TBProAudio DSEQ: Better Than Soothe 2?

Is DSEQ better than soothe2? Why you need DSEQ, a smart and flexible dynamic EQ VST plugin that can help fix harsh vocals and mixes. I’ll show you how to get up and running quickly with DSEQ and get better sound!
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--Timestamps---
0:00 Coming Up!
0:04 Intro: What is TBProAudio DSEQ?
0:30 Bad Mix DSEQ Test & Walkthrough
5:46 More DSEQ Features
6:21 Conclusion: TBProAudio DSEQ vs soothe2
Are you looking to take your music to the next level? Contact me at palebluedot.ca/ and let's talk!
#vst #freevst #palebluedot

[@midnightsocean2689]

Great video. Very succinct. This is a very competitive plugin. If I ever feel the need to upgrade from smooth operator, this looks like the best value option to obtain more features.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Totally agree! DSEQ is quite the beast, I found myself using it more than soothe2 because it's so feature-rich. Thanks for watching!

[@johnplainsong9769]

Great video, and I completely agree. I spent a few hours comparing demos of Soothe2, DSEQ3, and Smooth Operator. If money is no object, I recommend DSEQ (steeper learning curve than Soothe2, but much more versatile). If you are on a tight budget, Smooth Operator is "good enough" and very easy to use after you learn how to adjust the bands. Soothe2 is certainly capable and gets a lot of positive press, but Oeksound's pricing is way out of line for a plugin of this type.

[@palebluedotstudios]

I agree with you! DSEQ is the spectral-corrector's spectral-correction plugin (the amount of control is insane), and soothe2 is explicitly in the rarified air of the professional, or moneyed. I'm not crazy about Smooth Operator-I just find it too drastic and hard to control-I'd probably go with M-Clarity as "good enough" (and Sleek is just a disaster)-but there are lots of options out there now! Love your thoughtful response, and thanks for watching! Cheers!

[@jwalker99us]

Great reviewer. Gets right to the point, tells it like it is and mentions the cost. Worth it or not. Looking forward to izotope reviews. Thats a product too many built in plugins that i only use a few.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thanks so much! I’ve been trying to keep it concise and to the point, glad you liked it! Yes Izotope packs so much in that I didn’t even notice they had a spectral correction plugin! I’ll be posting Izotope next week, looking forward to digging in to those! Thanks for watching!

[@xantux]

DSEQ does seem pretty great! Thank you!

[@palebluedotstudios]

You are most welcome! I know, right? I'm hoping more people will become aware of DSEQ! Thanks for watching!

[@earizon_official]

Great Video again. Can you make a video wich show the differences between smart EQ3 and DSEQ? Especially when it comes to harshness, resonances, muddiness and similar? P.S. I need all your video-background-music-songs :D they're all great!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Great suggestion! I'll take a look and bang that out soon! Thanks for the feedback!

[@JasonGillmanJr]

At this juncture, I'm not sure I'm in a position to really utilize what Soothe 2 or DSEQ have to offer (I'm just a goon that likes to make noise as a hobby), so for now, Smooth Operator has been working out great for allowing me to quickly tame harsh bits. That said, I'll definitely keep this in mind once I reach that "next level", so to speak given that Soothe 2 is not cheap (says the guy who also has an aviation hobby). Thanks for the overview!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Wow, do you have a plane parked outside? Haha. Yes, DSEQ is something to keep in mind if you find yourself needing to address more complex issues in mastering, mixing, de-masking, etc. I came to the conclusion in my Smooth Operator video that it's a great starting point for spectral balancing! Thanks for watching!

[@JasonGillmanJr]

@@palebluedotstudios Unfortunately I don't own my own, I just rent haha

[@palebluedotstudios]

​@@JasonGillmanJr Nice! So cool to be able to fly a plane! Thanks for watching!

[@BojanBojovic]

Smooth Operator can give identical results as Sooth2, it just need more tweaking. It is not miles behind Sooth2, just a different workflow.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Agreed! You can actually go a little deeper than soothe2, with more nodes and features. It really should be more popular. Cheers!

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

It's an amazing plugin, I use it all the time.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Yes! So glad to hear that. I honestly don't know why DSEQ isn't an industry standard. I think it's almost too good to be true? Thanks for watching!

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

@@palebluedotstudios yeah it's completely on par with sooth2, maybe better in some ways for a fraction of the price.

