Unlock the full potential of our groundbreaking resonance suppression plugin by mastering its advanced controls, Precision, Sensitivity, Node settings and more.
Since its recent release, Curves Equator has been very busy adding much needed refinement to tracks worldwide. While its basic operation is remarkably straightforward, the plugin also offers a wealth of advanced features for those willing to delve deeper. This comprehensive guide has been designed to help you unlock the full capabilities of Curves Equator and we'll be exploring every feature in detail, demystifying controls you may be glossing over while showing you how they all work together to help you mix your music to new heights.
Curves Equator Live
In addition to its powerful studio-focused features, Curves Equator now includes Equator Live, a real-time, zero-latency variant perfect for crafting pristine vocals and managing resonances during live performances or real-time recording sessions. Equator Live retains all the precision and functionality of its studio counterpart while adding features tailored to dynamic live workflows. A standout tool is the Freeze Curve function, which locks the suppression settings, preventing ambient noise or unexpected feedback from triggering unwanted adjustments. This ensures a smooth and consistent audio experience, even in unpredictable live environments. Whether you're mixing a concert, streaming a podcast, or recording in real time, Curves Live offers unparalleled control, letting you deliver polished, professional-grade sound without compromising the spontaneity and energy of a live performance.
Further Reading: 7 Ways to Use Curves Equator and Get Better Control Over Your Mixes.
First, let’s start by covering the basics…
Quick-Start: Basic Operation and Resonance Suppression
We can’t stress enough how easy it is getting started with Curves Equator. Once you load it onto a channel, preferably the first slot of any plugin chain, it references all processing to a flat frequency curve, represented by the yellow line in the interface. This intuitive starting point is Equator’s default setting which also makes it super easy to visualize how the plugin interacts with your audio.
At the heart of the plugin’s interface is the main control dial, prominently located in the bottom half of the UI. This is its primary tool for resonance suppression. Simply drag the dial downward to lower the processing threshold, and as you do so, Curves Equator dynamically identifies and suppresses resonances across the frequency spectrum, giving your track a smoother, more polished sound.
The blue ballistics curve coming down from the top of the UI represents how much suppression is applied to different regions. In this visual, you can see more reduction is happening down towards the lower frequencies for now.
Adding Shape to Tailor the Curve
While kicking things off with a flat threshold curve is indeed a great way to start, it’s not always the best choice for every mix task. Instead, you should also try tailoring the reference curve to align with your specific goals.
The Shape control is the next best control to move on to from your default mode and it offers a seamless way to transform the flat line into two distinct curve options: Pink, inspired by the natural roll-off of pink noise, or Warm, which provides a gentler, more musical roll-off. As a dial, this control allows you to gradually morph from the flat line to the selected curve shape, giving you the flexibility to stop anywhere along the transition and fine-tune the balance to your liking.
Next, to further customize the Threshold Curve you will want to play around with the Tilt control. This feature does what it says on the tin, enabling you to bias the curve towards the low or high frequencies which in turn can effectively reshape the overall tonal balance of whatever you are passing through this. For even added precision, the Tilt Freq dial within the Advanced Controls even lets you set the center point for the tilt, giving you perfect control over how this bias can interacts with your audio.
Isn’t a Flat Threshold Enough? Why Add Complexity?
As we said earlier in this article, using a flat threshold is indeed a quick and effective way to tame excessive resonances, especially if you’re in a bit of a rush making fast adjustments. However, for more nuanced applications, such as working on a mix bus or mastering material, a shaped threshold can provide far greater flexibility and control.
By introducing a tilt or a custom curve (more on that later), you can dial in a downward bias to reduce harshness. This also allows you to preserve character in some areas while pushing the suppression in other areas where it’s needed more. Having this tailored approach ensures the processing complements the mix, rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all solution.
