hard thing to do “harmonic distortion” by digital software. good luck! will you do mac software too?
I try this pluggin and sound amazing !!!
Consider a Mac version pleaseeee ..
Hi hi, people! This is my favorite EQ. A month ago I sold the laptop and bought a Mac OS and Logic. Oh, the horror, I learned that this equalizer is only for Windows. π¦ My sorrow there is no limit, all projects without it is stop. Dear developers, please make this EQ for Mac OS and Logic!
using this amazing eq for years now and it never let me down..the only issue i got sinc e i switched to cubase 64 bit is,clicking through the presets changes the sound but the knobs donΒ΄t change their position..you have to click twice on every knob to see the current position also on baxter eq…but no offense,this is still my fave eq to make a mix better…thank you guys
Thanks it looks real reliable
Anybody still here? New to mixing and this looks AWESOME…charege for it uf you have to but please make it available again.