soothe by oeksound

[bmanic]

Soothe can indeed be supremely transparent. If it isn't, I don't hesitate to blame the user in this case (sorry plexuss).

Also, Soothe is nothing at all like the melda plugin. Doesn't sound anything like it and doesn't operate anything like it either. Yes, I have both.

I totally disagree on both points. But then, thats the fun of audio.

I think people are being "fooled" by the effect of soothe and not listening close enough in order to hear the brittleness it imparts even when used sparingly. This is a pretty common "miss" by people - the best example is loudness where people will prefer a louder track even though there is more audible distortion and less PLR. The human brain is funny that way.

It's a shame that so many masters will be subjected to soothe's brittleness. Alas. So many masters have less than 4dB PLR and tons of intermodulation distortion because of the misuse of loudness.

But I get where you are coming from. Soothe is psychoacoustically... well.. soothing, despite the harsh artifacts.

Our ears just work very differently. I am 100% ok with that because I really like the results I get with my music and audio quality and I don't want to comprimise that. I am glad I listened closely however to soothe and looked beyond its psychoacoustic benefits.

I may still buy it. It can be useful for sound design. I just have to find out if and where it differs from MSpectralDynamics. Right now the differences are not $150 worth.

Here is another perspective on soothe from a guy with equally discriminating ears on gearslutz.

"Right, so first of id just like to add that this is not how I would think about this plug. I look at it as a "cleaner" plug. Like Soundsoap, a plug that removes static noice etc from samples, but Soothe removes resonance peaks only. Its a compromize as it also will remove other stuf from the sample in the same frequency range as the unwanted noise. So the trick is to "sneak" it in, blend it so that the positive outcome overshadows the negative. With Soundsoap when removing whitenoise some hf is also removed from the sample itself. Its about finding the sweetspot of the obviouse compromize.

"In a mix I would only use Soothe on very dificult single tracks, not groups or the master. This gives no damaging effect on the rest of the song.

"In mastering I would be very carefull with using it. Generelly speaking dont use destructive degrading fx in mastering unless the improved outcome overshadows the destructive cost! So for me that means only in extreme situations. Only 1 or 2 tracks I have mastered was this nessesary. Those were heavy psychedelic synth compositions with multiple ear shattering resonances all over the place. The obvious problems came from frequency sweeping synth filter/resonances that would be hard to track with static eqs.(crazy reaktor drones etc) Before Soothe I would use multiple soft eqs and "chase" these frequencies with automation. A huge job that could take hours.. With Soothe now I can just slap it on, fine tune a little, and its done. I would also automate the dry/wet so it only works in the problem era of the mix, and dont stay active all throughout the song.

"If anything you should be experiencing less details not more from using Soothe. I would also recomend to try all the different settings it has and find what works best for you.

"To make a sensible AB test of this plug I would first find a track or sample that highly needed resonance removing in the first place. Then you can AB vs the unprocessed file. I usually do this anyway: Have 2 tracks one with Soothe and one duplicate without, then I just solo back and forth between them until the Soothe track becomes an improvement. If it cant improve the sample or the song for me, aka if it is not able to tame the unwanted resonances without also degrading the sound too much, then I simply dont use it. If it does not improve then it will only degrade so it does not make any sense to slap it on just in case it might help..

I always do an AB test while I use it. Either loop a short section in the mix and just mouse click the vst on and of/bypass as an AB test, or make a duplicate track if mastering etc."

Dude.. you are desperately trying to make it like soothe is really bad, not just in this thread but in others as well, then you are quoting somebody from Gearslutz to justify your point. Pretty sure it's still all down to the operator. Soothe has a huge range of operation and it can't just be quantified easily to be "brittle" as you say. Sure, it CAN be extreme but it can also be extremely transparent.

Also, it seems you've missed the point of Soothe (looking at the other thread here on KvR). It's not a general purpose tool at all. It's a "rescue" tool. That's what it's marketed as and sold as. I would never ever use it unless it's necessary.. only after static EQ or my own custom dynamic EQ has failed will I resort to soothe. Once it's applied it does it's thing much better than anything else out there on the market.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but looking at the way you need to justify it by quoting somebody and the aggressive way you go about your way to make it sound like soothe is shit.. is a bit weird to say the least.

