EQ plugins

Flagship digital EQ. Up to 24 bands, switchable dynamic and linear-phase modes, built to do almost anything.

• 24 bands plus dynamic EQ on every one of them, an unusually deep amount of control packed into a single plugin
• Switches between zero-latency, linear-phase, and Natural Phase modes on the fly, so you're not locked into one trade-off between speed and phase accuracy
• The spectrum analyzer and EQ Match tools make it fast to actually see what you're doing to a track as you work

• At $199, it's a serious investment for an EQ plugin, worth it mainly if you'll actually use its deeper modes and per-band dynamics
• So many modes and per-band options that newcomers often just use a fraction of what's here

Free parallel dynamic EQ. Four bands, each with its own compressor built in.

• Completely free, and still does real dynamic EQ, a feature plenty of paid plugins charge a premium for
• Each of the four bands has full compressor controls attached, so it can act as a tone shaper, not just a static filter
• Runs on basically anything, Windows 7 and OS X 10.9 are supported, unusually old system requirements for a modern plugin

• Four bands total is thin for detailed, surgical work, fine for general corrective moves but tight for anything more involved
• No mid/side mode confirmed, so mastering engineers reaching for stereo-image control will need a different tool alongside it

Vari-mu tube EQ modeled on Manley's iconic hardware. Four bands, all character.

• Faithful passive tube modeling of a hardware unit that regularly shows up on world-class mix bus chains, harmonic richness most digital EQs don't attempt to model
• Runs natively on Windows or Mac with no UAD hardware required, unlike older Universal Audio plugins that were locked to their DSP cards
• Simple four-knob-per-band layout keeps big analog-style moves fast, no menu diving

• Four bands total is a broad-strokes tool, not built for narrow, surgical cuts
• No confirmed mid/side mode, so dedicated stereo-image work on a mix bus will need a separate tool

Splits transient from tonal content, then lets you EQ each separately.

• Structural Split technology separates transient (attacks, sibilance) from tonal (sustained harmonic) content, letting you cut harshness without dulling the note underneath it
• 8 bands with independent mid/side or left/right panning per band, on both the transient and tonal streams, effectively doubling your control points
• Solves problems that otherwise need two or three separate plugins stacked together

• No traditional dynamic EQ mode, the split-stream approach covers similar ground differently, which means the workflow doesn't map onto EQs you already know
• At $149 it's priced like a flagship tool but does one very specific job, not a general-purpose replacement for your everyday EQ

Precision-obsessed digital EQ. 32 bands, 117-bit internal processing, 32 built-in vintage EQ models.

• 32 fully parametric bands plus 32 emulated vintage EQ curves in one plugin, a huge amount of raw firepower in one place
• 117-bit internal processing is a real outlier spec, built specifically to avoid the quantization noise that shows up under heavy cascaded EQ moves
• Dynamic processing and full mid/side routing on every band, not bolted on as an afterthought

• At $99, it's a meaningful spend, worth it mainly if you'll actually use the extra precision and 32-band depth
• That much precision and that many modes make it a slower plugin to learn than something simpler

SSL 4000 E console channel strip. Four-band EQ bundled with the original compressor and gate.

• Licensed modeling of the actual SSL 4000 E console EQ, the sound behind a huge number of classic mix bus and channel chains
• You get the console's compressor and gate in the same plugin, so at $33 it's most of a channel strip, not just an EQ
• Waves' huge user base means presets, tutorials, and third-party guidance are easy to find

• It's bundled with dynamics processing whether you want them or not, if you only need the EQ section you're still loading the whole strip
• No VST2 support and no confirmed mid/side mode, limited format and routing flexibility

Dedicated mid/side mastering EQ. 11 bands per channel plus a full dynamic EQ module.

• Built specifically for M/S mastering work, with a dedicated M/S Recording decoder most mixing-focused EQs don't offer
• 11 fully parametric bands per channel plus a separate dynamic EQ module, a huge amount of total control surface
• Multi-mono, stereo, and M/S operation in one plugin covers mastering workflows that would otherwise need two or three separate tools

• At $299 list, it's a premium mastering tool, not an impulse buy for a single mix
• All that mastering-specific routing is overkill if you just need a channel EQ for a single track

EQ built around seeing frequency masking across your whole project, not just one track.

