smart:EQ 4 | 18 feature highlights in action

More info and free 30-day trial: www.sonible.co...
The intelligent equalizer smart:EQ, the powerhouse in sonible’s suite of AI-assistive tools, has become a staple for audio producers the world over. Its unique smart:filter spectrally balances tracks in seconds and makes spectral mixing a simple matter of dragging and dropping alongside other tracks in a group. With smart:EQ 4, sonible has heightened the equalizer’s versatility as well as added new control features.
Chapters:
0:11 Fast mixing workflow
0:37 Cross-channel processing & automatic name transfer
0:49 Instrument & vocals profiles
0:57 Balancing multiple tracks
1:18 Easy impact control
1:28 Unmasking hierarchy
1:39 Mini EQ Panel
1:52 smart:filter
2:10 Standard filter & analyzer
2:26 Mixed Profiles & reference track feature

[@Ramzo16]

This plugin helped learn bad frequency in vocals that i thought was wrong to cut its better than a teacher

[@DanBires]

I will tell you this is genius. The group function is amazing especially if you are having masking issues how fast it can separate these troublesome frequencies that can cause issues just fixes it like magic.

[@RevCQ7]

Only 30 dollar upgrade? Y'all are the best holy shit

[@greccoox]

this about unmasking hierarchy is one of the things that you go: "why nobody thought this before" (in the new era of machine learning mix) ...so cool!

[@emphatic001]

I bought the upgrade instantly. I look forward to using this on my next project. I'm very self conscious when it comes to mixing, in fact, it destroys my productivity. I hope your plugin will help me finish tracks.

[@Patrick-hq5cq]

i struggle with the same issue too so hopefully it works. lets me know how you feel about the plugin once you have tried it out

[@kayokk-]

The group impact is a game changer here.. Good work guys👏👏

[@dusanpaulovic1862]

I have just upgraded from 3 to 4 and it is game changer...

[@dezinerAhmad]

Niceeeeeeeeeee... Great Progress ... Automatic naming is very handy

[@cgsmithinnola]

Great work y'all! Can hardly wait to upgrade from 3 and try this out! Looks incredible!

[@AironExTv]

Looks neat. Will give this a spin on my dialogue mixes.

[@georgezorbas9036]

What clever guys and nice company. I can't imagine pros without your products

[@BluemountScore]

Fantastic plug-in. Thanks for the free upgrade!

[@kayodeoluwafemi8955]

This is fire!!! Thanks Sonible for the free update.

[@Mike_Benz_]

Wish I got a free update.

[@weareonemosaic]

@@Mike_Benz_ I think it's a fair upgrade price though for all the new features...

[@Mike_Benz_]

@@weareonemosaic True

[@sezao]

This is magical can't wait to get it

[@Ilddans13]

Amazing! Thanks a lot for the free update!

[@29djandy]

Love the updates. Thank you

LOVING this so far, truly. Not just for speeding up workflow but also for my learning, studying what tweaks the eq makes allows me to improve. One small suggestion / tweak though, the automatic naming of the EQ instances when put in a group shouldn’t have “Smart EQ4” and then the name of the DAW track, as you can’t see any characters beyond “smart eq 4”, so you still have to go in and rename each instance yourself to know what instance you’re looking it. At the moment it’s kind of a useless feature. Just a tiny suggestion for this great plugin!

[@sezao]

Love it

[@Tyrell_Corp2019]

0:36. You put an instance of Smart EQ on many tracks. So which one do you use to "unlock" and group them? Do you just choose one and they all coordinate... or do you need to put another one on the master bus? I'm confused about how you did that. Can you please explain?

[@maus3454]

Absolutely an awesome piece of software

[@DAUBSKI]

Yes yes yes!

[@user-ti4tf4kn3o]

Short and sweet, No BS hoops!

[@dorfischer]

THANK YOU for dynamic button on EQs!!!