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@NoQualmsTheArtist Exactly. I should do another vid on DSEQ...cheers!

[@princemaxwhoobayangbon1516]

Thanks for reviewing this plugin! It's funny to notice that people are so much :hero warshipers!!!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thank you Prince! Cheers!

[@DavidKfilmmaker]

Curious a year or so later, which you like the most for evening things out?

[@palebluedotstudios]

I like DSEQ the best, especially once you get used to the ins and outs of the UI. It's a little cheaper too, so that's a plus. Cheers!

[@RONNIESAWLIN]

isnt´s smooth operator & gullfoss a Spectral Compressor? Different to Soothe and DSEQ. I own the DSEQ and it sounds very different.

[@palebluedotstudios]

It's kind of hard to say without being the developer, but DSEQ claims to work "in the frequency domain"; Gullfoss claims to be a constantly-adjusting EQ using "computational auditory perception technology"; and soothe 2 uses "phase vocoder and equalization", but is more like what we would think of the "spectral" domain. So similar, but different-kind of? Cheers!

[@arilotringer]

Hey great video! Didn't know about this plugin. So I'm wondering, I've seen much hype around Soothe 2 and the likes (smooth operator, gullfoss, smarteq, etc) but I never see the Spectral Shaper in Izotope's Ozone 9 nor the Sculptor in Neutron 3 even mentioned on any of those comparisons or reviews. Do you know these? I have Neutron 3 and Ozone 9, love Izotope's products but haven't really digged too much into the spectral shaper modules. I wonder how they compare to these plugins ? I think Neutron and Ozone are a great value for all the tools and technology they offer.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Hi Ari! You know, you are the third person to mention the Izotope spectral modules, and no, I'm not familiar with them. I have the RX suite because I do a lot of post production work, and it rules. I'm going to install the demos of Ozone and Neutron and I'll make a video comparing them! Thanks so much for finding some hidden spectral plugins! Thanks for watching!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Oh, and there's Izotope Tonal Balance Control 2 also! Interesting...

[@arilotringer]

Yeah! RX is top notch. Cool! Can't wait to see those videos! Might have a hidden gem that I didn't really know about in those modules

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@arilotringer I'm excited to take a look at them, but here's my prediction: I'll bet they are a little harsh and artificial-sounding. My experience with their AI stuff has left me wanting. But I'm installing the demos now!

[@arilotringer]

@@palebluedotstudios interesting! It'll be great to listen to a comparison, you would be the first. The sculptor and spectral shaper are a bit different, and yes they have less tweakability than soothe but I guess one can achieve good results by messing around with them, we'll see! Thanks

[@truesearch69]

This is amazing. right now April 8 of 2023 DSEQ 3.5 is a totally beast for hiphop beats with unbalanced mixes, is like magic! All this time I thought beatmakers mix like gods, but no. it's all a simple trick. soothe 2 or DSEQ 3.5, either will do and leave your hiphop instrumental songs ready to release to the world.

[@palebluedotstudios]

DSEQ is a beast! Glad you like it. I know what you mean: often when mixing hip hop clients, they bring in beats that were probably purchased as an mp3 or poorly mixed; DSEQ and soothe are very good at getting rid the bad stuff. Cheers!

[@esahm373]

Why DSEQ 3.5 but not earlier versions?

[@shrimp3683]

Which one do you think works better on vocals, dseq or reso?

[@palebluedotstudios]

DSEQ. I wasn't crazy about Reso, I don't think it works very well. Cheers!

[@ChristianIce]

#freevst

[@djruslanmazaev]

thanx

[@palebluedotstudios]

You're welcome! Thanks so much for watching!

[@Beatsbasteln]

i wouldn't call it a soothe-killer tbh. oeksound has crafted that badboy so carefully that i can hardly claim to need anything else like it. i don't know if this plugin has the same audio quality. it was hard to tell from your overcompressed rock example if the stuff i heared came from dseq or from your music. but the plugin did add some interesting flavour to your signal sometimes, so regardless of a direct comparisson with soothe2 i think it's super cool!

[@ReeseWitherknife]

I'm in the market for a resonance suppressor like this. Do you think there's any reason to pay more than twice the price for Soothe when this is the same but with a couple extra features?

