Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Version 1.14
https://www.voxengo.com/product/teote/
Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Contents

Introduction 3
Features 3
Compatibility 3
User Interface Elements 5
Dynamics 5
Spectral Profile 7
Level Meters 9
In-Chain Position 9
Dynamics Envelope 9
Credits 11
Beta-Testers 11
Questions and Answers 12

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Introduction

TEOTE is an automatic spectral balancer plug-in for professional music production

applications. It was designed to be a very useful tool for both mixing and mastering.
It automatically performs such tasks like gentle resonances taming, de-essing, tilt
equalizing, usually performed during mixing and mastering. In mixing, TEOTE
sounds good on pretty much any material.
While by definition TEOTE is a dynamic equalizer, its technology is solely based on
multi-band dynamics processing. This allows TEOTE to have only minor phase
issues, and to produce a subtle transient-emphasis effect associated with dynamics
processing. TEOTE tries to make the program material follow the specified spectral
profile, tuned to the contemporary mastering standards by default. It can be said that
TEOTE “straightens” the frequency response, making further adjustments a lot
easier; it removes a lot of repeating work.
Is TEOTE an AI plug-in? In a sense that AI usually boils down to a “curve-fitting
task”, TEOTE is an AI plug-in that performs gain adjustment decisions in a quantity
equal to “SampleRate multiplied by BandCount” per second. However, TEOTE does
not use neural networks; it is based on an extremely-refined, completely predictable,
curve-fitting function.
“TEOTE” is an acronym for “That’s Easier On The Ear”. TEOTE is a serious
contender in helping bring your music production to the next level!

Features

 Automatic spectral balancing

 Selectable processing band count
 Unlinked stereo processing
 Multi-band gain adjustments meter
 Stereo and multi-channel processing
 Internal channel routing
 Channel grouping
 Up to 8x oversampling
 64-bit floating point processing
 Preset manager
 Undo/redo history
 A/B comparisons
 Contextual hint messages
 All sample rates support
 Zero processing latency

Compatibility
This audio plug-in can be loaded into any audio host application that conforms to the
AAX, AudioUnit, VST, or VST3 plug-in specification.
This plug-in is compatible with Windows (32- and 64-bit Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10
and later versions, if not announced otherwise) and macOS (10.11 and later versions,
if not announced otherwise, 64-bit Intel and Apple Silicon processor-based)

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

computers (2.5 GHz dual-core or faster processor with at least 4 GB of system RAM
required). A separate binary distribution file is available for each target computer
platform and audio plug-in specification.

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

User Interface Elements

Note: All Voxengo plug-ins feature a highly consistent user interface. Most interface
elements (buttons, labels) located on the top of the user interface are the same in all
Voxengo plug-ins. For an in-depth description of these and other standard features
and user interface elements please refer to the “Voxengo Primary User Guide”.

Dynamics
This panel contains parameters that affect plug-in’s dynamic characteristics. Note
that a threshold parameter is not required as this plug-in uses a weighted loudness
estimation instead, similar to the one defined in the ITU-R BS.1770 specification.
TEOTE estimates the momentary spectrum, and applies multi-band gain adjustments
relative to the overall momentary loudness level.
The “FX” parameter specifies the “strength” of effect applied per band, when the
input signal requires adjustments. This parameter is equivalent to a usual “Dry/Wet
Mix” parameter. The required gain change solely depends on the program material
relative to the “Spectral Profile” (see below), it is a parameter-less function. The
numerical selector on the “FX” knob specifies an alternative dynamics envelope
mode: in practice, modes above 1 are equivalent to “transient emphasis” modes. This
selection does not change the schematic/topology of the plug-in, but adjusts
(increases) internal constants of algorithm’s dynamics envelope, so may in some
cases also require adjustment of the attack, release and “Hi Timing” (see below)
parameters, if the effect seems too strong.
The “C/S/F/CS” selector adjusts dynamics envelope follower’s topology. While the
numerical modes adjust timings, this selector specifies structure (scheme) of the
envelope follower that produces a dynamic envelope. The “C” mode is a “classic”
topology first introduced in TEOTE 1.0. The “S” and “CS” modes have a symmetric
topology that is similar to the “C” topology, but with some of its boost-cut
asymmetries removed. The “S” mode may require a lower “Slope” setting since it
sounds brighter (with presence effect); it is modern-sounding, and less “vintage”.
The “CS” mode sounds softer, similarly to the “C” mode. The “CS” mode is now the
default mode. Compared to the “C” topology, the “S” and “CS” topologies produce
fewer low-frequency overshoots and have more pronounced mid-frequencies. The
“F” topology implements a filter-like scheme which works as a low-pass filter, without
attack-release switching logic. This topology usually sounds overly snappy and “in
your face”, so adjustments to the “Base Atk” and “FX” parameters may be required;
this mode does not require the “Base Rls” parameter. The “F” mode is good at getting
sounds cut through the mix.
The “Boost T” (boost threshold) parameter specifies band’s loudness level (relative to
the overall loudness level) at which band’s gain adjustment “stops”, and either
returns to the unity gain (in the “U” mode), or is limited (in the “L” mode), is
gradually reduced (in the “W” wrap mode) towards the unity gain, when the
threshold level is crossed. Tuning the “Boost T” parameter is required when working
with a highly-dynamic or narrow-band program material so that both quiet parts and
noise-floor are not over-boosted. Setting this parameter to “0” enables the
“compression only” mode of operation, useful for narrow-band program material.
It may be useful to first test the maximal achievable gain change by setting the “FX”
to the maximum, and the “Boost T” to the minimum: if the gain change metering
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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