[@choosers5177]

Version 3 had this also

[@Tekkerue]

@@choosers5177 Version 3 called the spectral processing 'dynamic', but that's not typically what dynamic EQ is. Version 4 has standard dynamic EQ as you'd find in other dynamic EQs like FabFilter Pro-Q3, or TDR Nova, etc. Version 4 now has both dynamic EQ and spectral EQ and you can use them together at the same time.

[@lavinchi6709]

Great EQ!!!Thank you so much!!!

[@tendingtropic7778]

this is great. gonna get it; a more elaborate tutorial would be most welcome!

[@Harrysound]

I bought this. I really like it just as an EQ. I do think the GUI needs a fair bit of work. It’s very dark and a bit small unless you resize it. Great EQ. Probably going to use it to create a starting point

[@Christa-Das-music]

Thank you. Congratulations !

[@DSWL_]

thanks 🤘🏼

[@kenvives]

This is amazing! Instant buy. I would love to see a way of smoothly “animating” or automating which instrument is in front for different song sections. Maybe smart eq5?

[@SonibleCom]

The tricky thing here is that this transition would have to be "automatable" from any member of a group... and sending automations for the same parameter (that could theoretically be different for different group members) from different plug-in instances is... a bit problematic. ;-)

[@kenvives]

@@SonibleCom From the outside looking in... If you limited the automation to the group level, perhaps one instrument in the group could be deignated the "leader" and then use MIDI cc data from that one instrument to move the group within the hierarchy? I really appreciate that you even took the time to reply. You guys rock! I literally cannot wait to see what you come up with next. Happy Holidays!

[@davidefant3045]

Just got the upgrade. Exciting new features! I have a question: how should I set it up if I want SmartEQ on all drum tracks routed to a group with additional processing on the bus? Would it involve individual instances on each track and one on the group using the “Drums-set” profile? I assume 'Learn All' wouldn't be effective in this scenario unless I learn the group after the software has learned the individual tracks, right? That seems a very common mixing scenario, where very often single tracks get routed to a bus. Thanks 🙏🏻

[@SonibleCom]

@davidefant3045 You could load an instance of smart:EQ 4 on your individual drum tracks with the respective profiles (Kick, Snare, ...) and create a group called e.g. "Drums" with all these tracks. You could then send the processed channels to a bus and add an instance there with the "Drumset" profile. If you have other busses or tracks (like "Vocals", "Bass", ...) you could add these busses into a group with your drum bus and create the final "top level" arrangement of different instruments there.

[@akrita81]

Simple genius.

[@riptideL]

I know you have probably thought of it, but having a smart channel strip would be awesome! eq comp, de ess and limit all in 1 window, wow. a smart saturator and clip wouldnt hurt either. seeing that email would floor me.

[@malmcowy]

Awesome!

[@morsa2905]

Oh!!!! Kenneth Branagh!!!!

[@OliBeaudoin]

Killer!

[@Overxpossed]

Got it just few minutes ago; not tried yet, but I'm sure it will be stunnin, as usual! Why the website took between 120 and 240 seconds to load each step? Downloading the plugin had a good download speed. Thank you for such great plugins!

[@trayoibry8246]

Poahhh Leute das ist echt heftig Respekt 👍💯

[@aboozarasadolahi]

Hello, the group section isn't working in FL Studio.

[@tez4792]

SAME HERE

[@SonibleCom]

Thank you for the report! Could you please send some information about your system to our support team ([e-mail]) so that we can have a look at the issue.

[@aboozarasadolahi]

Hi, I'm using the latest version of FL Studio21.2 When adding a smart: EQ 4 to the mixer, some of the equalizers are not recognized by others You can only use the equalizer individually, not in conjunction with others. @@SonibleCom

[@ogralphbeats4035]

GOOOOTTTTDAMNNN

[@mnieuwhof]

Well, I'm on Bitwig and some tracks can be learned but most not (instance stays on 'unlearned')... what are the conditions for the EQ to measure a track in a good way?

[@noahkipper8161]

Same for me it doesn’t seem to work well

[@zeitakulobusta]

Hi Sonibles....any plans to add actual sidechaining in addition to the heirarchy? Sidechaining to a dynamic eq that's running mid/side is what I want to do!

