Baby Audio Smooth Operator

[Jkist]

Oooh, dark mode would be sexy! And I think its safe to say you have received similar feedback on every forum about automatic gain compensation. Also, better contrast would be nice. White over super light shades of pink, green, and blue looks super nice, but the visual contrast is a bit weak. Maybe you could lessen the opacity on the white part or something. Just a suggestion.

[BABY Audio]

Thanks for all the posts - they're great and there are definitely a few suggestions that keep coming up, which means we'll look seriously into implementing them!

It's still early days after the release so we'll keep gathering feedback for a while and then plan a v2 once we have enough input.

Thanks again for contributing with your feedback!

/Caspar

[BABY Audio]

Do you regularly compile another build that would work without online activation that all registered customers would receive?

Yes, exactly that. If ever something happened that meant we would have to shut down the activation server (which is highly unlikely) then we would be able to distribute an alternative build that could be activated without Internet access.

Also, what is much more likely to happen in the future is that we'll overhaul our activation system and hopefully find a way to incorporate offline activation

[bmanic]

Do you regularly compile another build that would work without online activation that all registered customers would receive?

Yes, exactly that. If ever something happened that meant we would have to shut down the activation server (which is highly unlikely) then we would be able to distribute an alternative build that could be activated without Internet access.

Also, what is much more likely to happen in the future is that we'll overhaul our activation system and hopefully find a way to incorporate offline activation

The issue is that pretty much the EXACT words you just said, have been said before.. and NOT honored. The case for "oh if we go bust or something happens, customers will get a working version!" is almost zero. As far as I know, the only company that actually pulled through (albeit half-assed and with a rather small window/time-line) was Camel Audio. All others simply vanished and left the legit customers hanging. Anybody can think of a company with online activation that actually kept their promise?

[jonalyn]

Thanks for all the posts - they're great and there are definitely a few suggestions that keep coming up, which means we'll look seriously into implementing them!

It's still early days after the release so we'll keep gathering feedback for a while and then plan a v2 once we have enough input.

Thanks again for contributing with your feedback!

/Caspar

PLEASE !! a dark GUI !

[epiphaneia]

Do you regularly compile another build that would work without online activation that all registered customers would receive?

Yes, exactly that. If ever something happened that meant we would have to shut down the activation server (which is highly unlikely) then we would be able to distribute an alternative build that could be activated without Internet access. Also, what is much more likely to happen in the future is that we'll overhaul our activation system and hopefully find a way to incorporate offline activation

Thanks for the reply; I´ll primarily hope that you´re going to stay around for a while, as I own and like most of your plugins so far. Still, offline activation would be a cool move.

Oh, and I´ll join the choir for:
- actually recognizable colour schemes
- AGC
... well, that´s it, really.

[chris.r]

It's still early days after the release so we'll keep gathering feedback for a while and then plan a v2 once we have enough input.

Is v2 going to be a paid upgrade?

[Jkist]

No, it will be a free update. You have my permission to sue me if I am wrong, but I am willing to bet the farm on this

[Obsolete462444]

It seems that Smooth Op compared to it's most direct competitor uses "smoother" (to use a positive term) curves for the deharshing / desresonating. What I mean by that: while the direct competitor pinpoints the gain reduction on multiple narrow frequency bands where the harshness and resonance occurs, Smooth Op goes about it by applying a few rather broad EQ-style curves. It seems this has advantages and disadvantages.

Judge for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMjqFVw5cGc

[Ploki]

It seems that Smooth Op compared to it's most direct competitor uses "smoother" (to use a positive term) curves for the deharshing / desresonating. What I mean by that: while the direct competitor pinpoints the gain reduction on multiple narrow frequency bands where the harshness and resonance occurs, Smooth Op goes about it by applying a few rather broad EQ-style curves. It seems this has advantages and disadvantages.

