RESO by Mastering the Mix: The Latest Soothe2 Challenger?

[@nosucherror]

I believe the whole point of Reso is to speed up the process of sweeping EQ bands around. It's worth pointing out that Nova has an automated analysis and dynamic de-resonate function called Smart Ops. I tested it against Nova and Melda AutoDynamicEq and found Nova to be the best for me.

[@nosucherror]

*I'm referring to the paid GE version of Nova, not the free one.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Agreed. In this video, I thought Nova did the best job too-and that's without Smart Ops on. As for RESO, it does give you a starting point, but I found hand-adjusting it to be better. Thanks for watching!

[@johnhill762]

Yeah Nova sounded better imo

[@Kelvinapplegate]

I've only seen two of your videos. The first thing that caught my attention was the very melodramatic expression the strait to the point and no fireworks nothing extra. Second is the humility expressed "unless I'm missing something" Aka To the best of my knowledge. If you see something I didn't see great. Keep at it!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I do try to keep it humble, and I did a whole correction video about SmartEQ after I missed a crucial feature. I also want to be fair to developers. Thanks for watching!

[@Kelvinapplegate]

@@palebluedotstudios Awesome!! Beyond music this is what humanity needs keep being an inspiration!

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@Kelvinapplegate Thank you, my friend! I shall keep going! Haha

[@davidasher22]

Well, you know you’re starting to make it in the KZbin world when you have subscribers like me waiting for a video with anticipation.

[@massivebeatzz]

TDR sounds best - Soothe 2 phasey, Reso too, a little. To quote the great Andrew Scheps..."Don't go looking for problems. Fix the problems when they arise".

[@palebluedotstudios]

Great advice! And I agree, I liked TDR the best here. Thanks for watching!

[@palebluedotstudios]

@Born To Sing With The Guitar It's tough since all these dynamic tools can be used for similar tasks, but can get totally different results. I see what you mean about raising the EQ vs lowering the EQ. For example, DSEQ works opposite to soothe2 in that way, so that is really just particular to each plugin. That being said, soothe2 wouldn't be my first choice for de-essing as it works in the spectral domain and you'd tend to hear musical artefacts. A dynamic EQ like TDR Nova is a better choice, I think. Do you have the paid TDR Nova GE? That has a "Smart Ops" section that can detect resonances and apply both dynamic and static EQ adjustments. Might be something to check out! Thanks so much for watching and commenting! Cheers!

[@PaulMDiaz]

Great video, like many others you do... except the one on hating channel strips LOL! Good job man!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thanks so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying the videos!...except for one..heh heh... :)

[@PaulMDiaz]

@@palebluedotstudios Nah, that one was good too. Respect your opinion. I just happen to like strips for certain applications

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@PaulMDiaz Absolutely! Sometimes I like the "second opinion" on the SSL EQ in Slate. And I love that TG12345 compressor...

[@hjorte.]

12:40 Internal bypass button... the speaker icon with an X beside it is the master bypass for the plug-in.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thanks! It's funny: when I hovered over it, it said "Display Input/Output Gain", so I wasn't sure what it was doing. Keep in mind I had the pre-release version and the manual was not ready yet. Thanks for watching!

[@hjorte.]

@@palebluedotstudios You're welcome, great video, thanks for posting. Btw. my memory of the master bypass feature was from beta testing the plug-in and with no manual available either, heh ;-)

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@hjorte. So much for my excuse! Haha. ;)

[@davidasher22]

I’m not impressed. Reso sounds like it gets phasey when turned on. When you turned Reso on and off it sounded like the stereo image changed with it on. That wasn’t the case with the others. Did you hear this on your end? I ask because you can’t trust KZbin audio. Every KZbin video I’ve analysed (and it’s a lot) have no information above 16khz. It’s like a brickwall lowpass filter is active. Thanks for the video. I love your channel!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Why thank you! I agree. I think I mentioned in the video that RESO sounded a little darker, like it was rolling something off the top. That could be the stereo image too, so I wonder about phase on this. Good ears! Yes, I wouldn't purchase RESO as it is; I could get this resonance fixed more quickly with a free dynamic EQ. As for KZbin audio, I find it's usually good enough to appraise audio things with (and this video was dealing with 3khz, well below the danger zone), but we have to keep in mind it is a compressed format. Paul Third did a great video on this and was able to demonstrate that the main youtube player does not roll off frequencies at 16khz or add aliasing. The culprit? His video editor! Check out the video here if you want to know more: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIPOqpVor9aCb9U And thanks for watching!! Great to have you here.

