22 May 2025

New FIR Designer M perpetual license offers alternative to ongoing subscription

FIR Designer M new perpetual license option

FIR Designer M, Eclipse Audio’s multi-channel custom DSP design software, is now available to buy as a perpetual (one-time-payment) license for USD$979 (plus tax). Until now, all purchases of FIR Designer M were subscription-only, requiring an annual recurring payment to stay active.

Subscription vs Perpetual Licenses

A perpetual license of FIR Designer M is a one-time purchase. The software can be used indefinitely with no additional payments, however the feature set is ‘frozen’ at the time of purchase, with no access to any updates or new features. Any necessary bug fixes will be provided.

To upgrade to a newer FIR Designer M version in the future, perpetual license holders will need to purchase a new license. (Credits may be available for upgrades.)

A subscription license of FIR Designer M requires an annual recurring payment to stay active. The feature set will expand over time, as license holders receive ongoing free updates to the latest version, including all new features & improvements. We will ensure the software remains compatible with all future operating system versions.

Our development efforts will continue to be focused on regularly updating FIR Designer M to expand & improve functionality. Feature requests welcome!

FIR Designer M Info
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16 Apr 2025

FIR Designer v4.4 Adds Plot Export, Impulse Response Windowing & More

The latest version 4.4 releases of FIR Designer and FIR Designer M introduce new features which expand functionality, improve usability and accelerate the filter design process.

Plot Export

Any plot can now be exported as an image file (PNG format), with a user-defined pixel width and height, for consistency. Also, any individual plot trace can be exported to a multi-column text (TXT) file, for loading into Excel or other plotting software.

To access plot export, click the button on the lower right of each plot.

Especially useful for documenting designs and preparing presentations, the new Plot Export functionality avoids the need to use third-party screen capture software.

FIR Designer M Plot Export dialog

Impulse Response Windowing

The ‘Import’ tab in FIR Designer (or Channels>Import in FIR Designer M) now includes a windowing option for the loudspeaker measurement impulse response. Impulse response windowing can be useful to reduce or eliminate the effects of room reflections, at the expense of low-frequency resolution.

A new ‘Frequency Varying Time Window’ is available which has a longer effective window at low frequencies and progressively shortens at higher frequencies. Also available are all windowing options from the FIR filter Export tab – Boxcar, Cosine Tapered, Modified Adriene, Hanning, Blackman-Harris and Kaiser-Bessel – with adjustable start and end lengths.

When enabled, windowing is applied prior to frequency smoothing.

Windowing in FIR Designer M

FIR Designer M Windowing examples: Off, Frequency Varying Time Window, Hanning

Channel Plot Customization


Specific to FIR Designer M, plot displays can now be customized separately per channel within each tab of the channel workflow, so that different magnitude and phase traces can be visible or hidden when working on each channel.

When the “Use per-channel plot checkboxes” setting is enabled in Preferences, unique sets of plot checkboxes are tracked for each channel, and are swapped whenever the “Edit Channel” is changed. The Preferences setting and all the checkboxes are stored in the FIR Designer M system file.

This new functionality saves significant time by eliminating the need turn plots on or off whenever switching between channels, retaining visibility for only the traces that are important for each channel. (This functionality only applies to the main window and not the ‘Second View’ window.)

Per-channel plot checkboxes in the ‘Preferences’ menu of FIR Designer M

FIR Designer M Info
FIR Designer Info
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24 Mar 2025

Dark Mode Added to FIR Creator EX

FIR Creator EX dark and light mode user interface screenshots

FIR Creator EX users can now design custom DSP in either a light or dark themed interface.

Our popular ‘Dark Mode’ option in FIR Designer & FIR Designer M has been rolled into FIR Creator EX as part of the version 2.1 update.

To switch between light and dark themes, in Preferences, change the “Use dark mode” setting and restart the application. (This video demonstrates the same process in FIR Designer.)

We’ve also expanded the existing plotline color customization to allow adjustable plotline thickness, which improves visibility of some plot colours, especially when viewed against a dark background.

The latest FIR Creator EX updates are available free to existing licensees on version 2 or above. Users of earlier versions may be able to update at a reduced cost. (Discount depends on time elapsed since original purchase; see here.)

Download a free demo to try it out!

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3 Nov 2024

‘Dark’ FIR Designer Adds Support for AFMG, Storm Audio, LabGruppen IPX & Audio Weaver

The recent updates to FIR Designer & FIR Designer M go beyond the new dark interface.

