Tube-Driven 31-Band 1/3-Octave Graphic Equalizer.
±24 dB Per Band. One Knob That Colors Everything.
Perpetual license - pay once, own it forever.
By purchasing you agree to our EULA and Privacy Policy.
Third Rail is a tube-driven stereo 31-band 1/3-octave graphic equalizer - real ISO center frequencies, one fader per band, ±24 dB of range. Grab 63 Hz and pull it down. Push 10k up. No frequency knob to dial in first, no Q to argue with - just faders, exactly where a hardware graphic EQ has always put them, grouped into six bands from Sub-Bass through Air so you can find your hands on the panel without hunting.
Drive comes from the INPUT knob, the way it works on real tube gear - push it hard and the saturation kicks in on its own, no separate drive knob to ride. A vari-mu-style compression stage runs underneath at a fixed character, adding weight without ever being a control you have to think about. Then there's COLOR: a knob that does nothing to the sound and everything to the feel, recoloring the fader highlights and LED meters live so the plugin looks like it belongs to you.
Why Third Rail Exists
Tube EQs and graphic EQs went two completely separate directions in real hardware. Tube program EQs stayed to a handful of broad controls, sometimes full parametric or a variation, but mostly a couple of shelves and a peak or two. Graphic EQs with a fader per band went solid-state almost across the board, because running 31 individual tube stages in one box would have been a heat, cost, and reliability nightmare with the technology of that era. Nobody could make it practical. So the two design languages just never crossed.
So we thought, "Hey, we can still do that though. Let's build one." You will not believe how nice it sounds.
Grab a band. Pull it where it needs to go.
Sub-Bass to Air, six groups, 31 real ISO bands. Push the input and feel the tube stage wake up. No menus, no modes to learn - just a graphic EQ that works exactly like you already know it should.
Try Third Rail FreeNo account required - we send the link to your email. Silences briefly every 30 seconds in demo mode.
31 Real Bands
Every band sits at its real ISO 1/3-octave center frequency, from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, 31 in total - the same layout used on hardware graphic EQs for decades. Bands are grouped visually into six ranges - Sub-Bass, Bass, Low-Mid, Midrange, Presence, and Air - so a broad tonal move is a handful of faders in the same neighborhood, and a narrow surgical cut is one fader, exactly where you expect it.
±24 dB of range per band, twice the swing of a typical graphic EQ, for the moments that need real correction, not just a nudge.
The COLOR Knob
COLOR is a continuous hue control that lives entirely in the look of the plugin - it recolors the fader highlight lines and the LED meters live, in real time, as you turn it. It doesn't touch the signal path at all. It's there because you're going to have this plugin open for hours at a time, and there's no reason it has to look the same on every session.
Push the tube stage by driving INPUT hard, then tune the meters to teal, magenta, amber, whatever matches the mood of the mix. OUTPUT trims the level on the way out. A true bypass on the power switch, not a mute - what you hear off is exactly the source.
Factory Presets
Warm Bus, Air Lift, Low End Foundation, Vocal Forward, Broadcast Voice, Tape Glow, De-Mud, Bright Master, Full Smile, and Sub Cut - ten curves built to be an actual starting point, not a gimmick. Save your own alongside them, A/B against your last setting, or import and export curves to move between sessions.
One-time purchase. Yours forever. No subscription, no renewal.
Install on up to three machines simultaneously. Need to move a license? Email us.
Encrypted activation over HTTPS. No telemetry. No data leaves your machine during use.
You email us, we answer. No ticket queues, no bots, no knowledge base rabbit holes.
VST3 (64-bit) - Windows, macOS, Linux
AU (64-bit) - macOS only
Windows 10 / 11
macOS 11 Big Sur or later (Apple Silicon + Intel)
Linux - Ubuntu 22.04+ or equivalent
Any VST3-compatible host: Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Nuendo, and more
AU (macOS): Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage
Stereo in, stereo out
31-band series filter chain, 64-bit precision
Perpetual, single user
3 simultaneous activations
Need to move a license? Email us
Current version: 1.0.0
Perpetual license - pay once, own it forever.
By purchasing you agree to our EULA and Privacy Policy.
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