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@ReeseWitherknife they are not "same". the general idea is comparable, but plugins at that scale never feel or sound the same. if you demo this and decide it adds value to your productions, you don't need soothe2. but if you feel like something could be missing, demo soothe2. it's the same as with all other plugins

[@palebluedotstudios]

That's sound advice, @Beats. Personally, I find DSEQ is as good as soothe2, but often needs a little more tweaking. Definitely demo both.

[@alphashokk7998]

​@@Beatsbasteln They are designed to do the same job, suppress resonances dynamically, for which DSEQ3 is better than soothe not only in price, but also in sound quality (DSEQ preserves transients better, has better filters etc) not to mention that it is much more customizable

[@Beatsbasteln]

@@alphashokk7998 i did some further research about dseq since i wrote that comment and found a video where someone used soothe and dseq on a vibraphone sample, which exposed some rather heavy ringing artefacts of dseq's filters. i suppose they used some very surgical linear phase filters. ofc a vibraphone is a special case, because it is somewhere in the middle between percussive and harmonic, but what would happen on actual drums? i'm asking, because one of the main usecases promoted for soothe is cymbals, where it works like a charme. what would dseq do there? but having entirely different filter types is also exciting. maybe it gives dseq some benefits on more harmonic material

[@Luckyrrul]

TB Pro audio is so good tbh

[@palebluedotstudios]

Really is. The most underrated developer in audio?

[@Jaburu]

now compare to smart:EQ 3 which has a dynamic mode, too

[@palebluedotstudios]

I'm working on that video right now! I've also got Gullfloss coming soon too. Thanks for watching!

[@Jaburu]

@@palebluedotstudios nice. waiting for that

[@retsmej]

i have both dseq and soothe, and dseq beats soothe imo because of surgical tweakability, but soothe i still like for vocals.

[@palebluedotstudios]

I would fully agree with that! Yes, I feel DSEQ is quite underrated and is a great option for most of us who can't quite afford soothe2. Thanks for watching!

[@inibaggage43]

So you prefer soothe on vocals over dseq is that what you're saying?

[@higltypig]

soniformer was doing this and more 10 years ago.

[@palebluedotstudios]

You are absolutely right, sir! I'm going to add that to my spectral list! I haven't used it in years but they were certainly way ahead of the game on spectral processing. Thanks for watching!

[@GetSongsDone]

Sounds great! Soothe 2 is kind of overrated. It's a nice user interface though. I used MSpectral Dynamics (also expensive) for years before Soothe 2 even existed. In this price range, Smooth Operator has some issues. So, DSEQ looks promising for spectral processing on a budget, or even in general. Thank you for making this video. I'll check DSEQ out.

[@palebluedotstudios]

You are most welcome! I'm glad you got something out of the video. I totally forgot about MSpectral Dynamics, but I haven't used it in years. I'll have to check it out. I find the Melda interfaces a bit obtuse-especially on a 5k screen-but I've been using them more these days, especially the United Audio plugins. Thanks for watching! Let me know what you think about DSEQ when you try it out!

[@oinkooink]

Hundreds of dollars worth of product, hours and hours of R&D...my laptop: Lol.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Haha. You mean your laptop is full of plugins??

[@oinkooink]

@@palebluedotstudios I don't know what I mean.

[@DjorMil.CineMusic]

TEOTE?

[@palebluedotstudios]

TEOTE I haven't used much. Voxengo makes quality stuff, but the interfaces/terminology I always find a little confusing. I might go more in-depth with it in another video. Thanks for watching!

[@DjorMil.CineMusic]

@@palebluedotstudios i use it, its not hard to get it…looks more simple than dseq. TEOTe is very useful when it comes to balancing individual tracks or master tack, but it can be also used for removing harshness, muddiness, resonaces…however you cannot go super agressive with it as with sooth or dseq. Those are more surgical…sort of

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@DjorMil.CineMusic I hear you. I actually did a mini-review of it awhile back. It's definitely easy to get set up and going, but I just find Voxengo's nomenclature often confusing. Great-quality stuff, though!

[@davelordy]

I hate videos where the point at which you bypass there's either a change in volume or some sudden on screen visual change, you have both going on here, at the moment you hit bypass, the screen quickly jolts up to the right, large graphics pop up and the volume jumps . . . why do video makers feel a need to layer all this extra sensory input ? What's happening on the screen really does have a psychoacoustic effect on what he hear . . . and the constant moving of the 'camera' isn't really helping either, every move you make it's as if you are grabbing the audience's head in your hand and forcing to look where you want . . and even when you force their attention there you immediately start the camera slowly 'floating' away, the whole experience is - for want of a better phrase - messy and a little disorientating.

