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Major FIR Designer Update Expands Software Functionality

FIR Designer is the leading DSP filter design software tool used by audio professionals to create custom loudspeaker processing (IIR+FIR).

“A few months back we released a major update to FIR Designer M (the multichannel version of FIR Designer),” said Michael John, lead developer at Eclipse Audio. “It included a raft of new features and functionality to enhance and accelerate the filter and preset design process. We’ve now rolled this new functionality into FIR Designer.”

Key new functionality in the version 4 update includes:

  • The ‘auditionDSP’ digital signal processor & audio player. It enables users to listen to their custom processing during the development process, rather than relying solely on visual plots.
  • A Polar Map, making it easier to identify various on and off-axis behaviour of a loudspeaker preset with polar measurments
  • A Group delay display which shows the time delay, through the combined processing, as a function of frequency, as well as independently for the IIR and FIR filtering
  • More brands supported for IIR emulation. A new ‘RAM Audio‘ IIR filter mode has been added to the list of emulated brands, joining Lake, Linea Research, Powersoft, QSC Q-SYS, Symetrix, BSS, Biamp Tesira & Marani . (The ‘Generic’ mode remains available as a starting point for use with processors that don’t have their own branded mode.) RAM Audio IIRs can now be converted to or from other branded filters in a single click.

Other improvements include project-specific plot colour customization, upgraded macOS support (for M1 & M2 based macs) & significant computational speedups for a faster UI.

“The version 4 update is a big jump forward in functionality for FIR Designer, led primarily by the addition of auditionDSP,” said John, “and functionality is identical for both ongoing subscription & perpetual (one-time) license purchases.”

Learn more about all the additions to v4 at: https://eclipseaudio.com/2023/11/22/fir-designer-v4-update/

A free demo of FIR Designer (for macOS or Windows) is available for download at eclipseaudio.com/demo. The demo version doesn’t include auditionDSP. Learn more about auditionDSP at eclipseaudio.com/auditiondsp.