does not go above +/-4.5dB it means the program material already follows the
spectral profile closely. If the gain change is too large, and rarely crosses zero, it may
mean the program material still needs some basic preliminary processing, at least
some tilt-like equalizing. After this test, both parameters may be set to less extreme
values, to produce a more natural action. In this aspect, when bypassed, TEOTE can
be used as a mixing and mastering equalization guide. Note that when analyzing
“reference” tracks this way, you need to fine-tune the “Slope” first, and enable the
“Apply to Range” switch (see below) since low- and high-frequency roll-offs of
mastered tracks may vary greatly.
The “Base Atk” and “Base Rls” parameters specify dynamic adjustments’ timing.
These are similar to timing constants used in compressors and expanders. However,
in TEOTE they specify times for the base (20 Hz) band, with higher bands receiving
successively smaller timing constants, relative to the base (subject to the “Hi Timing”
parameter). Depending on the “Hi Timing” parameter, 20kHz band may receive as
little as 1/20 of the base band’s timing values: that’s a very fast
compression/expanding action.
Note that TEOTE uses the same dynamics algorithm as found in Voxengo Marquis
Compressor’s “New” mode, for both compression and expanding; it is a very natural-
sounding algorithm. It may be useful to set the “Base Rls” to a value smaller than the
“Base Atk”, especially if it is apparent that the plug-in over-reacts on bass-drums.
The balance between the “Base Atk” and “Base Rls” parameters affects the peak gain
change, in tandem with the “FX” parameter.
Since TEOTE works simultaneously as compressor and expander, the attack and
release settings do not react the way they usually react in a compressor. It’s useful to
perceive these settings as “coloration” settings. For example, if you want to tame
resonances, a lower attack and release settings should be used. And if you would like
to boost transients, higher values can be used. Only when the “Boost T” parameter is
set to “0”, these settings react in a more usual “compressor” way.
The “Ch Link” parameter specifies the strength of linking between channels. In a
fully unlinked mode (0) the plug-in adjusts all channels independently of each other;
it also consumes a lot more CPU resources. Unlinked mode can skew the stereo-field
information, and may not reach the overall spectral balance goals. In most cases, it is
suggested to leave this parameter at “100”, or close to “100”, as TEOTE even in a
fully-linked stereo mode does not affect the sound stage adversely, due to its multi-
band processing algorithm; lower values can be used to produce artistic sound stage
coloration effects.
The “P” and “A” switch selects the mode of channel linking: Peak or Average (RMS).
This switch affects stereo material only, at higher channel linking values; it has no
effect on mono material. The “P” mode usually offers “heavier” sounding basses
while the “A” mode usually sounds “snappy” on full-stereo masters. To be more
specific, “peak” in the channel-linking algorithm means "extremum of signals". If the
“left” signal equals “right” signal, the extremum is same as the average. So, the “A”
mode’s sound differs only on stereo signals with a lot of side-channel information: in
this case the “average” may be substantially different from the “peak”. Also, at low
“Ch Link” values the “P” and “A” modes are mostly equivalent since individual
channel levels are prevalent anyway.
The “Energetic/Balanced/Controlled/Fluid/Fluid Stable/Fluid Punch” switch selects
the overall loudness estimator’s response mode. This mode affects both the handling
of transients, “stability of sound”, and overall sonic coloration of the result. While for

