Review of Oeksound Bloom - is this the magic plugin for mixing and mastering ambient music?

[@holosuitemastering]

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[@SerhoYalci]

So i tested it and imo it deals good with harsh vocals

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for sharing! Will have to try that out

[@SerhoYalci]

@@holosuitemastering yeah Check IT , IT reduces sibilance Really nice you can See IT on the graphic even better If you throw about the Squash and Look at the graphics when s Pop out

[@Permutative]

I feel like it depends a lot on like your specific style of ambient music or the specific track itself, I honestly often just do a shit ton of eq automation for my stuff, but if I wanted more micro-scale spectral enhancement rather than the crescendos and waves of sound that tend to happen when I do eq automation, then I might get faster and smoother results with multiband dynamics processing like this.

[@holosuitemastering]

I'd be interested to hear what it can do in terms of adding dynamic variation to EQ! I tried it out on some more dynamic material but I felt like it just wanted to tame things, rather than increase the dynamics. Please do report back if you end up trying that out. I'd argue that Ozone Clarity or Fabfilter Pro-Q 3 or MB would be better for that kind of thing, at least that's what I use in mastering

[@datapusher-]

For the price, I think I can do without. Prices on these apps are crazy. Oeksound is proud of themselves.

[@holosuitemastering]

You'd definitely be getting your money's worth, don't get me wrong! I imagine they spent a lot of time and money developing this. I just wish that they were clearer about who this product is for, and what it should be used for.

[@infinaneek]

I think Oeksound plugins are great value for money. I used soothe on the first no.1 album I mixed. It was a lifesaver back then in 2018

[@Quiet_Forge]

I found that Bloom muddied up the sub. I'm sticking with Pro Q and Pro MB. It might ambient but it doesn't jungle.

[@holosuitemastering]

Good to know! I haven't tried it on bass

[@griffn2041]

Btw amount is not the same as wet/dry

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for the correction! There is a proper 'mix' control on there, I must have shut that out of my brain when I was filming...

[@griffn2041]

@@holosuitemastering haha all good. Guessing it’s like the ratio control on a compressor mixed with a threshold but idk

[@holosuitemastering]

So I checked the manual, as I should have done earlier, haha. It says: "[Amount] Controls how much overall processing is applied to the signal. The higher the value, the more the audio is adaptively boosted and attenuated. The lower range (from 0-3) of amount is scaled for fine control to allow for more subtle adjustments. The processing is level-independent when amount values range from 0-7. In values from 7-10 is the squash range, where the processing becomes progressively more level-dependent." So up until you get to that 7 range it's just increasing the strength of the EQ adjustment, and after that it also starts adding compression :)

[@griffn2041]

@@holosuitemastering thank you!

[@Borodin410]

I'm so sick of tweaked EQ and compressor plugins being sold for hundreds of dollars. Thousands of them out there now.

[@holosuitemastering]

There are definitely good ones (including this one), and I can certainly see a use for them, but I can also see beginners looking at these and feeling like this is going to magically make their mix better, which is simply not true. That's on the plugin companies for not being clear about what the use case is for their products.

[@griffn2041]

In most cases yes. But instead of using pro q3 and pro mb I can use this and I save at least 30 mins time and it sounds better imo

[@holosuitemastering]

That's great to know! I'm looking forward to spending more time with this and seeing what I can do with it

[@SKRDmusic]

i only know gullfoss and soothe2 and they are both expensive as heck; any cheaper recommendations?

[@holosuitemastering]

I don't know of any cheaper algorithm-based EQs, but you could get something like TDK Nova, which is completely free and has dynamic EQ functions. It might be harder to get the same result, but it's possible

[@JureJerebic]

You have to be careful when reviewing these products, if you don't familiarize yourself with them and then just try them out and consider it a review, you're doing it injustice. Bloom is an extremely powerful realtime adaptive tone shaper that is an absolute game changer in the industry, revered by many of the industry's top mixing engineers and producers. For me personally it's an absolute game changer. Video disliked.

[@holosuitemastering]

Appreciate the feedback, as it is indeed exactly what I did. Still learning as I go, and definitely putting a lot more thought into my next review. So why is it such a game changer for you?

[@JureJerebic]

@@holosuitemastering Mostly not having to deal with the detailed knowledge of workings of adaptive EQs and multiband compressors, etc., to achieve what's "ideal" sound - because, what IS the ideal sound? Bloom just takes a LOT of that guesswork away and the huge amounts of time that it would require to go through those tools to achieve something similar what Bloom can achieve in a manner of seconds, using just a few sliders and your own ears

[@holosuitemastering]

Glad it's working for you! If I were to re-do this review I'd definitely try and choose example tracks that would better put it through its paces. If I were to get better results than in my first test, I'm curious as to whether that would change my opinion. Game changer or not - it still relies on the user to know when it's doing the right thing, as you yourself hinted to. I use Gulfoss and Izotope's adaptive tools a lot, and they are good at adding some dimension to music that I can't achieve myself, but I use them as _supplements_ to my existing tools and skills - I don't want them to make the decisions for me. They are only as good as the way I set them up - they won't naturally make decisions that benefit my sound - I have to guide them in the right direction and know when they've gone too far. I think it's important that we avoid giving the impression that something like Bloom is a panacea, particularly considering how much it costs. For a beginner, I'd argue it's much more crucial to develop a sense of what a good recording sounds like, rather than relying on the tool to rescue a poor recording or a problematic mix. I would also argue that if someone doesn't learn to use a compressor, it will be difficult for them to hear and understand what a good amount of compression is, so it would be difficult to decide whether Bloom has done the right amount. But that's just my two cents, everyone is free to do as they like 😇