[@SonibleCom]

Hi! Currently this feature is not planned for smart:EQ 4, but we'll add it to our list of ideas ;)

[@Tekkerue]

SmartEQ is really getting to be incredible. Do you have any plans to add pitch-tracking like in SurferEQ or the Antares Vocal EQ? If this happens, it'll be game over! I can't see any reason to open any other digital-style EQ at that point.

[@SonibleCom]

We're still having a lot of ideas in our backlog. So stay tuned. ;-)

[@MageOvelha]

Pitch Tracking would be an excellent update for sure! I'm trying it and is a really great plugin.

[@Tekkerue]

@@SonibleCom Awesome! I hope pitch-tracking is next in the queue. 😉

[@ryde2012]

Downloading when i get in 💯

[@DesoloZantas]

Excellent, How many instruments can I put in one section?

[@SonibleCom]

You can add up to 10 tracks to one group. And you can send the output of one group (e.g. "vocals") to a bus and create another group (e.g. "mix") where you bring individual groups together. So it's 10 tracks per group, but you can use a large number of groups (if needed).

[@CoopMusic247]

Oh wow, thank you

[@CoopMusic247]

I don't see a free upgrade code in my email, but there is a upgrade price in my account for $29 until December 31.

[@CoopMusic247]

And as of right now, Plugin Boutique does not have that deal up yet, so you have to log into your Sonible account.

[@AlbertSouris]

I just tested Eq4 and it's incredible... Eq are very smooth ... Is there a Low Pass and Hight pass filter included in EQ4 ??? I don't see them. Thanks for your response

[@fedorgorkavyy8957]

Amazing!

[@Sasa-dz9hf]

Hello Sonible team,i have a question! When applying smart eq4 on master bus did you taking into account the limiter after, which messes up with total balance? And another thing,it would be great if you make a mastering plugin that calculates dinamic , widening and spectral balance,thanks

[@BartekEVH]

Fantastic!!!

[@user-md9vl8uj9h]

I downloaded the trial version and it has an issue... I can export files normally by using the profiles that come in the presets, but when I load a reference it works fine only in the DAW, but when you export the changes are not printed and when I return to the DAW the configuration is maintained, but you can not listen the changes until you move between different states. I want to buy the plugin but without that feature I'm afraid I'll have to wait until you solve it. I hope it's just because it's Trial... I look forward to your response..

[@SonibleCom]

Hi, thank you for your report. We actually found some bug with reference track processing and bouncing in certain DAWs - and we're currently looking into it to find a solution quickly.

[@TheChromaticz355]

Will the true balance 2 interact with smart eq 4 in the future?

[@SonibleCom]

That's an interesting idea! To be honest - it's not planned yet, but technically possible.

[@TheChromaticz355]

Somthing like tonal balance and any eq from their plugins(izotope) but doing it automatically by selecting the style! Or at least suggest where to apply some cuts or boosts! Would be game changer!

[@markevansdj]

Website is down (504 gateway error)

[@ilandzmusic7848]

Been down all day just got it working

[@ForSynthsSake]

Did your company make the focusrite collective eq plugins? Do your new products render the focusrite collective less effective? Is there a reveal function in eq4? I do have the smart limiter and compressor.

[@SonibleCom]

Yes, sonible developed the Focusrite FAST plug-ins. They are based on the same technology as sonible's smart and pure plug-ins, but some of them (for example the EQ) are using older versions of our tech. smart:EQ 4 does not have a reveal function, as you'd need a sidechain input for that (for sample-precise, rea-time ducking) - but smart:comp 2 does support sidechain ducking.

[@ForSynthsSake]

Great, I will use the new suite of plugins.

[@Slowhunch]

The names from my tracks don’t seem to be picked up like they do in this video, they are just called ‘instance x’. Any idea what I’m doing wrong?

[@Kaspar_Houser]

Superb work. Are yall based in Graz?