• The Mix view shows every Claro instance across a project at once, built specifically to catch frequency masking between tracks that a single-track view can't show you
• Three distinct views (Produce, Tweak, Mix) separate broad tonal shaping from precise surgical work, rather than cramming both into one dense interface
• AAX Native, AU, and VST3 support covers every major modern host without needing legacy VST2 compatibility

• At $139.99, it's a meaningful spend for a single-purpose EQ, worth it mainly if the cross-track masking view is something you'll actually use
• No VST2 support at all, a problem if you're on an older host that hasn't moved to VST3

Musical, low-phase-shift EQ built around Maag's signature Air Band.

• The Air Band control is the reason people buy this over a surgical EQ, it adds high-frequency lift without the harshness a normal shelf boost introduces
• Exceptionally low phase shift across all six bands keeps transients intact through big analog-style moves
• At $49.99 it's an accessible price for an analog-modeled EQ with a genuine hardware pedigree

• No dynamic EQ and no confirmed mid/side mode, so it's a coloring tool to reach for alongside a more flexible EQ, not instead of one
• Six fixed-purpose bands is restrictive if you need narrow surgical cuts, this plugin is built for broad, musical moves, not precision repair

Free 16-band linear-phase graphic EQ, mono, stereo, or mid/side.

• Completely free and linear-phase, avoiding the phase smearing a minimum-phase EQ can introduce on aggressive moves
• 16 fixed bands plus full mid/side support at no cost, hard to beat for a mixing or mastering utility EQ
• Straightforward graphic-EQ layout makes broad tonal balancing fast, no per-band menu hunting

• No dynamic EQ mode, and fixed graphic-EQ bands are less precise than a fully parametric EQ for narrow surgical cuts
• Being free and from a small developer, it gets less visibility and community troubleshooting than a major commercial release

Draw-and-morph EQ. Animates filter movement instead of setting static curves.

• Lets you draw and morph filter paths over time instead of setting one static curve, a genuinely different workflow from a typical EQ
• Mid/side and single-channel routing per filter point at an accessible $49 price
• 100+ presets mean the animated movement is usable immediately, not just a blank canvas you have to design from scratch

• No dedicated dynamic EQ mode, and the motion-based approach doesn't map onto a typical corrective mixing workflow
• It's node/path-based rather than a fixed number of bands, which makes it harder to reason about total control points the way a fixed band count would

Three classic Pultec tube EQs in one bundle: EQP-1A, MEQ-5, and HLF-3C.

• Component-level modeling of three distinct passive tube units, a lot of vintage EQ character in one purchase
• Runs natively on Windows or Mac, no UAD hardware required
• The classic Pultec trick of boosting and cutting the same frequency at once for that famous low-end lift is built in and ready to use

• It's three narrow-purpose units bundled together rather than one flexible EQ, you're often stacking two or three instances to cover what a single parametric EQ does in one
• At $149 list, it's a premium price for what amounts to three narrow, vintage-specific tools rather than one general-purpose EQ

Three-band EQ modeled on a vintage Siemens broadcast unit. Simple, opinionated, fast.

• Modeled on the Siemens W295b, a broadcast EQ with a reputation for adding air and smoothness rather than sounding clinical
• Just three bands and a built-in saturation character, one of the fastest ways to dial in tone by ear without menu diving
• Compact interface makes it a fast first reach for vocals or a mix bus, minimal setup time

• Three bands is a genuinely low count, it's not built for detailed corrective work, pair it with a more flexible EQ for that
• No dynamic EQ or confirmed mid/side mode, purely a tone-shaping tool rather than a problem-solving one

Cheap, unlimited-band digital EQ with steep up to 96 dB/oct filters.

• $79 gets you unlimited bands and filters as steep as 96 dB/octave, sharper slopes than most EQs typically offer
• Mid/side mode is included at this price point, not something every budget EQ bothers to include
• Plugs into Kilohearts' Snapin ecosystem, so it can sit inside Multipass or Snap Heap for modulation most standalone EQs can't do

• No dynamic EQ mode, so anything that needs frequency-dependent compression will need a separate tool
• The Snapin-first design means some of its more interesting tricks require pairing with other Kilohearts tools, not obvious from the standalone plugin alone

AI-assisted EQ that matches your track to a target tonal profile.

• Smart:filter technology analyzes your audio and suggests tonal balance automatically, a genuinely different starting point than manually drawing a curve
• Multi-track cross-channel processing can address frequency masking between instruments at the same time, not just one track in isolation
• Dynamic EQ behavior and full mid/side processing are included, and it's often available below its $129 list price during sales

• Handing tonal decisions to an algorithm means less hands-on control than a fully manual parametric EQ, engineers who want to shape every curve by ear may find it gets in the way
• Profile-based matching depends on having a good reference or preset, results can vary more than with a hand-drawn curve