[kiezum]

Sooth does something my other eq's can't do. And very transparent! With high CPU load.
Here I try Sooth on a guitar recording:

[Scotty]

Bmanic +1

[focusrite]

Sooth does something my other eq's can't do. And very transparent! With high CPU load.
Here I try Sooth on a guitar recording:

i'm pretty sure if you dial down smart eq live a bit you'll get much closer to soothe? Am gonna try this myself. Thanks for the comparison.

[litzblitz]

the 2 of the bunch (in the video) I have is soothe and the dynamic eq.

My first impression is, I would not use the tools in such manner to begin with.

Nevertheless I see a good effort and it's nice to hear different action side by side.

[plexuss]

[snip...]
Also, it seems you've missed the point of Soothe (looking at the other thread here on KvR). It's not a general purpose tool at all. It's a "rescue" tool. That's what it's marketed as and sold as. I would never ever use it unless it's necessary.. [snip...]

I didn't miss the point of soothe - it's some other people that have missed the point of soothe and my posts were in response to this. Many people here and on gearslutz have been so enamoured by what they hear soothe do, that they have said they now use soothe on everything. A few posters said they use soothe on every master since they got it. That is definitely intriquing and why I spent so much time demoing it. I was surprised to find how destructure soothe is even when used mildly - its definitely not suitable as a generic mastering tool. So, we are saying the same thing. My findings and opinions were in response to those that see soothe as some kind of magic pill to be used on everything. I simply disagree on that point. I agree with your assessment of it. The reason I was so strong in my posts is because I am disappointed that people would use it on everything. I wanted to encourage those people to listen more closely to what soothe is doing, listen deeper to hopefully hear the brittle artifacts its imparts and to use it, as you suggested, only when necessary to correct a problem.

In the end, I found that MSpectralDynamics does pretty much what soothe does and has a similar sound to it. so for me, owning MSD, soothe would be redundant. Also because I don't often run into these kinds of problems and if I did MSD would be good enough.

Finally, my posts were meant to help anyone who is also considering purchasing soothe - so often we are swayed by peoples' reviews and impressions of a plugin. I wanted to share a different opinion based on my rather intensive demoing of soothe as another point of reference for a prosective buyer.

So, do whatever you want. Lots of people rave about soothe. I think it has a psychoacoustic aspect that can mask its deficiencies. But, if you love it and want it by all means buy it and have fun with it. If I didn't have MSD I would have bought it myself for the odd occassion when I need such a tool, or to do some sound design work.

[simmo75]

Sooth does something my other eq's can't do. And very transparent! With high CPU load.
Here I try Sooth on a guitar recording:

i'm pretty sure if you dial down smart eq live a bit you'll get much closer to soothe? Am gonna try this myself. Thanks for the comparison.

How did it work for you, did you get it close to Soothe?
Soothes price even in the sale isn’t great for us in the US & I have the extra 50% off option for the Smart:eq Live Intro price.
If it can do what Soothe does or get close and be used as a general eq too then I’ll go Sonible.
I’ve demo’d Soothe a couple of times and don’t really get the hype.

[Captain]

(Note that this message is not directed at anyone in particular, it’s just some generic observations and experiences of mine about soothe. Also, I have no connections to soothe or the company that made it, other than them being from the same country... which of course might make me slightly biased, I admit that. I also might be repeating something I already wrote earlier in this topic. But, enough disclaimers for now...)

It really shouldn’t be that difficult to understand what soothe is, why or when it’s needed, and when it’s not needed. Soothe is a tool designed to address a very specific area or ”problem”, and it does its thing pretty much perfectly, as far as I can tell. If you don’t recognize the issue soothe is designed to fix, fine, probably you don’t need it. That’s OK, great mixes have been made in the history of recorded music without tools like this. On the other hand, if you just blindly slap it on every track or master, that is certainly going to cause some trouble, but that is not really soothe’s fault.

