TOPIC:

I had two other MiniDSP boxes in the past and I sold them both, now I'm with the SHD which I love but I forgot about a very important feature I and some others have asked for years ago.

When you test audio equipment and make A/B comparisons, a quick A/B is very important and I'm trying to compare the result I'm getting with Dirac live vs SHD EQ but there is no way to do it if I need to bypass 10 EQ bands separately and then activate Dirac correction.

Can you please just add this feature? I can't imaging how a simple bypass button is a complicated thing to add.

that is very easy: just leave one of the presets empty

Changing a preset is not a quick A/B, it takes about 4-5 seconds of silence before you can hear a signal.
Would like to get a response from MiniDSP about this feature.
Is it that hard to implement a BYPASS button right next to "link enabled" box at the top of the plugin?

If 4-5 seconds is too long then I think you're using the wrong tracks for A-B listening. To be that precise you'd want to skip back and play the same portion anyway right and thats going to take a sec or two right. Alternatively I use tracks where I listen for just one thing. Then use a different track for listening for something else. I could leave it hours / days between A/B and hear differences with this approach. I've used these tracks for years so I'm very familiar.

I was at a hifi show some years back and was at the Russ Andrews room. They were demo ing their overpriced power cables and interconnects. They played a song no one had ever heard before then literally (I was timing) took about 4 mins to change all the cables over. All the while the sales guy was telling us hiw much better things were about to sound. Eventually the same unfamiliar track was played and I sat there thinking what a load! The sales guy asked "who can hear the difference". Sone guy in the front row put there hand up "definitely more detail". P-lease!

Nothing to do with your situation but thought I'd tell the story Point I suppose is still use tracks you know well enough so short delays don't matter.

IMHO if you cannot hear a difference after 5 seconds of switching, either there is no difference, or the difference does not matter.

Also switching quickly can lead to a bad solution, because it can lead to a solution that seems to sound better, but does not really. I was listening to 2 speaker sets at a dealers studio and I was able to switch without a break between them. The speaker that I was listening to currently did sound good. When switching to the other speaker, the new one did sound bad. But only for some seconds. I had to get used to its sound and when switching back to the first speaker again, this one did sound bad, and so on...

Often a better approach of testing is to listen a longer time (maybe 2 days or more ) to one solution and then switch to the other setting. If there is an important difference, you might feel it then.

Gert

Its easy enough to implement things in the plugin if it's a common use case. I don't think I've noticed anyone else ask for that feature in the last few years though.

www.minidsp.com/forum/software-support/6...ypass-of-all-filters

www.minidsp.com/forum/suggestion-box/105...-for-minidsp-plugins

www.minidsp.com/forum/suggestion-box/139...q-bypass-all-buttons

Some users have asked for this features many years ago.
The thing is, it's very easy to implement this, and i've never seen an EQ that you can only bypass its individual bands but not the plugin itself.

I'm testing with tracks I know very well and some that I mixed myself and maybe it's just me but any A/B that is not instant is not good enough.

In one of the threads I linked, the administrator of this forum wrote (3 years ago): "A good idea indeed.. Maybe in the future we can see how that is possible.

DevTeam"

So I'm just trying to understand why is it so hard to add a feature that is very basic in every other EQ plugin?

I totally agree with Logix1. The only way to do A/B at fine granularity is with instant switching. If it’s complex to implement, I can see it being low on the priority list, but if it’s a matter of a few lines of code and a button, then why not do it? I would personally use it all the time.

When I talked about tracks I use its for comparing one great system or component next to another or one filter against another or one tube against another. These difference are going to be amazingly subtle. Therefore I'm not using the whole track, I'm using portions where there is a recurring sound or subtle backing vocals that are hard to pick out or exceptionally good soundstage or something that is there that the artist doesn't really expect us to hear or, or... you get the point.

I guess we all have different techniques but for me I can't see how a few seconds makes a difference. Let's say it is that important, well, even if you get an instant switchover, the track has moved on! If no delay is important surely listening to the exact same passage is too. But you won't be. Unless we were to skip back at the same instant you're comparing the previous passage of music with the next bit! You're comparing apples with pears. If zero delay is so important for those nuances surely you also need to be skipping back 10 secs at the same time. Maybe you need a button press that does both skip back and instant switch!!