Chapter 1 Amarra sQ+ Overview

Thank you for purchasing Amarra sQ+

Chapter 2 Amarra sQ+ Set Up & Activation

This chapter provides instructions on setting up and activating your Amarra sQ+ application.

2.1 Mac Host Requirements

At a minimum, Amarra sQ+ requires the following:

• Apple Macintosh Intel 2.6 GHz minimum or faster preferred

• 17” or larger display

• 3 GB RAM minimum, 4 GB RAM or more preferred

• OS 10.8 or newer

2.2 Installing/Uninstalling Amarra sQ+

Installing Amarra sQ+ follows the same installation process as most other applications on your Mac. To install Amarra sQ+ , double-click on the installer package. You can download the Installer from:

2.3 Launching, Activating and Using Amarra sQ+

To Activate your Amarra sQ+ software, you will need the following:

• Your Amarra sQ+, Amarra or Amarra Symphony 3.0 Activation Code, sent to you at time of purchase or by Sonic Studio directly.

• A working Internet Connection

There are two methods for activating Amarra sQ+:

2.3.1 Evaluation Mode Activation

This Section provides important information regarding evaluating or ‘trying’ Amarra sQ+ software.

TUTORIAL VIDEO: The How To Activate Amarra sQ In Evaluation Mode Video gives step-by-step instruction on activating Amarra sQ+ in full function, 15 day evaluation mode. This applies to Amarra sQ+.

A FREE 15 day, full-feature trial of Amarra sQ+ is available. When you launch Amarra sQ+ for the first time, you will be presented with the following Amarra Software Activation window -- click the ‘Evaluate’ button:

Click ‘Request Evaluation Code’ button.

The Software Activation Evaluation Mode Window appears:

Click the “OK’ button to begin your 15 day Evaluation Period.
Note the Expiration Date Field. It displays the date your Evaluation Period ends.

Click the ‘OK’ button to begin your 15-day Evaluation Period.

Amarra sQ+ launches. You’ll be reminded that, for best performance, your Mac’s System volume should be set to to Full or Maximum. Click OK.

Switch to EQ Window by clicking the EQ button or from the Window menu, select Equalizer.

2.3.2 Permanent Activation Mode

Chapter 3 Amarra sQ+ User Interface

This section describes the use of and features in the Amarra sQ+ User Interface (UI).

3.1 Amarra sQ+ Equalizer (EQ) Window

This section describes the functionality of the Amarra EQ window. This is the main window for Amarra sQ+. It contains volume and tone (equalizer or EQ) controls as well as buttons to save/open EQ settings, turn off EQ, show/hide EQ Visualizer and mute Amarra sQ+’s output.

3.1.1 Gain/Volume Fader

Adjusts the overall gain of the plug-in. Parameters are +6 to -60 dB. Option click to (re)set to zero. Cmd+up/down arrow to adjust volume; Function F11 and Function F12 to adjust volume.

3.1.2 High-Definition Meters

The Meters section graphically displays real-time indications of Peak, RMS and VU values with hyper-ballistic accuracy. At the top of the meter strips, The meter strip will turn red when an over-zero level is detected.

3.1.3 EQ Global On/Off

This button toggles the Amarra sQ+’s Equalizer (EQ) on or off and is useful for comparing the sum of all changes made to an EQ.

3.1.4 Equalizer Preset/Headphone Profile Knob

Click on a preset or Click+Hold and move the knob to select a preset of your choice.

The left side of the Equalizer Preset Knob contains preset tone controls or filters. Most of these filters mimic the EQ presets available in iTunes. The one exception is the ‘Mac Laptop’ setting. That filter is designed to compensate for the shortcomings of the speakers in a laptop computer.

The right side of the Equalizer Preset Knob contains Profiles for many of today’s popular headphones.

Use the Save button to save and name your own custom EQ settings. Use the Open button to open previously-saved EQ settings into the ‘Custom’ knob position.

3.1.6 Settings Toggle

Clicking this button toggles between the sQ Main EQ window and the sQ Settings window.

3.1.7 Open Saved Custom Preset

This button opens a Mac Finder Window for you to navigate to and open a previously saved filter. Filters are stored in Documents/Sonic Studio/EQ Presets.

3.1.8 Save Current Custom Preset

This button opens a Mac Finder Window for you to title and save a new filter that you have created. Filters are saved in Documents/Sonic Studio/EQ Presets.

3.1.9 EQ Graph Window

The Equalizer or EQ window is designed to provide infinite control of the tone or timbre of your streaming sources. Think of this as four controls that adjust Bass (red dot), Low-Midrange (yellow dot), High-Midrange (green dot), and Treble (blue dot) frequencies.

If you are uncomfortable with adjusting these controls on your own, try moving through the EQ Presets or the Headphone Profiles.

3.1.10 Window Resize Corner

By clicking on an icon on the left side of the Amarra sQ+ application you can change the size from large to small. You can also click and hold the lower right corner of window allows for resizing both the Amarra sQ+window. Use this feature to conserve screen real estate:

Amarra sQ+ in minituare size
Clicking and holding the lower right corner of window allows for resizing.