We’ve introduced two new branded IIR modes – AFMG and Storm Audio – to ensure precise matching of the IIR filter behavior with the destination processor by adjusting for brand-specific differences in IIR filter interpretation. The AFMG mode is unique in modelling analog filters spec’d in loudspeaker GLLs used in AFMG simulation tools like EASE and EASE Focus.

Two new export options are also available. These include an IIR filter coefficient export option specifically for Audio Weaver (adding to the existing FIR export capability), and Direct-to-Processor export for Lab Gruppen’s IPX range of DSP amplifiers (read IPX loading instructions).

Users of FIR Designer’s ‘Supplementary Responses View’ will welcome the newly-added normalization option. A new set of loaded measurements can now be viewed in relation to the on-axis response, for both individual response plots and the polar heatmap, providing a clearer picture of the loudspeaker’s radiation pattern. All main workflow processing – gain, polarity, delay, IIR, FIR – is applied to the new measurements before on-axis normalisation is applied.

Download a free demo for macOS or Windows.

FIR Designer M Release Notes
FIR Designer Release Notes

IIR modes in FIR Designer expanded to include AFMG & Storm Audio
Supplementary responses window in FIR Designer M
13 Aug 2024

New Dark Mode in FIR Designer

In response to (many!) user requests, we’re pleased to announce that FIR Designer & FIR Designer M both now include a dark user interface theme option. It’s available for both macOS and Windows users.

Now you can design custom DSP using either a light or dark theme. We’ve also expanded the existing plotline color customization to allow adjustable plotline thickness, which is useful in increasing visibility of some plot colours against a black background in particular.

This video provides a quick demo of how to switch from light to dark mode. Download a free demo to try it out!

5 Jun 2024

FIR Creator EX Version 2 Expands Functionality

Several features previously only available in FIR Designer & FIR Designer M have been rolled into FIR Creator EX as part of the version 2 update.

Read on for the details or check out this article in Mixonline.com.

Unlimited IIR filters (increased from maximum 8 per project)

Unlimited FIR magnitude filter prototypes (increased from maximum 8 per project)

Unlimited FIR phase filter prototypes (increased from maximum 8 per project)

More brands supported for IIR emulation. New Blaze Audio, Pascal Audio, RAM Audio & RMS-Acoustics IIR filter modes have been added to the list of emulated brands, joining Biamp Tesira, Marani, Lake, Linea Research, Powersoft, QSC Q-SYS, Symetrix, & BSS). (Note, brand IIRs can be emulated but it’s only possible to convert IIR filter sets from one brand to another in FIR Designer & FIR Designer M.)

New Direct To Processor export windows for Lab Gruppen’s IPX DSP amplifiers, in addition to pre-existing Lake and Powersoft DTP export. See Lab Gruppen DTP instructions.

Customizable plot colors. Choose any colors you want across different plots, and they’ll be saved in the project file. When opening different projects, plot colours will default to any custom colours previously set for that specific project, and can be modified again at any time.

Existing FIR Creator EX or FIR Creator users are invited to upgrade to FIR Creator EX v2 at a reduced cost. (Discount depends on time elapsed since original purchase; see here.)

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FIR Creator EX Specs
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25 Mar 2024

New ‘Auto IIR’ functionality in FIR Designer & FIR Designer M

The latest versions (4.2) of FIR Designer & FIR Designer M include all new ‘Auto IIR’ functionality, which dramatically speeds up the IIR EQ process by automatically selecting and setting parametric filters to match a response to a target response.

The Auto IIR function is accessed from within the IIR tab & works with the non-branded ‘Generic’ mode or any of the twelve branded IIR filter modes. (Blaze Audio & Pascal Audio have just been added for v4.2, joining Biamp Tesira, BSS, Lake, Linea Research, Marani, Powersoft, Q-SYS, Symetrix, RAM Audio & RMS-Acoustics.)

Key parameters to set for auto IIR generation include desired input smoothing, frequency range & the number of filters (to match the available number on your processor). Automatically generated IIRs can be added to the IIR tab with a single click, where they can be turned on/off & adjusted just like any other IIR filter.

All IIRs (whether manually or automatically created) can be exported alone or as part of a combined FIR+IIR preset from the ‘Export’ tab, in a file format to match the destination processor.

