All ten EQ bands of X-EQ have individual in/out buttons and, by clicking/dragging any band's frequency center point in the graphical display or typing in a frequency, you can set any of them between 20Hz to 20kHz with up to +/- 20dB of boost/cut. Bands one and ten are low/high filters with a choice of five topologies for five different tonal characters. Bands two and nine are shelving EQ's with a purposeful degree of under/overshoot at higher Q settings for the familiar sounds produced by certain coveted vintage equalizers. The other six bands are bell-shaped parametric EQ's with a choice of nine different EQ types such as constant Q and proportionate Q--where the Q increases with more boost or cut. The ten bands are switchable between parallel or serial operation to emulate the circuitry of a graphic or program equalizer.

I installed and ran X-EQ in my Pro Tools HD3 Accel rig with great success using the included VST-to-RTAS Wrapper. Because of its endless malleability into any type of equalizer, X-EQ always sounds perfectly suited to any application. The Analyze feature shows, in real-time, a FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) frequency spectral analysis so you can zero in on problem frequencies and correct them fast. I liked the A/B comparison feature for comparing two completely EQ set-ups--such as two different vocal EQs for verses, when my singer sang soft and mellow and choruses where she sang loud and more stridently.