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Open the Frameless Editor to Add / Remove / Tune Bands on Either Side

The frameless editor is where you do all active EQ work: adding and removing bands, dragging them to new frequencies and gains, adjusting Q, switching filter types, and selecting a filter family. The applet tiles are view-only; this floating window is the editing surface.

Before you start

  • The Aetherial Audio (TXDSP) parent container must be visible in the applet panel.
  • The TX or RX EQ stage you want to edit must exist in the CHAIN widget. If the stage is not yet in the chain, add it there first.

Steps

  1. Locate the CHAIN widget for the side you want to edit (TX or RX).
  2. Double-click the EQ stage in the CHAIN widget for that side.
  3. Double-clicking the TX EQ stage opens the editor titled Aetherial Parametric EQ — TX.
  4. Double-clicking the RX EQ stage opens the editor titled Aetherial Parametric EQ — RX.
  5. The frameless editor window appears at its default size (900 × 520 px). Its title bar shows which side is active.
  6. To add a band, use the icon row along the top of the canvas area. Click the relevant band-type icon to insert a band at a default position.
  7. To remove a band, select it in the canvas or parameter row and use the remove control in the icon row.
  8. To tune a band, drag it directly on the canvas:
  9. For peak and shelf bands: drag to adjust frequency and gain simultaneously.
  10. For HP/LP bands: drag to adjust frequency and Q.
  11. Hold Shift while dragging to adjust Q alone.
  12. Click a band's icon to cycle through filter types.
  13. To change the filter family applied to HP/LP cascade math, open the drop-down in the top strip and select one of: Butterworth, Chebyshev, Bessel, or Elliptic.
  14. To freeze the analyzer's peak trace while tuning, click Peak Hold in the editor header strip. The button turns amber when active. Click it again to resume normal decay (~10 dB/sec).
  15. To discard all edits and return to defaults, click Reset. This restores the default 10-band count and parameters and sets the filter family back to Butterworth. The reset saves immediately.
  16. To adjust a band's parameters numerically, right‑click any cell in the Parameter text row and choose Edit.... Type the desired frequency, gain, or Q value in the dialog that appears. The change is applied immediately and saved.
  17. To set the Output Fader value numerically, click the dB readout at the bottom of the fader. The readout becomes an inline text field showing the bare number. Type the desired dB value (e.g., -6.0) and press Enter or click elsewhere to commit. Press Escape to cancel and revert to the previous value.
  18. To display a reference curve on the canvas, choose a preset from the Reference curve combo box in the editor header strip. The chosen normalized magnitude trace (amber, semi-transparent) is overlaid on the canvas behind the EQ band curves, giving you a visual target to shape your parametric EQ toward. Available presets:
    • Off — no reference curve displayed (default).
    • AT&T 1959 — Bell Labs "optimum transmission frequency response for speech" with a +5 dB presence peak at 2.5 kHz, rolled off below 300 Hz and above 3.4 kHz.
    • Heil DX — Bob Heil's published recommendation for maximum talk power in pile-ups, with a sharper +6 dB peak at 2.7 kHz.
    • Astatic D-104 — classic "lollipop" crystal mic response, extremely peaky around 3 kHz with deep low-end rolloff.
    • Shure 444 — classic broadcast-style desk mic, broader response with gentler presence boost.
    • Heil HC-5 — modern dynamic SSB mic target shape with mid-presence boost peaking ~3 kHz at +5 dB.
  19. To close the editor, use the close button in the editor's frameless title bar. The applet tiles continue showing the summed curve for their respective sides.

