FREE CUT-FIRST RADIAL DYNAMIC EQ
Chicken EQ is free. Tenderizer presses local resonances back into the sound before six radial bands take over, with eight times the travel to cut and a useful +3 dB available for lift. Pop Top finishes the top end. The full path adds 0 samples of latency.
Free and available now.
TWO ADAPTIVE JOBS
The first stage reacts to the incoming spectrum. Chicken EQ answers only to the thresholds and limits you set. Their jobs are separate.
Its zero-latency detector compares each region with the local spectral neighbourhood. It preserves transients and presses protruding energy back toward that envelope.
Tender sets how deep it cuts, and Focus how far each cut spreads, from broad to narrow. Listen plays the removed signal.
Each of the 6 gain-bearing bands can hold a fixed curve or add downward-only adaptive movement beneath it. Threshold, ratio, attack, release and a reduction limit define the response. The node keeps its authored position.
THE CUT-FIRST RADIAL INTERFACE
Removing a resonance gives the track its headroom back. Lifting around the same resonance does not. The radial layout makes that difference physical.
The scale starts at 20 Hz in the lower left, passes 1 kHz at twelve o'clock and reaches 20 kHz in the lower right, so the node's angle always names a frequency.
Pull inward for up to 24 dB of cut. The outer edge holds 3 dB of boost. A dB takes the same travel in either direction.
Switch a gain-bearing band into Adaptive mode. Its halo shows the live reduction and the limit; the centre node still marks the curve you drew.
FIND, CUT, CHECK
Boost stops at +3 dB. Pull a band still at 0 dB farther and it becomes a temporary +24 dB search probe at a narrow width; let go and the band moves to the frequency you found. Find Mode numbers likely problem frequencies on the arc with a measured width, and a held V plays any cut back as a 12 dB boost without touching it.
Try the gestureCLEAN / CUT / FINISH
Spectral cleanup happens here. Later EQ moves start with fewer resonances in their way.
Six radial bands share one cut-first gain law, and any gain-bearing band can add downward-only adaptive movement under its fixed curve.
Top-end lift comes last.
Available free
Chicken EQ is its own complete free plug-in: Tenderizer, six Fixed or Adaptive bands, then Pop Top. Get it through your bitsnacks account and install it with Bitsnacks Vending Machine.