BruceJames.studio
Planar
Per-band spectral balancing that corrects toward a target curve as you play
ANALYSE / TARGET / CORRECT
- 01Overview and the core idea02
- 02How it works03
- 03Installation and authorization04
- 04Quick start — balancing a bus05
- 05Interface tour06
- 06Parameter reference — target shaping07
- 07Parameter reference — dynamics and output08
- 08Phase modes and the display09
- 09Workflows and recipes10
- 10FAQ and troubleshooting11
- 11License and contact12
01 · Overview
Balance the spectrum without drawing a curve
Most material drifts from an even tonal balance — a build of low-mid energy here, a thin top there. Correcting it by hand means staring at an analyzer and drawing EQ moves that stop being right the moment the arrangement changes.
Planar does it continuously. It analyses the signal one frequency band at a time, compares each band against a target curve, and nudges it toward where the target says it should sit. The reference is a pink-style spectrum — flat energy per octave — anchored to the running level of the bands that are actually above threshold, so quiet bands never drag the balance around.
In one line
Place Planar on a bus, set a threshold so the meter shows the body of the material above the line, and it pulls the spectrum toward a balanced target as the music plays.
Four ideas explain almost everything Planar does: the target, the anchor, the per-band correction, and the gate that decides which bands move.
01A target, not a curve you draw
Planar measures the signal's tonal balance and corrects it toward a target curve. At its default the target is a pink-style spectrum — equal energy per octave — which is the balance most full-range material is judged against. You never draw an EQ shape by hand; you tell Planar what "balanced" should mean and it does the moving.
02Anchored to what matters
The target is not a fixed line in absolute dB. It is anchored to the running average level of the bands that are above threshold — the parts of the spectrum that actually carry energy right now. Quiet, sub-threshold bands are metered but excluded from the anchor, so a near-silent top octave or a momentary gap cannot pull the reference off and trigger correction where none is wanted.
03One band at a time
The spectrum is split into analysis bands — you choose how many. Each band is compared to where the target says it should sit and nudged toward it, independently. A band sitting above the target is cut; a band below it is lifted; a band already on target is left alone. The display tints each band by what happened to it.
04Gated, so it only acts where it should
A per-band threshold and knee decide which bands are eligible for correction. Bands below the threshold are metered but not touched; bands above it are corrected, fading in across the knee rather than switching hard. A target-shaping EQ section — tilt, shelves, a bell, and the window edges — biases what the target asks for, and the dynamics and coefficient controls decide how fast and how firmly Planar follows it.
Not a static EQ
Planar's correction tracks the program material in real time. The target-shaping controls set the goal; the correction itself is always live, gated by threshold and shaped by the detector. Turning a shelf does not move the output directly — it moves the target the corrector is aiming at.
03 · Setup
Installation and authorization
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Planar runs on Windows in VST3 and CLAP, and on macOS in VST3, AU, and CLAP. Installation places the plugin in the standard system folders that compatible DAWs scan automatically.
Install
- Close your DAW before installing so it rescans plugins on the next launch.
- Run the installer and accept the license agreement. On Windows the VST3 build installs to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 with the CLAP build alongside it; on macOS the AU build installs to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components and VST3 to /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3.
- Launch your DAW and let it rescan. If Planar does not appear, trigger a manual rescan or add the folders above to your plugin paths.
- Insert Planar on a stem, group, or mix bus — anywhere you want the tonal balance pulled toward a target. It is equally at home on a single full-range element.
Authorization
Open the settings gear and choose Manage license, or use the AUTHORIZE button shown when the plugin is unlicensed, then enter the license key from your purchase confirmation. Once accepted, the key is stored and applies to every instance on that machine. Software activations are not part of a normal file backup, so after rebuilding or replacing a system drive you will need to reactivate; this is expected and not a fault in the plugin.
Demo mode
Before authorization Planar runs in demo. Use START DEMO from the license panel to begin the trial. It processes audio normally but introduces periodic brief silences, which lets you evaluate the correction fully before purchase without committing the sound to a render. The AUTHORIZE, PURCHASE, and START DEMO buttons disappear once the plugin is licensed.