What each control does

Control What it does Default
Canvas (drag — peak/shelf) Adjusts frequency and gain for the selected band Per-band defaults
Canvas (drag — HP/LP) Adjusts frequency and Q for the selected band Per-band defaults
Canvas (Shift + drag) Adjusts Q only for the selected band —
Band icon (click) Cycles the selected band through available filter types —
Filter family drop-down Sets the math topology for HP/LP cascades: Butterworth (maximally flat passband), Chebyshev (steeper transition, 1 dB passband ripple), Bessel (linear phase, gentler rolloff), Elliptic (steepest transition, ripple in both bands). Persisted per path as ClientEqTxFilterFamily / ClientEqRxFilterFamily. Butterworth
Peak Hold Freezes the analyzer's per-bin peak-hold trace at its highest observed level. Located in the editor header strip. Turns amber when checked. Toggle off to resume normal decay (~10 dB/sec). Applies only to the floating editor — not the docked applet tile. Off (unchecked)
Reset Restores all bands to their default values, resets band count to the default 10 bands, sets filter family to Butterworth, and saves immediately. Tooltip: "Reset all bands to default values". Located in the editor header strip. —
Output Fader Vertical combined fader + level meter on the right edge of the floating editor. Drag to set post-EQ master gain; scroll wheel adjusts in 0.5 dB steps; double-click resets to 0 dB. Click the dB readout at the bottom to edit the value numerically: type a dB value (e.g., -6.0) and press Enter to commit (clamped to −36 to +12 dB); press Escape to cancel. The level bar behind the handle shows the smoothed post-EQ peak in real time with the same green-amber-red gradient as the Tube level meter. Persisted separately per path as ClientEqTxMasterGain / ClientEqRxMasterGain. Range: −36 to +12 dB. Located in the floating editor only — not in the docked applet tile. 0 dB
Smoothing Applies fractional-octave power-averaging to the analyzer trace for display — does not affect EQ math. Lower fraction = smoother (⅓ is most smoothed; 1/96 is effectively off). Smoothing is applied after the peak-hold update each frame, so both the live analyzer trace and the peak-hold trace are smoothed for display. Shared between TX and RX editors. Persisted as ClientEqSmoothingFraction. Tooltip: "Fractional-octave smoothing applied to the analyzer trace. Lower fraction = smoother (⅓ = most, 1/96 = off). Affects display only — EQ math is unchanged." Located in the editor header strip (floating editor only). Off (1/96)
Filter-type icon row A row of 8 custom-painted icons (one per band slot) at the top of the editor canvas area. Each icon draws the current filter shape (peak bell, shelf ramp, HP/LP slope) in its band's palette colour. Click an icon to cycle through the filter types for that band; clicking also selects the band, highlighting its handle on the canvas and its column in the parameter row. Located in the floating editor only. Icons dim to 35 % opacity when the band is bypassed. —
Parameter text row A row of 8 text columns (one per band slot) below the canvas showing each band's Freq, Gain, and Q values. Values update live during canvas drags. Clicking a column selects that band. Right‑click any cell and choose Edit... to enter a numeric value directly; the change is applied and saved immediately. Located in the floating editor only. Each column has a transparent background so it does not bleed a dark fill over the band-plan strip at the bottom of the canvas directly above; labels are bottom-aligned within their column. —
Filter cutoff guide lines (TX / RX) Dashed yellow vertical lines overlaid on the canvas at the radio's current TX low/high filter cutoff (TX tile) or RX passband edges (RX tile). These lines are updated automatically whenever the radio reports a filter change. Hovering near a line changes the cursor to a horizontal-resize arrow. Dragging a line in the editor moves the radio's corresponding filter cutoff in real time. —
Reference curve Drop-down combo box in the editor header strip that selects a normalized magnitude trace to overlay on the canvas behind the EQ band curves. The trace is drawn in amber with semi-transparency, providing a visual target to shape your parametric EQ toward. Presets include AT&T 1959, Heil DX, Astatic D-104, Shure 444, and Heil HC-5. Selecting Off hides the reference curve. Persisted separately per path as ClientEqTxReferenceCurve / ClientEqRxReferenceCurve. Tooltip: "Display a reference target-curve overlay. Choose a mic or speech-response preset as a visual guide, or Off to hide it. Affects display only — not applied to audio." Set to Off by default. Off

Tips

  • The editor is a single shared window reused for both sides. Opening it on the TX side while it is already showing the RX side flips its title and content to TX. You cannot have TX and RX editors open simultaneously.
  • Changes save immediately through the audio engine. Closing the editor does not discard unsaved work.
  • Bypass is not controlled from inside the editor. To enable or bypass an EQ stage, use the CHAIN widget's single-click gesture on that stage.
  • The peak-hold trace in the docked applet tile decays continuously at ~10 dB/sec. The Peak Hold button in the floating editor freezes the trace only within the editor view.
  • The dashed yellow filter cutoff guide lines visible on both the docked applet tile and the floating editor update in real time whenever the radio changes its TX or RX passband, keeping the visual reference always current.
  • Display smoothing (set with the Smoothing combo) is applied after each peak-hold update. The peak-hold trace itself always tracks raw bins for accurate peak detection; the smoothed version is for display only.
  • In the parameter text row, each band column uses a transparent background. This prevents the dark application stylesheet from painting over the band-plan strip at the bottom of the canvas directly above the row.
  • To change a band's parameters with keyboard precision, right‑click its column in the parameter text row and select Edit... — the numerical edit dialog accepts typed values for frequency, gain, and Q.
  • To set the Output Fader with a typed value, click the dB readout below the fader — it becomes an inline text field that accepts a bare number (e.g., -3.5). Press Enter to commit, Escape to revert.
  • The Reference curve overlay is a visual guide only — it does not affect the audio signal or EQ math. Use it as a target to shape your EQ bands toward a known microphone or speech-response characteristic.
  • Each path (TX / RX) remembers its own Reference curve setting independently via ClientEqTxReferenceCurve and ClientEqRxReferenceCurve settings keys.

Troubleshooting

  • Double-clicking the EQ stage does nothing — the stage may not be fully initialized if no radio connection is active. Connect to a FLEX-8600 and try again.
  • Peak Hold button stays lit after you stop using it — click Peak Hold again to uncheck it and resume normal analyzer decay.
  • Filter cutoff guide lines do not appear — if the radio reports a cutoff value of 0 for either edge, that guide line is suppressed. Verify that the radio has an active mode and slice selected.
  • Parameter row labels appear misaligned or crowd the band-plan strip — this was corrected in v0.9.7. If you see this on an older installation, update to v0.9.7 or later.
  • Numerical edit in the parameter row does not apply the value — ensure you complete the edit by pressing Enter or clicking outside the dialog. Committed values are saved automatically.
  • Reference curve does not appear — verify the combo box is set to a preset other than Off. The curve is drawn behind the EQ band curves; if you have many bands with high gain, the reference trace may be partially obscured.
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