It looks like this was released at the end of 2023, never noticed at the time and there's no thread for it here. The Soothe 3 update got me digging around to see what the landscape is for these type of plugins now, and there are a ton of new ones, but this one really stood out to me. The audio demos in this video do a pretty impressive job of respecting the source while dramatically cleaning up resonance, particularly the electric guitar example. Anyone using it?
https://mcdsp.com/plugin-index/sa-3
McDSP SA-3 dynamic resonance suppressor
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- KVRist
- 395 posts since 8 Jun, 2009
I regard it as one of the best plug ins ever made. It is in my top ten for sure.
A bit complex to setup, but sounding absolutely stunning. I use SA-2 for years too.
These are professional tools which need some additional thinking about workflows and applications. That's why these never will become a mass product and rarely appear on platforms like KVR.
A bit complex to setup, but sounding absolutely stunning. I use SA-2 for years too.
These are professional tools which need some additional thinking about workflows and applications. That's why these never will become a mass product and rarely appear on platforms like KVR.
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- KVRist
- 306 posts since 5 Oct, 2004 from Brooklyn, NY.
Same. A daily use plugin and it's excellent.
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- KVRist
- 306 posts since 5 Oct, 2004 from Brooklyn, NY.
Yup, but I only use this in post so that's not anything that's an issue for me.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 413 posts since 22 May, 2023
Interesting, for most effects the latency would be a show stopper, but this is not an effect I would ever run while tracking, only mixing, so I don't think it's actually an issue for me either.
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- KVRist
- 96 posts since 27 Feb, 2026
the latency thing is the trade most spectral resonance tools make. the suppression happens in the frequency domain, so the plugin has to buffer a full fft frame before it can act, and a big fft means a long buffer. that's also why it sounds so clean. you're paying for the resolution with delay.
for mixing that latency is free, your daw delay-compensates it and you never notice. the pain only shows up when you're tracking or monitoring through it, where round-trip delay you can hear is a dealbreaker. so the usual workaround is: don't monitor through the high-res spectral suppressor. track dry, or use a lighter time-domain de-esser/dynamic eq while recording, then bring the spectral tool back in at mixdown when latency costs nothing.
a few tools now ship an explicit low-latency mode that shrinks the fft for tracking and lets you switch back to full resolution for the mix. soothe 3 added a zero-latency mode this month if you want to stay in that ecosystem - pretty dope IMO.
full disclosure, i make a something similar one called SMOOTH, so i'm also a bit biased. it has a LIVE mode that drops the fft from 4096 to 1024, so latency goes from ~93ms in the high-quality mode to ~12ms in LIVE. toggle it on for tracking, off for mixing. the demo is fully functional with a short audio fade and no time limit if you want to check the numbers in your own setup. it's one option, not a soothe replacement.
for mixing that latency is free, your daw delay-compensates it and you never notice. the pain only shows up when you're tracking or monitoring through it, where round-trip delay you can hear is a dealbreaker. so the usual workaround is: don't monitor through the high-res spectral suppressor. track dry, or use a lighter time-domain de-esser/dynamic eq while recording, then bring the spectral tool back in at mixdown when latency costs nothing.
a few tools now ship an explicit low-latency mode that shrinks the fft for tracking and lets you switch back to full resolution for the mix. soothe 3 added a zero-latency mode this month if you want to stay in that ecosystem - pretty dope IMO.
full disclosure, i make a something similar one called SMOOTH, so i'm also a bit biased. it has a LIVE mode that drops the fft from 4096 to 1024, so latency goes from ~93ms in the high-quality mode to ~12ms in LIVE. toggle it on for tracking, off for mixing. the demo is fully functional with a short audio fade and no time limit if you want to check the numbers in your own setup. it's one option, not a soothe replacement.
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- KVRist
- 457 posts since 14 May, 2022
That’s not a disclosure, that’s an ad. Your reply was great up until that point, but you keep turning your posts into ads (I’ve seen you doing it on Reddit, too), and it’s getting tiring.kernaudioio wrote: Fri May 29, 2026 6:52 am full disclosure, i make a something similar one called SMOOTH, so i'm also a bit biased. it has a LIVE mode that drops the fft from 4096 to 1024, so latency goes from ~93ms in the high-quality mode to ~12ms in LIVE. toggle it on for tracking, off for mixing. the demo is fully functional with a short audio fade and no time limit if you want to check the numbers in your own setup. it's one option, not a soothe replacement.