Review: The Spirit from Cradle - Pop Vocal Magic?

[@rjsworld1512]

Great review!

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thank you! I’m pumped you dig it! Thanks for checking it out 🙂

[@torubeat]

thanks for the review man! i've been on the fence, but going to give it a trial run.

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thanks for checking it out! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@elijahsnider4345]

This is the best demo in my opinion of this plugin and the song choice is immaculate. Will be subscribing lol

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thank you! I'm pumped you dig the review!

[@philiphopper4885]

is this asmr or a review?

[@mr_bradsmith]

Apparently it might be a bit of both haha! I had no idea when I started this people would find me relaxing to listen to. Unintentional ASMR!

[@philiphopper4885]

@@mr_bradsmith Loved it for both so bonus!

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@philiphopper4885 Awesome! Thanks so much for checking out the review!

[@Rio-uv1gs]

Let me breakout the drinks..drinks anyone..

[@nfq-en7js]

Thanks for the review! Totally agree with you about the compressor. It sounds so aggressive even with the minimum settings. I loved the reverb so I might go just for the reverb.

[@mr_bradsmith]

Glad you enjoyed the review! Thank you! Yeah the verbs sound incredible. As does the doubler. It definitely can just be used as an fx box!

[@KarasamaBeats]

The reverb is beautiful in this plugin. But wow the female vocals texture really changed a lot the moment the plugin was turned on. That's something that I really din like much . felt like feeding it through a pre set eq

[@mr_bradsmith]

I think the verb is my favourite part of the plugin! I agree, that character section is heavy handed. It would be great if there was a way to back it off a little bit more. Definitely a specific sound! Thanks for checking out the review!

[@noahofficialmusic]

Thx u for taking the time to review this.

[@mr_bradsmith]

No problem! Thanks for checking it out!

[@chucknkd]

I have found that moving the red floor threshold up to where the main part of the vocal is will help keep those breaths out of getting turned up so much (the rider section)

[@mr_bradsmith]

Awesome! I will have to play around with that some more!

[@new-haven4988]

Would you say this would be great for supplementing on top of your existing vocal chain? As it is quite aggressive i assume you'd use in increments like OTT. (Still watching your video so not sure if you already cover this at the end so apologies if you do). Loving the vid!

[@mr_bradsmith]

Glad you’re digging the video, thanks! I don’t believe I tried that out in the review 🤔 or tried it out in parallel. It probably would work great in those contexts. I will say, in the bit of experimenting I did after the fact, while aggressive, the compressor sure translates well on smaller systems (iPhone, laptop, etc…). If you try it on top of some treatments or in parallel let me know how it goes!

[@sleety00]

The asmr artist of the audio review world

[@valentinzwick5408]

That shimmery verb was beautiful but I was also a little surprised by how "aggressive" the compressor was. I mean, would this be a plugin designed for Rock & Metal, I would´ve understood that they are after a more aggressive compression that even changes the character of the recording to be more gritty, but in a plugin that is marketed for rather the pop genre, that´s a bit surprising. Anyways, what I was even more surprised is that id does not come with a real delay. Often times you hear/read things about "amateur mixes" are often drowning in reverb and in particular on vocals, a lot of mixers tend to rather use delay over reverb as a time based effect to have the vocals sitting in the mix more "wet" so i am wondering why this plugin only comes with a reverb. It sounds good though but I think this ain´t for me.

[@KarasamaBeats]

Yea i totally agree with you ! I felt the exact same way too.

[@mr_bradsmith]

There's no doubt the compressor and focus are heavy handed haha! I agree a delay would be a great addition to the plugin! I certainly lean more towards delay over reverb in mixing and production. That said, these verbs really sit nicely and cleanly in the mix. Neither of them felt like they were getting in the way to me. Thanks for checking out the review!

[@8CountAudio]

Thanks for a very thorough review! Definitely would shine on busier, beatsy mixes, or mellow indie rock with heavier drums

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thanks for checking it out! I'm glad you enjoyed it! And I agree, I think the compression and focus would shine on more dense arrangements and productions.

[@marcusagain]

WIsh it had a de esser, but i could just put one before this right?

[@mr_bradsmith]

You totally can yup! DeEsser would be a great addition to this!

[@tobiasantolini1052]

If its zero latency, does it mean I can use this live?

[@mr_bradsmith]

It does! And it has incredibly low CPU usage, which is a bonus for live performance as well.

[@ramspencer5492]

It's kind of of interesting.,.. I'm sure it would be perfect some some people. It doesn't seem concerned with things like aliasing or such. It definitely doesn't sound organic. It does have some really nice qualities. I need stuff like side-chained reverb...... Aux channels, etc. I think of I had it it would be mostly for quick dirty mix's and more likely for tracking.....to make the singer relax and feel like they sound good. That might something is really perfect for. Thanks for the video. The compressor is a pretty weak link.... In my opinion

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thanks for checking the review out! The compressor is definitely aggressive. Feels quite specific to his workflow and sound. I did spend a bit more time with it after the review and the part that did impress me about it was how vocals translated on smaller systems with it. Still heavy handed, but vocals sat and cut through really well.

[@petshop7248]

did this song "air intake" ever come out? it is fucking amazing, dude...

[@mr_bradsmith]

Sadly it has not. I'd love for Darren to put this and all of the other gems he's sitting on out into the world. The work he has out is incredible as well. Definitely worth checking out! I'm glad you dig the track! I'll be sure to let Darren know!

