Foobar Graphic Equalizer R&L independence

Tone and balance controls can be a great asset especially when used to benefit the listener.

Now to lose everyone: the proviso is that DSP works naturally; that is to say that phase also plays its part and not just amplitude, because in DSP anything's possible.

What puts the non-measurable harsh in digital is the uncorrelated phase shifts which occur at high frequencies, where the ear can still detect, but nobody will accept the phenomenon because it hasn't been proposed by some university professor and proliferated via the media.

In the real world, frequency specific attenuation or boost is accompanied by phase shift: -3dB for example is accompanied by a 45 degree phase shift at that frequency in a "natural" single pole filter.

However, in analogue filter manipulation a steeper cut results in the same phase shift long before any attenuation occurs. If this is corrected the irritation goes away.

Now think of it the other way: if DSP allows phase to be constant whilst attenuating (or boosting) the amplitude, again you have uncorrelated phase.

In simple analogue tone controls - the type we've had for nearly a century - phase is correlated with the turnover frequency.