About 5 years ago, I asked here on this very forum if a tool like soothe exists. The problem was clear as day for me: when mixing vocals (especially loud & heavily compressed), I often get resonant peak frequencies with certain notes and vowels. I don’t know if my ear is especially sensitive to them or something, but they often really bother me. Hunting & killing them with EQ+automation is sooo slow and tedious, as they can appear at several different frequencies in different parts of the song. But spotting them is actually really easy, not only by ear, but often they are also clearly visible in a spectrum analyzer. So this got me thinking: there has to be a way to detect these peaks automatically, and turn their volume down as needed. But as it turns out, nothing like this really existed back then.

I even started designing an effect in Reaktor based on how I thought it should work: split the incoming sound into n+1 frequency bands, compare their relative volumes (using some super-intelligent neuro-AI algorithm that of course I was just going to throw together like that... in my dreams), and make sure none of the bands ”stick out” too much. Easy? Well, I never got too far with this, and of course it’s much much more complicated than that IRL.

If an audio recording doesn’t have any resonant peaks that vary in time and frequency and bother you, it most probably doesn’t need soothe. And in many cases you might be better off with a simple EQ (when sculpting/fixing a sound whose frequency response stays pretty much the same through the whole song - a snare, for example). But when we are talking about (acoustic) sounds that change in frequency and volume all the time (like vocals), and those ugly resonants that can occur only occasionally at several different frequncies... soothe was and is exactly what I had been hoping for. I literally couldn’t believe my eyes when I first read about it. The exact plugin of my dreams is actually here! I don’t want to go into the whole price argument, as it’s completely subjective, but if the other option is doing soothe’s work manually, I honestly think it pays itself back pretty fast. (I haven’t yet tried the Melda plugin, but I certainly will.)

soothe is ”just” an EQ that automatically detects and cuts certain frequencies. Of course it scientifically speaking degrades audio quality and causes artifacts, just as any EQ or processing does. But according to my little knowledge, there’s no reason why it should automatically destroy the audio any more than any (dynamic) EQ or multiband compressor does.

Bonus tip: I came up with one slightly more esoteric usage where soothe really shines. I love playing sounds through ”effect” IR’s that are not even reverbs, but all kinds of other sounds. This is an easy way to create cool playable ambient soundscapes... but they are often really unpredictable frequency-wise, and depending on what you play, you might suddenly get really nasty resonant peaks out of nowhere at some random frequency. Well, you can guess where this is headed, right? In cases like this, it doesn’t even matter if you get some artifacts or whatever... we are already deep into ”sound design” territory, and the only thing that matters is that you don’t bust your ears with resonances. Try it, it’s fun!

[Scotty]

Time to let this one go I think. - Scotty

[snip...]
Also, it seems you've missed the point of Soothe (looking at the other thread here on KvR). It's not a general purpose tool at all. It's a "rescue" tool. That's what it's marketed as and sold as. I would never ever use it unless it's necessary.. [snip...]

I didn't miss the point of soothe - it's some other people that have missed the point of soothe and my posts were in response to this. Many people here and on gearslutz have been so enamoured by what they hear soothe do, that they have said they now use soothe on everything. A few posters said they use soothe on every master since they got it. That is definitely intriquing and why I spent so much time demoing it. I was surprised to find how destructure soothe is even when used mildly - its definitely not suitable as a generic mastering tool. So, we are saying the same thing. My findings and opinions were in response to those that see soothe as some kind of magic pill to be used on everything. I simply disagree on that point. I agree with your assessment of it. The reason I was so strong in my posts is because I am disappointed that people would use it on everything. I wanted to encourage those people to listen more closely to what soothe is doing, listen deeper to hopefully hear the brittle artifacts its imparts and to use it, as you suggested, only when necessary to correct a problem.

In the end, I found that MSpectralDynamics does pretty much what soothe does and has a similar sound to it. so for me, owning MSD, soothe would be redundant. Also because I don't often run into these kinds of problems and if I did MSD would be good enough.

