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Update: 2023-10-09

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MiniCliffEQ

MiniCliffEQ is a linear phase FIR filter with 2^15 = 32768 taps. Latency is improved from initial version, however it still exceeds 0.34 seconds in 48000 Hz sampling rate. The primary purpose is to suppress direct current. It can also be used as very sharp low-pass, high-pass, low-shelf, and high-shelf filter.

full package contains following builds.

Linux build is built on Ubuntu 22.04. If you are using distribution other than Ubuntu 22.04, plugin will not likely to run. In this case, please take a look at build instruction.

macOS package is recommended for macOS user. I can’t purchase Apple Developer Program, therefore installation requires a workaround to bypass Gatekeeper. Details of workaround are written in Installation -> macOS Specific section.

Contact

Feel free to contact me on GitHub repository or ryukau@gmail.com.

You can fund the development through paypal.me/ryukau. Current goal is to purchase M1 mac for better macOS support. 💸💻

Installation

Plugin

Place *.vst3 directory to:

DAW may provides additional VST3 directory. For more information, please refer to the manual of the DAW.

Presets

Notice: Some plugins don’t have presets provided by Uhhyou Plugins.

To install presets, follow the steps below.

  1. Download presets from a link at the top of this page.
  2. Extract *Presets.zip. * here is wildcard character.
  3. Place unzipped directory into an OS specific preset directory (see below).

Below is a list of preset directories for each OS.

Preset directory name must be the same as the plugin. Make Uhhyou directory if it does not exist.

Windows Specific

If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, try installing C++ redistributable (vc_redist.x64.exe). Installer can be found in the link below.

Linux Specific

On Ubuntu 22.04, those packages are required.

sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0  libxkbcommon-x11-0

If DAW doesn’t recognize the plugin, take a look at Package Requirements section of the link below and make sure all the VST3 related package is installed.

REAPER on Linux may not recognize the plugin. A workaround is to delete a file ~/.config/REAPER/reaper-vstplugins64.ini and restart REAPER.

macOS Specific

Important: full package is not confirmed working. When using full, try removing following files.

macOS package doesn’t contain above files. Also, all packages are in “ad-hoc signing” state set by codesign command.

Remove Quarantine

When trying to run plugin first time, following message may appear on macOS.

<PluginName>.vst3 is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

In this case, open terminal and try running one or both of following command to unzipped .vst3 directory. Replace /path/to/PluginName.vst3 according to your install location.

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /path/to/PluginName.vst3
xattr -rc /path/to/PluginName.vst3

Bypass Gatekeeper

Plugin may be considered as unsigned/un-notarized application. In this case, open System Preferences, go to Security & Privacy → General, then click the Open Anyway button. The offcial Apple help page linked below has screenshots for the procedure. See “If you want to open an app that hasn’t been notarized or is from an unidentified developer” section.

If the plugin is still not working, try changing install location to /Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3/ or /Users/$USERNAME/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST3/ whichever still haven’t tried.

If all the above methods do not work, try following the steps below.

  1. Open terminal and run sudo spctl --master-disable.
  2. Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select “Anywhere”.

Beware that steps above degrades security of your system. To revert the settings, follow the steps below.

  1. Go to System Preferences → Security and Privacy → General → Allow apps downloaded from, then select option to “App Store and identified developers”.
  2. Open terminal and run sudo spctl --master-enable.

Applying codesign

Note This section may not relevant to macOS packages. However it’s not verified. (GitHub issue)

To use full package, following command might be used.

sudo codesign --force --deep -s - /path/to/PluginName.vst3

codesign might not be available without installing Xcode.

Reference

GUI Style Configuration

At first time, create color config file to:

style.json will be loaded for each time a plugin window opens.

Several color themes are available on the link below.

Below is a example of style.json.

{
  "fontFamily": "Tinos",
  "fontBold": true,
  "fontItalic": true,
  "foreground": "#000000",
  "foregroundButtonOn": "#000000",
  "foregroundInactive": "#8a8a8a",
  "background": "#ffffff",
  "boxBackground": "#ffffff",
  "border": "#000000",
  "borderCheckbox": "#000000",
  "borderLabel": "#000000",
  "unfocused": "#dddddd",
  "highlightMain": "#0ba4f1",
  "highlightAccent": "#13c136",
  "highlightButton": "#fcc04f",
  "highlightWarning": "#fc8080",
  "overlay": "#00000088",
  "overlayHighlight": "#00ff0033"
}

Font Options

Following is a list of font options.

To use custom font, place *.ttf file into custom font path: *.vst3/Contents/Resources/Fonts.

Notice: If the combination of fontFamily, fontBold, fontItalic is not exists in custom font path, default font of VSTGUI is used.

If fontFamily is set to empty string "", then "Tinos" is used as fallback. If the length is greater than 1 and the font family name doesn’t exists, default font of VSTGUI is used.

Styles other than bold, italic or bold-italic are not supported by VSTGUI. For example, “Thin”, “Light”, “Medium”, and “Black” weights cannot be used.

Color Options

Hex color codes are used.

First letter # is conventional. Plugins ignore the first letter of color code, thus ?102938, \n11335577 are valid.

Do not use characters outside of 0-9a-f for color value.

Following is a list of color options. If an option is missing, default color will be used.

Controls

Right Click on the controls pops up a context menu provided by DAW.

Knob and slider provides following controls:

Caution

Latency is 2^15 / 2 - 1 = 16383 samples. Signal to noise ratio is around -120 dB.

Usage

Primary usage of MiniCliffEQ is direct current (DC) suppression. It can also be used for detecting subtle noises. The filter is linear phase, so band-splitting is another application. If possible, it is always better to replace MiniCliffEQ for more lightweight EQ, because the high latency degrades your workflow.

To suppress DC, click LP Gain twice by mouse wheel. It sets the value to -inf. For ordinary speakers, it is better to stay Cutoff at initial value of 20 Hz. When Cutoff is set to below 10 Hz, the accuracy of cutoff frequency and steepness of roll-off will degrade. For example, when Cutoff is set to 1 Hz, amplitude response is -16.25 dB at 1 Hz, and -60 dB at 0.1 Hz.

To detect subtle noise, follow the steps below:

  1. Insert limiter after MiniCliffEQ.
  2. Set LP Gain to -inf.
  3. Rise Cutoff to eliminate input signal. Don’t forget to Refresh FIR!
  4. Set HP Gain to 144.5.

For example, consider to set Cutoff to 200 Hz, and input 100 Hz sine wave to the above setting. If the output is not silent, then the input sine wave contains some noise. Note that the noise that can be heard when applying 144.5 dB gain is definitely not perceived by human ear. This procedure is useful to investigate plugin algorithm, rather than to measure the quality of sound.

The filter design algorithm used in MiniCliffEQ is the same one as following Python 3 code:

import scipy.signal as signal
samplerate = 48000
cutoffHz = 20
fir = signal.firwin(2**15 - 1, cutoffHz, window="nuttall", fs=samplerate)

Parameters

Refresh FIR

Click Refresh FIR to refresh filter coefficients after changing Cutoff. Note that clicking Refresh FIR resets internal states, and stops sound for the length of latency.

Cutoff [Hz]

FIR filter cutoff frequency.

HP Gain [dB]

Gain of highpass output.

LP Gain [dB]

Gain of lowpass output.

Change Log

Old Versions

License

MiniCliffEQ is licensed under GPLv3. Complete licenses are linked below.

If the link above doesn’t work, please send email to ryukau@gmail.com.

About VST

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, registered in Europe and other countries.