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

an untrained ear the difference may not be large, for a trained ear it may be decisive.
The difference is most apparent at lower “Base Atk” and “Base Rls” settings. The
“Balanced” and “Controlled” modes offer “more instant” loudness estimations
producing a minimal dynamic over-reaction, but they may sound a bit too controlled.
The “Fluid” modes use a substantially different method of loudness estimation, they
usually sound a lot gentler.
The “Mastering” switch enables the so called “Mastering mode” of dynamics
processing. It offers a lot gentler gain adjustments, especially in the bass range, and
usually reaches only ¾ of the gain of the non-mastering (feed-forward) mode, so it
also requires the “FX” parameter fine-tuning. Technically speaking, it is a feedback
dynamics mode, and only adds a single instruction to the processing topology;
however, in practice this mode takes 80% more computing resources on some
processors, and it may require lowering of the band count. This mode is best used on
full-spectrum material that is initially close to the target spectral profile.
The “OLE Roll-off” slider present in the “Out/In Gain Change” panel controls the
low-frequency roll-off of overall loudness estimator’s (OLE) weighting filter. Higher
values reduce the weight of the lower frequencies: values above 3.0 can be used on
program material with a highly-dynamical low-frequency content like in EDM music.
Higher roll-off values reduce resulting “swings” of high-frequency content in such
genres, make it more “stable”. Lower roll-off values are best used on program
material with even dynamics across the spectrum, usually on acoustical sound. Value
of 2.54 makes the weighting filter very close to EBU R128 weighting. Note that roll-
off values above 4.0 may give a “bass-thinning” effect: in this case it is advisable to
use a lower “Slope” value (see below).

Spectral Profile
This panel displays knobs that control the target spectral profile that TEOTE makes
program material follow. TEOTE balances the program material to this profile. Note
that the plug-in does not apply any filters, so these knobs are not related to filtering
of any kind. However, as the spectral profile acts as a reference, if the program
material’s spectrum deviates from the profile, this may result in spectral adjustments
that reflect the required spectral profile.
The provided set of profile parameters was designed for contemporary music
mastering: this includes the “Slope” parameter which controls the target spectral
slope, in decibel per octave, with -4.5dB being a de-facto standard in contemporary
music. This parameter affects the “brightness” of the result. The “Lo Cut” and “Hi
Cut” parameters apply -12 or -6 dB/oct roll-offs (depending on the “Cut -6”/“Cut -12”
switch) to the profile: these can be also commonly found in contemporary music. The
“Room Dip” parameter, though not being common, applies a -2.5dB, 1-octave wide,
bell-shaped dip to the profile. Such dip accounts for usual listener room’s acoustics
deficiency where the first offending room mode happens at 130-200 Hz, which makes
the music sound a bit “mushy”. This dip can be disengaged by moving it to 20 Hz.
The “Bands” parameter adjusts the number of processing bands. This parameter
affects both the precision of the processing and the CPU load requirements. For
mastering it is suggested to set this parameter to a higher value while when
processing the individual tracks, lower values can be used. At lower values, the “Lo
Cut”, “Hi Cut” and “Room Dip” parameters may not be followed closely. The “Bands”
values below 20 produce a slight -0.4 dB base- and highest-frequency roll-off due to
plug-in’s band-splitting design. The algorithm won’t be able to detect sharp

