3 Masking Problems EQ Couldn’t Fix Until Now!

In this video, you'll learn about masking, how it impacts your mixes, and how to fix masking with new plugins vs old plugins.
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00:00 - Introduction
00:33 - What Is Masking? (Hearing Test)
03:23 - Fixing Masking With EQ (Kick & Bass Demo)
04:13 - Additive vs Subtractive EQ (Acoustic Guitar Demo)
05:04 - EQ Problem #1 (Bass & Guitar Demo)
07:15 - EQ Problem #2 (Voice Sibilance Demo)
09:40 - EQ Problem #3 (Acoustic Guitar Demo)
12:57 - Try Gullfoss (Link Below)
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[@CreativeIsolation]

For those of us coming from the classical world, this is what separates a good orchestration/arrangement from amateur. Also, what separates a good orchestra in their performance. Instrumentalists in large ensemble environments who know what they’re doing sculpt their sound in a way that limits masking naturally. As a conductor, it’s the more subtle part of “balance,” and good players can do it intuitively if they’re made aware of it.

[@kenvives]

Great educational video! “Masking spreads upwards”! Great important concept that is frequently understated. Thank you.

[@AudioUniversity]

Thanks for watching!

[@manuelfrontana7216]

Thank you Kyle, great information and straight to the point as always!!

[@ryanclark1784]

Great video, thank you for putting this together!

[@AudioUniversity]

Glad you enjoyed it, Ryan!

[@picksalot1]

Really impressed by the outstanding presentation of valuable information in your videos. The problem is clearly stated, demonstrated, and explained in a way that is easy to understand. Then the possible solutions are presented in the same way. Sounds straightforward, but very few KZbinrs seem to appreciate the value to their viewers by following those steps. Thanks for communicating so clearly.

[@D29.H45]

Thank you for the information

[@korkenknopfus]

Great educational video, thank you! The first audio example isn’t indeed a real world case, but it explains very clearly the concept in few seconds.

[@Elixirmusiques]

Excellent examples!

[@XRaym]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Gullfuss instances doesnt communicate to each others, so masking fix is a bit limited compare to plugin like Sonible EQ which know what sounds comes out every instances. Gullfoss is more like tone shaper than an Masking fixer IMHO. The masking fixes capabilities is more a side effect that the main goal.

[@EG_John]

Gullfoss has a sidechain, which allows it to listen to other tracks. However, it is not suitable for resolving conflicts between the selected tracks. The sidechain function in Gullfoss only makes it process one track as if it were processing another (the one in the sidechain).

[@TazzSmk]

seems so, makes new Sonible SmartEQ 4 rather overpowered now :D

[@nkozi]

Thanks for the reminder to finally buy gulfoss!

[@jacksteal5991]

My question then is: how did we go about fixing these problems before the advent of Gullfoss and the likes? Aside from what already shown in the video. It seems like it was understood that not all masking problems could be fixed

[@attila1746]

Excellent video! However, a really great wrap-up would have been to rerun the original narrow band noise example through Gullfoss !!

[@ilrosso666]

i never thought that i could use Gulfoss as a deesser! Thanks!

[@AudioUniversity]

It is a bit different because it just cleans up the sibilance, rather than trying to attenuate it. What did you think?

[@eranddroory9987]

Struggling to find the place in the video where you're A/B with and with out Gullfoss back to back. Or how about a null test? but they didn't pay you to do that right?

[@thebrianchannel9890]

I wonder if gfas is being used in hearing aids. If it is, I can report to you it’s a nightmare. But if it’s not, I seriously want to see if we can integrate these. I would love to see if there are any advantages to reducing background noise.

[@j-snell-callanen26]

Gulfoss is great when used modestly. It does weird/unnatural sounding things to the upper frequencies of vocals in my experience.

[@BCElginTex]

Cool. What does your first example sound like with Gullfoss turned on? Can you hear the tones that seemed to disappear?

[@AudioUniversity]

No. That masking is too severe to resolve with plugins. I did try though!

[@BCElginTex]

@@AudioUniversity What about panning? Say the noisy track toward the outside and purer tones closer in or one left the other right?

[@jenniferlaynemusic]

Thank you. This is the content! 💜 What is the difference between Gulfoss and Soothe 2.

[@anthonysauro1040]

Soothe 2 is based off resonance and is subtractive without auto gain functions and does more or less what the name suggest by taming the "ringing" resonance of a signal across multiple bands while preserving the phase relationship of the original signal and Gulfoss is not looking for "resonance" but rather using an understanding of humans perceived loudness to boost or attenuate to achieve a "flat" signal or a "true" signal perception dealing with the masking Kyle was talking about. Soothe - use for harsh instruments or mixes Gulfoss - use to achieve transparency

[@jenniferlaynemusic]

@@anthonysauro1040 Amazing, thank you so much for the detailed and kind reply.

[@AudioUniversity]

Great question, Jennifer! Great answer, Anthony! Thank you both for watching and participating in the community.

[@chriskemp466]

Would you use Gulfoss on multiple tracks to deal with masking or can it all be done by putting it just on the 2 buss?

[@AudioUniversity]

It is most powerful on busses. But as you can hear in the demonstrations, it also works on individual channels.

[@ShawnMonnstahMays]

I have questions. First you applied it to many sources, some singular as far as channels/tracks and the overall mix. Would this be a resource hog of a plug-in? Secondly, would it be better just applying it to buses or an overall mix itself to clean it up?

