A card for the Jana 965 · Circuit model, our own design
965A
Workhorse. The 965A is a four-band parametric equaliser whose bells stay wide on small moves and tighten as you push, with a shelf and a filter at each end. Reach for it for everyday tone shaping on tracks and buses, rather than to fix one note in a sound.
The 965A
- Kind: a circuit model, our own design.
- Bands: four, ±15 dB, with a high-pass and a low-pass filter.
- Bells: proportional-Q, Q 0.5 to 4.5 on the mids.
- Filters: 12 dB per octave, 20 – 250 Hz and 4 – 20 kHz.
- Latency: zero.
- Comes with: the Jana 965, in the trial and in every licence.
It is our own design. We drew its circuit ourselves, out of parts we could order, and modelled it end to end, part by part, through our own circuit-to-digital toolchain. It runs at zero latency, at the host's own rate.
Good for
- Everyday tone shaping, on a track, a bus or a full mix. A small move is a wide one. At ±2.4 dB, a mid band with Q at its 1·5 numeral is 2.39 octaves wide between its half-gain points, and with Q at its broadest it is more than five.
- Bigger moves that keep to their place. Push a band and it tightens: the same band at ±15 dB is 1.96 octaves wide.
- The top and the bottom. LF and HF open as gentle shelves, for lifting or trimming either end of a sound.
- Cleaning up. A high-pass from 20 to 250 Hz and a low-pass from 4 to 20 kHz, both 12 dB per octave: rumble under a voice, fizz on top of a guitar.
- Finding a problem, then cutting it. Boost and cut are mirror images. Sweep a boost to find a trouble spot, turn it into a cut, and the cut is the same curve upside down.
Less suited to narrow notches. Its narrowest bell is about a third of an octave wide at full cut, and wider at anything less. For a single ringing note, reach for the J15.
The controls
| Band | Frequency | Gain | Shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| LF | 30 – 500 Hz | ±15 dB | bell at Q 1.5, or shelf |
| LMF | 180 Hz – 1.8 kHz, ÷3 → 60 – 600 Hz | ±15 dB | bell, Q 0.5 – 4.5 |
| HMF | 600 Hz – 6 kHz, ×3 → 1.8 – 18 kHz | ±15 dB | bell, Q 0.5 – 4.5 |
| HF | 1.5 – 16 kHz | ±15 dB | bell at Q 1.0, or shelf |
| High-pass | 20 – 250 Hz | — | 12 dB/octave, Butterworth |
| Low-pass | 4 – 20 kHz | — | 12 dB/octave, Butterworth |
The ranges are the ones the panel prints, the nominal values of the circuit's parts.
- GAIN boosts or cuts a band. Its centre is flat.
- FREQ sets where a band works: the bell's peak in bell mode, the shelf's half-gain point in shelf mode.
- Q on the two mid bands sets how narrow the bell is at full gain. The outer bells have a fixed Q.
- BELL / SHELF on the two outer bands changes the shape, and re-tunes the band so that the printed frequency stays true in both positions. A fresh 965A opens with both on shelf.
- ÷3 on the LMF and ×3 on the HMF move the band's whole range down or up by a factor of three, for the lowest lows and the highest highs.
- IN on each filter puts it in circuit. The four bands are always in circuit.
The output control, the clipper, the meter, VAR and the stereo modes are the frame's, the same on every card.
Its character
Broad, measured. At full boost, between the points 3 dB inside the peak, a mid band on the plugin runs from 2.58 octaves wide with Q at its broadest to 0.33 of an octave with Q at its narrowest. Its narrowest bell is about nine to eleven times as wide as the J15's narrowest.
The bells are proportional-Q: a small move is broad and a large move is focused. Measured on the plugin with Q at its 1·5 numeral, a mid band set to ±2.4 dB is 2.39 octaves wide between its half-gain points, and the same band at ±15 dB is 1.96. The Q printed on the panel is read at full gain, between the points 3 dB inside the peak.
Boost and cut are reciprocal. The cut curve is the mirror of the boost curve at the same setting: the measured peaks and dips below agree to the hundredth of a decibel.
One printed frequency, both shapes. A bell and a shelf built on the same cell are not centred on the same frequency. So the BELL / SHELF switch also swaps the pair of capacitors that tunes the band, and the number on the panel is the nominal bell peak in bell mode and the nominal shelf half-gain point in shelf mode.
