ADALET — owner’s manual

Dynamic EQ · Model DQ-82. Manual as PDF.

1. Welcome

ADALET is a dynamic EQ with six bands and zero latency, and three helpers that do the finding, so you can do the deciding.

Any bell or shelf can be made dynamic, so it cuts or lifts only while the sound needs it. On top sit three helpers: TARGET cuts a named part of a sound, COLLIDE clears the room between two tracks, and SELF finds resonances in the track it sits on. Because ADALET has no latency, the dry and processed signals line up at any MIX setting.

2. Quick start

  1. Put ADALET on a track. Six bands sit ready at 80 Hz, 200 Hz, 500 Hz, 1.2 kHz, 3 kHz and 8 kHz, flat.
  2. Shape it. Click a band chip or drag its point on the display: left and right is frequency, up and down is gain. The control row below the display holds the selected band’s settings.
  3. Make it dynamic. Switch DYNAMIC on for a bell or a shelf, set RANGE and THRESHOLD: the band moves only while the sound crosses the threshold.
  4. Let a helper find it. Pick an instrument and a part in TARGET, or route another track to the sidechain and use COLLIDE.
  5. Check it. Hold DELTA to hear only what is being cut; press BYPASS to compare at the same loudness.

3. The bands

The LAB face is one screen with numbered band chips, the display and one control row. Six bands, any of them dynamic.

ControlRangeWhat it does
ONon / offEach band is switched on or off on its own.
TYPEBell, low shelf, high shelf, notch, low cut, high cutThe filter shape.
FREQ20 Hz to 20 kHzCentre or corner frequency.
GAIN−18 to +18 dBStatic boost or cut (bell and shelves).
Q0.1 to 18Width of a bell or notch; resonance of a cut.
SLOPE12, 24, 36, 48 or 72 dB/octSteepness of the low and high cuts.
DYNAMICon / offMakes a bell or shelf move with the level.
RANGE−12 to +12 dBHow far the band moves when the level is over the threshold: negative cuts, positive lifts.
THRESHOLD−60 to 0 dBThe level where the band starts to move.
ATTACK1 to 100 msHow fast it moves in.
RELEASE10 to 1000 msHow fast it returns.
TRIGGERSELF or KEYSELF: the band listens to its own frequency range in this track. KEY: it listens to the same range in the sidechain.

4. TARGET

Tell ADALET the instrument and the part, and it learns where that part sits in this material from the hits, then cuts it by AMOUNT. TARGET is static once it has learned, and needs no sidechain.

InstrumentParts
VOCALBOX, NASAL, HARSH, S, REVERB-READY
BASSSUB, BODY, TOP
DRUMSKICK BODY, SNARE BODY, HATS SHIMMER
KICKSUB, BODY, CLICK
SNAREBODY, CRACK, SNAP/AIR, REVERB-READY
HATSCHICK, SHIMMER
ControlRangeWhat it does
INSTRUMENT · PARTOFF, or the lists aboveOFF leaves TARGET out. A new choice moves the cut at the next hit.
AMOUNT0 to 60 dBHow much of the part is cut. A bell stops at 18 dB; the top of the range is a real high-pass or low-pass on an edge cut.
WIDTH0.5 to 2How wide the cut is around the part.
SLOPE12, 24, 36, 48 or 72 dB/octSteepness of the edge cuts.

What the display says

While it learns, the display tells you where it is: LISTENING – PLAY THE TRACK, then LISTENING – N HITS HEARD, M OF 3 LEARNED, then LEARNED FROM N HITS – CUTTING. When a hit cannot be used it says why: HITS TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, HITS TOO SHORT, NO PITCHED BOOM FOUND or THE PART WAS NOT FOUND. Play the part of the song where the instrument is clearest.

5. COLLIDE and SELF

An example: band 4 made dynamic, with TARGET (KICK · SUB) and COLLIDE (KEY) on above it.

MODE chooses the helper that listens all the time: COLLIDE or SELF. Its lamp turns it off without losing its settings.

COLLIDE: two sounds stop masking each other

Route a KEY track (the kick, the vocal) to ADALET’s sidechain input in your DAW. COLLIDE cuts this track only where the KEY track is loud, and only while it is. KEY LISTEN lets you hear the sidechain to check the routing.

SELF: resonances in this track

SELF needs no sidechain. It finds the resonances that stick out of the track it sits on and cuts them while they ring. In SELF the MARGIN knob becomes SENS: how far a peak must stand out before it is cut.

ControlRangeWhat it does
DEPTH0 to 12 dBThe largest cut in any band.
MARGIN / SENS0 to 12 dBCOLLIDE: how far the KEY should lead this track. SELF: how far a peak must stand out.
FOCUS LOW · HIGH40 Hz to 16 kHzBands outside the focus are never cut.
SPEEDFAST, MEDIUM, SLOWHow quickly the cut lets go.
MIX0 to 100 %Dry and processed together; with zero latency there is nothing to align.

6. Listening and faces

ControlWhat it does
DELTAHold to hear only what is being cut.
BYPASSLevel-matched: the dry signal plays at the loudness the processing has, so a comparison is not decided by loudness.
OUTPUT−12 to +12 dB.
ANALYZEROFF, PRE, POST (default) or PRE+POST. The curve on screen is the engine’s own response.
LAB · ORBITTwo faces for the same settings; the choice is saved with the project.

The ORBIT face is a round instrument case with rings and pushers. It edits the same settings as LAB.

7. Installation

ADALET installs as an Audio Unit (AU) and a VST3 plug-in on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel). On Windows (64-bit) it installs as a VST3 plug-in.

macOS

  1. Run the installer package (.pkg) you downloaded: VST3 and AU in one signed installer. It puts the VST3 in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 and the AU in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components.
  2. Let your DAW rescan its plug-ins; ADALET appears as an audio effect.

Windows

  1. If Windows blocks the downloaded files: right-click the zip, choose Properties, tick Unblock, then extract.
  2. Copy the .vst3 folder to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\.
  3. Let your DAW rescan its plug-ins; ADALET appears as an audio effect.

8. Specifications

ItemADALET
FormatsmacOS 11 or later (Apple Silicon and Intel): VST3, AU · Windows (64-bit): VST3
LatencyZero
Bands6: bell, low shelf, high shelf, notch, low cut, high cut; cuts 12 to 72 dB/oct
DynamicsPer bell or shelf: range ±12 dB, threshold, attack, release, self or sidechain trigger
HelpersTARGET (instrument parts, learned from the hits), COLLIDE (sidechain), SELF (resonances)
MonitoringDELTA, level-matched BYPASS, analyzer PRE / POST

Help and support

Downloads and updates: subverselab.com → Account. Something wrong? Reply to your receipt e-mail, or use Report a problem on the Account page. Tell us your system, your DAW and what you did; we read every report.

ADALET, the DQ-82 model plate and the panel design are SubverseLab’s. VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. Audio Units and macOS are trademarks of Apple Inc. Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

9. Getting ADALET

Coming soon. Once you have bought ADALET, the download appears on subverselab.com/plugins/adalet and on your Account page. Includes 2 years of updates; the version you have keeps working forever.

  1. Sign in on subverselab.com with the e-mail address you paid with.
  2. Open your Account page, or subverselab.com/plugins/adalet, and download the macOS package or the Windows zip.
  3. Install it as described under Installation, then open it.