Krichhoff EQ by Three-Body Technology
Kirchhoff-EQ is a game-changing digital EQ that was created by the Chinese company called ‘Three-Body Technology‘. This is the most remarkable EQ I’ve ever used. So let’s not waste any more time and go through this wonderful EQ in further depth.
Kirchhoff-EQ
The Kirchhoff-EQ is an EQ that has all you need and more. The Three-Body Technology enhances a typical digital EQ to the next level, resulting in the most powerful EQ imaginable. According to Three-Body Technology’s official website, This EQ is a “Next-generation standard”, and “Equalizers will never be the same again”. So, let’s look into why and what this EQ offers!
I’ve used numerous digital EQs from various companies, and to be honest, they all have drawbacks in my opinion. Others may not be bothered by such shortcomings, but I was curious why they left out certain elements that I was seeking. For example, I used Pro Q3 for years and liked it, but I was always puzzled as to why they didn’t offer manual attack and release functions for the dynamic EQ. That was simply one issue with one of the digital EQs I tried. Then I discovered the Kirchhoff-EQ, and my first impression was, “Wow, it’s a Pro Q3 that I’ve been using for a long time but simply better, I mean far better.”
I could write pages on the Kirchhoff-EQ, and actually, Three-Body Technology created a fantastic handbook that you can download HERE. But first, let’s have a look at what this plugin offers and dig deeper.
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Kirchhoff-EQ Features
Now let’s go further and find what makes Kirchhoff-EQ so unique!
Top Bar
- Save/Load/Initialize/Past/ PastInverted: Copy, Past presets & band inversely, and also reset the current plugin state to default.
- Undo/Redo: Undo/Redo changes on the plugin.
- A/B Switch: Helps you to reference between two different settings, also you can use the Copy button to copy one setting and paste it on another.
- Setting: Settings menu.
- Online Help: User Manual online
- About: Shows serial number and software version.
- Keyboard: Show and also hide a keyboard on the bottom of the plugin interface, on which band frequencies can be set on integral pitches.
- Phase Mode Selection: This allows you to choose between Minimum-Phase, Analogue Prototype, Linear-Phase, and Mixed Phase modes. Three-Boddy Technology explained every phase mode in their manual, if you wanna dig deep on this subject check this out HERE.
- Spectrum Dragging: You may apply spectrum dragging to identify the specific peak frequency based on your mouse pointing. Spectrum dragging mode is activated by clicking the “hand” button or right-double-clicking on the spectrum panel. If you enter this mode, the spectrum panel will be displayed “freeze”: each frame will be aggregated to measure frequency peaks.
- Bypass: Allow you to bypass the plugin.
- Phase Invert: You can use this function to invert the phase.
- Auto Gain: Activate or deactivate automatic volume adjustment.
- Global Scaling: You can drag this button to scale the gains of all bands globally.
- Spectrum Settings: By clicking on the “FFT” button you can adjust the spectrum display’s Resolution, Speed, Rage, Tilt, and show either input and/or output audio on the spectrum.
- 117-bit Ultra-High Precision: Kirchhoff-EQ’s core processing use 64-bit double-precision, however, you can provide a precision greater than 64 bits. When this function is enabled, inner processing uses “117-bit precision,” doubling CPU effort.
- 2x Oversampling: This primary benefit is to avoid aliasing at high frequency. Kirchhoff-EQ provides the function of oversampling at 2x.
- Settings: Change some global settings, such as modifier keys, by clicking on this gear button. Please keep in mind that settings are global: if you modify them in one plugin instance, they will influence all newly generated ones.
- Full Screen: When you click this button, Kirchhoff-EQ will take up the entire screen.
- Decibel Range: In this option, you may change the decibel range of the Kirchhoff-EQ response curve.
Bottom Bar
- Band List: Helps to open/close the band list, which can help you to check and adjust the basic parameters of every band.
- Left/Right/Middle/Side Channel Monitoring: It can help you to monitor a single channel.
- Preset Selector: Save, and open the factory and your own presets.
