AirEQ’s Bell Filters have a particular behavior regarding Q and Gain adjustment. The Gain and Q values are interdependent and react according to our hearing sensation.
This allows for a natural equalization process, where the Gain doesn’t need to be readjusted after a change in the Q, and where the Gain adjustment provides a regular loudness sensation across the whole gain range.
Constant Gain
While adjusting the Q factor of most equalizers, the gain remains constant.
The problem with this behavior is that the loudness of the equalized sound varies when adjusting the Q-factor. As a result, what you hear is not only the Q-factor adjustment, but also an unwanted loudness variation.
Constant Q
With AirEQ, the gain is automatically adjusted along with the Q-factor.
The steeper the Q-factor, the more the gain is increased. The audible effect is that when you sweep the Q-factor, you hear very few variations in loudness, allowing you to truly hear the effect of the Q-factor adjustment.
Why is this important?
We believe that when you adjust a parameter, it should match what you hear — not just "how many dBs the filter adds to the center frequency."
When tuning the Q-factor, it is better to hear the real effect of the Q adjustment, not the loudness variation it typically causes. You also don't have to change the gain every time you adjust the Q-factor knob.
This makes the process more musical, natural, and intuitive.
For example, if you apply a 1kHz bell boost set to +3dB and sweep the Q-factor, you will notice that narrow Q values may not make the boost easily heard. In many cases, you have to raise the gain for narrow Q (to add impact to a kick drum, remove strong vocal resonances or sibilance, add pitch to toms or snare, etc.), and lower the gain for wide Q (to gently adjust the character of an instrument or song, useful in mastering).
There is a natural trade-off: you generally need more (real absolute) gain precision and lower gains for wide Q-factors, and less (real absolute) gain precision with higher gains for narrow Q-factors.
You may need to familiarize yourself with this behavior to fully take advantage of it.
In AirEQ, we can consider that the gain display reflects the musical units of gain — the perceived loudness added — rather than just mathematical dB units.
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