Here I go again: Melda vs. Sonible, Oeksund Soothe, Gullfoss?

[phixate]

I hope I'm not drumming up a completely dead thread here but here goes. Gullfoss will not take a badly mixed track and make it sound good. They tell you that on their website. I haven't seen any smoke and mirrors or hype with Gullfoss' marketing. I own and use the plugin on almost everything, but only as a sort of "kiss" to the audio. It gives a little life and movement to whatever you put it on. The EQ bands change as the audio plays and I think this is what I like most about it. I dial in about 10-20% for recovery and tame and rarely touch anything else. I also use Smart:Comp in a similar way. I don't overdo either one. I can't speak to the technicalities of what these plugins are doing but on A/B comparisons using my DT1990's and listening back on different speakers I really like these plugins merely for the subtle "life" that they add. I don't use either as an EQ or compressor but more as a subtle effect. I'm probably going to buy MAutoDynamicEq anyway as more of a surgical and analytical tool. I'd like to see how it compares to ProQ3 and Nectar's EQ, especially the follow EQ mode. My EQ collection is getting ridiculous at this point. I think I'm going to have to stop after this buy.

[MixFix]

comparison of the incomparable is a branch of philosophy:) toys vs devices lol, but on another hand every creature that make some noise we can call an instrument .. and i will love every instrument, just for single good sound... sometimes in order to read the user manual, it takes time, but it is absolutely justified, coz melda are high-end plugs
(excellent manuals, very well written, but i know already every thing so no need 2read4play

[Ramm Darkened]

I have made 2 presets for MXXX called "Transient EQ" and "Spectrum EQ" they work like Sonible's proximity and entropy EQs. They offer less as there are active preset gui limitations. Vojtech will release these at some point. Also I am working on a version of their smart eq and a new concept of my own which is an anti resonance EQ.

It would be great if you make a soothe clone for MXXX.

[MixFix]

jmg8, could you descriebe your anti-resonance concept? Are you looking for MAuto-Anti-ResonanceEQ or existing plugs GUI optimisation?

[jmg8]

jmg8, could you descriebe your anti-resonance concept? Are you looking for MAuto-Anti-ResonanceEQ or existing plugs GUI optimisation?

I never got round to making this one. This has just reminded me
It was a concept where I would use EQSplit (find it in MXXX) to separate into 2 lanes.
So let's say I boost at 200hz by 6dB. one of the lanes would get the whole signal as it was before it entered the EQ split. The other lane will get only the extra bosted part of the signal. In this second lane, I would also have spectral dynamics with quite a fine resolution reducing the resonant peaks.
So to the user, it would just seem like a normal EQ, however when they boost something it boosts, but not the resonances, so it sort of makes for a smoother boost.
I haven't really tested it yet though and as concepts usually work, things would get changed when put into practice. Maybe I will take a look at this soon........

[jmg8]

I have made 2 presets for MXXX called "Transient EQ" and "Spectrum EQ" they work like Sonible's proximity and entropy EQs. They offer less as there are active preset gui limitations. Vojtech will release these at some point. Also I am working on a version of their smart eq and a new concept of my own which is an anti resonance EQ.

It would be great if you make a soothe clone for MXXX.

I can't remember how Soothe works, I will take a look when I get time.
But I took a look at Gullfoss and it seems to me, that it is a curve that is applied to a spectral dynamics sort of setup. So I would think drawing a human loudness perception curve into the threshold in MSpectralDynamics would probably work. Ask Vectorwarrior about this, I remember he managed to extract the curve from Melda plugins, somewhere (i can't remember where)

[jmg8]

I checked out Soothe, it is a spectral dynamics plugin. However with much less control than MSpectralDynamics.
My advice is to really learn MSD by reading the manual and watching the video tutorials and you will be able to do what soothe can do plus a whole lot more!

[Bullfrog001]

I took a look at Gullfoss and it seems to me, that it is a curve that is applied to a spectral dynamics sort of setup. So I would think drawing a human loudness perception curve into the threshold in MSpectralDynamics would probably work.

Gullfoss doesn't use a human loudness perception curve as a threshold. It uses a 3dB per octave slope (i.e. pink noise). MSpectralDynamics in its default state is already 90% of the way there. There's an old post where I outline how to match it. Not that I'd recommend doing that. Because of the target slope it ends up brightening anything you put through it (especially over 10k but for most genres even down to 4k or 6k). MSpectral is far more flexible using the capture feature/just drawing in a more appropriate threshold.

