Solstice

Shape the Spectrum, Duck the Clashes, Patch the Rack

Reason has plenty of classic channel EQs, but reach for a surgical 24-band dynamic equalizer and you’re usually stuck popping out a floating VST window that can’t touch Reason’s CV or rear-panel routing. Solstice builds that entire modern dynamic EQ workflow natively into an adaptive 3U/4U/5U (+1U) Rack Extension for Reason 14+ (including Reason Free and Reason+).

Every one of its 24 bands works as a precision static filter or an upward/downward dynamic processor, routed independently to Stereo, Mid, Side, Left, or Right (with live color-coded composite curves on the display) and keyed from either the internal program signal or an external sidechain input.

Instead of a wall of tiny knobs, you work directly on a widescreen analyzer canvas with selectable 3U, 4U, or 5U rack height and on-node 5-Point Satellite Controls. Below the plot, a collapsible +1U Mastering & Utility Drawer keeps elliptical Mid/Side bass management, loudness-matched auditioning, analyzer calibration, and master gain staging a click away.

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In the Mix: Five Everyday Mixing & Mastering Workflows

1. Sidechain Kick & Sub-Bass Dynamic Carve

Static bass cuts thin out your low end even when the kick isn’t playing. Patch your kick drum into SC Key In on the rear panel, create a Bell band at 55 to 65 Hz, flip its detector trigger from INT to EXT, and pull the [D] dynamic handle down to -6.0 dB. Drag the [T] right threshold wing until the horizontal reference line crosses the magenta sidechain kick peaks on the spectrum. Sub-bass energy ducks only at the exact fundamental frequency and millisecond of the kick hit, leaving upper bass harmonics untouched.

2. Vocal Unmasking on Guitars, Keys, & Synths

When dense guitars or synth pads step on a lead vocal, route the dry vocal bus to SC Key In on your instrument bus and watch for the crimson Collision Radar glow between 1.2 kHz and 3.5 kHz. Drop a wide Mid-channel (MID) dynamic Bell band over the glow, key it to EXT, and set a fast 8 ms attack and 80 ms release. The instrument bus carves out room in the center image while the singer is phrased and snaps back to full weight between lines.

3. Split-Band De-Essing & Harshness Control

Isolate harsh sibilance between 5.5 kHz and 8.5 kHz by holding the bottom [S] solo badge (or Cmd/Ctrl + Dragging the band node), focus the bandwidth with the [Q] left wing, and dial in downward dynamic range with a 10:1 ratio and 1.5 ms attack on Page 2/2 of the Band HUD. Flip Audition in the Mastering Drawer to PRE for loudness-matched dry input A/B checks, DELTA to hear only the removed sibilance in isolation, or SC KEY when checking an external sidechain or Mix-Minus (-SELF) detector feed.

4. Freeze-Sculpting a Ringing Snare or Resonant Vocal Note

Catching a quick snare ring or harsh vocal note on a moving analyzer can feel like chasing a moving target. Hit FREEZE in the drawer (even right before stopping playback) to lock the spectrum in place. Unlike standard EQs where a frozen trace is just a dead screenshot, dragging bands, Q, or filter slopes in Solstice actively reshapes the frozen Post curve and Crest Ribbon in real time. Carve out the offending peak visually in silence, then hit Play.

5. Elliptical Mid/Side Mastering & Chorus Air Lift

Open the 1U Mastering & Utility Drawer and engage the dedicated Side HPF (12 dB/oct elliptical filter, 20 to 300 Hz) to tighten low-end vinyl and club translation below 110 Hz into the center channel while keeping Mid-channel sub weight intact. Add a High Shelf band routed to SIDE with upward dynamic range (+3.0 dB) so stereo air opens up dynamically on chorus peaks.

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What Sets Solstice Apart: Originals on the Canvas

Most EQs pair static curves with a basic display. Solstice introduces five original tools built around how transients, masking, and pitch actually behave in a mix:

1. Crest Excursion Ribbon & Dynamic Whiskers (See Punch, Not Just Volume)

A traditional peak-hold line floats above the spectrum without telling you whether a frequency buildup is steady tonal weight or a sharp transient spike. In CREST mode, Solstice wraps the steady mix body in a shaded Crest Excursion Ribbon stretching from the trough floor up to the transient peaks—so snare snap, vocal plosives, and acoustic attack stand right out from the sustained tone underneath.