Updates and UI scaling
Planar checks brucejames.studio/version.txt and shows an indicator in the settings menu when a newer build is available. Updates install over the existing version and preserve your presets and project state. The plugin window is 1980 × 1440 px at 100 % and scales to 50 %, 75 %, or 100 % from the settings gear.
04 · Get going
Quick start
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Automatic tonal balancing on a bus, start to finish, in under five minutes. Leave the target shaping at its defaults for the first pass and let the pink target do the work.
Insert onMix or stem busFull-range program material
→
PlanarAnalyse + correctPer-band toward the target
→
OutputBalanced spectrumMixed dry/wet to taste
- Insert Planar on the bus you want balanced and leave Phase ON (linear phase) for mixing and mastering.
- Set Bands to around 32. More bands give finer resolution at higher CPU; 32 is a good neutral starting point for a full mix.
- Set the Threshold so the meter shows the body of the material sitting above the red line, with only the quietest tails below it. Everything above the line is eligible for correction.
- Play the section. Watch the output columns: red where a band was boosted, blue where it was cut, green where it was left alone. The yellow correction line shows the gain being applied; the cyan line is the target it aims at.
- Set Mix to taste. 100 % is fully corrected; 50–80 % eases the balancing in. Toggle Bypass to A/B against the uncorrected spectrum — the time-aligned path keeps the comparison honest.
Recommended starting patch
Bands ≈ 32 · Phase ON (linear) · Threshold set so the program body sits above the line · target EQ neutral · Mix 50–100 %. A balanced default for most full-range busses before you bias the target.
Tracking instead of mixing?
Switch Phase OFF for the minimum-phase path. It drops the FFT latency for low-latency monitoring at the cost of linear phase — see the Phase modes section.
05 · Reference
Interface tour
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A header strip of mode buttons and the LCD readout, a large read-only spectrum display in the middle, and two rows of knobs grouped into labelled wells — brass for target shaping, pink for dynamics and output.
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1WordmarkPlanar — Spectral Balance.
2BypassMutes correction, keeps the latency path time-aligned.
3NullOutputs corrected minus dry — hear only what Planar adds.
4PhaseLinear phase (on) or minimum phase (off).
5FFT size4096 / 8192 / 16384, linear-phase only.
6LCD readoutLast-touched parameter's name and value.
7Settings gearUI size, updates, and license panel.
8Spectrum displayPer-band input vs output, correction, target, threshold. Read-only.
9WindowStart and End edges of the corrected range.
10GlobalTilt and LR Link.
11Low ShelfFreq and Boost on the target.
12MidFreq, Gain, and Q bell on the target.
13High ShelfFreq and Cut on the target.
14DynamicsThreshold, Knee, and Clamp.
15TransientIgnore and Release.
16CoefficientAttack, Release, and Recover.
17OutputBands, Trim, and Mix.
Two knob colours, two jobs
The brass row shapes what the target asks for; the pink row decides how the correction behaves. The cap colour is the function-group code throughout the plugin.
06 · Reference
Parameter reference
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The brass row — target shaping. These controls bias what the corrector aims at. At their neutral defaults the target EQ is transparent and the target is a pink curve.
Window — active range
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Start (HPF) | 20–2000 Hz | Low edge of the corrected range. Bands below this are left untouched, so you can keep the sub out of the correction. |
| End (LPF) | 1k–20k Hz | High edge of the corrected range. Bands above this are left untouched, so the very top can be excluded from balancing. |
Global
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Tilt | 0–100% | Spectral slope of the target. 0 = pink (flat per octave). Higher tilts the target darker, pivoting around ~630 Hz so overall level holds. |
| LR Link | 0–100% | Blends each channel's correction toward the L/R average. 0 = independent (can move the stereo image); 100 = identical correction on both channels (image-safe). |
Target EQ — Low Shelf · Mid · High Shelf
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Low Shelf Freq | 20–600 Hz | Corner of the low shelf applied to the target. |
| Low Shelf Boost | −12–+12 dB | Lifts or dips the low end of the target — tells the corrector to keep more or less low-end energy. |
| Mid Freq | 100–2000 Hz | Centre of the target bell. |
| Mid Gain | −12–+12 dB | Bell gain on the target. |
| Mid Q | 0.1–10 | Bell width and steepness. |
| High Shelf Freq | 2k–20k Hz | Corner of the high shelf applied to the target. |
| High Shelf Cut | −12–0 dB | Pulls the high end of the target down. Cut-only — useful for a darker, more analog-leaning target. |
Shaping the target, not the output
The shelves and bell move the target curve, not the audio directly. A High Shelf Cut plus some Tilt biases the corrector toward a darker balance; a Low Shelf Boost tells it to preserve more bottom. The correction still tracks the program — you are changing what "balanced" means for this source.
