Soothe 2 vs Gullfoss vs DS-EQ

[TS-12]

I’m deciding to get one of these: Soothe vs Gullfoss vs DS-EQ.
I hear lots of good stuff about soothe 2, but barely hear anything about the 2.
How do they compare in audio quality when cutting out a good amount of frequencies ?
Is Soothe 2 worth the extra $$ ?

[Jkist]

Soothe 2 vs Gulfoss are kind of two different things. Soothe 2 is meant to tame obnoxious resonances, whereas Gulfoss is meant to just make the overall thing its being applied to sound more "pleasing". Does that make sense? I dont know much about DS-EQ...

[adl]

I use Soothe in single Tracks and busses while Gullfoss on the Masterbus.
If you can only afford one I'd say get Soothe, as it can do more, even Sidechaining (slap it on the Melodybus and sidechain that with vocals to make frequency specific room for the vocals to not clash with the melody. You can even apply that only to the mono signal, so reverb or effects which are on the side doesn't get affected that much.
Gullfoss on the other hand can really enhance and optimize a track in a very natural way, wouldn't miss if either. But Soothe is currently on sale, so I'd definitely get that now.

[Fleer]

But Gullfoss is just ... magical.

[Tronam]

Where it gets a little fuzzy is that Gullfoss can also be used to tame resonances and it does it really well, so there can be some overlap. Soothe is more surgical though, so if you want more granular control it's the better option.

[tuzemec]

Take a look at this one too: Voxengo TEOTE

[Frankie.T]

I tested both soothe 2 and dsseq (they have both free trial), and there isn't a winner, for some sound dseq was better, and for other the opposite, i ended up to buy dseq because i like how it work, it's cheaper and don't use the sh*tty iLok system soothe use, and when i can i try to avoid to feed company that use that system, and i send them a mail to let them know.

[Ambiphile]

I personally like and own Soothe 2. It's very useful to tame shifting resonances. I tested DSEQ as well a while ago and found it pretty good, too. They both have a very similar feature set and good UIs. I'd say between these two: just try the demos and see what's more useful for you. Soothe is more expensive though, even when discounted, i guess.

Regarding Gulfoss/Teote i must say i just don't like them. Tested them for several hours a while ago on various single tracks and master bus and i feel they either do almost nothing when on low settings, or when i push them harder, they start to constantly shift the frequency balance in a (for my ears) rather unpleasant way. I tend to stick with static EQ (partly with the help of AI, like in sonible smart:EQ2) or tools that only tame resonances in certain frequency bands. A constant shift of balance across the whole frequency spectrum just doesn't sound natural or pleasing for me. I don't get what people like about Gulfoss especially on the master bus, i was very disappointed with it tbh.
Just two examples of what i found in my test sessions on master bus:
During a passage where no Hi-Hat/Cymbals are playing, the plugin would boost treble pretty excessively, making the material bright and present. Once a Hi-Hat or Cymbal starts playing, treble isn't boosted anymore and the remaining elements suddenly sound more dull.
Or during a passage of the track where kick and/or bass aren't playing (during a break in a Trance song, for instance), those plugins will boost lowend by a whole lot, muddying up the remaining elements.
When i dialed down the processing enough that these unpleasant shifts aren't audible anymore, well...then the signal was pretty much indistinguishable from the bypassed one. I know that you can exclude lowend/highend from the processing, but that somehow breaks the point of these plugins then. For me, there is just no middle ground where i hear something that could be called an improvement.

Disclaimer: This is all highly subjective and i'm not a professional mixing/mastering engineer, just an intermediate-level hobbyist. Just wanted to add my findings. The good thing is that all these plugins have a demo version and you can just try it out yourself.

[Effectsworks]

Gullfoss is great... Just don't over do it.

Soothe 2 is great also. But it serves a different function then GF.

[foosnark]

Take a look at this one too: Voxengo TEOTE

+1

I actually sold my Gullfoss license after getting TEOTE. TEOTE seems less inclined to push the highs too hard, and gives generally better results IMHO. I like that you can prevent it from boosting anything, and just cut and clean up a little.

[MogwaiBoy]

Since I record ambient guitar stuff I am constantly fighting extreme resonances. The most transparent way to do it is surgically by automating individual notches in a digital EQ. Very slow and meticulous process!

Maybe i'll try Soothe one day and see if it's better than what I can do manually. It'll certainly be faster Another one I want to try is Acon DeFilter.

TEOTE is voodoo. Pure magic. Easy to overdo it though. I haven't tried it on single tracks as a resonance tamer though but I will.

[Armadillo]

Just FYI. I saw Sound Theory posting an image of a new version of Gullfoss yesterday.
Sidechain will be included, which is a very welcome addition. No info on release date yet though.

Soothe 2 is currently on sale, so worth getting now if you're interested. It's one of my most used tools the last year or so.

[TS-12]

Oh I didn’t know soothe requires a dongle. I’m trying to avoid any software with ilok or elicenser. Even though I currently have software that requires each of those. I take my desktop with me to multiple locations and it’s annoying to always worry about not losing those dongles. I also have them plugged in sometimes while transporting the pc and it’s easy to damage them. Ahh I just don’t like them at all

[sl1200mk2]

Another vote for TEOTE. I still very much like Gullfoss, but TEOTE has all but replaced it for me. I'll still often load it up and A/B them against each other, but I'm almost always preferring TEOTE. I will say that at least for me TEOTE took some time to get my head around and doesn't have such an immediate workflow as Gullfoss, but once you get know it really shines. Like most things, it takes an investment of time.

I'm still going to hold on to Gullfoss and see what they might bring in the future.

[Ploki]

I demoed these types of plugins a lot and also had gullfoss for a couple of years before selling it (because i got Voxengo TEOTE)

Here's the most popular plugins of this type:
- TEOTE (Great rebalancer, due to being cross-over based it has constant phase distortion so increasing intensity doesn't make transients more smeary - the most predictable, a bit of a learning curve. Shit at notching/surgical stuff. It kinda works, but it's not great at it.)
- Gullfoss (Great rebalancer,"dynamic EQ" based. The more something happens, the more phase is distorted. Extremely easy to use! Better at notching than TEOTE)
- Soothe 2 (Doesn't rebalance, but absolutely stunning at notching. It's hard to make it sound really bad. (Same with phase as for Gullfoss))
- DSEQ3 (kind of rebalances, is great at notching. Can make it sound bad at exstreme. I prefer Soothe2 as i find it faster)
- MSpectralDynamics (it's insanely powerful - the most of all, but it's a pain in the ass to work with)

I personally am opting for:
- TEOTE (For rebalancing, took over Gullfoss' duties) (already have TEOTE)
- Soothe2 (for notching quickly)
- MSpectralDynamics (For going berserk)

I would go for Gullfoss on a budget because it does both what Soothe and what TEOTE do, but it's more affordable than two plugins and it's extremely easy to use - however it falls short when it's not spot on, because you don't really have control over it.

EDIT: to expand more on Gullfoss vs Soothe2:
i don't think they're all that similar. Gullfoss does "notch" resonances if you use tame and set bias to 100%, but it's not as transparent at nothing as Soothe2 is, notching on gullfoss feels more like an "after-thought" and it's Soothe's main thing.
I think Gullfoss and TEOTE share more similarities in what they set out to do, but use different means to get there, and i think TEOTE's way is smarter.

Oh I didn’t know soothe requires a dongle.

it doesn't, machine activation is fine