On active dynamic bands, you don’t have to squint at a single bouncing dot to judge how hard a band is working. Each node’s [D] stem displays dual dynamic whiskers: a copper-orange bar showing smooth average gain movement, paired with a wider gold whisker marking fast transient excursions.

2. Grab Peaks & Transients Straight Off the Spectrum (Live or Frozen)

Hover over the live (or Frozen) spectrum trace to lock onto any resonant Peak, Dip, or sharp Crest spike. Click and drag right on the trace: Solstice drops in an unused band automatically matched to the width of that resonance. Grabbing a Crest spike sets up a transient-taming dynamic band automatically—keeping static gain flat so your steady tone stays untouched while ducking only the transient jump. And when you hit FREEZE, the trace stays alive: dragging any band reshapes the frozen Post curve and Crest Ribbon on screen, even while Reason is stopped.

3. Collision Radar & Daisy-Chain Mix-Minus (Stem Ducking Without Spider Splitters)

Patch a vocal or kick into SC Key In and any frequency zone where it clashes with your track lights up in crimson on the analyzer, showing you right where to drop an external-keyed dynamic band.

Need a group of stems to make space for each other? Normally in Reason, that takes a web of Spider Audio splitters and phase-inverted mixer channels. Solstice’s rear SC Sum bus lets you daisy-chain your stems in series and engage Mix-Minus (-SELF) so each instance automatically strips its own audio out of the shared sidechain bus before triggering.

4. Ear-Weighted PERCEPT View & a Scale That Follows Your Slope

Alongside standard studio analyzer tilts (0.0, 3.0, 4.5 default, and 6.0 dB/oct), Solstice includes a PERCEPT view weighted to how human ears actually hear midrange presence and sub-bass. Whenever you switch slopes, the right-hand dB scale and on-screen threshold bars recalibrate automatically—and even re-tilt a Frozen capture on the fly.

5. Musical Piano Roll, Node Lock, & Clean Edge Readouts

An interactive Piano Roll along the bottom of the display highlights the musical note and cent tuning under your cursor alongside your selected band’s pitch. Once your curve is dialed in, click NODES: LOCK (or HIDE) in the top corner to protect your handles from stray clicks while inspecting the mix, while edge-mounted readouts keep cursor frequency, note, and level out of the way of your curve.

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Direct On-Canvas Control: The 5-Point Node Cluster & Band HUD

Hovering or selecting any of the 24 bands reveals five color-coded satellite handles arranged around the center node, so you can adjust frequency, static gain, bandwidth, dynamic range, threshold, and soloing without taking your eyes off the spectrum:

• Center Node (N) (Frequency, Static Gain, & Modifier Shortcuts): Drag horizontally to sweep frequency (20 Hz to 20 kHz) and vertically to adjust static gain (±24 dB). Out of the box, Band 1 (25 Hz HPF) and Band 6 (18 kHz LPF) wait on the 0 dB axis in dimmed standby (0.0% CPU) and wake up on a single click or drag. Double-clicking an empty spot on the canvas spawns the next available band at that frequency and gain (clicking or dragging near the far-left < 35 Hz or far-right > 16 kHz 0 dB axis automatically spawns a High-Pass or Low-Pass cut filter). Double-click an active node to reset its gain to 0 dB (or toggle standby if already flat; Shift + Double-Click deletes the band). Hold Cmd/Ctrl + Click to latch Band Solo, Cmd/Ctrl + Drag for momentary solo while sweeping, or Alt/Option + Click/Drag to reset (0.71) or adjust Q.
• Left Wing (9 o’clock [Q], Bandwidth / Resonance): Drag horizontally (toward or away from the node center) or vertically to shape filter Q (0.10 to 36.0, including resonant cutoff peaks or gentle roll-offs on HPF/LPF shapes). Single-click without dragging to snap Q back to the Butterworth default (0.71).
• Top Handle (12 o’clock [D], Dynamic Excursion & A/B Toggle): Drag vertically to set upward or downward Dynamic Range (-18.0 to +18.0 dB). Single-click without dragging to toggle the band’s dynamics On/Off for quick A/B checks while keeping your saved dynamic range setting intact.
• Right Wing (3 o’clock [T], Dynamic Threshold & Live Spectrum Reference): Drag vertically to set the detector Threshold (-60.0 to 0.0 dBFS); dragging [T] on a static band turns dynamics on automatically. Whenever a dynamic band is selected or hovered, Solstice projects a horizontal threshold reference line across the band’s frequency zone at the exact tilt-compensated dBFS height on the live FFT spectrum, so you can line your threshold right up against vocal sibilance or kick drum peaks. Single-click [T] to reset the threshold to -20.0 dB.
• Bottom Badge (6 o’clock [S], Latch & Momentary Solo): Single-click to latch bandpass solo On/Off for the band (automatically isolating the band’s assigned Mid, Side, Left, or Right channel during solo). Click and drag [S] to engage momentary solo while sweeping frequency and gain; releasing the mouse drops out of solo immediately.
• In-Canvas Two-Page Band HUD (Page 1/2 ↔ Page 2/2): Docked along the bottom of the plot without covering the spectrum, the Band HUD gives you direct click-and-drag access to every parameter on the selected band:
  • Page 1/2 (Core EQ & Dynamics): 8 Filter Shapes (Bell, Low Shelf, High Shelf, Notch, Tilt Shelf, HPF, LPF, Band-Pass), Channel Placement (Stereo, Mid Only, Side Only, Left Only, Right Only), Frequency, Static Gain, Q Factor, Dynamic Range, and Threshold.
  • Page 2/2 (Slope, Ballistics, & Detector): Selectable Filter Slope (6, 12, 24, or 48 dB/oct across all filter shapes), Attack (0.5 to 250 ms), Release (5 to 1000 ms), Ratio (1.5:1 to 20:1), Trigger Direction (Above threshold compressor/expander vs Below threshold frequency-selective gate / low-level detail lifter), Detector Focus (Band Focus, Wideband, or Low Key < 100 Hz), and Sidechain Source (Internal or External Key).

