System requirements

> Outboard-EQ runs on current Windows systems; a macOS build is in preparation. CPU usage scales with the number of active stages — a static EQ pass is lightweight; full Spectral Dynamics across all eight bands plus LinPhas

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Outboard-EQ runs on current Windows systems; a macOS build is in preparation. CPU usage scales with the number of active stages — a static EQ pass is lightweight; full Spectral Dynamics across all eight bands plus LinPhase is a CPU-intensive configuration that's still real-time on modern hardware.

Requirements at a glance

Operating systems

Windows

Windows 10 Version 1803 (Build 17134, April 2018) x64 — minimum.
Windows 11 x64 — fully supported.
Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 are not supported — Microsoft Edge WebView2 does not run on those versions.

The plugin's UI runs in Microsoft Edge WebView2. The runtime is preinstalled on Windows 11 and on Windows 10 builds from mid-2022 onward (cumulative update). On older Windows 10 builds you may need to install the free WebView2 Evergreen Runtime from Microsoft yourself — if the plugin window opens blank, that's the cause. See Troubleshooting.

macOS (in preparation)

A macOS build is in preparation and is not yet available. When released it will support:

macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer.
Intel and Apple Silicon natively.
The UI uses WKWebView (system-provided), so no separate runtime install is required.

CPU

Intel or AMD x64 with SSE4.2 and AVX support (Windows).
Intel or Apple Silicon (macOS).
64-bit only — no 32-bit hosts supported.

Typical per-instance CPU cost on a modern CPU (Intel i7-13700 / Apple M2):

Static 8-band EQ: < 1 %
- Per-band character (Op-Amp + Tape on all 8): ~ 2 %
- Dynamic EQ on all 8: ~ 3 %
- Spectral mode on all 8: ~ 8 %
- LinPhase / Hybrid: + ~ 4 % fixed

Most real-world chains use a fraction of these stages, so a typical session can comfortably host dozens of Outboard-EQ instances.

RAM

4 GB minimum.
8 GB recommended for large sessions.

The plugin itself uses < 50 MB per instance.

Plugin formats

VST3.
CLAP.
AAX is not currently supported.
VST2 is end-of-life across the industry and is not supported.

The macOS build (in preparation) will add AU alongside VST3 and CLAP.

Channel layouts

Mono, Stereo, 5.0, 5.1, 7.0, 7.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.4, 7.1.2, 7.1.4, 9.1.4, and 9.1.6 (Dolby Atmos). See Surround and Dolby Atmos.

Sample rates

44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz all supported.

The Spectral STFT engine reports a fixed-sample latency that is sample-rate-independent (4096 samples), so at 96 kHz the time-latency is half what it is at 48 kHz.