Gullfoss vs Soothe 2 vs Smooth Operator vs Teote vs DSEQ 3

[@audiotoolshed]

Check out the playlist with the plugins reviewed in depth! kzbin.info/aero/PLDuHE44I4AZUgorGYsfSSovvsSaDAMcrl What is YOUR favorite plugin of these 5?

[@Jaburu]

I tested extensivly all of those minus Teote and plus SmartEQ and the only one that realy convinced me was Gullfoss. I tested on individual percussion tracks and the master bus of those. I must also say that I am after natural sound

[@D-osOrg]

@@Jaburu +1 for Gullfoss. Simply, incredible on the master bus !

[@audiotoolshed]

@wolarski Good to know! I assume you're not after just resonance suppression but also some overall mix improvement?

[@audiotoolshed]

@daniel Boyd yeah plugins go into sale every once in a while, smooth operator is $39,- now as well I believe. Totally agree they're all different tools for different jobs. I really dig the simplicity of Soothe 2. Simple dials and instant good results. DSEQ 3 goes really deep. Have you used the AI learn? I found that really makes a big difference in performance and cranking up the quality settings as well.

[@audiotoolshed]

@@Jaburu Good to know! I assume you're not after just resonance suppression but also some overall mix improvement?

[@jesussaddle]

Came back again. Such a brilliant explanation!

[@audiotoolshed]

that's too kind of you. Thanks!!

[@omniburn]

Thanks for the comparison. Your channel will definitely grow!

[@audiotoolshed]

Thank you for watching! Channel is growing already fortunately ;-) It takes time.

[@ritchxmusic]

excellent roundup, love the comparison

[@audiotoolshed]

Thanks for the nice words!

[@adrianocastaldini]

Finally I bought DSEQ3, but an important mention is that Teote is the only one that offers multichannel (up to 6 channels).

[@devarni]

IMO Teote and Gullfoss are the most comparable. I like Teote best for mastering, but it needs a bit more CPU if you use all 64 bands. The newer Gullfoss Master version I do not know, it is supposed to have a higher internal resolution and otherwise work more precisely but also require more CPU. Anyway, if the mix is already balanced, none of the tools brings a real advantage.

[@audiotoolshed]

I think you're observations are spot on. When everything sounds really balanced these tools would fit in a ''finalizing'' role where they could handle teh very cmall inconsistencies which might be left over. Or not ;-)

[@MCAlvesPortugal]

Dseq works also as expansor. I use also teote. I haved tried gulfoss and shoothe. But Dseq and teote works for me.

[@audiotoolshed]

It's about how these plugins are compared to eachother and DSEQ can indeed do more then shown in the video, by choice. And good to see DSEQ and Teote work for you, it's really about what you want and need, right :-)

[@MCAlvesPortugal]

@@audiotoolshed Thanks. Great job. Keep going, friend.

[@audiotoolshed]

@@MCAlvesPortugal Thanks man!

[@audiotoolshed]

Looks like you guys are dropping video ideas for me ;-)

[@natebrown4939]

Smooth Operator does have a high quality mode in the top right. Not sure if it's oversampling but any extra harmonic things are reduced or completely cut.

[@audiotoolshed]

Yeah that has been added after I reviewed it.

[@natebrown4939]

@@audiotoolshed it’s always great when companies take KZbin reviews seriously and make great changes.

[@audiotoolshed]

Absolutely. You should check the comments out my video on the effectgrid plugin : kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6Swg5WmaZpkqtk The plugin developer is all over the comments and uses them to make changes. A very healthy thing :-)

[@adithyasatheesh127]

Would pick DSEQ3 for resonant suppression over soothe and smooth operator any day. Even if i weren't a control freak

[@audiotoolshed]

Smooth operator i get, but also over soother? For pure resonance control that is. DSEQ takes more time to set up and offers a lot more flexibility for sure.

[@TheGARCK]

Test how Soothe2 deals with bass frequencies compared to DSEQ. It's what made me pick Soothe.

[@johnmcvicker6728]

Using Vastaus for now until I can add one of these. Not bad for a free one. Worth putting in this compare.