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Adaptive 3U / 4U / 5U Frame, +1U Mastering Drawer, & 20 Factory Presets

Header 3U / 4U / 5U buttons let you size the analyzer canvas from a compact 3U rack footprint up to 5U for detailed mastering work, while clicking DRAWER opens or closes the +1U Mastering & Utility Drawer (split into four hardware bays):

• Bay 1 (Sidechain & Spatial): Dedicated elliptical Side HPF (Mono Maker, 20 to 300 Hz, 12 dB/oct) that folds stereo sub-bass into the center channel without touching Mid-channel low end, paired with global Mix-Minus (-SELF self-subtraction) and a latched Band Solo button.
• Bay 2 (Dynamics & Audition): Continuous Dyn Scale (0% to 200% proportional scaling across all dynamic excursions), paired with Perceptual Auto-Gain, HQ 2x OS polyphase oversampling, and 4-state Audition (OFF / PRE / DELTA / SC KEY, letting you audition the dry pre-EQ input, solo the Out − In EQ difference signal, or monitor the external Sidechain Key and post-Mix-Minus residual).
• Bay 3 (Real-Time FFT Analyzer): Independent trace toggles for PRE, POST, SC, 3-state PEAKS (OFF / PEAKS / CREST), and FREEZE, plus RANGE (±12, ±24, or ±30 dB) and 5-step SLOPE (0.0 / 3.0 / PERCEPT / 4.5 / 6.0).
• Bay 4 (Master Output & Metering): Continuous EQ Scale (10% to 200% proportional scaling of all static band gains), Master OUT GAIN (±24 dB), PHASE invert (0° / 180°), and an L / R RMS + Peak-Hold Output Meter with a clickable PK / RMS dB numeric readout.

20 Production-Ready Factory Presets

Solstice ships with 20 task-focused patches—10 root-level Quick starters for fast track setup, 9 deeper patches organized by mix role, and a zero-CPU default template:

• Quick Starters (Root Folder): Vocal De-Esser & Air, Kick & 808 Sub Ducker (Ext SC), Mix-Minus Bus Key (-SELF), Mastering Dynamic Glue & Air, Mid-Side Stereo Widener, Drum Bus Upward Punch, Harshness & Mud Tamer, 8-Band Resonance Suppressor, Acoustic Guitar & Piano Polish, and Synth & Pad Space Carver.
• 01 Mastering & Bus: Mastering Dynamic Glue & Air, Mid-Side Stereo Sculptor, and Zero-DSP Pass-Through Analyzer (a 0% filter CPU visual analyzer utility).
• 02 Vocals & De-Essing: Split-Band Vocal De-Esser & Warmth and Broadcast Voice & Plosive Tamer.
• 03 Drums & Bass: Drum Bus Upward Punch & Cymbal Tamer and Sidechain Sub Ducker (Ext Key).
• 04 Surgical & M-S: 8-Band Resonance Suppressor and Mix-Minus Vocal Pocket Carver (-SELF).