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

resonances at lower “Bands” values; however, even at higher “Bands” values, TEOTE
mostly performs smoothing of resonances rather than removes them completely.
Higher “Bands” values do not always produce “better” result; higher values may even
produce “overly sterile” sound, removing too much nuances in the program material.
The “Apply to Range” switch can be enabled if you would like to apply the effect to a
selected range of frequencies only; in this case, the “Cut” parameters will be
transformed into the “Range” parameters. When the “Range Lo” parameter is set to a
value higher than the “Range Hi” parameter, the mid frequencies’ processing will be
bypassed. If you would like to compare the “full spectrum” and “spectrum range
only” performances, it’s suggested to use the “A/B comparison” feature of the plug-in.
Note that in this mode the “Cut -6”/“Cut-12” switch affects the frequency range roll-
off, its “width”.
The “Flat/Eq.Loud/EQL+Rock” switch selects an additional profile setting, which
may be useful during mastering. The “Eq.Loud” setting applies a 2-2.5dB, 0.8-1
octave wide, boosts to 60, 1.57k and 9.1kHz spectrum areas. The “EQL+Rock”
additionally applies a boost to 3.4kHz spectral area, which is often used in rock and
metal music. When using these settings, a post-equalizer after TEOTE usually
becomes unnecessary. These settings are best used for “Slope” values less than minus
4.2dB/oct; for higher “Slope” values they may be excessive. Note that these profile
settings may make the sound a bit “thin”, so they are not universally-applicable. Also
note that for these settings to be precise, at least 30 bands processing is required.
As this plug-in only performs spectral balancing or normalization, it cannot create
spectral content (except dynamics processing-associated harmonics, especially at
lower frequencies). So, for example, if the program material generally lacks the
higher frequency content, but mostly contains high-hat hits, they may be boosted
considerably. While statistically the outcome will be balanced, compositionally it
may sound like it’s filled with high-hat hits mostly. Similarly, this plug-in may not be
immediately efficient on bass guitar (that lacks full-frequency content), but works
well on vocals and drum buses. The “Lo Cut” and “Hi Cut” parameters can be used to
reduce over-reaction on a lack of spectral content. Alternatively, the “Apply to
Range” mode can be used on a narrow-band input signal.
Note that this plug-in uses analog-style band-splitting which produces a slightly non-
even (+/-0.15dB) frequency response and induces a minor phase coloration
(dependent on the “FX” parameter). In such a tremendously dynamic plug-in like
TEOTE (which features a very fast response at higher frequencies) such approach is
desirable in comparison to linear-phase band-splitting or dynamic equalization,
which both may introduce transient artifacts. TEOTE uses the same band-splitting
technology as Voxengo Soniformer plug-in, which is being used by engineers for more
than a decade, without any objections to its sonic qualities.
More specifically, TEOTE, like Soniformer, changes the phase over the spectrum only
minimally (approximately for 4 degrees, with the phase-shift being close to linear
across the audible spectrum), while its dynamic adjustments do not change the phase
by itself, but may induce harmonics. On the other hand, usual dynamic equalization
may induce both phase-shift/ringing and harmonics at the same time, depending on
the EQ steepness and change timing. Moreover, in TEOTE, if you leave the “FX”
parameter at e.g. “50”, it will be only 50% of the full, initially minor, phase coloration.
Plug-in’s phase coloration is so small the full processed signal sounds well as just a
mix with the dry signal (what the “FX” parameter does).

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Level Meters
TEOTE features a multi-band gain adjustments meter, and the “Out” meter. The
display range of the meter can be changed. Note that the gain adjustments meter
displays integral per-band gain adjustments with 200-millisecond integration time.
It may be beneficial to enable the “Density Mode” in the plug-in’s Settings window to
have a somewhat more informative gain metering.
The “Out” meter shows plug-in’s master output level. You may take a look at the
“out/in” indicator to see the average loudness change taking place, which may be
accounted for with the “Out Gain” knob, or via clicking on the numerical value of this
indicator.

In-Chain Position
This plug-in is best placed before the final clipper and/or mastering limiter, and after
any equalizing and dynamics processing plug-ins. However, if the music style
requires augmentation of certain frequency bands (e.g. 2.5-4kHz boost in metal
music, or 60Hz, 1.5kHz, and 9kHz equal-loudness boosts), a plain equalizer can be
placed right after this plug-in: since TEOTE produces a somewhat balanced
spectrum, post-equalizing it becomes an easy task. TEOTE is in no way a complete
mastering solution: for best results, it may require a prior static tilt equalizing;
preliminary dynamics processing is, however, less of a requirement, especially if
individual tracks in a mix were also balanced with TEOTE.
It can be suggested to use a spectrum analyzer like Voxengo SPAN Plus, tuned to the
required spectrum slope, with a longer averaging time, after TEOTE in the chain.
Since TEOTE bases its multi-band gain adjustments on momentary spectrum, whose
correlation to the integrated spectrum greatly depends on the program material and
its dynamics, TEOTE may not always reach the target integrated spectral profile; in
this case, a correction to the “Slope” parameter, or a preliminary tilt equalizing may
be required.
To sum up, the most flexible plug-in chain looks like this:
EQ (preliminary) -> TEOTE (balancer, “straightener”) -> EQ (profiling) -> Limiter.
The “profiling” EQ may be omitted if TEOTE’s result sounds satisfying.
It is a common question, why TEOTE does not offer a way to define more elaborate
profiles. The main reason they are not offered is because TEOTE is a multi-band
processor; it is discrete relative to the required final EQ profile, and may not be
precise towards required peak gains. Secondly, TEOTE is not “hard precise” in
applying an integrated EQ profile as it is precise only relative to a momentary
spectrum. Thirdly, fine-tuning a profile is as time-consuming as using an EQ, so
there may not be any workflow-efficiency gains in such profiles.