3.1.11 Menu Bar icon

By clicking on an Amarra sQ+ Menu Bar icon on you can change the output device, enable / disable processing and quit the application.

Amarra sQ+ in menu bar icon controls

3.2 Amarra sQ+ Settings Window

3.2.1 Gain/Volume Fader

Adjusts the overall gain of the plug-in. Parameters are +6 to -60 dB. Option click to (re)set to zero. Cmd+up/down arrow to adjust volume; Function F11 and Function F12 to adjust volume.

3.2.2 High-Definition Meters

The Meters section graphically displays real-time indications of Peak, RMS and VU values with hyper-ballistic accuracy. At the top of the meter strips, The meter strip will turn red when an over-zero level is detected.

3.2.3 Output Device Settings

This section of the Amarra sQ+ Settings Window defines the output device, channels and sample rate of the device that you send the signal from Amarra sQ+ to.

3.2.3.1 Device Menu

Choose your output device from this menu. Your Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), Built-In-Audio features like headphone/line output or AirPlay are chosen from this list. That action sets the Amarra sQ+ output to feed to the device chosen from the menu.

3.2.3.2 Channels Menu

Choose/route the output channels on your output device that Amarra sQ+ sends to. Most devices are only stereo, but if your device supports more that one pair of output channels, they can be selected here.

3.2.3.3 Sample Rate Menu

This menu displays the available Sample Rates of your DAC and allow you to set the sample rate of Amarra sQ+ .

3.2.3.4 Follow System Output Device

This button, when checked, forces Amarra sQ+ to follow the output device settings as set in the Mac audio environment instead of the settings in Amarra sQ+ . Disabled by default.

3.2.4 Dither Settings (Output)

This of the Amarra sQ+ Settings Window defines the dither types, bit depth, frequency and release time when using dither on the output. Dither is applied at the last stage of output. ‘None’ (no dither) is also available.

3.2.4.1 Type Menu

Select the type of dither: None, Rectangular PDF, Triangular PDF, Noise Shaping and Rectangular with Noise Shaping.

More on dither and these dither types can be found here:

3.3 Activation Windows

This section describes the Amarra sQ+ Activation Windows. The Activation Windows are used to permanently activate, evaluate or recover your license.

The sQ Software Activation Window.

3.3.1 Activate Button

3.3.2 Reactivate Button

Clicking the Reactivate Button opens the Amarra Software Reactivation Window. Use this Window to Reactivate your Amarra sQ+ application or to install your Amarra sQ+ software on a second Mac.

Amarra sQ+ Reactivation Windows

Enter your Amarra sQ+ Activation Code, email address and confirm. Click ‘Next’. Type in a new, unused password, more than 3 characters and less than 16 characters, re-enter in the Confirm field, then click ‘Reactivate’.

Note that we do not distribute your information outside of Sonic Studio, LLC.

3.3.3 Request Evaluation Code Button

Appendix A. Amarra sQ+ Volume & Equalizer Controls

Appendix A.1 Amarra sQ+ Volume Control

The output volume control for Amarra sQ+ is a high precision digital gain adjustor. Because the output of streaming audio sources vary widely and the Equalizer can add volume depending on settings, the volume control allows for easy compensation.

A.1.1 Adjusting Volume

Appendix A.2 Amarra sQ+ Equalizer (EQ) Control

A.2.1 Equalizer Overview

A cool feature included with Amarra sQ+ is the mastering-grade audio equalizer control section. This equalizer gives you endless control over the tone or timbre of the signal output.

This control has four sections (Dots) of adjustment:

1. Red Node= Bass frequencies.

2. Yellow Node= Low midrange

3. Green Node= High midrange

4. Blue Node= Treble (high) frequencies

To change an EQ setting, click on a Preset or Click+Hold and move the knob to select a preset of your choice.

The left side of the Equalizer Preset Knob contains preset tone controls or filters. Most of these filters mimic the EQ presets available in iTunes. The one exception is the ‘Mac Laptop’ setting. That filter is designed to compensate for the shortcomings of the speakers in a laptop computer.

The right side of the Equalizer Preset Knob contains Profiles for many of today’s popular headphones.

A.2.2 Adjusting/Changing EQ Settings

Click+hold on one of the Frequency Dots and move up/down to adjust the volume of that band, or move left/right to adjust the frequencies affected.

1. Red Node= Bass frequencies.

2. Yellow Node= Low midrange

3. Green Node= High midrange

4. Blue Node= Treble (high) frequencies

A.2.3 Save/Open Your Custom EQ Settings

EQ Custom/User Settings/Open/Save

Saving a custom EQ setting is simple. Once you have a setting that you like, click the Save button. This opens a Mac Finder window. Title your custom EQ setting, then click Save.

Your custom filter is set as the last Preset on the right side of the Preset Knob.

Saved filters are located in Documents/Sonic Studio/EQ Presets.

To open a previously-saved filter, select the Open button, select a filter from the list and click Open.