06 · Reference
Parameter reference
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The pink row — dynamics and output. These decide which bands are corrected, how fast, how firmly, and how much of the result reaches the mix.
Dynamics
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Threshold | −60–0 dB | Per-band level above which correction engages. Bands below it are metered but not corrected. |
| Knee | 0–24 dB | Soft-knee width below the threshold; correction fades in quadratically across the knee instead of switching hard. |
| Clamp | 0–100% | When a corrected band would land above both the target reference and its own dry level, pulls the gain back toward dry. 0 = off, 100 = full. |
Transient
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Ignore | 0–100% | Transient Bypass — on a detected transient, momentarily backs off the correction so the hit punches through uncorrected. |
| Release | 20–1000 ms | Recovery time of the transient duck. It opens fast (fixed) and releases over this time — tune it out of the rhythmic pumping zone. |
Coefficient — correction speed
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Atk | 0.1–500 ms | How fast the per-band RMS detector tracks rising level. Floored per band so low frequencies stay clean. |
| Rel | 1–2000 ms | How fast the detector tracks falling level. |
| Recover | 0–2000 ms | Glide time on the applied correction gain itself, independent of the detector. 0 = snappy, higher = lazier. |
Output
| Control | Range | Behaviour |
|---|
| Bands | 4–128 | Number of analysis and correction bands. More = finer resolution, more CPU. |
| Trim | −12–+12 dB | Shifts the target reference level up or down. |
| Mix | 0–100% | Dry/wet blend at the output. 100 % = fully corrected. |
Header controls
| Control | Type | Behaviour |
|---|
| Bypass | toggle | Mutes the correction but keeps the latency path running, so a bypassed A/B stays time-aligned. |
| Null | toggle | Outputs corrected − dry, so you hear only what Planar adds. Tracks Mix — at Mix 0 it is silent. |
| Phase | toggle | On = linear phase (FFT, adds latency, for mix/master); off = minimum phase (IIR, low latency, for tracking). |
| FFT Size | 4096 / 8192 / 16384 | Linear-phase only. Larger = better low-end resolution, more latency. |
07 · Deep dive
Phase modes and the display
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The Phase button chooses the processing path; the display shows you the result of the correction in real time, band by band.
The two phase modes
LINEAR
Phase on · FFT
Default
An FFT path that is phase-coherent and artifact-free, for mixing and mastering. It adds latency equal to the FFT size, and a built-in Transient Bypass keeps it from pre-ringing transients. The FFT-size selector is active only in this mode — larger sizes give better low-end resolution at more latency.
An IIR filterbank path — low latency and punchy, for tracking and low-latency monitoring. Phase is not preserved, but the correction reacts immediately. Pair it with a faster Attack and Release and a moderate Transient Ignore to keep drum transients intact while still balancing the sustain.
Reading the display
For each band the left half of its column is the input level and the right half is the post-correction output. Output columns are tinted by what happened: red where the band was boosted above its input, blue where it was cut below it, green where it was left unchanged. Two lines overlay the bars and a gated threshold sits across them.
target shape
threshold −18 dB
Boost — band lifted above input
Cut — band pulled below input
Same — band on target
Correction — gain applied
Target shape — what it aims at
Threshold — gate, with knee above
Schematic. The yellow correction line traces the gain Planar is applying; the cyan line is the target it aims at. The red threshold line — with the shaded knee region above it — marks the gate: bands whose energy falls below it are metered but left uncorrected. The display is read-only; there is no mouse interaction on it.
08 · Practice
Workflows and recipes
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Starting points, not rules. Set the window and threshold first, then bias the target, then decide how fast the correction should follow.
01Automatic tonal balancing on a bus
Place Planar on a mix or stem bus and leave Phase ON. Set Bands to around 32, the Threshold so the body of the material shows above the line, and Mix to taste — 50–100 %. Planar pulls the spectrum toward the pink target without a single manual EQ move.
