First introduced in 2023, the updated version 1.1 is now available, and remains 100% free to download with no time limits. (Both macOS & Windows versions are available.)
The latest update includes: – robustness improvements to the transfer function calculation for some signal conditions – minor user interface updates and fixes – separate downloads for M series and Intel macs.
In this tutorial, we explain how to use the ‘Gain/Polarity/Delay’ tab in FIR Designer M, the third step in the workflow for designing custom DSP and FIR filters for loudspeakers and audio systems.
The GPD tab is used to adjust gain, polarity, and alignment delay that will be used in the target proccessor, particularly for multi-way designs. For this reason, this video is based on FIR Designer M (ie. FIR Designer “Multi-way”) rather than the single-channel FIR Designer. The GPD tab in less relevant for single-channel DSP designs, although the GPD tab in FIR Designer is still useful for mulit-way projects built from several separate single-channel projects across multiple independent channels.
This video demonstrates how to:
Align low-frequency and high-frequency loudspeaker drivers using gain, polarity & delay parameters
Compare driver phase and phase slope through the crossover region
Use the ‘Second View’ window to monitor filtered responses while working in the GPD tab
Optimize crossover summation and reduce excess phase rotation between drivers
This video is the third in a new-for-2026 tutorial series, with each video focused on a single FIR Designer workflow tab (it follows the Target Tab tutorial). These new tutorials will gradually replace several older tutorial videos, ensuring coverage of the full feature set available in current FIR Designer versions.
FIR Creator EX version 2.3 and FIR Creator version 2.1 DSP design software updates are now available, featuring a range of enhancements and functionality previously implemented in FIR Designer.
A 93.75 kHz sample rate, to support FIR filters for Hypex DSP’s, expands the list of available sample rates to five in FIR Creator EX and four in FIR Creator.
New plot zooming controls make it easier to focus on specific frequency and level ranges, making small response details easier to see and allowing for more precise adjustment. Horizontal zooming is available on the ‘Import’ tab IR and ‘Export’ tab FIR filter. Vertical zooming is available on the ‘Export’ tab FIR filter.
Drag locking of freq & gain or freq & phase is now available when using the mouse to adjust filter shapes. Filter shaping is more precise, faster and easier with movements optionally limited to one parameter.
Filter list tables can now be sorted by frequency. Simply click the Freq column header to sort filters in ascending or descending order on the Target, IIR Filters, Mag Adjust, Phase Adjust, Auto Mag and Auto Phase tabs.
A Phase-only option has been added to the Import tab. Choosing this option will flatten out the magnitude of uploaded measurements before their subsequent use in DSP design.
In response to several user requests, on the ‘Phase Adjust’ tab, the combined phase can now be optionally displayed on the lower plot.
In this tutorial, we explain how to use the ‘Target’ tab in FIR Designer, the second step in the FIR Designer workflow for designing custom DSP and FIR filters for loudspeakers and audio systems.
The target tab is used to define the desired magnitude and phase response for your loudspeaker or DSP-enabled audio device before FIR filter, or mixed IIR+FIR filter design.
The creation of a custom target response is demonstrated through the selection & combinination of up to four contributing components:
Curve – Define a magnitude or EQ profile using slope segments and a base shelf.
Magnitude – Create a magnitude profile based on common filter prototypes. (Choose from parametric and shelf filters, low-pass and high-pass crossover filters, and unique Keel-Horbach crossover responses.)
Phase – Create a phase profile using common first-order and second-order all-pass filters or our unique ‘fourth-order’ parametric phase filter.
File – Load an impulse response or transfer function measurement to incorporate into the target response (for example, when matching to the response of another loudspeaker). See all supported file formats.
Saving target presets for reuse in other projects and exporting the magnitude response as a Smaart® target file are also covered.
This video is the second in a new tutorial series, with each video focused on a single FIR Designer workflow tab. These new tutorials will gradually replace several older tutorial videos, ensuring coverage of the full feature set available in current FIR Designer versions.
FIR Designer DSP design software version 4.6 is now available. This latest update includes several new additions requested by users.
A new 93.75 kHz sample rate, to support FIR filters for Hypex DSP’s, expands the list of available sample rates from eight to nine.
When designing custom DSP, the import measurement file & export sample rates don’t have to match. (i.e. you can import measurements in one sample rate, and export filters in another.)
Filter tables can now be sorted by frequency.