Appendix B Amarra sQ+ Activation F.A.Q

Appendix C Amarra sQ+ EQ Filter Specifications and Descriptions

The parametric filters are classic, three parameter versions, with Resonant Frequency, gain, and Q. Q or Quality Factor is defined as the resonant frequency, or center frequency in the case of a symmetrical filter, divided by the bandwidth. The bandwidth is, in turn, defined as the one or two frequencies at which the filter response is 3 dB up or down from unity gain.

Expressing the width of a filter as a Quality Factor, rather than bandwidth, provides a more intuitive sense of the filter’s subjective “sound,” since the same value of Q will produce different bandwidths at different frequencies. The higher the frequency, the wider the bandwidth will be for a given Q value, which roughly corresponds to our auditory mechanism’s ability to perceive a filter’s action. As an example, a parametric filter with a Q of 1 has a bandwidth of 100 Hz when its center frequency is set to 100 Hz but, it has a bandwidth of 1000 Hz when the center frequency is set to 1000 Hz.

The order or slope of the filter is controllable, with 1st through 4th order or 6 to 24 dB per octave slope, respectively. Each of the four orders are separate menu choices. The family of curves shown below include a wide Q of 0.5, a medium Q of 2.0 and a narrow Q of 10.

1st order Presence with ƒR of 1000 Hz

2nd order Presence with ƒR of 1000 Hz



3rd order Presence with ƒR of 1000 Hz

4th order Presence with ƒR of 1000 Hz

The high and low shelves are also three parameter filters, with Resonant Frequency, gain, and order. The family of curves below include 1st through 4th order. The 4th order response is practically vertical in the transition region.

High shelf with ƒR of 1000 Hz

The high and low pass filters also have three parameters. However, in this case stopband ripple, labeled Stop, has taken the place of gain. As with the shelving filter above, the family of curves below include 1st through 4th order.

High pass with ƒR of 1000 Hz

Stopband ripple describes the amount of amplitude variation or ripple in a filter’s out of band response. Indirectly, it describes two more important parameters. One is out of band suppression or, how much “leakage” of unwanted signal you receive, and the other is phase shift and group delay.

The stopband ripple parameter provides a range of -12 to -108. At the -12 setting, only 12 dB of loss will occur out of band, no much for a filter of this type. However, because the stopband ripple value is so low, the phase response and resultant temporal response of the filter will be excellent. At the other extreme of its range, stopband ripple will be 108 dB down from the (unity) passband gain but, the phase response will suffer, the group delay will be severe and the resulting temporal smearing may be unacceptable. As with any filter, careful listening will determine the tradeoff between stopband suppression and side effects.

Figure 10.8 below shows an typical 3rd order high pass filter. Superimposed on that curve is another 3rd order high pass with 6 dB of passband ripple & 120 dB of stopband attenuation. Notice the rippling “bouncing ball” amplitude response in the region above the resonant frequency. This passband ripple would create some possibly undesirable amplitude effects but, because the ripple spec has been relaxed, the phase response would be improved.

3rd order high pass with 6 dB of passband ripple & 120 dB of attenuation

Compare the response in figure 10.8 with the next figure, which shows a 3rd order high pass with 0.10 dB of passband ripple & 10 dB of stopband attenuation. This time, the stopband ripple would allow some material below the resonant frequency to “leak” into the filter’s output. Again however, because the ripple spec has been relaxed, the phase response would be improved.

3rd order high pass with 0.1 dB of passband ripple & 10 dB of attenuation

The bandpass and band stop filters are straightforward, three parameter forms, and the notch filter has only two parameters as the gain is implied to be -∞. The next two figures once again include quality factors (Q) of 0.5, 2 and 10.

1st order bandpass with ƒR of 1000 Hz

\

3rd order bandpass with ƒR of 1000 Hz

Notch filter with ƒR of 1000 Hz

The RIAA filters provide emphasis, for creating cutting masters for lacquer, and de–emphasis for correcting material that is digitized flat from 33 1/3 RPM phonograph record. This approach means that the excellent, minimal phase characteristics of this digital RIAA de–emphasis implementation can be used in place of an imprecise and potentially colored analog filter network in a phono preamplifier.

RIAA de–emphasis

The “Emph” and “DeEmph” selection are for 44.1 kHz AES/EBU audio. The de–emphasis type is quite useful when archival material was emphasized during recording but the Emphasis flag was not set.

The No DC type is a special form of high pass filter designed for archival recordings made with EIAJ adapters, so called “F1” recorders, which were short lived consumer digital audio recorders manufactured by Sony, Matsushita and others. They employed very simple, low cost converters and often injected a large amount of DC offset into the signal to overcome crossover distortion. This filter will remove that DC offset. Lastly, the “NoDC/DeEmp” type is, again, a special filter for recordings made with an EIAJ adapter that both removes DC offset and applies de–emphasis.

DC reject plus RIAA de–emphasis, the “NoDC/DeEmp”

© 2016 Sonic Studio, LLC • Marin County, CA • 1-415-944-7642

Amarra, Amarra Symphony, Amarra sQ, sonicstudio.com, the Sonic Studio logo and type are trademarks of Sonic Studio, LLC in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, trade names, service marks, and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies.