BalEq

BalEq is an easy to use EQ for balancing the spectral content of audio. Besides four bands and a low frequency control it provides a high frequency boost with an adjustable boost frequency. As its name suggests the general loudness isn’t changed much when used so it rather allows to set the focus. It works well on channels but also on busses.

Besides Reason’s usual Bypass/On/Off control BalEq only needs seven controls. The knobs for “Low”, “40 Hz”, “160 Hz”, “650 Hz” and “2.5 kHz” simply dial in or out the corresponding frequency while keeping the overall volume constant. The additional “HF Boost” section contains two controls for a high frequency boost. The “Freq” control sets the frequency above which the boost should be applied. Setting it to “Off” disables the boost section. The “Gain” control then determines the applied amount of boost. While the other controls are peak filters, this one is a shelf. Also, the overall volume isn’t compensated here, thus the description as boost. One could wonder how it should be possible to apply a 40 kHz Boost using a samplerate of 44.1 or 48 kHz. According to digital signal processing theory only a bandwidth of up to half the samplerate can be used on sampled signals. But this is simply possible as with lower samplerates only the part that can be processed will be applied. A 40 kHz boosting shelf still has a slight slope below 20 kHz which is what is provided here.

BalEq is available as Rack Extension via the Reasonstudios Shop where it is also possible to get a demo.