Soothe, on the other hand, actually did seem to be doing something MSpectral couldn't. I'm just going by memory here (I tested it a few years ago) but as I recall it was actually spectrally notching out resonant frequencies rather than just compressing/limiting them. There is, however, a trick you can pull to get MSpectral to do just as well with resonances. I'll explain it when I have more time.

[MixFix]

smoother boost... Maybe I will take a look at this soon........

EQSplit divides the audio signal into two frequency ranges, if these two signals are mixed, we get a sound identical to the EQSplit input. Yeah, this unique tool is presented exclusively in MXXX, another reason to get total bundle..
Separate!Process!Mix! - the only limit is your imagination. Divide and conquer is a strategy for achieving best sound.
really we are unlimited

[Ramm Darkened]

I took a look at Gullfoss and it seems to me, that it is a curve that is applied to a spectral dynamics sort of setup. So I would think drawing a human loudness perception curve into the threshold in MSpectralDynamics would probably work.

Gullfoss doesn't use a human loudness perception curve as a threshold. It uses a 3dB per octave slope (i.e. pink noise). MSpectralDynamics in its default state is already 90% of the way there. There's an old post where I outline how to match it. Not that I'd recommend doing that. Because of the target slope it ends up brightening anything you put through it (especially over 10k but for most genres even down to 4k or 6k). MSpectral is far more flexible using the capture feature/just drawing in a more appropriate threshold.

Soothe, on the other hand, actually did seem to be doing something MSpectral couldn't.

Yes. Soothe is superior on removing annoying resonances. But my trial is expired so I can't use it anymore lol.

[spektralisk]

I'm considering buying Soothe but I have a dilemma since I already have MSpectralDynamics.

I was just comparing the two. My usual case is just removing resonances across whole spectrum so I didn't bother with multiband options on Soothe.

So for Soothe I set it up to remove across all frequencies, set sharpness to 8.7, selectivity to 3.0.

For MSpectralDynamics I made this preset:

Code: Select all

$eNqVlE1P4zAQhu-9Fdb0Co2d70hxEVsKQgJUEcTu1WqGxmpqF9tlKYf97au4DaoKSJBLpHkzM8+MX6c8e1215AWNlVpxYCMKBNVc11ItOGzc02kOZ+NBeVutce6MaC+2Sqzk3Fp0TqqFJUMODMjQCCc14xCPaJZkNC+KPEqBDKtGrPFW18ihet4IgzWQoW31Gjl0ul1p7RoOdERZSP0TZ2kOZOgag7bRbc06NaGM5VlIaRYDmWyMQeVmBi266wsO1RqXHZ20y39VVxAZkGktnTaVfEMOLE7Tk6QID6NTYbcc8rg4iYsCyI2w7tw5MV92-SKWhmGWpSll2U67xxaFRS9mCYuSKKNxtBcfelgOpywc+TkYi3xdqZaTRiiFrfW7utF6ed6gqC+wFVsOFMjNfbVupXPowRiHkLHkOBxySLrNVI3+O33eiFa+obkyYt34GpWscdIIqWZ91fdIhXOtamG2ew6vPvaHnidRQmMYl+dzJ19wt9V+x4exa-WkOcBn0p1YIYfLVjiHSqrFbs-duEHnHnRobDguf8vaNbfjstIbM0cyM-gkW4fGu41CMC6D-pOgTxqUi27GcTnTUjly2YqF-dWdaFf7Q7Ab21vqj7dNmAB5-eCf7XEk+Kx6l8j6j4soS+IoLnzTYEc0KCcb6-TKe9x2g74fC5nePc7up9X0gQOjfgnvFrn6ahzfcBRRRsOiKJI09c2P-PQlavyNzOAIYlD6987230c6uh4-QPqYGRwS7Hn2V+1HQIdX8mdAR5k7oB5hUAZf-fvsePAfzj+IuQ==

I then enclosed both in Ableton into instrument rack in parallel and set up macro for seamless switching between them. I tested them on some different resonant material and really differences were minor, even no audible to me in some cases. For all of audio sources I tested they both sounded almost the same. I noticed that MSD behaves like Soothe when you set up slope to +6dB so it's more sensitive towards high frequencies. In case there was a difference it was just a matter of adjusting the Threshold on MSD or Depth on Soothe. Optionally on MSD you can decrease Naturality to make it more brutal and adjust compression ratio.