Phase ONBands ≈ 32Threshold body above lineMix 50–100%
02Shaping what "balanced" means
Use the target EQ and Tilt to bias the target away from flat pink. A small High Shelf Cut plus some Tilt yields a darker, more analog-leaning balance; a Low Shelf Boost tells the corrector to keep more low-end energy. The Mid bell nudges a single region toward or away from the target.
Tilt upHigh Shelf Cut smallLow Shelf Boost to taste
03Low-latency tracking
Switch Phase OFF for the minimum-phase IIR path. Use a faster Attack and Release and a moderate Transient Ignore so drum transients stay intact while the sustain is still balanced. No FFT latency to compensate.
Phase OFFAtk/Rel fastIgnore moderate
04Keeping transients intact
On drums and percussive busses, raise Transient Ignore and tune Release so the correction ducks under each hit and recovers between them. Steady correction would dull the attack; this lets the transient punch through uncorrected and the balancing act only on the sustain.
Ignore upRelease out of pumping zone
05Monitoring what you're adding
Enable Null and solo the track to hear only the correction signal. It confirms the effect is artifact-free and shows exactly which bands are moving. Because Null tracks Mix, lowering Mix lowers what you hear; at Mix 0 it is silent.
Null onSolo the trackMix up to hear it
06Image-safe correction
When correcting a stereo bus you do not want widened or narrowed, raise LR Link toward 100 %. Both channels then receive identical per-band gain, so the correction balances the tone without moving the stereo image.
LR Link → 100%
09 · Support
FAQ and troubleshooting
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Is Planar an EQ I draw curves into?
No. You never draw a curve. You set a target — a pink spectrum biased by Tilt, the shelves, and the Mid bell — and Planar corrects each band toward it automatically as the program plays. The target-shaping controls move the goal, not the output directly.
Why isn't the quiet top of my mix being corrected?
Bands below the Threshold are metered but not touched, and the target anchors only to bands above the line — so sub-threshold energy is deliberately left alone. Lower the Threshold, or widen the knee, if you want those bands eligible for correction.
The FFT-size selector is greyed out.
FFT size is linear-phase only. Turn Phase ON to enable it. In minimum-phase mode there is no FFT, so the selector has nothing to set.
How much latency does Planar add?
In linear-phase mode it adds latency equal to the FFT size — larger sizes mean more latency and better low-end resolution. Your DAW's delay compensation handles it. In minimum-phase mode the latency is low, which is why that path suits tracking and monitoring.
The correction is pumping in time with the music.
Slow the detector with a longer Coefficient Release or raise Recover so the applied gain glides rather than snaps. If it pumps on hits specifically, raise Transient Ignore and move the Transient Release out of the rhythmic zone.
It is boosting bands louder than they ever were.
Raise Clamp. When a corrected band would land above both the target reference and its own dry level, Clamp pulls the gain back toward dry — 0 is off, 100 is full. Trimming the target down slightly also helps.
Correcting my stereo bus is moving the image.
Raise LR Link toward 100 %. At 0 each channel is corrected independently, which can shift the image; at 100 both channels get identical per-band gain, so the balance changes without the width.
How do I hear exactly what Planar is doing?
Enable Null to monitor corrected minus dry — only the correction signal. Solo the track and you will hear, and see in the display, precisely which bands are moving. Null tracks Mix, so raise Mix to hear it.
CPU is high with a lot of bands.
Band count drives the cost. Lower Bands for less CPU and coarser resolution, or raise it only where you need finer correction. A smaller FFT size in linear-phase mode also lowers the load.
10 · Legal
License and contact
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License
Use of Planar is governed by the end user license agreement included with the distribution as license.txt. Please refer to that file for the full terms. Your purchase authorizes installation under the conditions described there.
Included files
The distribution archive contains the installer along with readme.txt for installation notes, CHANGELOG.md for version history, and license.txt for the agreement. The readme and changelog are the canonical source for anything installation-related.
Before you write in
Including your DAW, its version, your operating system, and the plugin format you are running helps support resolve issues faster.
Planar
Per-band spectral balancing · macOS and Windows · VST3, AU, and CLAP
Generated for Planar 1.0.0 — verify controls against the plugin.