Toneboosters Sibalance vs. (?) Oeksound Soothe

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Melda Spectral Dynamics is one of the few Melda plugins I don't own and acknowledge I didn't demo it thus, I didn't try to use it as de-esser. I am open to giving it a shot.

plexuss wrote:TL;DW. but.... :phones:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IthiwPIC378

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I saw the end...MSD over Soothe. I would strongly advise to demo though. I think Soothe is "easier" to use not having read the manual. MSD actually does a lot more, like spectral deNoising. I didn't get into that because it wasn't the topic. That was a good video. I remember skipping through it once before.
...and the electron responded, "what wall?"

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I watched the video... my impressions were that Spectral was indeed as good with sibilant drum material as Soothe ( at least good enough to my ears) but certainly not as easily dialed in. I wasn't as convinced with the vocal material that the video highlights in last part of the video but would have been happy with it had I not had exposure to Soothe ... admittedly this is subjective because I don't have the source material.

Regardless, the video creator was on the fence and acknowledged Soothe's talents but wasn't sure having spent a lot of money on Spectral that he could justify its purchase given the overlap - which is a somewhat different question than what is being posed here.

When time permits I'll demo it for sure and try to have an objective point of view. Thanks for pointing it out. I didn't realize this plugin was this versatile and no matter how it stacks up against Soothe, it is very impressive.
Mathematics wrote:I saw the end...MSD over Soothe. I would strongly advise to demo though. I think Soothe is "easier" to use not having read the manual. MSD actually does a lot more, like spectral deNoising. I didn't get into that because it wasn't the topic. That was a good video. I remember skipping through it once before.

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On the original topic... Toneboosters Sibilance is cheap, full featured AND easy to use (unlike Melda). And yep it's good enough for the master bus too - visually and aurally, it shows you exactly what it's taking away. I rate TB up there with Fabfilter in terms of quality.

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For the record, I am not trying to sell you guys on any one plugin. I answered the OP's question both subjectively as one with experience using it and objectively as one with pragmatic bias to balancing effectiveness and cost. Anyway, for anyone joining in the conversation and as a recap of the products mentioned, here's a brief overview:

Sibilance - $47 USD for bundle
At first demo it was easy and more so intuitive to use than Soothe. Sound quality is excellent. It's more than reasonably priced (least expensive even if purchased in the bundle ), and effective for the applications mentioned. Mid Side processing. No sidechain input but has a sidechain EQ. Its freq range is only from 2kHz to 17kHz.

Eiosis e2 Deesser - $150 USD
I haven't really tried it so I don't have much to say about it but it's freq range is 100Hz to 20kHz. No sidechain input as far as I can see. Has a great spectral analyzer to see what you're affecting. Easy to dial in settings. Apparently it sounds great.

Soothe - $173 USD
Easy to use. Variable oversampling. Sound quality is excellent. Its frequency range is 20Hz-20kHz but apparently it's focussed on the mid to high frequencies only. Perhaps the legacy, non-iLok demo that I used has been updated since. No sidechain input. That's all you need for de-Essing and attenuating resonant freqs.

MSpectralDynamics - $240 USD
Requires understanding the UI. Sound quality is excellent. Ability to deNoise, de-Ess, and duck freqs transparently by sidechain input. Can operate as a normal compressor, gate, and spectral crusher. 3 attenuation modes: linear, quadratic, and logarithmic. 5 release modes. Naturality algorithm for character. Ability to set threshold curve by EQ, draw, capture, and operates in broadband mode. Dockable waveform analyzer. Mid-side and surround processing. Settings randomizer. Limiter. AGC. Correlation, Input and Output meters. It covers 20Hz-20kHz.

That's my rundown of the main features and differences I see. I still think if you have Sibilance, you could hold off on buying Soothe until you find yourself getting the results with Soothe that you can't with...whatever you have. If you have nothing and are looking to get in on spectral dynamic processing, I would recommend Soothe. If you need more flexibility and control, MSD. If you already own MSD...I really doubt you'll get significantly better results with anything else. If it's too complicated, stop using it, read the manual, tinker around with it, sleep on it overnight, then try again tomorrow. Repeat until you wrap your head around it...it's well worth the effort.

I found this relative topic:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 6&t=472591

It's worth reading the last few posts.
...and the electron responded, "what wall?"

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Mathematics wrote:..As an insert for the Master Buss, MSpectralDynamics is awesome. It will actually "level" the peaks throughout the spectrum..
Curious to try this myself. Does MSpectralDynamics have master / mixbus presets?

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I pulled it up and it has 6 presets specifically for mastering, including a spectral limiter preset. The presets have to do with loudness. The loudness it's processing for is RMS and not loudness based on Fletcher-Munson curves. Why would I think that? I guess I was thinking that maybe Santa can exist.

For mastering...this plugin is for that too. I also recommend looking at ProAudioDSP DSM V2. A different beast but still something worth having because of all the things one could do that aren't published. Seriously...someone needs to update the manual. I can thing of several things that this plugin does wonders for that is almost impossible to do with anything similar.

