Overview
Outboard-EQ takes the modern mastering EQ to the next level — per-band dynamic detectors, Soothe-style spectral suppression, linear and hybrid phase, eight independent hardware character chains, and native Dolby Atmos 9.1.6 support. One plugin replaces a stack: surgical when the cut has to be precise, musical when the track asks for color.
01/Outboard-EQ
Play your source until the HIT pill in the footer fills, pick Master, Mix or Instrument, and press Apply. Outboard-EQ reads crest, brightness and low end and — through the same allocator as EQ Match — writes only the bands your sound needs to move toward the spectral balance of commercial records. One shot, fully undoable, and gentle on already-mastered material. Beta, with a step-by-step guide in Help.
02/Outboard-EQ
Each of the eight bands has its own sidechain detector with Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, and signed Range. Pick Peak for surgical de-essing, RMS for musical glue, Adaptive for a bipolar, program-dependent envelope, or Spectral. An optional free sidechain detector decouples the trigger band from the EQ band — making every cut or boost dynamic without a separate plugin in the chain.
03/Outboard-EQ
When needed, each band runs through a shared STFT engine (4096-FFT, 75 % overlap) and suppresses resonances bin by bin. Selectivity, Ratio, Knee, Density, and Mask are free per band. A single instance of Outboard-EQ replaces de-esser, resonance hunter, and dynamic EQ in one step — at only 4096 samples of latency, and only active when it has to be.
04/Outboard-EQ
Five phase modes: MinPhase (0 ms latency, default), Natural, LinPhase (frequency-sampling FIR with Kaiser window), Hybrid (LR4 split — lows minimum-phase, highs linear-phase) and PerBand. Three resolution tiers. An atomic IR double-buffer swaps coefficients seamlessly the moment the worker-thread IR is ready. Mastering keeps transient integrity. Mixing stays latency-free.
05/Outboard-EQ
Eight bands, each with its own character chain: Op-Amp emulations (Neve · API · SSL), Tape (15 / 30 ips with bias knob), Pultec low-end (the classic EQP-1A / MEQ-5 boost-cut trick), Density waveshaper (pre- or post-EQ tap), Transient Designer (frequency-selective — eight independent units in one plugin), and SplitEQ-style Tonal/Transient gain. Color where it should sit — at the band, not on the bus.
06/Outboard-EQ
16k-FFT Welch-averaged source PSD over 10 seconds. Capture, pick a target — Pink Noise, Bach Orchestral, Hip-Hop, or Modern Pop — apply, and a greedy allocator writes the result into up to eight EQ bands. Amount, Resolution, and Smoothing as three knobs. No second plugin, no reverse-engineering.
07/Outboard-EQ
Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.4, 9.1.4 and 9.1.6 are natively supported — including a per-band channel mask (16-bit integer per band) so individual bands can target specific channels. The Atmos layout badge in the header signals the active format. Stereo and M/S paths remain untouched.
Further features
08
Pre, Post, and External in a single engine. Worker-thread FFT, triple-buffer publish, tilt 0–6 dB/oct, smoothing from 1/3 to 1/48 octave, five peak-hold modes. A 32-slot cross-instance broker overlays another Outboard-EQ's post-spectrum as an external reference.
09
4× polyphase oversampled True-Peak (BS.1770, ±0.05 dB). Integrated LUFS meter with nine streaming targets — Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Vinyl, CD, Club, EBU R128, ATSC A/85 — K-weighted equal-loud bypass (pre vs. post within ±0.5 dB), and Bob Katz K-12 / K-14 / K-20 reference scales.
10
Sorted across Instrument, Mixing, Mastering, and Character categories — straight from the header picker, with a user library and a dedicated default slot.
Specifications
CLAP supported on every platform.
Validated with pluginval at strictness level 10.
FAQ
Outboard-EQ is an 8-band mastering equalizer for Windows that combines dynamic EQ, Soothe-style spectral resonance suppression, five phase modes, per-band hardware character, EQ Match, and full true-peak/LUFS metering in a single plugin. It runs as VST3 and CLAP and is built for mixing, mastering, and adding analog character without a chain of separate tools.
Yes. Outboard-EQ covers the surgical and dynamic EQ workflow people buy Pro-Q 4 for, and adds spectral resonance suppression (Soothe-style), per-band hardware character (Neve/API/SSL, tape, Pultec), EQ Match, and native Dolby Atmos up to 9.1.6 — for a one-time €65 instead of $199. See the full comparison on our vs FabFilter Pro-Q 4 page.
Outboard-EQ ships today for Windows 10 (build 17134) and Windows 11 as a 64-bit VST3 and CLAP plugin. A macOS build (VST3, AU, CLAP, Intel and Apple Silicon) is in preparation.
Yes. Every one of the eight bands has its own dynamic EQ with four detector modes — Peak, RMS, Adaptive, and Spectral — plus an optional free sidechain that decouples the trigger from the EQ band. Spectral mode runs a shared STFT engine for Soothe-style, per-bin de-essing and resonance suppression.
Five: Minimum phase (zero latency), Natural, Linear phase (Kaiser-window FIR), Hybrid (LR4 split — minimum-phase lows, linear-phase highs), and Per-band. An atomic IR double-buffer swaps coefficients without dropouts, so you can switch modes while audio is playing.
Yes. Outboard-EQ natively supports Mono, Stereo, 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.4, 9.1.4, and 9.1.6, with a per-band channel mask so individual bands can target specific channels — making it usable as a multichannel mastering EQ.
Outboard-EQ is a one-time purchase of €65. There is no subscription. The license activates on up to three devices at once, and you can release a device anytime from your account dashboard.
Yes — a free 14-day trial. The complete plugin runs fully for 14 days; download it, use it on your own sessions, and only buy if it earns its place. When the trial ends the plugin keeps loading but its output mutes periodically until you enter a key. Your EU 14-day right of withdrawal still applies after purchase.
Ready when you are
One plugin. Mastering, mixing, character. Try it free for 14 days.
Secure payment, handled by Lemon Squeezy