A unit of its own. Every resistor, capacitor and pot in the model can sit a little off its value, down to the pot tapers, and VAR sets how far your unit strays from the ideal. At VAR 0 every 965A is the same ideal unit.
Frequency response
Each curve below is measured on the plugin itself: an impulse through the Jana 965 at 48 kHz, offline, with the settings shown under each figure, and everything else at the card's defaults. Nothing in these figures is drawn by hand or taken from a design curve.
| Curve | Setting | Measured |
|---|---|---|
| LF | BELL, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ at 12 o'clock (194.5 Hz) | +15.08 dB at 194 Hz |
| LMF | GAIN +15 dB, FREQ at 12 o'clock (630.7 Hz), Q at its 1·5 numeral | +15.08 dB at 631 Hz |
| HMF | GAIN +15 dB, FREQ at 12 o'clock (2.207 kHz), Q at its 1·5 numeral | +15.07 dB at 2.21 kHz |
| HF | BELL, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ at 12 o'clock (8.007 kHz) | +15.09 dB at 8.04 kHz |
| Curve | Setting | Measured |
|---|---|---|
| +15 dB | LMF GAIN at its clockwise stop, FREQ 919.2 Hz, Q at its 1·5 numeral | +15.07 dB at 919 Hz; 1.96 octaves between half-gain points |
| +7.6 dB | LMF GAIN at the dot for +7.6 dB | +7.64 dB at 919 Hz; 2.29 octaves between half-gain points |
| +2.4 dB | LMF GAIN at the dot for +2.4 dB | +2.39 dB at 919 Hz; 2.39 octaves between half-gain points |
| −2.4 dB | LMF GAIN at the dot for −2.4 dB | −2.39 dB at 919 Hz; 2.39 octaves between half-gain points |
| −7.6 dB | LMF GAIN at the dot for −7.6 dB | −7.64 dB at 919 Hz; 2.29 octaves between half-gain points |
| −15 dB | LMF GAIN at its counter-clockwise stop | −15.07 dB at 919 Hz; 1.96 octaves between half-gain points |
| Curve | Setting | Measured |
|---|---|---|
| LF bell | BELL, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ 77.96 Hz | +15.08 dB at 78.0 Hz |
| LF shelf | SHELF, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ 77.96 Hz | half-gain point 87.4 Hz |
| HF bell | BELL, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ 6.147 kHz | +15.07 dB at 6.18 kHz |
| HF shelf | SHELF, GAIN +15 dB, FREQ 6.147 kHz | half-gain point 5.38 kHz |
| Curve | Setting | Measured |
|---|---|---|
| HPF, ccw stop | HPF IN, FREQ at its counter-clockwise stop (19.98 Hz) | −3.00 dB at 20.0 Hz |
| HPF, 12 o'clock | HPF IN, FREQ at 12 o'clock (101.3 Hz) | −3 dB at 101 Hz |
| HPF, cw stop | HPF IN, FREQ at its clockwise stop (248.8 Hz) | −3 dB at 248 Hz |
| LPF, ccw stop | LPF IN, FREQ at its counter-clockwise stop (20.02 kHz) | −3 dB at 19.8 kHz |
| LPF, 12 o'clock | LPF IN, FREQ at 12 o'clock (7.078 kHz) | −3 dB at 7.06 kHz |
| LPF, cw stop | LPF IN, FREQ at its clockwise stop (3.971 kHz) | −3 dB at 3.97 kHz |
What it is modelled on
Its own circuit, and nothing else. We drew the 965A ourselves, out of parts we could order: metal-film resistors, film capacitors, and sealed carbon pots whose tapers are traced from a maker's published chart. It is not a transcription of anyone else's unit and it carries no one else's name. The 965 in its name is reserved for our own designs; the cards we model from someone else's drawing take a J and a number instead.
Limits we state
- Small buffers at 96 kHz. At 96 kHz with 32-sample buffers, automating many 965A controls at once can run out of time in a buffer. Use 64 samples or more there.
- While a knob moves. The card redesigns its filters by a quicker method while a control is moving. The worst difference we measured from the settled response is 0.26 dB, at 20 kHz with the low-pass at its top stop, and only while it moves.
The Jana 965 page lists every limit we state.
Price and ownership
The 965A comes with the Jana 965, in the trial and in every licence, at no extra cost, and it ships inside the plugin. The 965 will be $50 at release, with both of its cards.