Bob, can you tell us about the EQ?

[AudioAstronomer]

I really, really like the channel EQ. In fact I love it! Sounds awesome.

Can you give us some background on it, ideas that lead to the design, possible design features of it, specific designed uses etc...

Anything you can tell us about it at all. Im very curious as to how, why, when it works so incredibly well. I am very much prepared for a nice long read if you're ready to write it And Im sure others are too

[Oz Nimbus]

I'll second that request. BTW, Here's another related question: Is Saw Studio's mixer a modern recreation of that large-format analog console you built??

-0z-

[Pedro Itriago]

Take a look here http://www.rmllabs.com/SAC.htm and here http://www.rmllabs.com/Biography_40.htm & tell me if you see something familiar.

Also this will hint you as to what on Bob's head http://www.rmllabs.com/OnTheDrawingBoard.htm

[AudioAstronomer]

Take a look here http://www.rmllabs.com/SAC.htm and here http://www.rmllabs.com/Biography_40.htm & tell me if you see something familiar.

Also this will hint you as to what on Bob's head http://www.rmllabs.com/OnTheDrawingBoard.htm

I had seen these too, but you never know. Sometimes people, rather than mimic past ideas, try to ideas based on the antithesis of prior experiences.

[TotalSonic]

I'll second that request. BTW, Here's another related question: Is Saw Studio's mixer a modern recreation of that large-format analog console you built??

-0z-

Actually - afaik it has more similarities to the Gamble DCX - which is a completely analog console designed for foh controlled remotely through a software mixer which I believe Bob & other original IQS staffers such as Hristo Doichev & Francis Styck had a large hand in designing.

http://www.gambleboards.com
http://www.corteksoft.com/dcxsoftware.asp

It's been used by several very high profile artists for major tours. Cool stuff.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Bob L]

Steve is correct... the SAC was my first design concept beta of the idea of virtual mixing... I met Gamble at the 92 AES show in San Fransisco and the DCX was born over the next few years.

The original SAC idea was a virtual controller for a hardware based mixer.

What's interesting... is that now, the SAWStudio console does it all without the hardware... save the soundcard and converters.

It sure is fun to see how that evolved.

The EQ... a very interesting routine... founded over years of experimentation... the original EQ from the old SAW line had some weaknesses in the low end... some noise and DC offset problems that I never could quite put my finger on a solution for.

Just about the same time that Jon Marshall Smith released his hi-res eq, I stumbled upon some documents on the web (possibly the same ones or similar that he may have used) detailing some more hints and algorithms about FIR filter designs.

I started fooling around with modifying the EQ routines I had and found some hints as to where the DC offset problems were coming from.

I redesigned the eq routines, using some of the info in the documents and then moved the code into floating point... to my horror ... the low end problems dissapeared... the performance was horrible, but the sound was pretty impressive.

Some time spent with a high end Spectrum analysis program and some serious work on moving all the floating point routines into straight assembly language and the results are what ended up in SAWStudio. So my complete integer math design was now a hybrid... oh well... whatever works.

The noise floor is an honest -118 db... I believe Jon's is also very similar...

I also used a modified version of those filters to build the Frequency Analyzer... instead of using FFT routines... the analyzer gives some unique options for tweaking and zeroing in on frequencies... a very interesting tool once you dive in and get a feel for the interface possibilities.

Bob L

[mghtx]

Thanks Pedro and Steve for the links. I had not seen them before and it was great reading about Bob's past. I had no idea.

[mghtx]

You know, now that I have a little history on Bob and SAW, it's a wonder nobody else used assembly language to code their apps. Or am I wrong about this? It's becoming more and more apparent to me, IMHO, that many aspects of Bob's software were "borrowed" by the other companies.

[matt]

Bang on. SAW was a 4-track recording program when Slow-tools was still choking on two. I remember telling my school about it at the time and they didn't believe me. I guess people don't listen unitl they are ready to understand. Stein&*^& coppied SAW and called it VST. Thus is the nature of the beast. As far as I know, no other recording apps use Assembly. It is more than just the language though. I think it helps that Bob is a talented engineer. I would question the likes of other programmers.

[mghtx]

Absolutely. As I stated somewhere else......he's one of us. Meaning he's a true music lover.