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- macOS 10.9 and newer, Universal Binary 2, 64 bit only
- Windows 7 and newer, 32 & 64 bit
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FiDef® by FideliQuest is a very low amplitude psychoacoustic stimulus designed specifically for audio engineers. It makes a receptive brain relax and pay closer attention to an incoming audio stimulus. In brain physiology laboratory tests using functional neuroimaging techniques, FiDef has proven to excite brain activity related to perception and attention, and to enhance the subjective processes of listening and engagement.
The FiDef process, developed in the US by FideliQuest LLC, was first licensed by MAAT for our thEQblue. That same algorithm is now available standalone for all major plug-in formats, including VST 2, VST 3 and AAX native for macOS and Windows plus Audio Units for macOS. FiDef is a patented, 64 bit audio processor like no other. Brain science takes the lead in this subconscious signal generator that compels the listening to lean in and…engage!
Since Edison’s first wax cylinders, the history of audio capture and playback can be summarized as the increasingly technical pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal: lifelike replication of the actual listening experience…The advent of digital technology, while solving many of the problems inherent in analog recording and playback, brought with it other challenges. At the same time, new enabling formats such as DXD (Digital eXtreme Definition) and MQA (Master Quality Authenticated), along with consumer trends toward uncompressed HRA or High Resolution Audio releases of music catalogs have brought new levels of fidelity to the home. Yet, even the highest fidelity digital playback still exhibits a level of reserve that keeps the music at arm’s length, not always allowing it to embrace and move us. Low fidelity or hi–fi, analog or digital, FiDef makes for a deeper, more satisfying connection.
While listening to a vaiety of recordings, an audio professional thought to himself, “Why do some recordings sound better than others?” He recruited an audio physicist and a musical neuroscientist while analyzing arrays of audio recordings to identify elements of sound that psychoacoustically engage the listener. Isolating the mechanism allowed them to develop a unique solution that synthesizes essential content from the material itself, inserting that dynamic information at low amplitude into the content. After years of development by a team of engineers with decades of industry experience, early in 2016 FideliQuest introduced FiDef™ audio processing, the first and only technology that restores what all recording and playback systems take away, whether analog or digital.
Think of a common, non–harmonic, sub–audible signal all good engineers use to linearize digital audio; dither. The FiDef system also generates an anharmonic, sub–audible broadband signal. The difference is that FiDef does not modify the music itself in any way but instead is added to the music. Also unlike dither, it is correlated to the source audio. This is not noise for noise’s sake. This is a dynamic, correlated and spectrally shaped signal. The signal, based on FideliQuest research into the human auditory system, is customized to directly stimulate the brain, bypassing cognitive processing. The manifold results include less brain activity required to process incoming stimuli, with a resulting increase in perceived nuance and tactility from music, speech and effects. FiDef informs your brain of the subtle potentials within a recording. Hear more of how the song was played, not recorded.
Supported by sophisticated research into how the human brain processes sound, FiDef informs the listener’s auditory system of music’s full potential. Independent research has shown that the brain response between FiDef and untreated audio is significant to 99%. The subtle effects of sub–audible supplementation are modeled in the brain over time. With familiarization, ears unaccustomed to FiDef might not hear the difference immediately. Studies indicate that the brain uses inverse effectiveness to process FiDef’d music with less effort, in effect hearing more by struggling less. Essentially, hear more than you think.
Grounded firmly in experimentation and analysis, FiDef technology can increase definition, detail, intelligibility, soundstage width and depth and, most important, the emotional engagement of the listener. In short, with FiDef processing, your audio sounds better, without any change to workflows or delivery methods, even on data–compressed file types and older or low–fi playback gear.
FiDef is a wholly new tool for your audio toolbox. FiDef’d audio doesn’t measure louder and the power spectrum is not changed. In fact, there’s only the addition of what seems to be a veil of added noise. That noise is what’s special, it’s the FiDef signal massaging your subconscious.
Your audience will feel their music like never before, but that’s not all…
FiDef JENtwo provide five profiles, each for a different effect. To make it easier to mentally map each Profile to something less abstract and more intuitive, you can rename them to taste…
FiDef triggers cerebral activity necessary for humans to respond to recorded sound in the same manner as the brain would respond to a live performance. This is provided by introducing additional, sub–audible signals into the recording that trigger specific brain activity in the listener. The supplementing content is sub-audible because it is essentially below the level of audibility when played at a normal volume level, or is masked by the content when a recording is played at an elevated volume level.
Because FiDef is a psychoacoustic process, it may not have any impact if the listener resists its charms. We’re talking full–on Jedi mind tricks, folks. If you are like many of us audio engineers, you are very much a “left–brain” person and discount what you cannot understand or explain. You are used to dissecting what you hear, you simply can’t help it. Unfortunately, your conscious higher level brain function will suppress your unconscious brain, and FiDef acts subconsciously. Result? If you try too hard to hear it, you probably won’t!
Though this is in direct opposition to the “impostor syndrome” you’ve worked so hard to overcome, there will be no noticeable effect if you “listen hard.” That is; analytically. Most folks don’t listen analytically, they listen casually and, in the case of music or dialog, for entertainment, education and enjoyment. However, your clients, your spouse and most likely your second engineer will notice “something different” about FiDef’d content. That something is usually a subtle and positive improvement in engagement and enjoyment. Remember, most folks don’t listen rationally, they listen because it’s fun!