[@davidasher22]

@@palebluedotstudios lol. I’m kind of in a dispute with Paul over that. I’ve tested countless KZbin video this past year and all of them are filtered at 16khz. I even replicated his exact testing procedure using OBS but still see the filter. I’m not sure what’s going on but I’d love to get to the bottom of it. Maybe you could test it out too? I have a friend who’s also going to test it out today. The only variable I can imagine is the browser being used. But I also recently read in an article where YT states they stream their audio at 256kbps max because anything better would not be cost effective. That type of compression is naturally filtered at 16khz. Plus, like I said, I’ve yet to see a YT video with full spectrum audio. But yes, I do agree it’s good enough. Have a lovely day!

[@palebluedotstudios]

@David Asher You know what? I think you're right. I downloaded my DSEQ video, and there's a hard cutoff around 16k. If I bring my voiceover wave file into RX, I can see the content goes right up to 20k. So that's double filtering! I do need to try recording directly from KZbin to see if there's any difference. And I should try a different codec on my output videos...wow, thanks David! That's what I get for not testing it myself. 😂

[@davidasher22]

@@palebluedotstudios i think what Paul was seeing is those bits of frequency that gets through the filter. You know, depending on the slope there can be some stuff that slips through. What I did with my tests was create a control for each song by ripping the lossless from iTunes. When you compare the two it’s very obvious. I’m not ruling out the browser theory though. The other thing that stumps me is when Paul analysed his sine sweep it was all there. But from what I’ve been told YT doesn’t enact their loudness penalty immediately. I’ve heard it can take hours or days and I’ve also read that it takes 1000 views before they do it. So it’s possible a video that’s been recently uploaded and set to private may not be affected. That could be why the sweep tests Paul did were full spectrum. But idk for sure yet. I’d really like to hear about any tests results you get. Feel free to email me. [e-mail]

[@palebluedotstudios]

After some more testing, I think it's actually pretty simple: if you get served the HD version on the main player that we all watch, the filter cutoff is at 20k. If you get served the SD version-or you stream it from the backend of KZbin Studio-you get the 16k cutoff, because it's simply a much lower codec. So it might be internet-speed/browser-specific. I'll email you my screenshots!

[@joshd265]

Great review! Wish this was more of a Soothe 2 contender in terms of speed of use. Soothe you can just highlight the general problematic area and crank the threshold knob.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thank you! Yes, I agree. I feel like RESO needs to A) start correcting right away, and B) have a master threshold that can be lowered for faster results. Messing with the tiny nodes is counterproductive, and in my experience, they didn't gang very well.

[@joshd265]

@@palebluedotstudios such an anticlimax. I thought we had a cheaper alternative to Soothe! :(

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@joshd265 I know, right? DSEQ is still the best alternative, and a a great deal at $91 USD. And every bit as good as soothe, in my opinion. Smooth Operator is very affordable, but needs more control over the results. I'm hoping Mastering the Mix will update this with better controls soon.

[@joshd265]

@@palebluedotstudios haven’t tried DSEQ yet thought it was just a dynamic EQ like ProQ3 which I already have. I’ll have another look though. Do you have a direct line to MTM for this review?

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@joshd265 It does say "dynamic equalizer" as the subtitle for DSEQ, but it also says it's a "dynamic processor working in the frequency domain", which describes many of the spectral/EQ plugins I've covered. The major difference between DSEQ and Pro-Q 3 is that DSEQ updates its processing with self-adjusting frequency bands. i.e., once you pull down the threshold, it starts correcting resonances and changing constantly, much like soothe2. Pro-Q will only act on the same frequency when it crosses the threshold. As for MTM: yes, I've been speaking with them over the last couple weeks, reporting bugs and asking questions. They were most helpful!

[@mitchminimal6942]

User interface hassles aside, to my ears RESO wins, Nova places 2nd and Soothe2 finishes 3rd.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Valid! I liked RESO once I widened the Q a bit. I found it pretty comparable to a dynamic EQ, which you astutely noticed. Thanks for watching!

[@sarpozdemiroglu]

Reso sounds wider which I suspect it changes the spatial information but it should not.

[@palebluedotstudios]

You're the second viewer to mention that. Listening back now, I do hear a difference, but to me, it sounds like the highs get shaved off. Perhaps that is creating a different stereo perception?

[@sarpozdemiroglu]

@@palebluedotstudios yeah but it is only possible if Reso shaved off the highs only on the MID channel but Reso has no such control over Mid Side parameters as far as I know.

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@sarpozdemiroglu Yes, I wouldn't expect it to affect M/S at all. Strange...I'm definitely not sold on this plugin. I find Mastering the Mix always has something bizarre with their plugins that puts me off.