FlavourMTC

MANUAL
revision 1.0
 Content

Chapter 1: Introduction 5
1.1. LICENSE .................................................................................... 5
1.2. DISCLAIMER ............................................................................... 5
1.3. INSTALLATION ........................................................................... 6
1.4. BASIC OPERATION ....................................................................... 6
1.5. OVERVIEW ................................................................................. 6
1.6. MIXBUS TONE CONTROL .............................................................. 6
Chapter 2: Advanced 7
2.1. GAIN STAGING ........................................................................... 7
2.2. REFERENCE CURVES ................................................................... 7
Chapter 3: Addendum 11
3.1. THIS & THAT ............................................................................. 11
3.2. CREDITS .................................................................................. 11
3.3. UPDATES AND FURTHER INFORMATION ........................................ 11
 1 Introduction

1.1. LICENSE
Copyright (C) 2022 by H. L. Goldberg.

The contained software is given to use under a freeware license.

This software is provided free of charge but the author retains copyright.

You are not allowed to make any copies or redistribute this software including but not
limited to making the software available for download or making this software part of
any sort of software compilation and distribution.

You are not allowed to sell or to rent this software. You are not allowed to reverse
engineer this software.

You are allowed to use this software for any artistic application including commercial
music production.

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event
will the author be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

1.2. DISCLAIMER
'VST' is a Technology and Trademark by Steinberg.
All other mentioned trademarks and brands belong to their respective owners.

Warning: Lower your listening volume while operating the plug-in to avoid hearing damage or
damage of speakers or any other equipment.

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 1 Introduction

1.3. INSTALLATION
Requirements:
• Windows compatible system with SSE2 (or higher) instruction set support.
• The software is tested and known to work in many VST compatible hosts.

Installation: Put the DLL files contained in this archive into the according VST plug-in
folder of your host. This distribution contains both, 32 and 64bit binaries.

1.4. BASIC OPERATION

• Use the power on/off switch and the output volume control on the very right
side of the user interface for handy A/B comparisons.
• Use <ctrl> + mouse left click on a knob or switch, to restore default position.
• Use <shift> + mouse left click on a knob to fine adjust values.
• Insert this plug-in as a mono or stereo effect in any channel of your VST host.

1.5. OVERVIEW
FlavourMTC follows classic “passive” equalizer designs where the EQ circuits
itself are not able to amplify signals but a dedicated output amplifier stage is required
to do so. Those EQ designs are well known for allowing very transparent frequency
changes while their amplifier designs do add some icing on the cake quite often.

FlavourMTC implements this by utilizing 1 st order shelving filter designs avoiding

unwanted resonances and takes advantage of “zero delay” implementations for most
accurate higher order filtering. Of course, the EQ does not show any sort of curve
warping near Nyquist frequency. The output amplifier stage of the plugin can be cali -
brated according specific mixing levels or can be turned off entirely. Parts of the
plugin are oversampled internally for maximum transparency and sound quality.

1.6. MIXBUS TONE CONTROL

FlavourMTC offers very gentle tone control by boosting a pair of high- and low-fre -
quency shelving filters. The actual curve design has been carefully adapted to the
specific needs of their individual frequency ranges. An additional bell type cut-only fil-
ter allows for attenuation of typical frequencies in the “muddy” sounding areas and a
slightly resonant 12dB high-pass filter takes care of isolating DC and subsonic con-
tents. All adjustable filters do have 3 preset center frequencies to choose from.

The output amplifier stage can be activated separately. Activation requires selec-
tion of one of the preset calibration reference points accessible via a drop-down
menu. This is a non-linear process interacting with all the actual frequency settings
and adds subtle tone and image improvements as known from high-end analog gear.
All knobs are stepped controls and operate in 0.5dB increments.

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 2 Advanced

2.1. GAIN STAGING

FlavourMTC can be operated w/o any gainstaging considerations at all by just
leaving the nonlinear processing OFF. This is indicated right in the middle of the UI
below the branding text where a drop down menu is offered to choose from. Also the
according LED stays grey all the time when inactive.

Activating any sort of nonlinear processing is done by simply choosing one of the
gainstaging options offered in the very same drop down menu. Each entry refers to a
0VU equivalent reference point. The nonlinear processing is compensated for equal
output volume internally. According to its color, the LED roughly indicates how hot the
current signal gets actually processed internally. A green to slightly yellow color indi-
cates the sweet-spot. Processing in the “red” area might degrade the audio quality.

In case of FlavourMTC, adjusting EQ and filtering alters frequencies in the very

high and low area which makes it hard to automatically compensate loudness for.
The OUT knob offers manual volume compensation in the range of -7.5 to +7.5dB.

2.2. REFERENCE CURVES

FlavourMTC offers shelving filter boosting up to around 15dB. Boosts are applied
with the two big knobs, the left one for the low and right one for the high frequencies.

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 2 Advanced

Each center frequency is set by the three buttons below a knob. They also allow to
disengage the filter temporarily. The filters show different character when boosted
higher. Regarding the LF filter, the transition gets lower by boosting, shifting energy
towards subsonic frequencies.

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REFERENCE CURVES

The CUT filter option right in the middle of the UI offers frequency attenuation only.
The frequencies are tuned to shape the low frequency shelving filter curve in general
but also to remove muddy frequency content in particular:

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 2 Advanced

On the UI left side a high-pass filter option is offered for three pre-selected sub -
sonic frequencies. The filter has a 12dB/octave and slightly resonant characteristic.

A broad variety of curves can be obtained maintaining musical qualities in any case
and with a strong focus on the very high- and low-end while the output stage glues
everything together nicely.

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 3 Addendum

3.1. THIS & THAT

• Activating the nonlinear output amplifier stage gives this device are very
unique and distinct “box tone”.
• Deactivating the output stage saves roughly two-thirds of the overall used cpu
cycles.
• All knobs are stepped controls and operate in 0.5dB increments.
• The frequency selection buttons also allow to disengage a filter temporarily.
• Use the output stage to glue everything together.

3.2. CREDITS
Many thanks to the DSP community for sharing ideas and designs. Also I would
like to thank the audio community for supporting me when starting releasing plugins
back in 2007 and still today!

3.3. UPDATES AND FURTHER INFORMATION

Refer to my Blog at http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com for some additional infor-
mation and updates on this plug-in, or leave a note there if any issues did occur.

Peace,
Herbert

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