[@SonibleCom]

Thanks! Yes, we're based in Graz.

[@vinylmastersgr1036]

Hello, I try now and I think it's not for full mixes mastered to change eq, as one friend of mine told me, but it's able to do this in some way. I want to change eq in some songs that they are vinyl ripped. The only problem is when I make learning it adds extra bass or loudness that makes song muddy!! I can't understand !I want my track to have the early 90s characteristics, I mean the waveform not with so much gain and not normalized!!!! And my personal opinion, at least in greek remastered albums is not to make normalize and gain at 98-99. It makes sound more closed and distorted and I can't hear the voice clearly. Original greek cd masters from early 90s had crystal clear sound and gain at 92-93. Same with many classic greek albums that re-released on vinyl, they are much digitized with much loudness and distortion.

[@29djandy]

Do I have to do any initial volume adjustments? Or just let the Smart eq4 do the volume balance for the tracks? Thank you

[@SonibleCom]

While your tracks should have a minimum level (e.g. smart:EQ 4 ignores input signals below -60dB), the plug-in does not really look at the overall level of your track. The problem is that smart:EQ 4 does not know about your fader positions - so the plug-in assumes that each channel is coming in at a certain level and computes all masking effects from there. That's why smart:EQ 4 creates space in the spectrum for all group members, but it does not change the overall "gain" of individual tracks.

[@ArnoBCVL]

Hello. What about Smart EQ Live ? It can no longer be purchased on your website. Is it normal ? I tried it before chrismass, and now I have to buy a license key, but I can't. Can somebody help me ?

[@SonibleCom]

With the release of smart:EQ 4, we decided to drop support for smart:EQ live. smart:EQ 4 is also zero latency (in minimum phase mode) and can be used as a replacement for smart:EQ live (e.g. in live settings).

[@babymixswing2269]

Can you make a SMART product specifically for human voices?

[@woodward_alan]

Can you explain more about the track/group control and also have to add the reference track?

[@SonibleCom]

You can use the plug-in to spectrally balance a single track - and/or you can use the plug-in to spectrally balance multiple tracks within a group. The smart:filter (that's the intelligent filter computed by the plug-in) can be used in different modes - depending on your goal. You can check out this article here for more information: help.sonible.com/hc/en-us/articles/11846425347996-What-are-the-three-different-modes-of-the-smart-filter-doing-

[@SonibleCom]

Regarding the reference track: Typically you will tell the plug-in that you are e.g. working with a kick by selecting the "Kick" profile. This profile is trained on thousands of kick sounds and the plug-in will try to give your kick the right spectral balance. If you are aiming for a very specific (kick) sound, you can also use a reference track to define a target sound. For example, if you want a certain sound for your kick and you have a recording with this sound, you can load this recording as a reference - and smart:EQ 4 will try to suggest a filter, that lets your kick sound more like the reference.

[@woodward_alan]

@@SonibleCom thanks for explaining

[@sp_s7948]

Name of song/artist please!

[@khalilroukoz]

loaded 10 instances and kept gettin system overload error in Logic, yet I have a powerful Mac M1, are you having or had this issue?Thanks

[@SonibleCom]

While 10 instances shouldn't be an issue for a modern M1, you should make sure that your are using an input buffer size of at least 256 samples. And if you are experiencing system overload problems, you should avoid having multiple plug-in GUIs open... Hope that helps!

[@khalilroukoz]

@@SonibleCom Thank you, yes buffer size i tried all! seems to ok now, Thanks for your reply😌

[@Childhoof]

I've read the manual & written support twice twice now with no replies, so I'll try here: In Group mode, my DAW doesn't name the instances, so how do I know which instance is for which instrument (or bus) I've put Smart EQ on? All I see is "Instance 1, 2", etc.

[@SonibleCom]

Unfortunately, not all DAWs and Plug-in Formats support the automated naming of instances. For example, the old VST2 format does not support automated naming while VST3, AU and AAX typically do - but some DAWs still won't support it (they do not provide the track name to the plug-in).

