As said in other occasion, both sooth2 and Ozone11 can be used however you want, and you can listen to every single move you make. So, it's up to you. Mixing and mastering myself the same songs, what I often do, is master my way and then lounch Ozone for a check. It is an outside and standard look to the song. And I see if it suggests something I didn't think about. Plus, Ozone, Neutron, Nectar are great music suites full of different plugins you can use the way you want.
Well, most of the time SmartEQ 4 does a good job but I once had a song where 5 out of 6 of the EQ curves had to be reversed by manually setting the compensation amount negative because the default behaviour of SmartEQ was to shape the tonal balance so that each track was more or less flat while a proper mix was to emphasize the peaks of each track because each instruments had their places in the spectrum and were not interfering with each other. So even if SmartEQ is taking other instances into consideration to calculate an eq curve, it doesn’t guarantee that it’s always the right thing to do.
@@fcmas @fcmas Perhaps... But when a M1 can't handle something, it's a pretty heavy plugin IMHO. I have entirely too many plugins and see how others work in comparison....It works fine across a handful of channels...but more than 5 or 6 and it chokes my machine. I do have a M3 Max MBPro...but it's not my studio machine.
@@AndrewCCM you don't have an M1 if you can't handle 5-6 instances. Lol..if you do, I didn't realize M1 chips were so bad. I've added tons of these all over 200+ track sessions
Maybe you were overusing these plugins? I literally never use them other than in sound design, or gullfoss to spice up my mastering chain. Idk I'm happy with my mixes, but I'm DEF not overusing these plugins.
I appreciate your thoughts. I personally believe that like all tools they can be used for good and bad. I like to limit processing to target areas of harshness. If I like something with a little grit, I’ll leave it in and then often amplify it, but can use these tools to quickly and transparently de-ess and clean up particular regions without having to be super surgical setting multiple dynamic bands. Always love the vids!
Those plugin are not ruining anything. This is just a presentation of missusing them. I do not think those plugin are like a must have and it is needed to achieve a great mix because ultimately this is true with any plugin.
This is like the 3rd video of this dude where he missuses plugins and then proceeds to make general statements on why you shouldn't use them. Time to block this channel so it doesn't pop up on my timeline again.
The AI assistant of Ozone is not trained to properly master a track that is already mastered. Also, the best way to get good results is to use Audiolens to capture the tonal balance of a reference track that is in the same style and has a tonal balance that we want for our song. Then use this curve with the AI assistant of Ozone to give us a good starting point. Note that even in the AI assistant window you can choose the amount of loudness, saturation and strength of eq compensation that Ozone will use when trying to hit the requested profile. Ozone is an AI assisted mastering suite but it’s far from being totally automated, we still have to ear the results and decide if it’s ok.
Why aren’t more people talking about this! Just ventured into this sound field and subconsciously felt this, great to see a video breaking it down so coherently
Great video! I only use soothe 2 on clean guitars that are harsh in a mix where i don’t want them to poke out too much. I like it on vocals sometimes for de-essing, but it’s not a go to. I also use soothe 2 on some master bus processing if there’s weird resonances. I try gullfoss lightly on every master though and it helps with some stuff, but if i don’t notice it doing anything significant i take it off. Sometimes it can really tighten up the low mids and low end and i like it for that. I think too many people rely on it too much and it makes their mixes have less character.
They are great tools. One trick I like to use is to see what these intelligent plugins are attempting to do to the mixbus and then go back to my mix and try to get there with more traditional methods. They seem to be trying to match to a pink noise curve or something like that, which is very useful in heavily processed genres like bass music.
It's more like, you shouldn't buy Ai plugins that will take away the flavor that you add on your own as you learn how to do the job yourself. Taking the time to sharpen your skills and develop preferences is far more important. If you aren't confident in you abilities yet, there are both free and paid services out there that can help you to further grasp anything from the fundamentals, to the more advanced concepts of mixing and mastering audio.
honestly this is one of the best videos you have made !! very forward thinking ! saying that ' these plugins are doing these things in solo ' was a real gem .. !! thank you .. another gem was putting the master in !!! 🙃 ''' if the plugin is not intelligent enough .. '' wow !!!! thanks again !! these plugins still need to be used but with confidence and with moderation !!! small increments !! mix knob etc thank you
I use Soothe 2 in instances where i have really strange noticablle resonances. (So not very often) It takes a few seconds to clean them up this way. I don't use it for anything else, and while I have licenses for all those other plugins, I have no use for them.
I was sooo pumped to try Sonible Smart:EQ 4...then it wouldn't work...turns out what's under the hood is old, dinosaur bones plus Sonible's customer service is a ghost.
