NORTHFX / LISTENING EQ

ISOBAR

DYNAMIC EQ · VERSION 1.0 · WINDOWS VST3

The EQ that listens first.

Play your track and ISOBAR tells you what it hears: a vocal, a kick, an 808, a full mix. Then it shows where the problems of this very recording sit, mud, boxiness, a nasal resonance, harsh peaks, sibilance, pops, and fixes each one with a click. Underneath is a complete 24-band EQ with analog-shaped curves, where every band can be dynamic, work only on the attack or the body, follow the notes, move with the song and add colour.

SENSE finds the problems

Measured on your track: the nasal zone of one singer is at 780 Hz, of another at 1.3 kHz. Hear it, then fix it.

Bands that think

Dynamic, attack or body only, Note Follow for 808 and bass, Motion in time with the song, Tame for resonances.

Mix-wide tools

Match a reference, sketch a curve, let tracks make room for each other and morph between verse and hook EQs.

Enquire to buy ISOBAR

14-day free trial. Full version, no licence key needed. Buy when you are ready.

Hear the difference ↓

Windows 10 / 11 · 64-bit VST3 · Contact NORTHFX for pricing and delivery.

NORTHFX ISOBAR dynamic EQ VST3: the EQ that listens first

ISOBAR / BEFORE AND AFTER

Hear the difference.

Rendered with ISOBAR 1.0, nothing else in the chain. Both versions are matched in loudness, so you hear the tone, not the volume. Switch while it plays.

Lead vocal · SENSE, one click

SENSE heard a vocal and found sub rumble and mud around 200 Hz in this take. FIX: a low cut and a gentle mud cut. The voice opens up, nothing else changes.

Vocal and beat · Make Room

One ISOBAR on the vocal, one on the beat. The beat steps aside in the vocal's range only while the vocal sings. The beat stays full, the vocal comes forward.

808 · Note Follow

The factory preset 808 Even Notes: bands that follow the root and the 2nd harmonic of every note, so low and high notes hit with the same weight.

Use headphones or studio monitors. Laptop speakers hide most of the low end.

HOW IT WORKS

Listen, hear, fix.

It listens.

Play a few seconds. SENSE learns what the source is and builds a long-term picture of it: the tone, the pitch, the hits, and the moments where a region jumps out, like S sounds or plosives.

Eleven source types: vocal, kick, 808, snare, hats, bass, guitar, keys, drum bus, mix bus, or choose it yourself.

You hear it.

Every finding appears on the display with its name and frequency: Mud 226 Hz, Nasal 718 Hz, Sibilance 6.8 kHz. Hold HEAR and you hear only that range, so you decide with your ears, not with a number.

Words, not only Hz: switch the scale to Mud, Boxy, Nasal, Presence, Air and more.

It fixes it.

FIX adds the right band: a narrow cut for a resonance, a gentle wide cut for mud, a dynamic band for sibilance and harsh loud notes, a dynamic low cut for pops. One CLEAN knob sets how strongly all of them work.

Still your EQ: every SENSE band is a normal band you can change.

24 BANDS, NINE SHAPES

Everything a pro EQ needs, and more.

BELL

Boost or cut, Q 0.025 to 40

SHELVES

Low and high, analog-shaped to 20 kHz

CUTS

6 to 96 dB/oct with resonance

NOTCH

Deep and narrow

BAND PASS

Keep only the region

TILT

Brighter or darker in one move

TAME

Finds and cuts resonances live

DYNAMIC

Acts only when it sticks out

ATTACK / BODY

Click without hiss, weight without mush

NOTE FOLLOW

Every 808 note equally heavy

MOTION

Sweeps and wah in time

COLOUR

Warm, tape or tube per band

MID / SIDE

Plus left and right per band

3 PHASE MODES

Zero latency, natural, linear

AUTO GAIN

Compare tone, not loudness

34 PRESETS

Vocal, drums, 808, mix, creative, morph

FOR THE WHOLE MIX

One EQ, many tracks.