[@Childhoof]

@@SonibleCom OK thanks. I've installed it with AUs, guess it's my DAWs fault. So in this scenario, is there ANY way of telling which instance is for which channel?

[@SonibleCom]

@@Childhoof You can rename each instance from the actual plug-in window of a track. So, when you created a group, the instance belonging to the current track (the track where the plug-in is loaded) has a border around its name. As you know the track (e.g. vocal) you can rename the instance to "vocal" and so on. Once renamed, you can identify the tracks correctly in group view. (Currently, you can only rename instance once they're part of a group... we're thinking about an option where you can immediately give an instance a name after creation - in case the automatic track naming does not work.)

[@Childhoof]

@@SonibleCom OK thanks.

[@mygoogle1525]

How would it work in live performance? Does it introduce a lot of latency? I've got Pure EQ but it's unusable in a live setting.

[@SonibleCom]

When using smart:EQ 4 in "minimum" phase mode (that's the default mode), the plug-in does not have a processing latency and can be used in live situations or during recording sessions. In "linear" phase mode, the plug-in has a processing latency of approximately 70ms (similar to pure:EQ).

[@phelper4554]

The update is not free for everyone. All these comments that saying its free are very confusing

[@Tekkerue]

I believe it's free if you purchased SmartEQ3 recently within a certain window. This happened when I got FabFilter Pro-Q2 and then they released Pro-Q3 shortly after I got it, I got Pro-Q3 for free as well. I am certain I'm not in the window for the free SmartEQ4 upgrade since I got the smart bundle a couple years ago.

[@SonibleCom]

We are having a grace period for customers who bought smart:EQ 3 very recently (within the last couple of weeks) - and we also offer a very nice upgrade offer of 29,- for anyone who bought smart:EQ 3 prior to that.

[@davelordy]

Jus checked the system requirements, this update needs MacOSX 10.14+, does that mean us people stuck on 10.13.6 (High Sierra) are stuck on smart:EQ 3 / can't upgrade ?

[@clatterbox01]

Download the demo and try it. Smart:EQ 4 works for me in Logic Pro, running an ancient iMac on OS 10.13.6. Hope that helps.

[@SonibleCom]

Hey, technically yes, smart:EQ 4 needs Mac OSX 10.14+, however, it might work but we can't guarantee it. Please try the trial of smart:EQ 4 on your system.

[@davelordy]

@@SonibleCom Thanks for the quick reply, good idea, I'll try the trial, if it works ok I'll upgrade - it's a good thing you don't replace older versions with your upgrades (like some plugins do), so I can still use smart:EQ3 if it gets glitchy.

[@davelordy]

@@clatterbox01 Cheers for the info 👍 I'm on Logic Pro too (+ ancient iMac on OS 10.13.6) so your experience sounds encouraging, I'm going to try the demo and if all is good I'll upgrade smart:EQ3 > 4 👍Cheers again for your input.

[@clatterbox01]

@@davelordy OK with more in depth demoing, EQ4 works fine in single track mode, but seems pretty glitchy when trying to set-up multi-track groups (running under OS 10.13.6)... so defo demo before purchase if running High Sierra.

[@the_handsome_bear]

When does the intro price expire

[@SonibleCom]

Hi! The intro offer for smart:EQ 4 is valid until Jan 20.

[@ManuelMarty]

Like the update so far. The only problem I have so far is that in the group view the tracks are named "Instance 1", "Instance 2" and so on. In EQ3 the naming was the same as the track name. I use Ableton and I can see at @0:41 that it works fine in your demo. What's the problem?

[@SonibleCom]

Thanks for the report. This seems to be an issue exclusively when using VST (it work in AU). It is definitely on our bugs-to-fix list.

[@ManuelMarty]

@@SonibleComahh VST! thx a lot

[@IAMCORNHOLIOINEEDTP]

Same Problem here with Ableton 11 (Win x64)

[@MASSDECEPTIONTV]

BAD ASS

[@wesindiefilm]

Name of the song?

[@GTSongwriter]

What about Oversampling?

