Mastering The Mix has released Carbon Q, a connected EQ for your whole mix, available for macOS and Windows.
Carbon Q is an EQ and Volume Balancer that works across your whole session. Put a MIX instance on your output channel and agents on your vocals, music, drums and bass, and you can see and control the tonal balance and volume balance of every channel from whichever instance you have open.
Mastering The Mix says getting a song to sound professional comes down to two things: how loud each part is, and how the EQ fits together. Carbon Q works on both at the same time. The instances connect instantly and show up in the agent tray, so you can adjust your vocal EQ from the MIX window, or check the bass from the drum instance, without opening another plugin.
Hit ANALYZE, choose which instances to include, then press GO. Carbon Q compares your song against world class reference mixes and brings up the ten closest Smart Presets. Each one sets the tonal balance and volume balance of every channel at once, taken from a mix that already works.
Drop a reference track into the preset browser and Carbon Q separates it into vocals, music, drums and bass. It measures the tonal balance of each part and of the whole mix, plus how loud each part sits against the rest, and turns all of that into a preset. Select it and your session moves to match. You can take just the vocal balance from one record, or the drums from one song and the bass from another. Stem separation and analysis run on your machine, and your audio is never uploaded.
Every EQ move is level matched in real time, so the only thing you hear is the change in tone. Max quality linear phase filters keep transients clean, and Dynamic Mode holds each channel to its tonal balance target through the loud sections, pulling peaks back into line only when they go over. Stereo, Mid and Side modes put both curves on screen at once, so you can clear low mids from the sides or add air without a harsh vocal.
Carbon Q never touches your DAW faders. Each instance sets its own output gain on the channel it sits on, and it goes last in the insert chain so it hears whatever processing is already on the channel.
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Key features:
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One EQ across your whole session: a MIX instance plus VOCALS, MUSIC, DRUMS and BASS agents, all controllable from any instance.
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Smart Presets: hit ANALYZE and get ten presets built for your actual audio, setting tonal balance and volume balance together.
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Reference tracks: turn any song into a preset for your vocals, music, drums, bass and mix, or upload stems directly.
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Eleven fixed bands: 20 Hz to 12 kHz with ±9 dB per band and ±9 dB of output gain on every instance.
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Level Match: every EQ move and preset change is loudness matched in real time.
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Linear phase filters: max quality filters with 41 ms of latency.
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Dynamic Mode: one amount or three bands, with adjustable crossovers, attack and release.
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Stereo, Mid and Side: both curves on screen at once.
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Session control: Lock, Link, Bypass and Mix (%) on every instance, session-wide bypass from the MIX instance, A/B states, undo and redo, and a resizable interface.
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Runs locally: all analysis and stem separation happen on your machine.
Pricing & Availability
Carbon Q is available now for macOS and Windows in VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats priced at £59 / $80 / €68.95. Each license includes two seats. A 15-day free trial is available.
There is an introductory offer of 30% off until November 6th 2026 23:59 GMT. Additional loyalty discounts for existing customers are automatically applied.
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