[@petshop7248]

@@mr_bradsmith i tried looking up his name and i dint find much. HELP!

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@petshop7248 Here's his Spotify: open.spotify.com/artist/6lHdlehZ5EbJk6nAYgxvvI?si=WI9grcipS-O9ryOs6ZtAuw

[@mr_bradsmith]

Hard to believe he hasn't put anything out in over a decade. He still writes and records though.

[@NickLAnderson]

🙏🏼

[@mr_bradsmith]

Thanks for checking out the review!

[@bryantlroeback3287]

I subscribed so he would not have 3 6's on his subscriber number. Also a good review & timeline.

[@mr_bradsmith]

Haha! Thank you. I'm glad you dig the video!

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

Mostly lost me at "U.I." being the number 1 point (instead of sound)...

[@mr_bradsmith]

The checklist I go through is for features I look for when evaluating plugins. There is no particular order of importance to them and it doesn't have anything to do with judging sonic quality. These are things I look for even before hearing the plugin. And It's mostly centred around getting a feel for the workflow of it. Workflow, to me, is as important as sonic quality. It's no different than picking up a guitar and giving it a once over before strumming a chord. Or going over the features of a car before giving it a test drive. Cheers.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@mr_bradsmith Fair enough. Be well.

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios Thanks. Cheers.

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

@@mr_bradsmith Re-watching... I believe that I was unfairly critical upon first viewing (perhaps not in the proper mindset). Not deleting previous comments for posterity (as a "self-own"). Good video, man. I'll probably check out more videos over the next week. Best wishes for a successful 2023.

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios No worries, Sekrit! I truly appreciate the message and I'm glad to hear you dig the review! Thank you. Best wishes for a successful 2023 to you as well! Cheers.

[@bradashlock]

I've tried to like this thing. It would solve so many problems! But.... Sorry, the rider should be called a breath amplifier. It's terrible. The compression is just too much for me as well. The reverb seems tinny and harsh to me. Maybe it's just the vocals or genre - simply put: I just don't like anything it does, ha ha ! Lie and learn...

[@mr_bradsmith]

I wanted to love this thing too, but the compressor is over the top for me. Unless you are working on some super modern pushed pop, which I did find it worked well there or at least translated really well. Particularly on small speakers. But not appropriate for anything else. Definitely specific to Louis Bell's workflow and production style.

[@rundajulesproductions7735]

Is this ASMR?

[@mr_bradsmith]

I've been told it might be! Certainly wasn't something I planned on haha!

[@rundajulesproductions7735]

@@mr_bradsmith That's 'The Spirit'! Producing tingles, producing jingles, producing singles. The difference is pretty slim. They're all better with a good mic.

[@isaacjohnklein]

ASMR review for 8 minutes before even getting into the demo.

[@mr_bradsmith]

Chapters are in the timeline if you'd like to hop around for a quicker review! Recap will have a my overall thoughts.

[@matt_nyc_audioengineer]

Man I really want to watch your content, but I can’t take the mouth clicks! iZotope mouth declick bud. Please! If you don’t know what Misophonia is look it up. I would happily watch more content if you took care of that. For now I can’t even make it through 30 seconds. Sorry man.

[@mr_bradsmith]

My apologies. I'm not trying to make anyone uncomfortable. I'm a soft spoken person. In my current setup, my dialogue track is not separate from the music. So while I may be able to edit in the intro and outro sections transparently, it won't be possible while I'm speaking over playback. Cheers.

[@matt_nyc_audioengineer]

@@mr_bradsmithThere is no need to apologize lol. You didn’t do anything wrong. I was just informing you that’s all. Lots of people have the same issue and it could lose you views. Changing mic placement will also help with this moving the mic away from your mouth and also positioning it off to the side and above your mouth will help. I was only trying to help you out.

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@matt_nyc_audioengineer I appreciate you bringing the condition to my attention, thank you! The hard part with the current setup and mic placement, is not only am I soft spoken, but my rig is laptop based at the moment, so fan noise and signal to noise ratio is a bit of a battle with the laptop whirring away behind the mic. So I do have to be a bit more on it. I did mess round with some RX'ing this morning and certainly can get that working on the intros and recaps easily enough. I will keep experimenting for the other sections. Thanks again! Cheers.

[@matt_nyc_audioengineer]

@@mr_bradsmith I apoligize if my first message came off the wrong way. That was not my intention. It's a tough thing to combat. RX will certainly be able to help. It's the first plugin on my vocal bus template lol.

[@mr_bradsmith]

@@matt_nyc_audioengineer No apologies necessary! I probably came off a bit gun shy in my initial reply haha. Interestingly, the only unkind messages and personal attacks I've received so far on the channel have been all around my soft spoken nature. And here I thought my opinions on plugins would be the thing that would stir up the trolling haha! So I might have engaged with a bit of hesitancy. My apologies. It's quite clear that was not your intent. I really appreciate you bringing the condition to my attention and I will definitely work towards resolving that with the planned upgrades and changes to the streaming setup!

[@LKO-Ekawami]

Great Song!!!!!

[@mr_bradsmith]

I'm glad you're digging the music! The Lyra Brown "Home Again" track or the Darren Frank "Air Intake" track? Thanks for checking out the review!