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*Demo version doesn’t include Auto IIR

22 Mar 2024

FIR Designer adds new Pascal & Blaze IIR modes | Twelve brands now included

The latest 4.2 versions of FIR Designer & FIR Designer M include two new branded IIR modes – Pascal Audio & Blaze Audio. IIR filters can be exported to TXT file reports, and crossover and EQ settings can be copied into input and output channels in the Blaze Audio “PowerZone” and Pascal Audio “ZoneControl” web UI’s.

Brand-specific IIR modes ensure common IIR filters produce consistent results when used across various amplifier/processor brands, because there are differences in the way each brand’s software interprets some filter parameters, like Q and bandwidth (BW), and in the conversion between Q & BW. (Learn more about IIR brand emulation.)

IIR responses in the new modes can be automatically converted to/from RMS-ACOUSTICS, Lake, Linea Research, Powersoft, Q-SYS, Symetrix, BSS,  Biamp Tesira, Marani, RAM Audio & generic IIR modes using the IIR Reference Editor. (The ‘Generic’ mode is the a starting point for use with processors that don’t have their own branded mode.) This ensures IIR response matching when working with different amplifiers & processors, and solves the problem of standard filter settings producing different results on various amplifier/processor brands.

Let us know what other processor brands you’d like to see included with a custom IIR mode in FIR Designer.
FIR Designer M Release Notes | FIR Designer Release Notes
Blaze and Pascal in IIR drop down menu
11 Jan 2024

New RMS-ACOUSTICS Mode in FIR Designer

We’ve added an ‘RMS-ACOUSTICS‘ IIR filter mode to FIR Designer (v4.1) & FIR Designer M (v4.1). It enables ‘WAY EQ’ IIR filter export for import into RMS-CONTROL software & aids mixed IIR+FIR RMS-ACOUSTICS preset creation.

IIR responses in the new RMS-ACOUSTICS IIR mode can be converted to/from Lake, Linea Research, Powersoft, Q-SYS, Symetrix, BSS,  Biamp Tesira, Marani, RAM Audio & generic IIR modes using the IIR Reference Editor. (The ‘Generic’ mode is the a starting point for use with processors that don’t have their own branded mode.)

The IIR Reference Editor enables the automated conversion of IIR filters between brands in a single click. This ensures IIR response matching when working with different amplifiers & processors, and solves the problem of standard filter settings producing different results on various amplifier/processor brands.

Version 4.1 Project Compatability Notification

With the number of branded IIR filter modes continuing to increase, we’ve made an essential change to the project and system formats used within FIR Designer for IIR filter inclusion. This change will facilitate faster addition of even more branded IIR filter modes in the future. The file format change applies to both FIR Designer & FIR Designer M, from version 4.1 onwards.

This change means projects created in v4.1 (or later versions) aren’t backwards-compatible with version 4.0 and earlier. In addition, if projects created in earlier versions are opened in v4.1, we recommend saving as a new project (rather than saving over previous work) to avoid the risk of losing data.

Let us know what other processor brands you’d like to see included with a custom IIR mode in FIR Designer.
FIR Designer M Release Notes | FIR Designer Release Notes
1 Dec 2023

Rational Acoustics & Eclipse Audio Announce Licensing & Development Agreement

Rational Acoustics and Eclipse Audio development agreement

Rational Acoustics, developers of the Smaart® acoustic test and measurement software platform and Eclipse Audio, developers of the FIR Designer range of DSP filter design software, have announced a licensing and development agreement. The agreement will bring together Rational Acoustics’ market leadership and innovation in sound system alignment and optimization with Eclipse Audio’s expertise in DSP filtering solutions for loudspeakers.

Under the agreement, Rational Acoustics will license a selection of code libraries from Eclipse Audio and the two companies will cooperate in the development of a future Smaart branded software product.

“Our goal is to ensure that Smaart software provides users with the best, and most innovative, sound system measurement solutions.” says Jamie Anderson, President of Rational Acoustics. “Eclipse Audio has developed some very interesting technologies that we feel will benefit the Smaart user base in future product development and we are eager to put those technologies to use.

“We’re excited to be collaborating with Rational Acoustics to broaden the scope of solutions available to SMAART users,” says Michael John, Director & Founder of Eclipse Audio. “SMAART measurements are frequently used as the basis for custom processing within our products. Our overlapping user base and passion for maximising loudspeaker performance means working with Rational Acoustics is a natural fit for us.”

Read the announcement on rationalacoustics.com

SMAART is a registered trademark of Rational Acoustics LLC, Connecticut, USA.

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