How to use Grade · The manual

At a glance MT-02

Grade is a full parametric EQ: up to 24 bands, eight filter types, dynamic EQ on any gain band, per-band mid/side routing, and both zero-latency and linear-phase paths. You work on the curve itself rather than a bank of numbered knobs.

The display is honest about what the maths is doing. It shows high-frequency cramping at 1x oversampling and shows it gone at 4x or in linear phase, so what you see is what the filter is.

On the canvas Signal, not screenshot

click empty canvas     add a band   type from where you click:
                                    cuts at the edges, shelves low/high,
                                    bells in the middle
drag a node            move it      freq (x)  ·  gain (y)
scroll / right-drag    reshape      Q
hover a node           inspect      a small card, with a live Q mini-slider
double-click a node    remove it    delete the band

Set up From insert to first sound

01 Insert Grade on the track or bus you want to shape. It is an audio effect: no routing to think about.
02 Click an empty part of the canvas to add a band. The type is inferred from where you click: cuts at the far edges, shelves toward the low and high edges, a bell in the middle.
03 Drag the node to set frequency and gain. Scroll on it, or right-drag, for Q. Double-click a node to remove it.
04 Set the display range at the side (±3, 6, 12 or 30 dB) to suit the job, tighter for mastering, wider for mixing.

The controls Every parameter

Per band

Up to 24 bands in series. Select a band to open its sheet at the bottom of the display. The filters are the RBJ cookbook biquads, with steep cuts cascaded at Butterworth Q so the corner stays flat.

TYPE 8 types: Low cut, low shelf, bell, notch, band pass, high shelf, high cut and tilt shelf.
FREQ 20 Hz … 20 kHz: The band’s centre or corner frequency, on the log axis.
GAIN -30 … +30 dB: Cut or boost, on the shelf, bell and tilt types.
Q 0.025 … 40: Width. On a notch or band pass it deepens and narrows the band rather than setting a skirt slope.
SLOPE 6 … 96 dB/oct + Brickwall: The rolloff of the cut and shelf filters: 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 72 or 96 dB per octave, plus an order-32 Brickwall.
ROUTING Stereo · L · R · Mid · Side: Which part of the signal the band works on. Mid and Side need the master M/S toggle, which ships on.
SOLO on / off: Auditions the band’s frequency region so you can hear what it is working on. A listening aid, not a way to solo the processing.

Per-band dynamics

On any gain band, switch Dynamic on and the band moves with the signal. A fresh band starts gentle: threshold -24 dB, ratio 2, 15 ms attack, 150 ms release.

DYNAMIC on / off: Arms the band’s envelope follower, detected from a band-pass around its own frequency.
THR -60 … 0 dB: The level the follower reacts around.
RATIO 1 … 20: How hard it moves once past the threshold.
ATK / REL 0.1 … 200 ms / 5 … 1000 ms: How quickly the move starts and how quickly it recovers.
KNEE 0 … 24 dB: How gradually the ratio comes in around the threshold.
RANGE -30 … +30 dB: How far the gain can travel, and which way: a negative range rides the gain down, a positive range rides it up.
EXT on / off: Detect from the external sidechain bus instead of the band’s own input.

Global

OUTPUT -24 … +24 dB: Level trim after the EQ.
AUTO GAIN on / off: Loudness compensation derived from the static curve, so a boost does not just read as louder.
PHASE Zero Latency · Linear Phase: Zero Latency is a minimum-phase IIR path. Linear Phase renders the composite response to a 4096-tap FIR for mastering moves, rebuilt on a background thread so the audio thread never waits, and reports its latency to the host; dynamic bands stay minimum phase by design.
OVERSAMPLING 1x · 2x · 4x: Guards against cramping near Nyquist. Push it up when a high boost needs to stay clean; the curve shows the difference.
M/S on / off: Enables the mid and side routings so bands can be placed across the stereo image. On by default.
ANALYZER / VIEW menu: The pre and post spectrum with its resolution (2048, 4096, 8192), speed (Slow, Medium, Fast), range (-60, -90 or -120 dB) and tilt (0, 3, 4.5 or 6 dB per octave; 4.5 draws pink noise flat), plus the piano strip. FREEZE snaps the spectrum at any moment.
INIT button: Resets the whole plugin to factory state, as one undoable step.
PRESETS 5 factory: A menu of five starting points: Vocal Air, Kick Punch, De-Mud, Telephone and Tape Tilt. Each applies as a single undoable step, a place to start rather than a library to manage.

Fast paths

Ways to build a curve quickly. None of them add a control you cannot reach by hand.

SKETCH draw: Draw the curve left to right and bands appear as the stroke leaves the 0 dB line, shaped as you go. Move back over what you drew to erase and redraw.
FREEZE grab: Freeze the spectrum, then click a detected peak to drop a band right on it.
MATCH + / -: Learn your input against a reference on the sidechain. Plus fits your bands toward the reference; minus carves space where the reference is loud, to keep two sources out of each other’s way.
A / B two slots: Two independent curves with their own undo history. B stays flat until you copy A into it. Esc deselects, Delete removes the selected band.

First five minutes A short walkthrough

01 Insert Grade and play the track.
02 Click the canvas where you hear a problem to drop a band; the click position picks the type.
03 Drag to taste, then scroll on the node to tighten or widen Q.
04 For a frequency that only misbehaves on peaks, turn that band’s Dynamic on and set a negative RANGE so it dips only when pushed.
05 A/B against a flat B to check you improved it, then bounce. In Linear Phase, Grade reports both its latency and its FIR tail, so the render lines up and the ringout is not cut short.

Recipes Named workflows

Surgical de-harsh

01 Insert Grade, open VIEW and turn the analyzer on.
02 Hit FREEZE while the harsh moment plays, then click the peak marker to place a bell on it.
03 Pull it down a couple of dB, tighten Q, and switch the band to Dynamic with a negative RANGE so it only ducks when the harshness returns.

Mid/side master polish

01 Turn the M/S toggle on.
02 Add a gentle high shelf routed to Side for air, and a narrow Side cut low down to firm up the centre.
03 Switch PHASE to Linear Phase and lift OVERSAMPLING if a top-end move shows cramping on the curve.

Carve space between two tracks

01 Put Grade on the track you want to sit back, and route the other source to its sidechain.
02 Run MATCH in minus mode to learn where the reference is loud.
03 Accept the suggested cuts, then trim by hand until the two stop fighting.

Good to know The fine print

The curve tells the truth. It shows Nyquist cramping at 1x and shows it resolve at 4x or in linear phase, so you are reading the real filter, not a flattering picture of it. One place it simplifies: it sums every band the same way whatever its routing, so a Mid-only bell draws like a Stereo one. The routing is real in the audio, not yet in the picture.
SOLO auditions a band’s region so you can hear what you are working on. It is a listening aid, not a way to solo the processing.
Linear Phase adds latency and reports it, along with the FIR tail, to the host. The internal bypass is latency-compensated with a short equal-gain crossfade, so an A/B stays lined up sample for sample and a bounce keeps the ringout.
Slope on a notch or band pass is not a dB-per-octave skirt. On those two types the setting deepens and narrows the band.
Every plugin in the suite maps the same way: click the MIDI chip in the header (it reads MIDI, MIDI · N, or MIDI · OFF) and the editor dims into learn mode with a balloon on every mappable control, plus ENABLE MIDI per instance, ALL PARAMETERS..., CLEAR ALL and DONE (Esc works too). One CC drives one parameter, on any channel, saved the moment you map it; switches and short lists step relative to the knob. The window also resizes from its corner.