HoRNet TotalEQ: a USD 30 Pro-Q alternative for mixing and mastering
A capable EQ plug-in for the price of a night out? That’s the offer from HoRNet plug-ins, whose latest release is Total EQ. The USD 30 dollar equalizer offers pretty much everything you’d expect from a full-featured parametric EQ, including a real-time spectrum analyzer, 12 freely adjustable bands, and analog saturation to name a few.
HoRNet Total EQ
For convenience, Total EQ lets you control every parameter of each of the 12 EQ bands straight from the control point on the frequency chart. This way you don’t have to look around for specific controls as the EQs are kept right under your mouse pointer. Each band supports 17 filter types, including the bread and butter variety of LP, HP, BP, shelving (lo/hi) and fully parametric peak EQ.
Additionally, each of the bands can function as a dynamic filter with automatic attack, release and threshold controls similar to HoRNet’s DynaEQ plug-in. Thus, a dynamic EQ is practically built in should you need to use it. Finally, an equal loudness option based on the developer’s CLMS plug-in lets you keep loudness levels constant while adjusting EQ bands. This is to let you make EQ choices without the stereotypical loudness bias which occurs at the more extreme settings.
Analog Saturation
The analog emulation is fully-fledged, emulating analog gear saturation on a component tolerance level and adding a bit of unpredictability to each band’s behavior. This makes things sound less linear and a bit more exciting. The controls let you add drive the plug-in’s analog engine without changing the output level, so you can push the virtual circuitry without overloading your DAW.
Price and availability
Total EQ is available in the usual Windows and macOS formats (VST2, VST3, AU, AAX) for EUR 28 (USD 30). A fully functional demo with some limitations like bouts of silence, no saving parameter values and no automation is available as well. That’s a super sane price for the kind of versatile and precise EQ that will do the same job as much more expensive pieces of kit. That’s the HoRNet way, though – the developer is notable for keeping prices low and the variety high!
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