- Lookahead: Most dynamic effects, such as Compressor and Kirchhoff-EQ, require an attack parameter. A high attack causes too much transient, whereas a low attack generates distortion. Lookahead signal has a short latency (20ms), allowing detection of the stage of attack before the process. It aids in preventing issues that may arise as a result of the attack value.
- Stereo Width Control: Helps to adjust the width of the output audio.
- Side Channel Volume Control: You can adjust the volume of the side channel here between +12 dB and -inf dB.
Spectrum Panel
- Spectrum Panel Operations: To add a new band, double-click or Ctrl/Command + left-click. You may also drag a band from the spectrum to add it. To pick several bands, drag on an empty spot. To enable spectrum dragging, double-right-click on an empty spot (with default setting). When the band is set to Left/Right/Mid/Side mode, the L/R/M/S mark is visible beside the frequency point. The frequency point may be dragged. Bands in Left/Right/Mid/Side mode have colored curves to help you identify them.
- Band Operations: To choose a band, left-click on a frequency point. To pick several bands or unselect a band, use Ctrl/Command + left-click. To bypass a band, double-click it. To remove a band, click Ctrl/Command + right-click on a frequency point (with default setting). And through the menu, you may change the Types, Stereo placement, Disable chosen bands, and so on. Split (stereo to M/S or L/R channels by creating two induvial bands), Invert, Cut, Copy, and Remove.
- Band Floating Window: When the floating window is turned on in settings, you will see three icons above the selected band, on which you could adjust Q value, monitoring, and slope.
- Band Control Panel: Bypass, Headphone (for monitoring), Remove, Left/Right arrow (switch selected band by number), Filter Type, Stereo mode, L/R or M/S slider, Freq knob, Gain knob, Q knob, Slope/Shape knob, D button (activating Dynamic EQ), and EQ Pan are all available on the Band control panel (allows you to adjust how you work with stereo sounds for each individual filter band).
- Dynamic Panel: All filter types may perform dynamic functions in Kirchhoff-EQ except low-pass, high-pass, bandpass, and notch, which lack a dynamically adjustable “gain” parameter. Click the “D” button to enable dynamic EQ mode; click again to disable it. If the selected filter type lacks dynamic functionality, the “D” button will be disabled.
EQ Band Types
Kirchhoff-EQ provides a 32-band parametric EQ plugin designed for all-important professional applications.
- Band Types: Each band provides you with all types of bands such as Bell, Low Shelf, High Shelf, Tilt Shelf, Flat Top, Flat Tilt, Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, Notch, and Sword.
- Misc Types: Brickwall low-pass filter, Brickwall high-pass filter, and Allpass L and Allpass H.
- Vintage Modelling Types: These filter types are all inspired by vintage hardware (but lack the non-linear aspect of their effects). Because of their own in/out buffering, certain hardware has a natural low- or high-pass impact. This impact is ignored, and they just look at the equalizer component of them. All of these models, unlike the originals, feature smooth changeable frequency.
Birt N
Inspired by a very famous British hardware EQ.
- BritN HP: high pass type.
- BritN LS: low pass type.
- BritN Bell: bell type with adjustable Q value.
- BritN HS: high shelf type.
Tone Stack
Inspired by a very classic low/high shelf EQ.
- Tone Low: low shelf type. Note that if you select this type, the high frequency would have reduced
due to circuit modeling. - Tone High: high shelf type.
Vintage Tube
Inspired by three classic tube EQ.
- VT HP: high pass type.
- VT LP: low pass type.
- VT LS: low shelf type. It has sunk middle frequency when adjusting Q value, which is the same with its
hardware counterpart. - VT Boost: bell-type at high frequency. This type could only raise gain but cannot reduce, which is
same with its hardware counterpart. - VT Atten: high frequency reduces type.
- VT LMF: bell-type at middle-low frequency.
- VT HMF: bell-type at middle-high frequency.
Console E
Inspired by famous British classic EQ hardware (E series).
- E HP: high pass type.
- E LP: low pass type.
- E LS: low shelf type.
- E HS: high shelf type.
- E LMF: middle-low frequency bell type.
- E HMF: middle-high frequency bell type.
- E Low Bell: low-frequency bell type, Q value not adjustable.
- E High Bell: high-frequency bell type, Q value not adjustable.