Sounds like this whole FiDef thing is snake oil? Read below what some heavy hitting and highly respected engineers think of FiDef, and then drop your anti–B.S. bias into bypass and simply try it on your clients. After all, they are the final judge.
“(FiDef) brings better quality to music…It just sounds better”
“…I’ve never heard anything like FiDef. Makes my records sound better, and it’ll make your records sound better.”
“It just sounds better…like 3 dimensional.”
“I heard the FiDef difference in 5 seconds.”
“Makes me want to go back and remaster everything I have ever done.”
“Over the years I've seen a lot of schemes claiming to make music sound better. In almost every case when analyzed these are elevations of EQ or gain subtly hidden in a matrix. FiDef is an algorithm that has been developed to work with the listener's perception and therefore has created something that is truly an organic enhanced musical experience.”
FiDef is a mysterious but wonderful product. It works on virtually every style of music and every style of mastering, from the gentlest touch to the most aggressive dynamic range processing. From my experience it does three things:
Sometimes the added modulation noise is a bit distracting, especially around a very pure waveform on solo instruments like flute, piano, or solo guitar. FiDef JENtwo includes a low level processing on one of its presets and this solves this problem while still providing the effect of FiDef.
It's amazing, really - kind of an all-purpose ‘digital improvement filter.’ I never would have believed such a thing could work until I both heard it and felt the effects.”
“I tend to dismiss subconscious secret signal processors as money grabs, but this title is different…Like any effect, FiDef JENtwo isn’t for every track, but in the right circumstance, it can add some excitement and dimension unlike anything on the market.”
“I have tried different settings, trying to choose purely on first impression and intuition. In the beginning I didn’t hear that much difference. But I recognize this phenomenon; when you try to focus too much you often just don’t hear it anymore. But if I let it go, then I feel that I really hear the difference or maybe even feel the difference.”
“It’s the first time I’ve felt goose bumps from music in years.”
“I started a comprehensive album mix with an acoustic large band using FiDef JENtwo on the master bus. WOW!! (For that)…I used the TRUKN HUSH Profile. It was ‘day vs. night,’ somehow analogue sounding (I know, it’s a daft and overtaxed expression…) but that ‘injection of liveliness’ was not just a homeopathic dose! Just awesome, stunning and some kind of magic. I'm nothing but impressed!”
“We live in a golden age of digital audio. For one, it actually sounds good. But also: Our plugin folders are filled with toys that allow us to perform magic, and almost on a weekly basis new things get released that allow us to do this magic faster and more easily, more creatively or even better sounding.
FiDef JENtwo is not one of these plugins. In fact, when in full-on mixing mode it's sometimes hard to tell that it's even on. The REAL magic that it does happens after mixdown. When sending podcast productions for review, I find that editors listen with more joy and appear to focus better. That makes the recall notes (and my life) noticeably better. After a long day working on music, I can get on my bike, put the rough mixes on my headphones and have an easy time of just enjoying the music as - music. And not a jumble of things that still need working on. Which, incidentally, makes it easier for me to actually pick out the things that do need working on.
So, what do we have here? A plugin with a barely existent UI, five options to choose from and the heaviest lifting it does is while I am not even working on my DAW. Magic.”
“Something I notice using FDJ2 on a drum bus is that it seems to gel the drums together almost as if the space between the drum hits is smoother and more cohesive. Just more pleasant to listen to and therefore you listen in a more open way I find…it’s more of a feeling you get when it’s engaged than a specific change in sound you can point to. I do like the effect of stacking it up so you have it on the drum bus, on a horn section, percussion and vocals and then also on the master bus.”
“The different modes (Profiles) are all pleasing to my ears. FDJ2 makes the resulting master more cohesive - less sounding harsh in the mids/highs and more round and bouncy in the lower frequency spectrum. Overall I would call it less sounding “digital” - and that is what I was aiming for by buying your plugin.
I like to experiment with such tools and I came to the conclusion that using FDJ2 twice with different modes (for example first one for the lower spectrum with EVOSE and second one with TRUKN for mids and highs) can be a nice combination - meanwhile keeping in mind that the noise floor is also adding up.
Your tools did not replace anything in my workflow, but they are a nice addition I did not know I wanted. I am happy that I found these and hope you are already working on new stuff to optimize the digital working space, Thank You very much.”
“FiDef is part of my signature sound.”
Here’s a video run–through with audio examples.
“My God, FiDef is incredible! I saw a lot of tests on Youtube and people didn’t feel the difference. I think they focused wrong, but after downloading the demo and trying it myself I realized how amazing it is. I feel inside the music and listen in more detail. After turning it off I feel outside and I have a hard time getting inside. I’m a musician without money, but I'm going to buy it. I really don’t want to work anymore without having it in my mix chain.
“It blew my mind. (That’s what we’re here for! - OMas) Thank you very much and congratulations. I wish you much success and thanks for being sound geeks.”
They wrote a lucid and informative yet not pedantic review of FiDef JENtwo.
They “…noticed with pleasure that often i can hear the various ‘strands of the musical carpet’ more distinctly individually without the whole becoming less together or ‘organically one’.
Also, i had some difficulties with offline installation and am happy to share that Maat's customer service has been nothing but stellar!”