Note: I said 6 presets for mastering but there are others that you can apply. I just counted the ones that I think you could be interested in upon first glance.
...and the electron responded, "what wall?"

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Mathematics wrote:..The loudness it's processing for is RMS and not loudness based on Fletcher-Munson curves. Why would I think that? I guess I was thinking that maybe Santa can exist.
I hear you.
I also recommend looking at ProAudioDSP DSM V2.
The DSM v2 is definitely a beast i agree. I'm looking out for something similar with (some) more controls. But mainly lower latency.
Note: I said 6 presets for mastering but there are others that you can apply. I just counted the ones that I think you could be interested in upon first glance.
Thanks Mathematics. Good to know there are some default presets.

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Nevermind
Winner of 15th HOFA Xmas Mix Contest - 2024
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Mathematics wrote: Wed Jul 18, 2018 6:52 am For the record, I am not trying to sell you guys on any one plugin. I answered the OP's question both subjectively as one with experience using it and objectively as one with pragmatic bias to balancing effectiveness and cost. Anyway, for anyone joining in the conversation and as a recap of the products mentioned, here's a brief overview:

Sibilance - $47 USD for bundle
At first demo it was easy and more so intuitive to use than Soothe. Sound quality is excellent. It's more than reasonably priced (least expensive even if purchased in the bundle ), and effective for the applications mentioned. Mid Side processing. No sidechain input but has a sidechain EQ. Its freq range is only from 2kHz to 17kHz.

Eiosis e2 Deesser - $150 USD
I haven't really tried it so I don't have much to say about it but it's freq range is 100Hz to 20kHz. No sidechain input as far as I can see. Has a great spectral analyzer to see what you're affecting. Easy to dial in settings. Apparently it sounds great.

Soothe - $173 USD
Easy to use. Variable oversampling. Sound quality is excellent. Its frequency range is 20Hz-20kHz but apparently it's focussed on the mid to high frequencies only. Perhaps the legacy, non-iLok demo that I used has been updated since. No sidechain input. That's all you need for de-Essing and attenuating resonant freqs.

MSpectralDynamics - $240 USD
Requires understanding the UI. Sound quality is excellent. Ability to deNoise, de-Ess, and duck freqs transparently by sidechain input. Can operate as a normal compressor, gate, and spectral crusher. 3 attenuation modes: linear, quadratic, and logarithmic. 5 release modes. Naturality algorithm for character. Ability to set threshold curve by EQ, draw, capture, and operates in broadband mode. Dockable waveform analyzer. Mid-side and surround processing. Settings randomizer. Limiter. AGC. Correlation, Input and Output meters. It covers 20Hz-20kHz.

That's my rundown of the main features and differences I see. I still think if you have Sibilance, you could hold off on buying Soothe until you find yourself getting the results with Soothe that you can't with...whatever you have. If you have nothing and are looking to get in on spectral dynamic processing, I would recommend Soothe. If you need more flexibility and control, MSD. If you already own MSD...I really doubt you'll get significantly better results with anything else. If it's too complicated, stop using it, read the manual, tinker around with it, sleep on it overnight, then try again tomorrow. Repeat until you wrap your head around it...it's well worth the effort.

I found this relative topic:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 6&t=472591

It's worth reading the last few posts.
I got MSpectraldynamics for $87.98 last November. Soothe only goes down to 100 euros ($110 by current exchange rate).

I'm leaning towards "Soothe might sound slightly better but maybe not worth an extra $110"....

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I use TB Sibalance. Can't speak of the others. It goes on the offending tracks but also I almost always have an instance of TB Sibalance on the master with the effect dialed back a bit. I mix with DT 990 Pro which reveal harshness before it even happens, so I'm pretty comfortable with what Sibalance is giving me.

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Mathematics wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 2:43 amI also recommend looking at ProAudioDSP DSM V2. A different beast but still something worth having because of all the things one could do that aren't published. Seriously...someone needs to update the manual. I can thing of several things that this plugin does wonders for that is almost impossible to do with anything similar.
For those interested, Pro Audio DSP DSM was updated to V3 back in July this year AFAICR:

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... sm_v3.html

https://youtu.be/O55sZI1b-H0

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What about FabFilter Pro DS?

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Bouroki wrote: Tue Jul 17, 2018 5:59 pm
Mathematics wrote: Sibilance, IMHO is very much like Soothe. Essentially, all three are spectral dynamic processors or spectral dynamic compressors. With that said, no sense spending twice on getting Soothe if you have Sibilance,
I got absolutely gang violated on GS for suggesting the same thing. Over there they seemed to believe it was God himself in plugin form and all I wanted was to calm them the **** down :D
In fairness there is a little grey area between what Soothe does and white noise.
Intel Core i7 8700K, 16gb, Windows 10 Pro, Focusrite Scarlet 6i6

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