Surround and Dolby Atmos
> Outboard-EQ supports every channel layout up to Dolby Atmos 9.1.6 natively. Per-band channel masks let you decide which bands touch which channels, and the header shows the current layout so you alw
Outboard-EQ supports every channel layout up to Dolby Atmos 9.1.6 natively. Per-band channel masks let you decide which bands touch which channels, and the header shows the current layout so you always know what you're working on.
Supported layouts
| Layout | Channels |
|---|---|
| Mono | 1 |
| Stereo | 2 |
| 5.0 / 5.1 | 5 / 6 |
| 7.0 / 7.1 | 7 / 8 |
| 5.1.2 / 5.1.4 | 8 / 10 |
| 7.1.2 / 7.1.4 | 10 / 12 |
| 9.1.4 | 14 |
| 9.1.6 | 16 |
The maximum channel count is 16. The layout is detected from the host bus and shown in the Atmos badge in the header (hidden on stereo and mono so it doesn't take screen space when not relevant).
Per-band channel mask
Each band has a 16-bit channel mask — one bit per channel. When the bit is set, the band processes that channel; when clear, the channel passes through that band unchanged. Default is all-on (every band touches every channel), so opening a stereo preset on a 9.1.6 bus just spreads the curve across all 16 channels as you'd expect.
Right-click the band disc → Channel Mask to open the per-channel picker.
Typical workflows
Side bands only on the surrounds
Set a Side-routed Peak band, then clear its channel mask for the front L/R and the centre, leaving only the surround pairs active. The band will only act on Lss/Rss/Lrs/Rrs (and equivalents in 9.1.x).
LFE-only low cut
Set a HighCut band, clear its mask for everything except the LFE channel. Use the BrickwallLP type at 120 Hz for an LFE management filter.
Atmos object cleanup
Use a Notch band on a problem frequency with a channel mask limited to the top-layer Atmos channels (Ltf/Rtf/Ltb/Rtb) to clean a height object without touching the bed.
Routing details
- Stereo and M/S code paths stay identical on stereo and surround busses. The M/S bus is always encoded from channels 0/1; on surround, channels 2–15 take the per-channel branch.
- Phase modes (LinPhase / Hybrid) operate per channel; latency is reported once for the whole layout.
- Output meter shows the L/R bed pair (channels 0/1) on every layout. Per-channel metering is a future addition.
- Spectrum analyzer taps the L/R bed pair only; surround analysis is a future addition.
Tips
- The Atmos badge only appears when nCh > 2. If you're on stereo and don't see it, that's expected.
- Channel mask bits beyond your current layout (e.g. bit 15 on a 5.1 layout) are simply ignored — there's no error, the band just touches the channels it can.
- Channel mask is automatable from any DAW as a 16-bit integer.
See also
Stereo and M/S
> Every band in Outboard-EQ runs on exactly one of three buses: Stereo, Mid, or Side. The plugin encodes M/S once per sample at the top of the chain and decodes it cleanly at the end, so routing a ban
Hardware character — Op-Amp and Tape
> Every band has its own Op-Amp and Tape stage. Switch on the Hardware Character master gate in the stage drawer, pick a flavour per band, and the EQ stops sounding clean — it starts sounding like con