Dynamics Envelope
If you are interested in how TEOTE’s dynamics envelope operates, here you can see
an example graph (for “classic” mode “FX 1C”). On this graph, the vertical scale
displays the linear gain value (with 2.0 being 6 dB, and 0.5 being -6 dB). This graph
uses attack time equal to 20 milliseconds, and release time equal to 60 milliseconds
(250 milliseconds overall time span). The envelope starts at 1.0, then the next goal is
2.0 (attack), then 1.25 (release), then 0.25 (attack), then 0.05 (attack), then 0.99
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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

(release), then 1.5 (attack), then 1.1 (release). As you can see, such attack/release
logic is usual for a compressor or expander, but in TEOTE, when the signal gain goes
from boost to cut, and from cut to boost, an attack phase is always activated.

For comparison, here is the graph of the “FX 4C” mode. As you can see, it features a
considerably different shape beside somewhat lengthened timing.

Note that the release stage on both graphs is apparently a bit longer than 60
milliseconds. The specified release time is multiplied internally by a fixed factor to
match a commonly-expected release timing.

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Credits

DSP algorithms, internal signal routing code, user interface layout by Aleksey Vaneev.
Graphics user interface code by Vladimir Stolypko. Graphics elements by Vladimir
Stolypko and Scott Kane.
This plug-in is implemented in multi-platform C++ code form and uses “zlib”
compression library (written by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler), “LZ4”
compression library by Yann Collet, “base64” code by Jouni Malinen, FFT algorithm
by Takuya Ooura, filter design equations by Magnus Jonsson and Robert Bristow-
Johnson, VST plug-in technology by Steinberg, AudioUnit plug-in SDK by Apple,
Inc., AAX plug-in SDK by Avid Technology, Inc., Intel IPP and run-time library by
Intel Corporation (used under the corresponding licenses granted by these parties).
Voxengo TEOTE Copyright © 2020-2023 Aleksey Vaneev.
VST is a trademark and software of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

Beta-Testers
Alan Willey
gl.tter
Michael Anthony
Niklas Silen

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Voxengo TEOTE User Guide

Questions and Answers

Q. I’m hearing that TEOTE produces “pumping”.

A. TEOTE is unable to create classic “pumping” kind of sound, because plug-in’s
reaction time is almost instantaneous. What you hear is most probably due to
TEOTE raising loudness of spectral parts that were not compressed enough in the
first place. For example, ride cymbals are a common case: since they are often not
compressed in the mix, when their relative loudness is increased, they may sound like
being out of control. To reduce this effect, applying a multi-band compression before
TEOTE is advisable. Also, the “Controlled” mode can be used in this particular case,
to reduce plug-in’s over-reaction. Another possible source of over-reaction on a
master bus can be a case where a narrow-band part is followed by a broadband
sound: this situation can be solved by using the Boost T “W” mode, and using the
“Base Rls” values lower than the “Base Atk” values. Fine-tuning the “OLE Roll-off”
value may also help in finding a “sweet spot” of plug-in’s dynamic response.

Q. Is there some kind of multi-band compression involved in TEOTE?

A. As was initially stated, TEOTE does use dynamics processing. But it is
simultaneously compression and expanding, depending on the required gain
adjustment. This should not be compared to a usual compression/expanding as
timing constants in TEOTE can be extremely small. TEOTE has a completely
different resulting dynamics to most, even multi-band, compressors. It does not
work like a usual compressor which can “squash” the dynamic range. Mainly because
gain adjustments are made relative to the momentary loudness.

Q. How problematic is it to use TEOTE twice on a mix? For example,

someone does a mixdown using TEOTE on their mix-bus, then they send
it to a mastering engineer who also uses TEOTE, possibly with differing
settings.
A. There should be no problems applying TEOTE twice as long as the result sounds
good. Technically, TEOTE’s phase and harmonic coloration are usually subtle, so the
only aspect that matters is the obtained spectral balance and dynamics. Using a
differing number of bands is not important, but may be beneficial: this will produce a
slightly more even phase coloration.

Happy Mixing and Mastering!

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