[@djse]

They're all great, but I really prefer Soothe (specially the 2 version), it's that kind of plugin that make you save a lot of time, and so it really worth the price. The sidechain function is also a great alternative to Wavesfactory Trackspacer to supress masking frequency, with a more transparent result. In my process, I use Soothe more as a cleaning tool (and unmasking eq with the SC function) and Gulfoss is more like a addition thing, like giving a nice little touch at the end of my FX chain or on the master bus, the same way I would use an analog emulation. I haven't try DSEQ yet and didn't find Smooth Operator that useful in my process (maybe I didn't gave it enough trying time). Teote seems great, I try it a bit and find it's great for that "nice final little touch" but didn't find it usefull for more heavy process (but probably because I didn't find how to include it in my process in that way). It's hard to find plugin that change completly your way to proceed, for now Soothe is the only one that did that. All the other I try are great too, but are more those "little touch" here and there rather than a thing that I will put almost on every sound

[@audiotoolshed]

Good summary! I personally wont use Soothe 2 on every track by default, but more when it's really needed and complicated, all over the place material.

[@NikolausBrocke]

You picked absolutely the right topic. Very well done! Thanks for that quick overview. I use soothe 2 since some month. It's great looking and very good to operate. It works perfect as the first plugin on the 2 bus channels for mastering. I am not a mastering engineer:-) I have gulfoss on my relevant mindset for a long time but somehow it does not convice me. But it's more a feeling.

[@audiotoolshed]

Hi Nikolaus! Thanks! Yeah i wanted to keep it short and as a comparison. With any of these plugins i would use them sparesely on th emasterbus, more just to tuck everything in when needed or as a finalizing touch. If you have to use it heavily there's probably more work to do in the mix ;-)

[@NikolausBrocke]

@@audiotoolshed Yes that's right. That's how I use it. If my plugins in the master bus need to work too hard, I go back to the individual tracks and make my corrections there, of course. So mastering and mixing is mostly a parallel process.

[@audiotoolshed]

Same here, at least when I am booked for mix and master. Usually when I do both the masterbus is pretty sparse with processing.

[@andrewmavor4737]

This is a wonderfully chaotic demo

[@ritchxmusic]

What do you think of Wavesfactory's contribution to the category in comparison?

[@CarlitoProductions]

The fact that dseq is way cheaper than soothe even though the flow is a bit seems attractive. Though i certainly wish Oeksound will consider doing discounts

[@shanecgriffo]

There was an update to smooth operator the other week that introduced a cleaner quality setting for master bus etc.. you didn’t try that version?

[@audiotoolshed]

It's still pretty hands on ;-)

[@grundvater]

Wirklich richtig gute Tricks und Tipps.

[@audiotoolshed]

Danke!

[@williamshaneblyth]

I use reso .. have you compared it

[@jjones7837]

I love Gullfoss.

[@audiotoolshed]

It’s sweet isn’t it?

[@jjones7837]

@@audiotoolshed I just works. When you slap it on older mixers it's like Ahhhhhhh. Used tastefully it really adds that clarity and dimension in my opinion. This with Split EQ and Trackspacer... I want to redo every mix I've ever done. Always look forward to your reviews as you review aesthetics and taste of a plugin. Would like to Split EQ reviewed against Soothe and simlar products.

[@audiotoolshed]

@@jjones7837 haha don’t redo every mix ;-) yeah I am planning to do a new resonance suppressor video one day, there are new tools released . Split eq isn’t really the same. I did do a video where I compare split eq to ProQ3, which is basically apples and oranges ;-)

[@aviolentpurple9925]

For some reason I own both Gulfoss and Soothe 2. I like them both, but I’m starting to feel like they introduce a lot of phasing, which kind of softens the sound. I feel like these EQs may be a fad

[@audiotoolshed]

Nah, you need to know where and when to use them. Dont slap them on an audiotrack and hope they will magically improve your track. They are tools who you need to learn. Best use sparsely.

[@aviolentpurple9925]

@@audiotoolshed I agree. And I personally feel like Soothe 2 is a very useful tool for harsh sounds, but Gulfoss worries me. It too deals with harshness but if you’ve got it on your mix bus just because of the tonal changes it provides, you could do that with multiband compression or EQ. Not sure Gulfoss is really required for most mixes, just a different way (albeit with less control) of doing things.