Console G
Inspired by famous British classic EQ hardware (G series).
- G HP: high pass type.
- G LP: low pass type.
- G LS: low shelf type.
- G HS: high shelf type.
- G LMF: middle-low frequency bell type.
- G HMF: middle-high frequency bell type.
EQ 250
Inspired by a very classic EQ hardware. You may notice that the shape of its low shelf and high shelf are very different from common ones.
Blue
Inspired by EQ hardware with very good sound quality. Gain can only be raised but cannot be reduced.
Dynamic Section
When the dynamic mode is enabled, you can see the dynamic panel, which provides you with:
- Threshold: This allows you to adjust the thresholds of the dynamic function.
- Above: When input volume is above the threshold, the parameters in the Above panel will be used.
- Below: When input volume is below the threshold, the parameters in the Below panel will be used.
- Attack/Release: Adjustable attack and release time.
- Detect/Relative Double Envelope Detection: Unlike other dynamic effects, Kirchhoff-EQ detects envelopes using a technique called “Double Envelope Detection”. The upper Detect panel indicates the frequency range to detect, while the lower Relative panel indicates were to take the reference level. Detect detects the envelope of the current band’s frequency and Q value by default, whereas Relative detects the whole audio. You may manually adjust the frequency ranges they use if you use their Free mode. When Free mode is enabled, you may change the working frequency and Q value by clicking on the pink and blue lines, or by adjusting the F and Q sliders directly.
Final Thoughts
As a final impression on the Kirchhoff-EQ, I must say that since I began using it, it has been my go-to EQ for practically anything. It’s strong and adjustable, and it sounds fantastic. If you are a Pro Q3 user, you may notice a lot of similarities at first sight. It basically looks the same, but that’s one of the things I appreciate about this plugin. They referenced the most common digital EQ and just took it to the next level, and they genuinely did an outstanding job. Whatever is lacking from Pro Q3 may be found on the Kirchhoff-EQ. When I used its dynamic section, my mind was blown.
Everything on the Kirchhoff-EQ may be customized. You can practically modify the entire GUI and make it your own, including the colors and everything else (as you can see below).
Again just like Pro Q3 you can change the display ranges from 3dB up to 30dB. Another thing I like about Kirchhoff-EQ is the variety of vintage modeling EQ curves. These models are linear, and none of their colors are added. I mean, I would want to be able to hear the color as well, and I hope to see that happen in a future version. I mean That would be awesome if you could add different EQ colors with a single plugin.
Another thing I believe Kirchhoff-EQ needs is an LFO modulator for each band. Although this EQ is already an excellent tool for a variety of tasks, the LFO option would be very useful in sound design. Aside from that, this is the most powerful digital EQ I’ve ever worked with, and I adore it. So, if I had to call Kirchhoff-EQ anything, I’d call it the Swiss Army Knife.
The Kirchhoff-EQ has the lowest noise and the cramping on this EQ is properly designed, which essentially means that if you raise a bell-type band by like 10dB and move to the high-end, the form will not change and it will sound excellent. This plugin’s total latency is also rather impressive. The latency is 0ms if the Minimal Phase is used. It would go up to 63 sample points or 1.4ms using an Analog Phase at a 44.1KHz sample rate. It would be 63-2047 sample points using the Mix Phase, depending on the band frequency point. Finally, with Linear Phase, the sample points would be 2047, 4095, 8191, 16383, and 32767.
If you want to check out this EQ, you may download the Trial version (HERE), but keep in mind that you cannot save/load any presets on the demo version, and when you quit your project and open it again, the plugin will reset to factory settings, but you can completely test it out and see how it sounds. And finally, yes, I would definitely recommend this EQ to anyone in the audio industry. You will love what you get.
FREE DONWLOAD:
Download 'Kirchhoff-EQ'
You can download the ‘Kirchhoff-EQ’ from the link below. And if you like to know more about this EQ please visit their official website HERE.
Download Here: ‘Kirchhoff-EQ‘
System Requirements
MAC OSX Requirements
- VST, VST3, AU, and AAX – (64-bit) – (Apple M1 native support)
WINDOWS Requirements
- VST, VST3, and AAX – (64-bit)