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Modular 12-Jack Sidechain Bus & 8-Band CV Matrix

Flip the rack (Tab) to patch Solstice into Reason’s modular CV and audio environment:

• 12-Jack Audio, SC THRU, & Daisy-Chainable SC SUM Bus: Balanced Main In L/R, Main Out L/R, SC Key In L/R, zero-latency SC Thru Out L/R (for chaining a single key source across multiple Solstice instances without Spider Audio splitters), and a daisy-chainable SC Sum In L/R + SC Sum Out L/R bus (SC Sum Out = SC Sum In + Main Out) for chaining stem-group mix-minus routing without extra mixer channels or splitters.
• 16 Bipolar CV Modulation Inputs (BAND 1–8 FREQ & GAIN CV IN): Patch a key-tracker, envelope, or LFO into BAND 1..8 FREQ CV IN (±4 octaves at 1V/oct scaling) or BAND 1..8 GAIN CV IN (±24 dB) and set the modulation depth with 16 dedicated rear trim attenuators, turning Bands 1 through 8 into pitch-tracking harmonic notch filters or rhythmic formant sweeps.
• 8 Unipolar Dynamic Excursion CV Outputs (BAND 1–8 GAIN CV OUT): Every time one of Bands 1 through 8 compresses or expands dynamically, its rear 0..1V ENVELOPE CV OUT jack outputs a real-time 0.0 to 1.0 voltage (scaled across the 18 dB dynamic range), turning Solstice into an 8-band spectral envelope follower that can drive reverb ducking, synth filter cutoffs, or another processor elsewhere in your rack.

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Under the Hood: Pure C++17 DSP Core

For engineers who want the exact numbers behind the faceplate:

• Nyquist-Matched Analog Magnitude (1x & HQ 2x): Standard bilinear-transform filters cramp narrow bell and shelf shapes as they approach Nyquist (22.05 kHz). Solstice applies closed-form Orfanidis/Zölzer analog-prototype bandwidth pre-warping (sin(ω₀) / ω₀) across its 64-bit Cytomic Trapezoidal Integrated State Variable Filters (TPT SVFs, cascaded 1 to 4 stages for 6, 12, 24, and 48 dB/oct slopes) in baseline 1x mode, holding analog magnitude accuracy up to Nyquist with 0 samples latency and low CPU load. Engaging HQ 2x OS switches on a linear-phase polyphase half-band oversampler (3 samples host PDC latency) for phase-linear high-frequency shelving and audio-rate CV modulation stability.
• Sample-Rate-Scaled FFT & Crest Ballistics: The real-time analyzer scales its Hann-windowed FFT size automatically across sample rates (2048 samples at 44.1/48 kHz, 4096 at 88.2/96 kHz, and 8192 at 176.4/192 kHz) with block DC-mean removal and sidelobe compensation to maintain uniform ~23.4 Hz bin resolution and ±0.25 dB pink-noise flatness down to 20 Hz. In CREST mode, the Bollinger ribbon tracks a ~650 ms Steady-Body Mean spine, an ~800 ms Trough Floor, and a ballistic Peak-Hold contour, while active dynamic stems track per-band P50 mean and P95 peak-hold gain excursion envelopes.
• Delay-Aligned Adaptive LMS Mix-Minus (-SELF): When -SELF is engaged, Solstice cross-correlates the external sidechain input against both the 0-sample input path and the 64-sample post-EQ loopback path (matching Reason’s 64-sample audio cable delay when patched via SC SUM), applying per-channel adaptive least-squares gain estimation to cancel the track’s own contribution even across attenuated or panned mixer buses.
• Perceptual Equal-Loudness Auto-Gain & Zero-DSP Passthrough: Auto-Gain weights each band’s static and real-time dynamic gain delta against an ISO 226 / ITU-R BS.1770 K-weighted loudness curve (< 100 Hz sub roll-off, +38% ear-canal resonance peak near 3.2 kHz, and > 12 kHz air roll-off) so sub-bass cuts never trick the makeup gain. Out of the box, dormant or flat bands use 0.0% CPU, bypassing all filter, detector, and oversampling stages for bit-exact passthrough while keeping the real-time FFT analyzer live.