Smoothness on MSD = Sharpness (inverted) on Soothe.

So anyway these are my observations. If you can, check the preset and let me know your thoughts (my comparison might not be accurate, so I'm curious).

For multiband you just need more work -> MXXX. I'm not sure how these will compare CPU wise in this case as well as latency.

[jmg8]

Not sure why you would have a multi band spectral processor?
Anyway if you can get the results you want with the product you already own and you can't hear much difference between the two. I would advise you to spend your money on something else.

[spektralisk]

Not sure why you would have a multi band spectral processor?

Just to be able to adjust its sensitivity or degress of compression per band. I was referring to Soothe with this which has this functionality. I just realised that you can do this in MSD itself by drawing threshold curve, then assigning modulation on threshold segments - tedious but once made I save and forget. Shame that we can't save custom device in MSD (or can we?)

Anyway if you can get the results you want with the product you already own and you can't hear much difference between the two. I would advise you to spend your money on something else.

Yep. That's what I'm going to do.

[jmg8]

Yeah, you can make custom devices in MSD. You mean the easy screen right?
Just simply make your self a preset with MPs and when you go to the easy screen it will display there.

[Ou_Tis]

I'm considering buying Soothe but I have a dilemma since I already have MSpectralDynamics.

I was just comparing the two. My usual case is just removing resonances across whole spectrum so I didn't bother with multiband options on Soothe.

So for Soothe I set it up to remove across all frequencies, set sharpness to 8.7, selectivity to 3.0.

For MSpectralDynamics I made this preset:

Code: Select all

$eNqVlE1P4zAQhu-9Fdb0Co2d70hxEVsKQgJUEcTu1WqGxmpqF9tlKYf97au4DaoKSJBLpHkzM8+MX6c8e1215AWNlVpxYCMKBNVc11ItOGzc02kOZ+NBeVutce6MaC+2Sqzk3Fp0TqqFJUMODMjQCCc14xCPaJZkNC+KPEqBDKtGrPFW18ihet4IgzWQoW31Gjl0ul1p7RoOdERZSP0TZ2kOZOgag7bRbc06NaGM5VlIaRYDmWyMQeVmBi266wsO1RqXHZ20y39VVxAZkGktnTaVfEMOLE7Tk6QID6NTYbcc8rg4iYsCyI2w7tw5MV92-SKWhmGWpSll2U67xxaFRS9mCYuSKKNxtBcfelgOpywc+TkYi3xdqZaTRiiFrfW7utF6ed6gqC+wFVsOFMjNfbVupXPowRiHkLHkOBxySLrNVI3+O33eiFa+obkyYt34GpWscdIIqWZ91fdIhXOtamG2ew6vPvaHnidRQmMYl+dzJ19wt9V+x4exa-WkOcBn0p1YIYfLVjiHSqrFbs-duEHnHnRobDguf8vaNbfjstIbM0cyM-gkW4fGu41CMC6D-pOgTxqUi27GcTnTUjly2YqF-dWdaFf7Q7Ab21vqj7dNmAB5-eCf7XEk+Kx6l8j6j4soS+IoLnzTYEc0KCcb6-TKe9x2g74fC5nePc7up9X0gQOjfgnvFrn6ahzfcBRRRsOiKJI09c2P-PQlavyNzOAIYlD6987230c6uh4-QPqYGRwS7Hn2V+1HQIdX8mdAR5k7oB5hUAZf-fvsePAfzj+IuQ==

I then enclosed both in Ableton into instrument rack in parallel and set up macro for seamless switching between them. I tested them on some different resonant material and really differences were minor, even no audible to me in some cases. For all of audio sources I tested they both sounded almost the same. I noticed that MSD behaves like Soothe when you set up slope to +6dB so it's more sensitive towards high frequencies. In case there was a difference it was just a matter of adjusting the Threshold on MSD or Depth on Soothe. Optionally on MSD you can decrease Naturality to make it more brutal and adjust compression ratio.

Smoothness on MSD = Sharpness (inverted) on Soothe.

So anyway these are my observations. If you can, check the preset and let me know your thoughts (my comparison might not be accurate, so I'm curious).

For multiband you just need more work -> MXXX. I'm not sure how these will compare CPU wise in this case as well as latency.

How do you load that code as a preset in MSpectraldynamics? Tried saving as .xml but couldn't figure out how to load it. Do you need to copy and paste it into the presets xml file? Or is additional software required?... Would be great if you could add this to the online exchange.