spectral rebalancers/optimisers

[chagzuki]

I haven't looked deeply into the differences between the many tools available for influencing the spectral balance of a mix, but have been using Mspectraldynamics for a couple of years. It's a compressor of sorts, or rather it will smooth out the spectral balance in the time domain with attack and release settings, with the user setting the threshold. So it's not claiming to know an optimal balance towards which to nudge a mix. Sonible smart EQ has the same sort of functionality with less control.

The blurb on the Gullfoss website makes it sound like they developed some space-age technique that only the Buddha can comprehend, but I believe I've seen claims that it's just pushing things towards a typical spectral distribution, which may or may not be appropriate for a given track. But it appears to have more options for user-specified outcomes.

Then there's Teote, DSEQ and others, and a distinct case of resonance suppression which isn't my interest here. But they all seem to be capable of mix bus usage. Apparently Ozone have entered the fray too.

How much do these plugins vary and can they all be used to much the same ends?

[vitocorleone123]

Add TDR Arbiter, as well.

Some are general tools (e.g., Mspectral or SmartOps feature in TDR EQs), some are problem solver tools (Soothe, DSEQ), and some are better-izers (e.g., Gullfoss and Teote). The categories can be pretty different. Within the categories the differences are smaller.

I use Gullfoss and DSEQ pretty regularly. Didn't really like Teote or Soothe. Best bet is to figure out if you need something in each category or not and then start doing demos.

[sokoleski]

I'm getting a lot of milage from DSEQ for resonance taming... And TEOTE for spectral balancing .

I also use HORNETS ThirtyOne MK2 on almost every track, which is crazy cheap right now BTW.

Ozone Stabilzer ...is pretty decent as well.

...SKNote .. Soundbrigade , gets used every now and then.

[xrr12]

can anyone further illustrate Arbiter vs Soothe 2? except being single-banded vs multi?

[whassup]

While Soothe can give great results in can give you very unique distortion too. Lots of distortion.
I wasn't able to persuade Arbiter to do extreme things, sometimes it was too tame for the task.
Both can do great things and I am concidering buying Arbiter, too.
If you look for natural sound you have to be lighthanded with all of them. Gulfoss does great things too. It is a signature sound.

[AtomOfScent]

I started with Soothe which is really simple to use and get good results from.

DSEQ is far more surgical/power and has had a lot more development/improvements (very responsive dev), but greater control comes at the expense of ease of use.

TEOTE is in a different category, which is more comparable to Gulfoss and I find its works really well for making many things sound "better", but isn't ideal for fixing precise issues compared to the others. It's more CPU heavy so best on groups/master, however I often print the results on individual sounds when the source recording is less than ideal.

Sonible Balancer (now a paid plugin called Balance) can be quite helpful too, but with the least amount of control.

[martinjuenke]

Sonible Balancer (now a paid plugin called Balance) can be quite helpful too, but with the least amount of control.

I tried to find Sonible Balance, but failed. There's onle a true:balance on the homepage of Sonible, but that seems to be just an analyser. What do I miss?

[Jac459]

I am using Ozone ones and for what I can tell they work very well. In particular, there is a Clarity module and a low end focus module, both are very good.

[noiseboyuk]

While Soothe can give great results in can give you very unique distortion too. Lots of distortion.

THANK YOU!

I've thought this from my very first try out. Applies to Soothe 2 as well. Yet everyone raves about it, and I can't understand why.

I don't have golden ears, anything but. But the distortion from Soothe 2 was almost overwhelming on some material. In general I found if the original audio is imperfect (I was using it in post on poor quality lav mics) it seemed to tame the harshness but at the expense of prominent distortion in the lower mid frequencies. Like everyone was talking through a comb or something is the best way I can describe it.

I too like Gulfoss though - no idea how it does it, but it seems to work.

[xrr12]

i always here about gulfoss being poor on transients. i will test arbiter a bit more and compare to soothe since i am quite fond of TDR and their algorithms handling with unwanted distortion etc.

[martiu]

Sonible Balancer (now a paid plugin called Balance) can be quite helpful too, but with the least amount of control.

I tried to find Sonible Balance, but failed. There's onle a true:balance on the homepage of Sonible, but that seems to be just an analyser. What do I miss?

it is a colab with Focusrite - https://collective.focusrite.com/products/fast-balancer

[Andreya_Autumn]

I haven't looked deeply into the differences between the many tools available for influencing the spectral balance of a mix, but have been using Mspectraldynamics for a couple of years. It's a compressor of sorts, or rather it will smooth out the spectral balance in the time domain with attack and release settings, with the user setting the threshold. So it's not claiming to know an optimal balance towards which to nudge a mix. Sonible smart EQ has the same sort of functionality with less control.

The blurb on the Gullfoss website makes it sound like they developed some space-age technique that only the Buddha can comprehend, but I believe I've seen claims that it's just pushing things towards a typical spectral distribution, which may or may not be appropriate for a given track. But it appears to have more options for user-specified outcomes.

Then there's Teote, DSEQ and others, and a distinct case of resonance suppression which isn't my interest here. But they all seem to be capable of mix bus usage. Apparently Ozone have entered the fray too.

How much do these plugins vary and can they all be used to much the same ends?

So, as you're aware, two distinct use cases: Taming single resonant frequencies that get unnaturally loud, or balancing the entire spectrum towards some kind of desired profile. They get mixed up a lot, which is understandable. But (as noted above) Soothe is really really not great for the thing Gullfoss does, and vice versa.

The one you already have actually kinda seems to be the best at doing both things. It's capable of both broader-strokes spectrum leveling and also more surgical resonance suppression. That makes it the dark horse of the bunch in a sense. But if you wanna get better spectral balancing results, it may pay off to look elsewhere.

You're kinda sorta right about Gullfoss, in that yes, it's default behavior is to try to get closer to a pink noise profile. But the way it selects where to boost and cut and by how much is where the magic is. And for the record, it's not fixed in pink noise mode. You can influence the target frequency response numerous ways. Try it if you haven't. It's iLok but it's one of very few things that have felt worth it for me.

Teote and DSEQ are not bad either. I found Gullfoss superior to both but not everyone agrees. Try those too maybe. Wavesfactory Equalizer definitely seems worth a try as well.

TDR Arbiter is a wholly different thing. With a single instance, you couldn't even get close to what any of the others do. It's the best De-Esser I've ever tried, and useful for many other things too. But in a different category completely.

[Lesha]

Give Lens a try.

[Andreya_Autumn]

Oh yeah! That's a great option too. It's different in some ways, and takes a fair bit more practice to use well. It's spectral so you gotta be a little careful about some of its artifacts (at hard settings mostly). But once you know your way around it it's just outstanding. Decidedly the best free option out there, for this purpose, IMO.

EDIT: That is Auburn Sounds Lens. In case that wasn't clear.

[osiris]

Smooth Operator/ La Petite Excite/ and either Density MKII or TDR Kotelnikov ( I like both but love what Density can do. La Petite Excite is ancient but it's magic dust.