Finally, my posts were meant to help anyone who is also considering purchasing soothe - so often we are swayed by peoples' reviews and impressions of a plugin. I wanted to share a different opinion based on my rather intensive demoing of soothe as another point of reference for a prosective buyer.

So, do whatever you want. Lots of people rave about soothe. I think it has a psychoacoustic aspect that can mask its deficiencies. But, if you love it and want it by all means buy it and have fun with it. If I didn't have MSD I would have bought it myself for the odd occassion when I need such a tool, or to do some sound design work.

[Scotty]

A really interesting post, Captain especially the potential application for sound design. Cool!

Bonus tip: I came up with one slightly more esoteric usage where soothe really shines. I love playing sounds through ”effect” IR’s that are not even reverbs, but all kinds of other sounds. This is an easy way to create cool playable ambient soundscapes... but they are often really unpredictable frequency-wise, and depending on what you play, you might suddenly get really nasty resonant peaks out of nowhere at some random frequency. Well, you can guess where this is headed, right? In cases like this, it doesn’t even matter if you get some artifacts or whatever... we are already deep into ”sound design” territory, and the only thing that matters is that you don’t bust your ears with resonances. Try it, it’s fun!

[martinjuenke]

A really interesting post, Captain especially the potential application for sound design. Cool!

Bonus tip: I came up with one slightly more esoteric usage where soothe really shines. I love playing sounds through ”effect” IR’s that are not even reverbs, but all kinds of other sounds. This is an easy way to create cool playable ambient soundscapes... but they are often really unpredictable frequency-wise, and depending on what you play, you might suddenly get really nasty resonant peaks out of nowhere at some random frequency. Well, you can guess where this is headed, right? In cases like this, it doesn’t even matter if you get some artifacts or whatever... we are already deep into ”sound design” territory, and the only thing that matters is that you don’t bust your ears with resonances. Try it, it’s fun!

Isn‘t it a bit pricey for that pretty esoteric usage?
What about other fully equiped dynamic EQ like for example TDR Nova which have a deresonate function on board and cost a fracture... ?

[Captain]

Bonus tip: I came up with one slightly more esoteric usage where soothe really shines. I love playing sounds through ”effect” IR’s that are not even reverbs, but all kinds of other sounds. This is an easy way to create cool playable ambient soundscapes... but they are often really unpredictable frequency-wise, and depending on what you play, you might suddenly get really nasty resonant peaks out of nowhere at some random frequency. Well, you can guess where this is headed, right? In cases like this, it doesn’t even matter if you get some artifacts or whatever... we are already deep into ”sound design” territory, and the only thing that matters is that you don’t bust your ears with resonances. Try it, it’s fun!

Isn‘t it a bit pricey for that pretty esoteric usage?
What about other fully equiped dynamic EQ like for example TDR Nova which have a deresonate function on board and cost a fracture... ?

Sure, but I just meant that as something you can try if you already have soothe anyway, as it’s not really its primary intended use. Haven’t tried TDR Nova, it might work just as well!

[DrReacto]

What about other fully equiped dynamic EQ like for example TDR Nova which have a deresonate function on board and cost a fracture... ?

Nova is a great sounding dynamic eq but it cant filter as many bands as soothe. I like to use static and dynamic eq for the main sound sculpting and then apply soothe, if needed, to clean up some frequencies that are poking out. I always A/B anything I add to a track and typically always leave soothe in after I test it. Soothe makes it smooth. That's my new catch phrase.

I appreciate the innovation in products like soothe and the new Intensity (different developer). I like a lot of Melda Prodcution products (and use them including the mDyanamicEQ) but I couldn't get the mSpectralDynamics to give me a sound that I was looking for. I found DSM and Soothe work better for 'my' purposes and work flow.

[andymcbain]

soothe2 just announced - release on 23rd Jan.

https://oeksound.com/soothe2-introduction/



50 EUR upgrade for existing users. Curious to hear how it behaves in the bottom octaves!

[NeonNightflyer]

Full frequency range plus lower CPU plus offline rendering? I would upgrade just for that.