KeyQ8

KeyQ8 is basically a 8-Band-EQ, very much like Ableton Live's EQ8, but with a little twist. It takes midi notes as an input (monophonic) and will transpose all it's bands according to the incoming notes. This makes it more or a less a keyboard-following EQ, which is useful in a lot of cases. I programmed it to look similar to EQ8 so you can feel familiar with it instantly.

What can use it for?

For a brief explanation watch this video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1nBLjJfBWM

Example 1: Eliminating resonances in samples accross the keyboard

You use a sampler to play a sample chromatically on your keyboard. But unfortunatly the sample contains some resonating frequencies that sound annoying. Usually you would cut out these frequencies using a (static) EQ with a bell curve. But when playing the sample on different notes these resonances get transposed by the sampler as well and the static EQ will not hit the transposed resonances anymore. This is a perfect task for KeyQ8. You can set one of it's bands to a bell curve, attenuate the resonating frequency by some dB and make the frequency of the band move with along with the incoming midi notes. Resonances will be eliminated on all notes you play.

Of course you can expand this example to any other sound played by midi notes, i.e. synths. Furthermore you can also boost (or create) some resonances while attenuating others which is extremly helpful to sculpt sounds that are meant to be played using a keyboard. This might not sound very interesting at first, but trust me, the resulting effects can be extremly useful and pleasing.

Example 2: Give your synth more filters

The synth of your choice for a specific sound has only one or two filters that can have keyboard following enabled, but unfortunatly you need more! With KeyQ8 this is really easy to accomplish. Just put it behind the synth, add the bands you need and make them follow the synths midi notes. This is really helpful, because you can twist a sound's frequency response across the keyboard consistantly.

Example 3: Layering of different sounds

You have created a new sound by layering two different synths. Unfortunatly these sounds' frequency responses overlap, so the result is not really transparent. It gets better when the two layers are separated using cut filters, but again the cutoff frequencies are static, so the result sounds different when it is played over keyboard. This also is a perfect example where KeyQ8 can be really helpful, since the cut off frequencies can be made moving according to the notes played.

Important Notes:

If consider buying KeyQ8, please also consider creating an account on Gumroad. This makes updates and support much easier.

This Plugin was developed using Ableton Live 11.1.1 and Max 8.2.1. I cannot guarantee that KeyQ8 fully works in older versions. But it's likely to work on Ableton Live 11.0 or later.

Restrictions:

This is a simple EQ effect, so of course this only works properly with monophonic midi input! This is not applied to every single note when you use it with polyphonic input!

v. 1.0.2:

- New "Global Tab" available

- Glide time between notes now available

- Now supports pitch bend (also pitch bend range)

- Global offset introduced, can be automated

v. 1.0.1:

- Bugfix: Depending on the color scheme that is selected in Ableton Live, the buttons for filter type section could not be read

Planned Features:

• simple preset mechanism to compare and save different settings
• spectrum as background
• on/off button for keyboard or pitch bend following per band