[@palebluedotstudios]

I completely agree that I overdid the camera movements on this video! I wanted to make my videos more cinematic and engaging, but when it comes to audio reviews & tutorials, sometimes it's best to just present what's on the screen so you can take it all in! I've changed to more subtle, slow zooms lately, hopefully that's better. And that is a good point about the visuals informing our ears: a blurred picture might suggest that sound is "worse" than the clear picture. Again, I'm trying to make something more visually appealing, and can also be more clear to people watching on phones when the bypass state is on. I really appreciate your comments, feel free to let me know anytime I can improve the viewing experience! Cheers!

[@davelordy]

@@palebluedotstudios _"I completely agree that I overdid the camera movements on this video!"_ A bit carried away !🙂 _"I wanted to make my videos more cinematic and engaging"_ The thing is about anything from the cinema (or even a TV programme, news report or documentary) is that 95% of the shots are static (or 'locked off' as they say in filmmaking), pretty much every tech advance outside of the camera itself, from the humble tripod to the steady-cam, from camera supports to post production motion tracking has been about _removing_ motion from shots, even moving shots are made as steady and smooth as possible, because filmmakers know movement - generally speaking and outside of certain special effects and action - makes things much harder to watch. _"a blurred picture might suggest that sound is "worse" than the clear picture."_ Agree 100%, I forget which DAW it was, but years ago, Cubase (I think) had an "ears only" mode, hit a key and the screen goes black, they were aware that merely watching the DAW run during playback, watching the timeline move, seeing what was coming up (and so on), watching the timecode spin away (etc etc) has a real effect on how you heard the music.

[@palebluedotstudios]

@@davelordy Indeed! I just saw 2001: A Space Odyssey again, and it was a great reminder of the power of a static shot! Cheers!

[@davelordy]

@@palebluedotstudios 2001 ! 👍The science goes like this . . . when the information coming into your eyes (hey, it looks like I'm moving) and from your body (I don't feel like I'm moving at all) don't match, your body assumes you've ingested something that is altering your perceptions (basically a poison), it then triggers the emptying of your stomach (through nausea) to remove whatever has been ingested (and, ostensibly, is causing this mismatch) . . . it's the same mechanism that triggers motion sickness, filmmakers are aware of this and spend an inordinate amount of time mitigating its effects.

[@Ryan-rn3cf]

My favorite is the Airwindows guy. He makes a face like “Wow do you hear that?!” No I do not.

[@koreanfriedchildren]

Your vocal recording is over de-essed. So many audio youtube channels have this problem. Dan Worral is another one

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thanks! Do you mean my main voice narration? It can be hard to mix your own voice correctly. I appreciate the feedback.

[@TheDigitalMedia]

Thanks for the video! But, the constant video transitions (zoom in/out) make me dizzy no need. Pls cut down on those. Thanks!

[@palebluedotstudios]

Noted! Yes, I think I went overboard on the zooms here and there. I want to not bore you guys, but I can balance that better! Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for watching!

[@brianpylant4617]

The constant panning and zooming in and out is incredibly distracting. :(

[@palebluedotstudios]

I agree! Thanks for the feedback. That was early days, where I was trying to make the videos more engaging, but my ADHD won! Haha! Really appreciate the comments. Cheers!

[@simonrussell77]

Your voice is too loud, and relax on the keyframes. The DSEQ seems here to suck the life out of the original, which in itself by being slammed to the wall (you obviously did it for this video) isn't a good example to 'fix'. When would any professional need to do this, as if telling their client to back off the limiter wasn't an option. A shootout on a drum overhead or snare bottom would be better and in my experience Soothe does a better job.I hate Soothe and DSEQ on vocals FYI. But I use Soothe on other stuff all the time.

[@palebluedotstudios]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, some viewers have mentioned the keyframes. I'll keep an eye on that for sure! And a ringing snare could be a good example to use. Thanks for watching!

[@blkbird]

What do you prefer on vocals?

[@mikelo303]

Smooth Operator is garbage by the way

[@palebluedotstudios]

I think Smooth Operator is a little too simple to get the best results. Cheers!