Create Custom Nodes
Curves Equator goes beyond simple global spectrum control by offering EQ-style nodes that can be added anywhere to Threshold Curve. Each node behaves as you would expect with Gain, Q and each band can be toggled between bell or shelf filter types, giving you even more versatility in shaping the curve. You know how to use and EQ, so you have no excuse not to play around in this mode once in a while
Remember, since we’re shaping the Threshold Curve that defines where resonance suppression will kick in, adding a positive gain to a portion of the curve will actually reduce the amount of processing done to it. The lower the node, or curve is set, the more processing will be applied.
You can consider the de-esser as a way to compare this. Technically, setting a flat curve in Curves Equator will do its work to identify resonances and bring them to flatter, smoother levels, but when fine-tuning the amount of “Ess” you want to leave in a vocal signal, you may want to reduce the amount of processing that takes places with a positive boost at high frequencies.
Take It to the Next Level: Let Equator Do the Work for You
Ok, you’ve explored Equator in its default mode, experimented with the tilt control, and added custom nodes using your best judgment. What’s next? It’s time to experience some true audio production magic by letting Equator handle the setup for you.
At the top of the interface, you’ll find the Learn button. Click it, then play an integral element of your track through the plugin. Next, Follow the on-screen instructions while Equator analyzes the audio and learns its unique profile. You will be prompted when it’s heard enough to get the best curve possible. Then, in just a few mere seconds, you get a custom Threshold curve perfectly tailored to address the specific resonances and problem areas in your content.
From here, use the main Threshold control to adjust the strength of the processing to suit your taste. Whether you want subtle smoothing or aggressive resonance reduction, the choice is yours. Remember, you can still fine-tune the curve further by tweaking the tilt control and the EQ-style nodes.
Unmasking Using a Sidechain Threshold Curve
Not only can Curves Equator learn the profile of the source it’s placed on, it can learn the profile of a different source through a sidechain input, and apply what it learns to its current channel.
As an unmasking solution, this is a very useful tool, giving you a smoother, less resonant frequency profile for your current channel at the crucial points where the sidechained channel will want focus and attention in the mix.
Let’s say you’re mixing an acoustic guitar and a bass, both of which compete within fairly similar frequency ranges, causing them to clash in the mix. To tackle this, use an instance of Curves Equator set to listen to the other via its sidechain capabilities.
Here’s how this can work when balancing a bass track with an acoustic guitar. Start by inserting Curves Equator on the acoustic guitar track and setting the bass track as the sidechain input. Engage the Learn function and play a section of the track where both instruments are prominent. Curves Equator will analyze the bass track’s frequency profile and adjust the Threshold curve for the acoustic guitar. This process de-emphasizes frequencies on the guitar track where the bass is most dominant, allowing the bass to cut through in the mix with clarity. It’s just that simple, dialling in perfect separation between two tracks couldn’t be simpler.
You could go even further by placing another instance of Curves Equator on the bass track and set the acoustic guitar as the sidechain input. Again, use the Learn function to analyze the guitar’s frequency profile so this time the plugin adapts the bass track’s profile. This extended way of working with Curves ensures there is next to no overlap going on at all, creating a balanced mix where the acoustic guitar and bass complement each other rather than compete in the crowded low-mid frequency range.
One last aspect to consider when using Curves Equator to unmask tone between 2 tracks using the sidechain is the Rider mode. Without the Rider enabled, the acoustic guitar’s low end would remain scooped if the bass stops playing as the plugin is being told to continue following the sidechain profile. This could leave the guitar sounding hollow or overly processed during moments when it should be full and rich. By activating the Sidechain Rider, Curves Equator automatically restores the guitar’s natural tonal balance whenever the sidechain signal, being the bass track, isn’t playing. At the end of the day, choosing to have the Rider on or off in this workflow is a creative choice, and it is as simple as clicking a button.
Precision
Found within the Advanced Controls panel, Precision fundamentally adapts the way Curves Equator processes sound under the hood, although it may not be obvious through hearing it alone.
