Waves Silk Vocal Plugin and Oeksound Soothe 2 Side-by-Side Comparison and Review

[@azvasamusic7095]

Couldn't you just sidechain the vocal or sound manually in your chain/audio rack, behind the Silk plugin? And dial it in even more with the gate on the opposite way of movement? Just thoughts of how i make sidechain work even if its not offerred in the plugin?

[@ThisIsTorch]

Sure, you can side chain anything if you’re throwing let’s say a compressor after it…but then it would just be acting as side chain compression after the Silk Plugin. Soothe offers a way to side chain things (using its own specific way of processing) internally…it doesn’t act like side chain compression, etc at all…so there’s no ducking or pumping happening…instead Soothe2 intelligently reacts to the incoming frequencies/resonances and shapes the effected sound accordingly. No pumping or ducking, just carving and creating space. You can also dial in specific areas on the frequency spectrum and be as detailed or as broad as you like (lots of control here). A similar thing (but not really) can be done if you side chain using Fab Filter Pro Q, but at that point it’s acting more like an EQ and you have to manually adjust things (I def use this technique at times to help with masking issues)…to add, you have to have more than one instance of Pro Q to do it…and still, it’s not really doing the same thing as Soothe. What Soothe2 does is sort of unique to Soothe2 and what IT does…which is to intelligently suppress resonances in real-time.

[@FreeDooMusic]

I have both and they both come in handy. i gotta try silk vocal for something else than vocals though.

[@Sosha666]

They don't do the same thing though. Soothe is a nifty highly controllable timesaver for solving particular problems - nasal voice down the wrong mic on the big notes being just one.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Exactly, to me they are two very different tools with maybe a little crossover. And also what Silk tries to do with its adaptive smart EQ, Soothe just does far far better..by a pretty huge margin I’d say…not to mention all of the extra control. But yes, in the end…two different tools.

[@jornthedrummer]

The key difference is that Silk is free.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Haha! Right 👍 ...except now it isn't free :( but still waaaaaaay cheaper than Soothe

[@jornthedrummer]

@@ThisIsTorch ok. I got mine in time then.

[@i-k1567]

Nah the actual difference is people use silk cuz they cant afford the full thing

[@averagejoed]

I noticed just by a quick look. Silk has a snare preset and a piano preset

[@ThisIsTorch]

Hey! Nice catch man. Just saw that and actually it looks like there is also a preset for guitar as well.

[@anthonywallace3830]

Thanks, great vid!

[@ThisIsTorch]

Hey thanks!!

[@markthomas7263]

I must have missed it, oh well. I did get Baby Audio’s plugin which is similar and I’m using it with Silk Vocal for the time being.

[@mwaves4152]

Smooth operator

[@georgeg4136]

Soothe 2 is irreplaceable!

[@ThisIsTorch]

Def it's own thing. One of my favorite tools 🔥👊🔥

[@tomix1970pl1]

I prefer Soothe but price is killing my soul.

[@ThisIsTorch]

@@tomix1970pl1 I hear that, it’s totally worth it though. It has saved my mixes time and time again. I think it’s essential to the toolbox.

[@georgeg4136]

@@tomix1970pl1 I agree, very expensive

[@tordy4963]

DSEQ @@tomix1970pl1

[@arielcarrion7414]

Quick question,how do I ,make old audio audio that's very low sound a little better... please help.

[@DSWL_]

thanks 👍

[@markthomas7263]

I guarantee you that when Waves introduces Silk V2 it will have a sidechain option. Thank you for pointing this out. I didn't catch that because I was so giddy about it being free. The sidechain is a must have feature along with some of the other things you pointed out. I was just about to purchase Soothe2 the day before Waves released Silk. I'm going to wait a couple of weeks to see if Oeksound drops that hefty $209 price before I buy it. Thanks for your post, it is very helpful.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Yea I think you could be right about a future update with side chaining on Silk. It would make sense. Though I didn’t really get into personal opinions in the video to be fair, I will say here that to me I’d most likely reach for Soothe2 over Silk if I needed this type of tool. It’s expensive but I’ve found Soothe to be a lifesaver many many times and after putting Silk through its paces…like I said in the vid, it could prob get me most of the way…but I feel Soothe would actually get me the needed result.

[@FreeDooMusic]

I think you missed the black friday sale on it.

[@conrow1157]

Use it softly at the top of the chain. This way I like it…

[@ThisIsTorch]

Yea, might be better if Silk isn't doing all the heavy lifting

[@conrow1157]

But I prefer waves c4 with Tony Maserati moves

[@gordowebb9910]

Is there a preset that doesn't make the vocals sound worse. Every one I've tried does.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Haha! Man, to be honest…I haven’t reached for silk even once since I did this video. But it seems all the reviews are out, and mostly it hasn’t been positive. Eh well, Waves tried.

[@servdv]

I feel the same I have never been able to get a good sound I stopped using it. Considering the CPU it uses I can't get on board. I still love soothe 2

[@aemythjensen]

I know you were being objective in the video and I appreciate that. To me there's no comparison. Soothe 2 is a much better tool than Silk. The extra compressor and what gate just makes Silk a multi-effect tool but in no way it makes it better than Soothe 2. Even though I got Silk as a freebie, I don't think I will be using it now that I know what it is and what it isn't, and because I already owned Soothe 2. Thanks for the comparison, it made things clear.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Man, I agree with everything you said here. The truth is I’ll prob always reach for Soothe and most likely never reach for Silk. Soothe just does what it does really well. And you’re right, there is no comparison..in fact to me they are very different tools, which in hindsight I kinda wish I had said in the video more definitively…Silk just has a bit of cross over with its adaptive EQ, which still isn’t quite the same as Soothe, and like you were saying is more of a multi tool. But, I did want to give Silk a fair shot and keep my bias out of the way for the video. Thanks for taking the time to watch and I appreciate your comment!

[@AnwaarAliOfficial]

Izotope's ozone stabilizer does the same thing as Sooth 2. ❤

[@ThisIsTorch]

Hey I’ll have to check that out! How do you think it compares to Silk and Soothe2?

[@servdv]

It's is not as surgical

[@djerikfox]

..can't compare with soothe2....soothe is superior....

[@ThisIsTorch]

So true brother 🔥👊🔥

[@tomix1970pl1]

No, it is not.Different things.

[@ThisIsTorch]

Exactly 🔥👊🔥

[@cbrooks0905]

Not gonna lie, I don’t like it. It doesn’t sound natural to me.

[@ThisIsTorch]

And I’m definitely going to agree with you there. I wanted to keep my opinion out of the video (or atleast try) as much as possible to be fair to Silk, put the bias aside, and just make some comparisons…but truthfully in this case, I feel like you get what you pay for here. Soothe2 is for sure more expensive…but it also sounds and feels that way to my ears…it just does a better job. Silk feels like an attempt to one up Soothe with the extra functionality but, I still don’t feel like Silk would be the first thing I reach for.

[@cbrooks0905]

@@ThisIsTorch for sure! I’ve never used Soothe or any other plugins like it. Silk is the first plug-in like this I’ve used, and I don’t like it. I’ve tried it on several sources and every time I took it right back off after fiddling with it for a few minutes. I even tried to use it strictly as a deesser and didn’t like it. lol ah well, maybe they’ll make it better in the future.