[@aviolentpurple9925]

@@audiotoolshed also I worry that using things like Gulfoss may be the sort of situation where people look back in 20 years and say “wow all the music from this time period has an EQ curve like waterfalls (or whatever Gulfoss is based on)

[@jesussaddle]

@@aviolentpurple9925 I prefer to use Gulfoss on individual instruments that I think may be competing a lot. I think of it like an opportunity to shape the sound to fit, in ways that a static or dynamic eq can't (unless it is very algorithmic and self-adjusting during its operation). I don't think anyone has exactly reverse engineered all these, but I feel that because they're looking at where the signal is either too resonant or too unbalanced, they probably vary over time more so than a dynamic EQ that varies basically per its attack and release response.

[@Beatsbasteln]

DSEQ3 has quite some pre-ringing, so i still think soothe2 is the best. i know soothe2 is really expensive and everything, but imagine you buy a tool only because it's cheap but then you're unhappy because everything you do could be a little better... well unless you think the pre-ringing is not an issue. i could imagine it working better on less percussive stuff, like organs, pads, strings or vocals. anyway, the 2 other tools you mentioned also try to retain the spectral balance of the mix which is a cool extra feature. i hope this will be a thing in soothe3 as well because having a full spectral balancing plugin, but with oeksound's approach, would be the best thing i could think of.

[@audiotoolshed]

Who knows what they’re working on ;-)

[@TheAris621]

In what way do you experience the pre-ringing in DSEQ3? I've done multiple tests, and unless I do some very extreme processing, the amount of pre-ringing is completely neglectable.

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@TheAris621 i mean.. you don't even have to do your own tests to hear the pre-ringing. just listen to the vibraphone sample in this video and you hear it. i guess it is prominent on that sound because it is a really tonal yet percussive sound

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@truesearch69 I don't have DSEQ myself so I can't confirm that they fixed it in 3.5, or if it gets better with "overdrive" (do you mean oversampling?) or with "natural pass", whatever feature that is. But if you think that this video's DSEQ patch in combination with that vibraphone doesn't reflect what DSEQ has to offer you should go ahead and make a video where you show its true power. I'd watch it and change my mind!

[@GTSongwriter]

2 years later... it's still Soothe 2 and the author is finished upgrading it.

[@LudomixxX]

Amazing video, thank you!

[@audiotoolshed]

Glad you liked it!

[@pavelfajtfree]

Thank you for the review

[@audiotoolshed]

My pleasure!

[@bestdisco1979]

Sonnox Claro is missing but perhaps it’s newer than this review.

[@lolaproductions9725]

Hey is it possible to do it manually somehow with a regular dynamic eq ?

[@audiotoolshed]

Hey! Not really. I mean resonance removal for sure. Small band and dipping, lot's of automation. Or use something like a spectral editor. But the thing gulfoss and the likes do is adjusting the balancing with dynamics. It's way more involved. But if you have a perfect mix, you dont need any of these tools ;-)

[@vecchiuz2143]

How much is it for Soothe 2 during best sale(Black fryday and similar) ??

[@audiotoolshed]

I’m not a salesmen, check out oeksound I’d say.

[@DavidKfilmmaker]

Anyone doing film work use those or prefer one over the others?

[@tredfxman]

Interesting i didnt hear you mention the acronym TEOTE - [T] hat’s [E] asier [O] n [T] he [E] ar 😄 👍

[@audiotoolshed]

Well that is really of no essence whatsover for the video, is it? I also didnt say what ''gulffoss'' stands for, and more. But to please you check this what I say in the dedicated video I did for teote: kzbin.info/www/bejne/goWtanqcmpd2pJI

[@FFStudioMy]

Naissss

[@audiotoolshed]

Owwww yeah

[@PharaohLawLess1]

I ❤ Gullfoss

[@audiotoolshed]

Me too!

[@matrixate]

Good job.

[@audiotoolshed]

thanks!