[@AudioUniversity]

It would be too resource intensive to use on lots of individual channels and it performs best on more complex signals. . While I demonstrated a few single instrument uses, it really shines on busses!

[@ShawnMonnstahMays]

@@AudioUniversity ok thanks.

[@ZoneZero253]

I own this plugin. Best use is to use the regular Gulfoss plugin on grouped mix busses (ie: drums, leads, bass) and then use the master version of the plugin on the master. Yes the master version is included with the purchase.

[@asmundma]

Info given is fine, but la lot of plugins can show masking between tracks, from isotope, Sonible, etc. So if the intention is to discuss masking in general, you need to widen the scope.

[@aledum1815]

Cheers.

[@AudioUniversity]

Cheers! Thanks for watching!

[@Bradleybrookwood]

There's something up with a cable in your studio because in some of your examples there's a really unbearable high-pitched whiny noise coming from either a USB source or some other cable that is definitely amplified in some of your examples of the different frequency masking

[@johnmatt5660]

Would Gullfoss be appropriate for live worship or would the latency be a problem? What other AI plugins do you see being developed?

[@AudioUniversity]

There is a live version of Gullfoss (and a mastering version, as well!). I believe you get all three! Gullfoss isn’t an AI-powered plugin, according to my understanding. But there are some cool AI plugins, especially for noise reduction!

[@DarkTrapStudio]

Yes you get all three when you buy Gullfoss, the latency of the live (live meaning for live application) version is 1.4 ms per instance at 48khz frequency rate (1.5 at 44khz frequency rate)and it would be a huge work to name even the biggest plugin that use language model (falsely name AI) cause there is a handfull, just naming a couples of compagnies : Izotope, FL Studio, Oeksound, LALAI and Sonible are some of the most known. (special mention to synthplant 2)

[@AudioUniversity]

@DarkTrapStudio thanks for sharing this info!

[@Phadddy]

Well explained! I wish I could hear the difference 😅

[@semsmeb9745]

its all about practice my friends. and good headphones

[@cgsmithinnola]

Aren't there other plugins that do this type of dynamic eq?

[@_Looft]

Soothe 2. Although soothe only focuses on removing resonances and doesn't boost any frequencies. Still probably a better option in some cases imo

[@carlosa.chacon985]

Because it isn't static, I believe it actually does alter the harmonic content... someone please correct me if I'm wrong (with a good explanation). In which way is this Gulfoss different from Soothe or TrackSpace?

[@AudioUniversity]

That's a good point. It does change the signal. But it doesn't create harmonics that weren't there before processing like a compressor would.

[@carlosa.chacon985]

@@AudioUniversity thanks for the response! But it’s not an explanation hehe maybe it says it on the manual? Some place I can dig a little more into it? Also would like to know what you think about the difference between the plugins I mentioned

[@AudioUniversity]

As to how it's different from Oeksound Soothe and other plugins, I'm not yet sure. It's all fairly new technology that I'm still trying to wrap my head around! I've tried Soothe and Spiff, which also do some amazing things. I think Soothe only attenuates (or suppresses) while Gullfoss can "Recover" or "Tame". If you're interested, I can post more videos once I better understand what's happening under the hood... There is some more information on the website here: tinyurl.com/2c9j8t6y

[@carlosa.chacon985]

@@AudioUniversity i’d be the first one to watch those videos! Thanks for everything 👏

[@secularZoo]

1:11 was this sound sample taken from an early Bowie song? 🤣

[@Jaburu]

I wonder why we are so obsessed with the esses. obviously sometimes they are way to much, but in the example I always prefer the before. And even the vocal of the host, the esses sound strange. They never sound natural to me, not even with de-esses that reshape the esses.

[@tylerk.rauman988]

In this case none of the examples were egregious, at least in my opinion, but I have had to edit recordings where the sibilance was painful to listen to, especially in headphones. I think this was just a demonstration of the concept of de-essing with different tools, but not necessarily an example that needed, at least in my opinion (though I bet if it was heavily compressed it may become an issue).

[@irradix213]

thass a firm mebbe

[@PaulEubanks]

I knew the second I saw that Martin guitar I was gonna hear horrific 300hz frequency masking. You can still hear the boxy and muddy resonant peaks in the treated track somewhat too. I hate having to record Martin guitars for this reason, once you've heard that muffled lower midrange "OOOoooo" sound they all make, you can't un-hear it anymore. My solution is to put that terrible sounding guitar back in the case and pull out a proper Taylor guitar instead. :)

[@brennyC]

Focusrite FAST Reveal

[@redbigapplefloppa302]

Sales video 🥱

[@kushtom7108]

W

[@goodtimejohnny8972]

Any out takes of the tongue twister? 😅

[@AudioUniversity]

There are quite a few! 😂

[@thebrianchannel9890]

Audiologist go to school for 13 years or so and boy they won’t let you forget it But I swear on my life 99% of them don’t even know this basic information we’re looking at here

[@HaharuRecords]

How t hack I am seeing this video in different titles everytime.!

[@AudioUniversity]

I’m trying to find the best one! Thanks for watching!

[@HaharuRecords]

@@AudioUniversity Hi Kyle, Audio University is the best source of content available from the web when it comes to Audio engineering and related stuff, imo. Because it is experimentational. Thanks to you.

[@semsmeb9745]

111€ is a bit too expensive for me i cant afford this sorry. even if it sounds great

[@iLikeTheUDK]

This video is just an ad