AUD · Audio tools

Audio Tilt EQ

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Settings are written to the URL as you change them. Nothing differs from the defaults yet.

Trade low end for high end with one control. A tilt runs a low shelf and a high shelf from the same pivot frequency, moving one down by exactly as much as it moves the other up.

Tilt

The tilt runs from -12 dB to +12 dB in tenths. Positive is brighter: the top rises and the bottom falls. Negative is darker.

Half the amount goes each way. At +8 dB the low shelf sits 4 dB down and the high shelf sits 4 dB up, so 100 Hz and 8 kHz end up 8 dB apart. Reading the control as the difference between the ends is what makes it comparable against a shelf on the equalizer.

Pivot

The pivot is where the two shelves cross, from 200 Hz to 4 kHz on a log scale. Frequencies near it barely move whatever the tilt is set to.

Putting the pivot at 250 Hz leaves the bass mostly untouched and turns the control into a treble balance. Putting it at 3 kHz does the opposite: the low and low-mid range does the moving and the top stays roughly where it was.

Tilt vs a shelf

Reach for a shelf when one end of the spectrum is wrong and the other is right. Reach for a tilt when the balance between them is wrong, which is the more common complaint about a finished mix, a recorded lecture, or a transfer from an old source.

A tilt also holds its shape as you move it. Two shelves set by hand drift apart in level as you adjust them one at a time.

Example: a dull phone recording

Pivot 900 Hz, tilt +5 dB.

The low-mid weight that a phone microphone adds comes down 2.5 dB, consonants come up 2.5 dB, and nothing in the middle of the voice moves. A single shelf lifting the top would have left the muddiness underneath it.

Frequently Asked Questions

The equalizer gives you three bands you set separately. Tilt gives you one number that moves both ends of the spectrum in opposite directions at once, which is the right control when the whole file reads as too dark or too bright rather than wrong in one region.

It cuts 3 dB below the pivot and lifts 3 dB above it, so the two ends of the spectrum end up 6 dB apart. The number on the control is the difference between the ends, not the boost applied to one of them.

1 kHz is the usual place, because it sits near the middle of where most instruments and voices put their energy. Move it down toward 200 Hz to leave the low end alone and act mostly on the top, or up toward 4 kHz to do the reverse.

Yes, on most material. Cutting the low end takes away more energy than lifting the top adds back, so a positive tilt usually reads quieter. Follow it with a gain step if you are comparing against the original.

No. Both shelves reduce to an exact passthrough at 0 dB, and the step skips them entirely, so the samples come out identical to the ones that went in.

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