[@fausto_colella]

now we have another 2 new resonance killer contenders: RESO and KNOCKTONAL ... did you compared them to Soothe 2 and DSEQ 3 ?

[@audiotoolshed]

Hey Fausto, I compared a bit with soothe 2 in the reso video I did. I have never checked knocktonal!

[@fausto_colella]

@@audiotoolshed Knocktonal is just released... check it out, i think could be really good not only to "suppress" but also to "add" some signal content to vitalize harmonically poor audio. I'm going to check your RESO video ! 😎

[@audiotoolshed]

Knocktonal sound a bit like gulfoss to me then, or voxengo teote. Resonance suppression + added ''sound improvement''. I'll add it to the list for a possible follow up video!

[@fausto_colella]

@@audiotoolshed maybe something in between Soothe and Gulfoss? Considering the price it looks like a really nice tool to me

[@audiotoolshed]

I havent spend time with it, wont happen soon I think. so much to do. But yeah it looks like that indeed. Another flavour / different take on the subject :-)

[@hamelintechcapsule2221]

Acon De-Filter should have been added to this vs

[@audiotoolshed]

Yeah maybe, IMO 5 is already a lot. Probably for a future part 2 of this video, which can include new updates and other plugins.

[@thetylersherman]

I already have Gulfoss... after watching this it seems like soothe 2 would be the ideal complement. Overall resonance taming with soothe 2, Gulfoss for clarifying busses and the master. The others are a bit too colored I think to be the only tools in your arsenal.

[@audiotoolshed]

Hi Tyler, yeah if you already have Gulfoss then Soothe 2 will be great as well. I would add teh new Mastering The Mix Reso to the checklist as well, but that is more suited for audio which has constant frequency content, instead of changing.

[@gurumajuindonesia]

why ? when you actually can tame the resonance with gulfoss as well

[@ts4gv]

TLDW: Soothe 2 and DSEQ 3 are close enough. The other three are close enough to each other.

[@ObiWanJacobi117]

I Lufs your shirt :D

[@audiotoolshed]

^^ It's in my merchandise --> shop.spreadshirt.com/white-noise-studio Not promoting it in any way of course ( hint hint)

[@RandomProduction89]

I like Soothe 2 but its CPU heavy

[@audiotoolshed]

Fortunately you have online and offline processing settings.

[@Newerasamearea]

Gulfoss is not a resonance suppressor. It does it but that's not its purpose

[@dennislacroix9962]

This is somehow reassuring. I've been using DSEQ3 doing subtle trimming to my hi frequencies.

[@audiotoolshed]

If a plugin works for you, you don't need reassurance right :-)

[@cryptout]

I hate the colors so much on smooth operator, I wish they did an update with a black and white color.

[@audiotoolshed]

Not a pastel tint fan?

[@cryptout]

The lack of contrast makes it hard to focus, maybe I'm just getting old hahaha@@audiotoolshed

[@audiotoolshed]

I'm getting old too ;-) ''Back in the day'' ^^

[@LiveToSingMusic]

You left out the izotope neutron sculptor

[@audiotoolshed]

and about 8 other plugins. I'm talking about the ones who get compared with eachother the most in this video.

[@LiveToSingMusic]

But Thank you for the comparison

[@audiotoolshed]

And thank you for watching!

[@gavmurray7398]

my theory is they all stole their code from Melda

[@audiotoolshed]

And even then end up which such vastly different plugins ;-)

[@NikolausBrocke]

Yes, Melda plugins are great and often overlooked.

[@audiotoolshed]

@@NikolausBrocke yup. Mdrumreplacer is used a lot by me. Great plugin

[@Beatsbasteln]

they might have got inspired by melda, but plugins at that scale are so complex that it's not possible to just copy someone else's algorithm. you can only get to similiar results and i think the developers also tried to make outstanding products that are not suited for the exactly equal situations. otherwise there'd be no point in making them

[@audiotoolshed]

True, but they’re so often compared. Hopefully this video will help to point out some of the differences as well as the similarities.

[@PeoplesChoiceofficial]

bunch of hokus pokus expensive EQs

[@audiotoolshed]

Lol. Seems like you’re misunderstanding what these do.