Simply click the Frequency column header to sort filters in ascending or descending order on the Target, IIR Filters, Mag Adjust, Phase Adjust, Auto Mag and Auto Phase tabs.
DSP settings can be copied across channels in FIR Designer M, eliminating the need to configure each channel individually. Once your tab settings are set up for a single channel, you can use the new Copy/Paste function to duplicate all settings, or a selected subset, to any number of other channels.
Second View window now includes a tab for loading a Reference Response measurement, which can be used as a reference when designing EQ based on other measurements. The reference response plotline appears behind other plots in the ‘Second View’ window. Its magnitude can also be optionally inverted, which is helpful when trying to mitigate a response rather than match it.
Measurements from loudspeakers (or other audio devices) are the foundation of the custom DSP & filter design process in FIR Designer. Correctly importing and time-aligning your measurement ensures accurate phase behaviour and optimal results in all subsequent DSP design stages.
Data from a wide range of audio measurement tools can be used in the Import tab (see all supported import file formats).
Our new Import tab tutorial demonstrates how to:
Manually load a loudspeaker measurement into FIR Designer
Adjust time alignment of the measurement to remove bulk delay
Get the phase response time in a range that can be used in subsequent tabs
Use the various settings & options available on the Import tab
This video is the first in a new tutorial series, with each video focused on a single FIR Designer workflow tab. These new tutorials will gradually replace several older tutorial videos, ensuring coverage of the full feature set available in current FIR Designer versions.
Measurements captured in Rational Acoustics’ SMAART software can use FIR Designer’s built-in ‘Smaart Control‘ dialog to send measurement data to the Import tab.
Live-stream either Spectrum or Transfer Function Smaart measurements directly into the Import tab instead of having to manually load saved measurements from a file.
Bose EQ in FIR Designer: Bose Professional IIR Mode
FIR Designer DSP software can now be used to design and load EQ to Bose Professional Sound Processors and PowerShareX, PowerShare & PowerMatch amplifiers.
The new ‘Bose Professional’ IIR filter mode in FIR Designer v4.5 (& FIR Designer M) enables the design of custom EQ for loading into the IIR filter-based signal processing blocks (PEQ blocks) in Bose’s ‘ControlSpace Designer‘ professional configuration & control software.
The Bose filter emulation in FIR Designer ensures that common IIR filters, used to configure DSP functions for EQ, will produce consistent results when used in Bose products. Brand-specific IIR emulation is necessary for audio optimization because some filters produce different results when used across processor brands. Bose and Eclipse Audio have worked together to ensure that the Bose IIR filter mode in FIR Designer interprets filter parameters in exactly the same way as ControlSpace Designer. (Learn more about IIR brand emulation.)
The Bose Professional IIR filter mode contains options for parametric, low-shelf, high-shelf, notch and Butterworth (1st & 2nd order filters) high-pass and low-pass filters; all of which can be saved & exported as a *.peq file format for upload into a ControlSpace Designer PEQ block. (FIR Designer also contains Bose-emulating Bessel and Linkwitz-Riley filters, although those are currently not supported in PEQ blocks.)
Bose EQ Conversion
IIR filters developed for other audio brands can now also be converted for use in Bose processors and amplifiers (and vice-versa), using the IIR Reference Editor in FIR Designer. Including Bose Professional, there are currently sixteen branded IIR modes available:
(The generic mode is for use with processors without their own branded mode. Learn more).
Brand-specific EQ options: IIR filter modes in FIR Designer
In addition to filter conversion between brands, a measurement (in a supported file format) of an IIR response from any processor can be loaded into the ‘Target’ tab of FIR Designer , and the Bose filters can be set to match it in the ‘IIR Filters’ tab.
Using the Reference Editor to convert Symetrix filters to Bose
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.)
Additional changes include:
Existing plot line color customization has been expanded to allow adjustable plot line thickness, which improves visibility of some plot colours, especially when viewed against a dark background.
Delay distance on the Import tab can now be viewed in either mm or inches. (This uses a new ‘Speed-of-sound’ setting within Preferences.)
Import tab now has a “magnitude only” option – for ignoring a measurement’s phase – and the impulse response can now be viewed out to a larger range of ±5.
When using a response from file as a Target, “magnitude only” and “phase only” options are now available, giving more flexibility when matching loudspeakers or attempting to achieve a specific target.
A manual “check for updates” option is available to access the latest program downloads, even when already using the latest version.
The latest FIR Creator update is 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.)
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 perpetuallicense 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!
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.
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
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