LAP PEQ15

A complete channel strip built from circuit models: a five-band parametric EQ with a full VCA dynamics row-noise gate, downward expander, and a soft-knee compressor/limiter.

This is not an emulation. Every section is a component-level model of a real analogue circuit, solved from the schematic: the EQ filters are computed node by node, the compressor's soft knee falls out of a diode's exponential I/V characteristic sitting in its control path, and the gate closes with a constant-slope ramp because that is exactly what a constant current source pulling on a timing capacitor does. Where analogue behaviour has a shape, that shape is in the model, not drawn in afterwards.

What It Does One plugin, one signal path, in this order:

Noise gate – expander – EQ – compressor, with the gate, expander, and compressor each switchable OFF/PRE/POST, so any of them can also sit after the EQ. The whole path runs inside an oversampled block (1×/2×/4×), so fast gain changes don't fold back into the audible band. The two channels are linked and driven from one set of controls.

Noise Gate

A comparator gate, not a soft one: it opens nearly instantly so transients never get clipped, holds open for an adjustable time (with every new threshold crossing restarting the hold), and closes with a constant-rate ramp set in dB per second. MIX blends in a dry path, which in practice works as gate depth: at 90%, the gate never closes more than about 20 dB. The detector can be keyed from the side-chain input, and the KNEE meter shows where the signal sits relative to the threshold, so setting the gate is a matter of watching one column of LEDs.

Downward Expander

The compressor circuit with its control path mirrored below the threshold: gain falls away with the same soft knee the compressor uses above it. Gentler than the gate for cleaning bleed and hiss without chopping decay tails. RANGE caps how deep it goes; MIX lifts the floor further.

Parametric EQ

Five fully parametric bands, each with a three-decade frequency range switch, plus switchable high-pass and low-pass filters. The filters are the modelled circuit-their curves, interactions, and extremes behave like the hardware, not like a textbook biquad.

Compressor/Limiter

An RMS-detected, feed-forward VCA compressor with a genuinely soft knee and the fixed, program-friendly time behaviour of its analogue control path. Ratios reach from gentle levelling to a 51:1 brickwall, MIX gives parallel compression, and the detector can listen to the sidechain input.