Linear-Phase Octave Graphic Equalizer

Abstract

A computationally efficient octave-band graphic equalizer having a linear-phase response is introduced. The linear-phase graphic equalizer is useful in audio applications in which phase distortion is not tolerated, such as in multichannel equalization, parallel processing, phase compatibility of audio equipment, and crossover network design. The structure is based on the interpolated finite impulse response (IFIR) philosophy. The proposed octave-band graphic equalizer uses one prototype low-pass filter, which is a half-band FIR filter designed using the window method. Stretched versions of the prototype filter and its complementary high-pass filter implement all ten band filters needed. The graphic equalizer is realized in the parallel form, in which the outputs of all band filters, scaled with their individual command gain, are added to compute the equalized output signal. The command gains can be used directly as filter band gains. The number of operations needed per sample is only slightly more than that needed for the graphic equalizer based on minimum-phase recursive filters. A comparison with other implementation approaches demonstrates that the proposed structure requires 99% fewer operations than a high-order FIR filter. The proposed filter uses 39% fewer operations per sample than the fast Fourier transform–based filtering method and causes over 78% less latency.