Making A Visually Responsive EQ

startec's icon
Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Hi,
I am trying to make a visually responsive EQ, like on a stereo, that shows the levels of the different sound frequencies. Here is what I have found and cobbled together. My question is why the faders on my patch do not match up with the visual display on ableton, like in the Spectrum audio effect. I would really appreciate another set of eyes to look at this and let me know why the sliders don't match up.
Thanks

startec's icon

Errr. I guess that looks like it works enough but for some reason some frequency bands, like at 100 Hz are always on. Any idea why that is?

Peter McCulloch's icon

You're using a really high Q on your bandpass filters. High Q filters have high resonance which makes them very prone to ringing.

Max Patch
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I recommend using cross~ instead. You'd need to expand the number of bands, but this should work quite well.

startec's icon

I did private message you but, in case you didn't see:
When I make it into a M4L device and turn it on, it distorts the sound. Could it be from all of the plugs going into the L/R channel of the plug in/plugout connection? Also, could you help me through the latency calculation you mentioned?

Peter McCulloch's icon

Did some testing on the latency thing, and looks like it's not the issue I thought it was. You could omit that.

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

This works fine for me without distortion:

startec's icon

Hi Peter,
First, thanks so much for your help. I have learned quite a lot from what you have already posted, as I didn't know too much about eqs before now. I just have one last question, when I use live as the sound source, and go from the l and r plugin~ through the cross filters and then out through the l and r plugout, it still amplifies the sound.
When I turn off and on the cross eq object, I can see a rise and drop of about 5dB. Since the cross eq doesn't use gains, I am not sure what would cause this or how to correct it. It is still better than what I have so I can use it if I have to, but I would really like it to only change the sound level if I adjust the sliders (and not change the sound level if all sliders are at zero). Any ideas? Thanks again, I really, really appreciate it.