Make Room.

Put ISOBAR on several tracks and give each a priority. The beat steps aside in the vocal's range only while the vocal sings, and gets its mids back in the gaps. No routing, no sidechain cables.

Match and Sketch.

Capture a reference song and ISOBAR builds the tonal difference from four to eight real bands. Or draw the curve you want with the mouse and let ISOBAR turn it into bands.

Live match: send the reference to the sidechain and watch the difference follow it.

Morph A to B.

Store one EQ as B, shape A, and blend them: by hand or automation, by song section (verse gets A, hook gets B, learned from the song itself) or by loudness.

Smooth by design: every band glides, bands on one side only fade in and out.

THE INTERFACE

See what you hear.

A large display with an aurora analyzer before and after the EQ, glowing band orbs you drag, findings with their names, the live position of every moving band, and the cuts Make Room is taking right now.

Thirty-four factory presets, user presets, undo and redo, a resizable window and a manual with recipes for vocals, drums, 808 and the mix.

Clean Lead on a lead vocal: SENSE heard a vocal, a dynamic de-esser works on band 4.

Technical specifications

ISOBAR 1.0 compatibility and processing
Format	VST3 (64-bit)
System	Windows 10 / 11, x64
Channels	Mono or stereo, stereo sidechain input
Bands	24; Bell, Low / High Shelf, Low / High Cut 6–96 dB/oct, Notch, Band Pass, Tilt, Tame; 10 Hz – 30 kHz
Per band	Stereo, left, right, mid, side; dynamic with auto threshold; attack / body; note follow; motion; colour
Phase modes	Zero latency, natural phase (2× oversampled), linear phase (4 resolutions)
Analysis	SENSE (11 sources), Match, Sketch, Tame, Make Room (up to 32 instances)
Presets	34 factory presets, user presets
Sample rates	44.1 to 192 kHz
Interface	1280 × 800, scalable from 60 to 150 %
Licence	One person, two computers; 14-day free trial

Enquire to buy ISOBAR

ISOBAR / FAQ

Questions, answered.

What is ISOBAR?

ISOBAR is a 24-band dynamic EQ plugin (VST3, Windows) that listens to your track first. Its SENSE analysis recognises the source and finds the problems of that very recording, such as mud, boxiness, a nasal resonance, harsh peaks, sibilance and pops, and fixes each one with a click.

Can ISOBAR find nasal or harsh frequencies in a vocal automatically?

Yes. SENSE measures the vocal while it plays and shows each finding with a name and its exact frequency, for example Nasal at 780 Hz or Sibilance at 6.8 kHz. Hold HEAR to listen to only that range, then press FIX. Sibilance and harsh notes get dynamic bands that only act when the problem actually occurs.

Is ISOBAR a dynamic EQ?

Yes. Every one of the 24 bands can be dynamic, with an automatic threshold that learns from the signal. Bands can also work only on the attack or only on the body of a sound, follow the pitch of the notes (Note Follow) or move in time with the song (Motion).

Which DAWs does ISOBAR work in?

ISOBAR is a 64-bit VST3 plugin for Windows 10 and 11. It runs in VST3 hosts such as FL Studio, Ableton Live, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper and Bitwig Studio. There is no macOS or AAX version at the moment.

Does ISOBAR add latency?

Not in the default Zero Latency mode. Natural Phase (2× oversampled) and Linear Phase (four resolutions) add latency, which ISOBAR reports to your DAW so the track stays in time.

What does Make Room do?

Put ISOBAR on several tracks and give each a priority. A track with lower priority steps aside in the range of a more important track, only where and while both are loud. The beat makes room for the vocal while it sings and gets its mids back in the gaps, with no sidechain routing.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. The 14-day trial is the full version with every feature and no licence key. When you buy, you get a licence key that activates ISOBAR on up to two of your computers. No subscription.