Transient / tonal split EQ: separate gain for the attack and the sustain in every band. Lift the snare crack without making cymbals harsher.
A VST3 and Audio Unit plug-in from Ondinha, a DAW 2.0: native AI tools combined with traditional sound engineering tools.
An EQ that hears the difference between a hit and a held note. It splits your audio into a transient layer (attacks, clicks, noise bursts) and a tonal layer (sustained, pitched sound), and every band has its own gain for each.
So you can add 4 kHz to the kick and snare attack without the vocal or the cymbal wash getting brighter, or open up the air on the tonal part of a master while the hats stay where they are.
Comes with its own window: a spectrum with both layers and draggable bands.
- Master: more kick punch in the lows (transient only), more air up top (tonal only).
- Drums: bring the stick attack forward without boosting the room ring.
- Make a wide mix tighter: narrow the transient layer, keep the tonal layer wide.
| Control | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 6 bands | low shelf, 4 bells, high shelf | Each with freq, Q / slope, transient gain and tonal gain (+-18 dB). |
| Split | -12 to +12 dB | Moves the line between what counts as transient and tonal. |
| Separation | 0-100 % | How strictly the two layers are separated. |
| Transient / Tonal level | -36 to +12 dB | Level of each layer. |
| Transient / Tonal width | 0-200 % | Stereo width of each layer. |
| Output | +-18 dB |
Built in as host programs (your DAW's preset menu):
- Master: punch low, tonal air
Download the latest release (macOS, Windows, Linux) or get it from the product page.
macOS: copy Ondinha Split EQ.vst3 to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 and Ondinha Split EQ.component to ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components. The plug-ins aren't notarized yet, so clear the download flag once:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/"Ondinha Split EQ.vst3" ~/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/"Ondinha Split EQ.component"Then rescan plug-ins in your DAW.
Windows: copy the Ondinha Split EQ.vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, then rescan.
Linux: copy the Ondinha Split EQ.vst3 folder to ~/.vst3, then rescan.
| Format | Platform |
|---|---|
| VST3 | macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Windows 10+ (64-bit), Linux (x64) |
| Audio Unit (AU) | macOS |
Works in any VST3 or AU host: Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Reaper, Bitwig Studio, Cubase, Studio One, FL Studio and others.
Harmonic / percussive separation (after Fitzgerald, 2010) on an STFT: per bin, the median over ~110 ms is the tonal level and the median across frequency of each bin's rise above it is the transient level; a soft mask divides the two. Masks come from both channels together, so the stereo image stays put, and they sum to one: with every band flat, the layers add back to the input exactly. The EQ curves are matched to analog (no cramping near Nyquist). Latency is about 96 ms at 48 kHz, reported to the host.
- Ondinha Bus Comp: Console-style glue compressor for the mix bus and groups.
- Ondinha Limiter: True-peak brickwall limiter for mastering, with an optional oversampled clipper.
- Ondinha Unmask: Spectral side-chain ducking: dips a track only at the frequencies where the key is loud, only while it plays.
- Ondinha Resonance: Dynamic resonance tamer for harsh mixes, vocals and guitars: pulls down narrow peaks only while they ring and leaves the broad tone alone.
- Ondinha Imager: Multiband stereo imager with mono low end: width for lows, mids and highs on phase-matched Linkwitz-Riley crossovers.
- Ondinha Delay: Tempo-synced stereo / ping-pong delay with filtered, saturated feedback and ducking, so the echoes stay out of the way of the vocal.
- Ondinha Graphic EQ: 10-band octave graphic EQ with analog-matched bells (31 Hz - 16 kHz, +-12 dB).
- Ondinha Tube Air: High-frequency exciter with a tube stage: adds warm even or bright odd harmonics above a frequency, under the untouched signal.
Found a bug or a host where it misbehaves? Open an issue with your DAW, its version and your OS.