Judge for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMjqFVw5cGc

sharpness set to 4.6 throughout the video.
Soothe is pretty broad with sharpness set to 0.
Yes, the main disadvantage shown here is not knowing how to use the tools you have.

That doesn't make Smooth Operator inferior or different, it just makes it a less flexible tool - and the price for the lack of flexibility is reflected. Smooth Operator might even be a better choice if you find Soothe2 feature set overwhelming.

That goes further. DSEQ does a lot of what Soothe2 does AND MORE for the same price as baby audio, but it's even harder to setup. Gullfoss also boosts, but is also broad.
Or if you want the ultimate FFT dynamicEQ, MSpectralDynamics, which does - EVERYTHING - all of the aforementioned do and more, but it's an absolute pain in the ass to set up.
If you know your audio MSpectralDynamics is by far the most flexible.
If you don't, it's the easiest to make sound like shit.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[Obsolete462444]

sharpness set to 4.6 throughout the video.
Soothe is pretty broad with sharpness set to 0.
Yes, the main disadvantage shown here is not knowing how to use the tools you have.

That doesn't make Smooth Operator inferior or different, it just makes it a less flexible tool - and the price for the lack of flexibility is reflected. Smooth Operator might even be a better choice if you find Soothe2 feature set overwhelming.

Sure, Soothe can be set to broader curves, but Smooth Op can not be set to more precise curves currently. Smooth Op might take away too much of the good stuff, since it's not focusses on specific narrow resonant peaks, but on a broad EQ range. An equivalent to Soothe's Sharpness parameter would really help here.

[chris.r]

sharpness set to 4.6 throughout the video.
Soothe is pretty broad with sharpness set to 0.
Yes, the main disadvantage shown here is not knowing how to use the tools you have.

That doesn't make Smooth Operator inferior or different, it just makes it a less flexible tool - and the price for the lack of flexibility is reflected. Smooth Operator might even be a better choice if you find Soothe2 feature set overwhelming.

Sure, Soothe can be set to broader curves, but Smooth Op can not be set to more precise curves currently. Smooth Op might take away too much of the good stuff, since it's not focusses on specific narrow resonant peaks, but on a broad EQ range. An equivalent to Soothe's Sharpness parameter would really help here.

Yes, a parameter to dial in a more precise mode for dealing with just those resonant peaks would be also very welcome in the future update, please. That would be the main task for Smooth Operator overall in my case. Or should I save more and buy into Soothie?

[pawder]

sharpness set to 4.6 throughout the video.
Soothe is pretty broad with sharpness set to 0.
Yes, the main disadvantage shown here is not knowing how to use the tools you have.

That doesn't make Smooth Operator inferior or different, it just makes it a less flexible tool - and the price for the lack of flexibility is reflected. Smooth Operator might even be a better choice if you find Soothe2 feature set overwhelming.

Sure, Soothe can be set to broader curves, but Smooth Op can not be set to more precise curves currently. Smooth Op might take away too much of the good stuff, since it's not focusses on specific narrow resonant peaks, but on a broad EQ range. An equivalent to Soothe's Sharpness parameter would really help here.

Yeah I also feel that way, targeting specific resonances is kinda hard. The gain is also very weird to me, when I lower some nodes other regions get boostet. I started using it as a lazy dynamic EQ where I can dial in something really fast or just leave it at default.

[BABY Audio]

Hey everyone, I'm mindful of not interrupting this thread too much as people should be able to discuss the plugin freely without constant interference from us

But I just wanted to add - as it's come up a few times now - that you can sharpen/narrow the bands by increasing the "Focus" slider in the bottom panel of the GUI. This will make the plugin target frequencies more narrowly, which is ideal if you're looking to suppress specific resonances.

But yeah, at its base setting (around 75% Focus), the plugin has a slightly broader and more "smooth" approach where it's less meant for surgical resonance fixing -- and more meant for "tone shaping with benefits".

Thanks again for all the great feedback!