Z-Plane Filters?

Muta

Hologram
Joined
Apr 6, 2010
Location
The Netherlands
Alright, Just heard about these things, and all I know, is that they can morph EQ's or something, and are useful lfor neuro/Techstep-like bassline, But what exactly are these things?

I dont understand shit from them, So, would anyone care to explain what they do, what they are usefull for? etc etc.

thanks in advance
~Muta
 
Alright, Just heard about these things, and all I know, is that they can morph EQ's or something, and are useful lfor neuro/Techstep-like bassline, But what exactly are these things?

I dont understand shit from them, So, would anyone care to explain what they do, what they are usefull for? etc etc.

thanks in advance
~Muta

as long as I know, it's a filter that instead of lowpassing, highpassing or anything like that (comb-+, X/Y formant...) it lets you choose between 2 kinds of equalization by mixing these and so on...
what's your daw?
 
imagine taking your track, and routing it to two filters, one is a low pass, and one is a high pass. Now, if you do a cross fade between the results of these filters, you'll hear first the lp version go down in volume, as the high pass version come up in volume. you'll not hear the mids at all. Now, if i understand the z-plane filter right, it's an interpolation of two filters, so the result is like a bandpass filter set low, which sweeps upwards ,and finishes high. So you hear the lows, then the mids, then the highs. The maths gets all complicated but thats essentially it, a morph from one filter shape to another (or a morph from one bunch of EQ settings to another). not really as as exciting as it seems at first.

Not sure what the 'use' is, besides the above. Emu made a big deal about their z-plane morphing filter technology, but in practice i think it's mostly buzzwords. could be wrong tho. i have an xl-7 which has some kind of zplane filtering but i never got anything useful out of it. maybe the high end machines are better. I suspect their marketing department made use of the phrase "limitless possibilities".
 
thanks, this reply cleared up alot of confusion. Well, if its basically just that, I think I can experimentate with that haha. Doesn;t sound too hard atleast, And maybe result in some heavy basslines. Thanks mate :3
 
its not mostly buzzwords innovine. there are no filters like them on anything else, they turn a sound inside out or add a whole new dimension to more basic sounds etc. there will be a soft sampler from emu soon with zplane filters on there which will make them available to everyone, right now youve got to either buy proteus x or emu sampler soundcards to get those filters or you can buy a thing for reactor called filterscape, by sz0n1ck FSR. the emu soft sampler will be the fucking nuts mate, but it wont sound like the hardware of course.
 
haha hype. with the e-mu samplers. yeah, ok, here http://darkbeats.com/sampleswap/Dillusion-emu_filterdistort/
the phrase 'limitless possibilities' doesnt apply very well of course, but they really are seminal for morphy bass sweeps for example. calyx and teebee tracks feature lots of zplane, he said in an interview hed use them on everything from drumhits to bass to whatever really. i dont know what an xl-7 is or does but ive got the emu e6400 at home and its got at least 5 different z-plane filters, not to mention the plenthora of other amazing filters.
oh and heres a thing, you remember the 2000 era, with the optical, grooverider and dillinja and that?
heres a bit of a zplane tutorial on that sound,http://www.dillusion.co.uk/pdf/Dillusion_PeakShelfMorph_Tutorial_WEB.pdf
but you got the theory right at least, so kudos on that. at least.
 
haha hype. with the e-mu samplers. yeah, ok, here http://darkbeats.com/sampleswap/Dillusion-emu_filterdistort/
the phrase 'limitless possibilities' doesnt apply very well of course, but they really are seminal for morphy bass sweeps for example. calyx and teebee tracks feature lots of zplane, he said in an interview hed use them on everything from drumhits to bass to whatever really. i dont know what an xl-7 is or does but ive got the emu e6400 at home and its got at least 5 different z-plane filters, not to mention the plenthora of other amazing filters.
oh and heres a thing, you remember the 2000 era, with the optical, grooverider and dillinja and that?
heres a bit of a zplane tutorial on that sound,http://www.dillusion.co.uk/pdf/Dillusion_PeakShelfMorph_Tutorial_WEB.pdf
but you got the theory right at least, so kudos on that. at least.

The xl-7 'command station' is e-mu's groovebox (they had a couple of models). It's an excellent live midi sequencer, probably one of the best hardware sequencers, but I'm not so impressed by it's sound engine. It contains 'zplane' filters, but they don't seem to do anything much as far as I can see. I suspect that they added a low budget implementation cos they basically have one knob to tweak and just sound weird. Certainly didn't turn me into calyx at the twist of a knob. Dunno about the high end stuff though, perhaps they are much more awesome, I'm open to possibilities. Even limitless ones.
 
I suspect that they added a low budget implementation cos they basically have one knob to tweak and just sound weird. Certainly didn't turn me into calyx at the twist of a knob. Dunno about the high end stuff though, perhaps they are much more awesome, I'm open to possibilities. Even limitless ones.


Thing with z-plane filters if you need three knobs to tweak. A normal filter has cut-off and resonance and if you look at a graphical representation of what it is doing it looks like an EQ curve. A z-plane filter (as the name suggests) turns that 2-d EQ curve into a 3-d one so you need an extra control to morph the filter. I used to have an EMU Audity synth and trust me man there was nothing in the world that could touch it for pads - not even the likes of FM-8 or Absynth. The Audity wasn't great at bass full stop but I'd love to have my hands on a sampler with those filters in.
 
By automating eq bands, can you not achieve anything that any filter does but with way more control and clear graphical representation? Plus the added bonus of a spectrum analyser built into certain eqs so you can see exactly how you're affecting the sound?
 
By automating eq bands, can you not achieve anything that any filter does but with way more control and clear graphical representation? Plus the added bonus of a spectrum analyser built into certain eqs so you can see exactly how you're affecting the sound?

yes

but what you will probably find is that the technique gets in the way of the creativity
 
yes

but what you will probably find is that the technique gets in the way of the creativity

You're probably right mate

Suppose no eq will have an overdrive function like a filter either, as well as other things
 
Hi,

EQUO in FL Studio (can be used as separate VST in different host) is a morphing EQ with 8 different states and morph knob. You can set lowpass and hipass and indeed you see the part when mids comes in. You can go crazy with this and move the knob forward + backward to make some organic sound. You can add some distortion fx and automate wet level as well.

Right now I'm experimenting with Truc 2 mini: http://www.delamancha.co.uk/truc2.htm + FL Studio Patcher with several XY controllers and filters, where I can have lowpass, bandpass, hipass and XY values are automating everything like cutoff, res, wet level of filters, distortion, phaser, chorus. I like that in FL Studio you can set the range of automation to first half, last half, reversed, etc.

FL Studio has XY controller, but Truc 2 has also built-in LFO. XY controller can automate only 2 things with X or Y. But Truc 2 can have 4 different outputs for 4 FX chains of different processing.
 
listen to the wormhole album by ed rush and optical...most of those basses are emu. The emu has a bunch of different Zplane filters/eq morphs.

not sure you could just say its "hype" and i will bet you alot of the better sounding guys still use them ie ulterior motive? If you are into that type of neuro funk (not the fast grooveless shit people call neuro now) then grab an emu, theyre cheap enough, and the basses quality of sound that comes out is superb. the filters beat the pants off the virus filters for sure!
 
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