Curves Equator processes sound by breaking it into many individual bands, way more than a multiband device would, for example. These bands can affect very specific frequencies when set at narrow widths, and you can equate this with the amount of ‘precision’ seen here. With Precision turned up, cuts are deeper, narrower and more targeted at specific resonances.
On the other hand, with Precision turned down, processing is more targeted at frequency areas and regions that may build up or die down, making Curves Equator more concerned about tonal balance than about resonance, when operating at this extreme.
Use the Delta to Hear the Difference
The small triangle next to the main Threshold button is there to temporarily play the difference between the output and input signals, helping you to hear exactly what energy is being reduced by the plugin.
This button will flash blue while the difference signal is being previewed.
Auto Makeup
To ensure that the output and input levels of the plugin stay as consistent as possible, Auto Makeup is switched on by default. In the plugin’s Advanced Controls view, you can disable this behaviour. You might choose to do this if you want to keep the output level consistent in order to move reliably into another processor after Curves Equator.
Sensitivity
If you’re familiar with a compressor’s Knee control, this should be simple. (If not, check out Get Better at Compression – Advanced Controls Explained for a rundown of this and many other dynamics concepts).
With a low Sensitivity value, gain reduction will start before the signal actually breaches the threshold, and will increase slowly after it does. With a high Sensitivity value, gain reduction starts only once the threshold is breached and will scale very proportionally to the threshold.
Mix
In the Advanced Controls section, the Mix dial lets you reduce the effect of the plugin’s processing, scaling things back if you’ve gone too far while keeping all settings in proportion. Not every resonance is a target to be surgically scrubbed out, and the Mix control can work to bring some natural energy back into an over-processed sound.
Crossovers
While Curves Equator has its Threshold curve, which can be manipulated by Shape and Tilt, we’ve also provided distinct multiband regions where you can increase or decrease processing. This works in a very similar way to Clarity Vx Pro and DeReverb Pro.
Effectively, a crossover band acts like a multiplier, and can effectively double the processing strength to 200% or reduce it to 0% at that particular band. The plugin’s crossovers are a way to set how much reduction will or won’t occur in a particular range, as opposed to nodes in the curve that change the threshold at certain frequencies.
Attack and Release
These controls, accessible through the Advanced Controls toggle, determine how quickly processing is applied to any given band after it crosses the threshold, and how quickly it then takes for processing to end afterwards. These two controls function similarly to how they work in a compressor, only here they set timing for many bands of processing simultaneously.
Input and Output Gain
These controls, located on the left (input) and right (output) allow you to increase the level on the way into the plugin and to match it on the way out if Auto Makeup isn’t activated.
Curve Smooth
If your curve is jagged and complex, which can happen when using the Learn function on a source, then Curve Smooth can make things simpler again. Turn this dial up and a complicated target curve with be turned into a gentler range of slopes.
Stereo Balance Options
In this submenu, you can choose to remain with the default, Linked behaviour, which processes the entire signal based on the information detected in both left and right stereo channels.
L/R Split means that Left and Right channels will be treated separately, each with its own detection and reduction, although based off largely the same target curve settings. You can bias the setting towards the L or R channel, however.
Similarly, M/S Split encodes the channels into a mid/side formulation and splits processing between these. You can set a Range value to process the mid (central) signal more or let the side (stereo) signal be more heavily processed instead.
Get To Know Curves Equator Better
Curves Equator is jam packed with a range of helpful features that can quickly transform how you approach resonance suppression, but sometimes those extra controls can feel like they’re just sitting there, waiting for you to bravely explore in some studio downtime. Why not make today the day you dig a little deeper into Equator? Try tweaking some extra targeted cuts, or use two sidechain instances between 2 tracks to help your tracks breathe a bit more easily in the mix.
If you don’t have Curves Equator yet, you can grab it from the Curves Equator page here at the Waves website.