[@Reggi_Sample]

These plugins won’t stop until your mix is a perfectly balanced flat line on the X axis at 0. Let’s just remove dynamism from music 😂😢 Honestly though, Sonible are excellent just use spectral stabilisers very lightly

[@murraywebster1228]

First? Do I win then 🤭🤭🤭, had/have them all, is there an upgrade/loyalty price?

[@murraywebster1228]

@BuddyBirdy€29

[@mistervid]

​@BuddyBirdy It is not free for older customers of EQ3 but only 29,- EUR which is nice.

[@mistervid]

@BuddyBirdy Many thanks for your reply. I just wanted to make sure that not everybody expects a free update. I had mine for 29 EUR and it seems a bargain for this great update. Cheers!

[@eminem2000jianghua]

这比 EQ3 进化太多了啊~~~我都迫不及待要升级了！！！

[@GTSongwriter]

Is Smart EQ 4 a different plugin than Smart EQ 3? Like, can you run it along side each other? I want to demo EQ 4, but leep EQ 3 if I device not up upgrade.

[@riptideL]

yes it is

[@SonibleCom]

Yes, smart:EQ 4 is a major upgrade of smart:EQ 3 - so it's a completely new plug-in. That also means that you can use both plug-ins side-by-side, but you won't be able to connect them with each other in group mode.

[@GTSongwriter]

So, I bought this upgrade, but now I'm regretting it. My friend sent them an email. He had the same issue happen. It crashes on "get results". Do we need to wait months for a fix like the Smart Reverb issue? Since y'all fixed the Smart Reverb, I'm sure y'all fix the Smart EQ 4 crashing issue we are having. If it helps, we can post a video of the crash on KZbin.

[@SonibleCom]

As with all brand new plug-ins, there will be bugs in certain DAWs and setups. But as you said, we'll do our best to fix any issues asap. Please send a report of the crash with as much information as possible about your setup (DAW, operating system, ...) to our support team ([e-mail]) so that our dev team can have a look at it. Thanks!

[@thepanicroommastering2062]

Logic 10.8.1 here (macOS Sonoma)….no crashes at all with EQ4 ✌️✨ Thanks Sonible, great work!

[@GTSongwriter]

@@SonibleCom Until the fix, I'll continue to use Smart EQ 3, which is stable.

[@lukaszbudzinski]

available as an update to EQ3?

[@bchltnr6271]

​@BuddyBirdyplease publish the code! 🙏

[@spaceiswater6539]

@BuddyBirdy I didn't receive an email can I ask when did you buy version 3 I wonder if its within a grace period?

[@sburton84]

@@spaceiswater6539 Yes it is within a grace period, the email I got says I get the upgrade free because I purchased 3 recently. @bchltnr6271 Codes appear user-specific, so I doubt anyone is going to give you their code, as it will only be usable once.

[@Left2See]

Yes. It's about 30 bucks if you already have EQ3. But the website is pretty slow atm.

[@Overxpossed]

damn slow @@Left2See any idea why?

[@claudiobackoficial]

Cada dia a industria transformando músicos em burros dependentes de AI e eliminando o conhecimento e técnicas de ser fazer música da mente humana na pior da hipotese deixando as técnicas como histórias de livros infantil , a tendencia é a música ser feita por AI e o ser humano ficar apenas de escravo obedecendo os comandos , sinceramente não vejo sentido na música sem o sentimento humano , desde do acorde a mix e master , finalização , vejo fim de grandes histórias e momentos de sessôes que reunia pessoa por sentimento e não apenas por numero . mais enfim é isso ,

[@neilslade]

Unlike EQ3 EQ4 won't work on Win 7.

[@spaceiswater6539]

Maybe just upgrade your old OS.

[@haraldklingsporn4087]

Sorry... Both mixes... sound not good... Where is the magic ?

[@pernormann4869]

You need to run your beard through the smart:eq4

[@caspermaster-com]

Its borderline too good for comfort, in this video at least 😂 (AI taking over our jobs etc)