HoRNet MultiFreqs

MultiFreqs 1.1.5 is available, this update is free for owners of our spectrum analyzer:

• Finally fixed various issues with Logic on Apple Silicon

One spectrum analyzer for all your tracks

HoRNet MultiFreqs is a highly versatile spectrum analyzer plugin designed to provide detailed visual feedback of your audio spectrum across multiple tracks. It’s an essential tool for mixing and mastering, as it helps identify problematic frequencies and enables you to achieve a clearer, more separated mix. Whether you’re working with a few tracks or a full session, MultiFreqs allows you to visualize and monitor the frequency content of up to 28 tracks simultaneously, ensuring that your mix remains balanced and well-defined.

Two Visualization Modes: Analog vs. Digital

The first visualization type in HoRNet MultiFreqs is the “analog” view, inspired by the traditional analog hardware spectrum analyzers still found in many professional recording studios today. These types of analyzers have been a staple in mastering and mixing for decades, offering a smooth and organic display of the frequency spectrum. The analog view provides a more natural, flowing representation, often preferred for its musicality and ease of use. This visualization mode is especially useful when you need a more intuitive way of seeing the frequency content of a track without diving into complex digital representations.

The second visualization type, known as the “digital” view, is a modern take on the typical FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)-based spectrum analyzer. This mode uses the FFT algorithm, which is the standard mathematical method for transforming an audio signal into its spectrum components. The digital view provides a more precise, detailed, and high-resolution representation of the audio, making it easier to spot specific frequency issues, such as sharp peaks or unwanted resonances. The high precision of this mode is perfect for analyzing complex mixes where you need to see exactly where the problematic frequencies are.

By offering both an analog and digital display option, MultiFreqs gives you the flexibility to choose the most appropriate visualization style for your needs. Whether you prefer a more traditional and smooth approach or a more detailed and high-resolution look, you can switch between the two modes with ease, depending on your workflow and the requirements of the project.

Fully Resizable GUI with Hardware Accelerated Drawing

HoRNet MultiFreqs comes with a fully resizable GUI that ensures it fits seamlessly into your workspace. The user interface is designed to be crisp and smooth on any display, whether you’re working on a high-resolution monitor or a smaller screen. Thanks to its hardware accelerated drawing, the plugin’s visuals remain fluid and responsive, offering a lag-free experience even during intense analysis of multiple tracks. This is especially important when working on large projects with multiple tracks, as it helps ensure that you can monitor the audio spectrum without any performance hiccups.

The resizable nature of the GUI also means you can adapt the plugin’s interface to fit the exact needs of your workspace. Whether you need a large visual representation of the spectrum to analyze multiple tracks or a smaller display to conserve screen real estate, MultiFreqs allows you to adjust the interface size to your preference, making it a flexible and user-friendly tool for any setup.

Display Up to 28 Tracks Simultaneously

One of the standout features of HoRNet MultiFreqs is its ability to display up to 28 tracks at once. This makes it an invaluable tool for mixing sessions that involve many different elements. In traditional mixing workflows, it can be difficult to assess how multiple tracks interact in the frequency spectrum, especially when you have many instruments and vocals. With MultiFreqs, you can easily monitor the frequency content of multiple tracks at once, giving you a visual representation of how different elements of your mix are distributed across the stereo spectrum.

The plugin allows you to select which tracks to display, and in VST3 and AAX formats, it can read the track names directly from the host. This makes it easier to navigate through your mix and identify which track belongs to which instrument. If you need to make adjustments to specific tracks, you can quickly see which frequencies are causing issues, allowing you to take targeted action to resolve any conflicts.

Conflict Detection: Identifying Problematic Frequencies

HoRNet MultiFreqs features a “conflict” button that helps you find frequency collisions between multiple tracks. This is especially useful when trying to resolve common issues, such as a kick drum and bass fighting for space in the low-end, or snare drums and vocals competing in the midrange. The conflict mode isolates the frequencies that are common across all enabled tracks, making it easier to spot where different tracks overlap in terms of frequency content.

By highlighting the shared frequencies, you can quickly identify areas that need attention. For instance, if multiple tracks have strong peaks in the same frequency range, you can adjust the EQ, panning, or even the volume to give each element more space in the mix. The conflict mode provides an effective and efficient way to spot potential frequency issues that might be muddying up your mix, helping you keep each track clear and well-defined.

Mid and Side Spectrum Analysis

Another powerful feature of MultiFreqs is its ability to display both the mid (or sum) and side (or difference) components of a stereo signal. This feature is useful for isolating the center and outer parts of the stereo field, which can be particularly helpful when you’re trying to identify issues related to stereo width or phase. By analyzing both the mid and side components separately, you can ensure that your mix doesn’t have any phase cancellation or unwanted overlapping frequencies between the center and sides of the stereo image.

For example, you might have a vocal track that sits in the center of the mix, and you want to ensure it doesn’t interfere with other elements like the bass or kick drum. By using MultiFreqs’ mid/side analysis, you can see whether these elements are competing in the center or if there is any unintentional phase shifting between the mid and side components. This ensures that the stereo image remains clear and that each element has its place in the mix.

Low CPU Usage for Seamless Workflow

Despite its advanced features, HoRNet MultiFreqs is designed to use very little CPU, even when monitoring up to 28 tracks simultaneously. When the GUI is closed, the plugin consumes almost no CPU resources, allowing you to keep an instance of MultiFreqs on every track in your mix without worrying about system performance. This is particularly beneficial when working on large sessions with many tracks, as you can have the plugin running in the background, ready to be opened when you need to check the frequency content of any track.

This low CPU usage ensures that you can keep MultiFreqs active throughout the mixing process without compromising the performance of your DAW. You can open and close the plugin’s interface as needed, making it a flexible tool that doesn’t bog down your system.

Conclusion

In summary, HoRNet MultiFreqs is a powerful and versatile spectrum analyzer that is essential for any mixing and mastering workflow. By providing both analog and digital visualizations, it gives you the tools to analyze your mix from different perspectives, ensuring that you have a clear and accurate view of the frequency spectrum. With the ability to display up to 28 tracks simultaneously, identify frequency conflicts, and analyze mid/side components, MultiFreqs offers a comprehensive set of tools for optimizing your mix. Additionally, its low CPU usage and resizable GUI make it a flexible and efficient plugin that can be used in any production environment. Whether you’re looking to resolve frequency clashes or fine-tune the balance of your mix, HoRNet MultiFreqs is the perfect tool to help you achieve a clean, balanced, and professional sound.