I can totally see why these can be abused. I use soothe predominantly on heavy guitars to fix the insufferable upper mids and sometimes on very poorly recorded material like rough vocals. I use gulfoss as a gentle shaping tool on vocals and acoustic, and sometimes lightly on the master bus, but I mostly just use these as a first step and if I don't get what I'm wanting from them I move to another tool. But people who aren't confident in their ears I can see overusing these as a crutch.
I fully agree with the dullness of many of the intelligent processors. However, with that being said, at least with the Izotope products you can capture the EQ curve of whatever you want. Find a song/part/etc that you like capture it. Then you can use that. You aren’t AS reliant on the developer’s taste when it comes to Izotope’s products
I have Soothe but i never use it on the master bus, i find it useful to tame highly resonant frequencies on certain sounds. I do also have Bloom from Oaksound which i have used on the Master bus, but only if it pleases my ears, it has helped the odd track here and there to just sound clearer. I think the idea is not to use any of these plugins as a crutch for lazy mixing.
This just came at the right time as I was mixing my song. The issue is technology enabled music production at home but mixing profession takes many years to master. No AI tool to fix all mixing issues yet. You still have to master those AI tools too...
rather than ruining mixing, theyre very easy to misuse or overuse You can misuse any plugin or tool, its just even easier with soothe2 for example, but that doesnt make them bad tools or "ruin" anything Dont overmix and use your ears :)
A funny use for me of Ozone Assistant is to turn it on and see what it would change, then turn it off, basically as an opinion since I always work alone and don't have access to someone I would trust quickly. Does it get the right genre and boosts 10db in the low end? Does it lowers how wide are my mids but widens the tops? Does the impact thinghy do a lot of work or does nothing? After studying the results for a minute I ask myself: why did it do that and was it better? Does my mix need a bit of that? Sometimes the answer is no, sometime the idea is interesting. Basically I use it for what it is, an assistant, a subordinate of mine which may have an interesting opinion and not as my lead mastering engineer.
Your critique of soothe 2 doesn’t mean the plugin is bad.. it means the producer needs to know WHEN to use it and not just throw it on everything and forget it. It’s definitely got a purpose tho; I have to disagree with your assessment. That being said, I still just subbed lol
these plugins aren't meant to be used on the master, but rather on individual tracks & not too much because yeah they will take the character out of the sound. ozone's one is the worst & most aggressive, i believe its a spectral processor rather than a dynamic eq like gullfoss or sooth, it makes things sound like low bit rate mp3
Curious as to what people think of these for new mixers, or even just musicians who want to make their own demo without becoming a professional engineer? Will they get you a good result?
I use a free plugin called Spectral Compressor for resonance suppression and spectral balancing, it is not intelligent, but that means it lets you dial it in
Literally my favorite plugins. I just use soothe 2 when I feel there are 2 sounds fighting with sidechaining one of them. Just don't overuse it and you're safe.
If you add the effect on a whole spectrum of an instrument or vocal of course you are going to take away too much from it. If you narrow the ammount of frequencies that are affected by the plug in in only those areas where you might feel it needs it it’s definitely going to improove your mix. Remember is not about taking away all the resonaces, just the ones ruining your mix but you play by ear maybe you just need to know how to use them to make your mix be really improoved. 😉
I think you make good points, however I think those points only apply to acoustic and recorded tracks. I believe soothe's main target audience is electronic producers, and sometimes electric basses and electric drums can be far to harsh and far to messy to just try eqing. Soothe is a tool where if you use wrong it'll ruin your mix (just like ott), however it can also make your mix sound crisp and clean without having ear piercing transients or highend.
Plugins don't ruin mixes. The person using them does. Re-evaluate how you are using them. I noticed the attack time was always fast. Try slowing it down and using the filters to focus the "dulling" on the frequencies that are protruding.
I agree. They make sound flat and dull to a certain extent. Soothe is useful when the vocals were recorded in a bad room acoustics. In this case, it is really challenging to fix all the unwanted resonance and comb filtering surgically. So in this case, I use it in 30% of parallel and EQ again on it. Or sometime it’s good to check the problematic frequency as an analyser.
Shots fired!! But in all seriousness, thanks for addressing this. I’ve privately held the same suspicions for some time now. And usually I’m met with hostility when making these criticisms. I agree 100%. More often than not, these tools totally dull and degrade mixes. I own both Gulfoss and Soothe and haven’t used either for some time now. And I honestly don’t miss them. My mixes sound better without them.
AI = eventual singularity = sameness= Boring. He's got a great point about these plugins and I have a feeling that if Led Zeppelin, Queen and any of the great classic rock bands used them then life would have been extra boring.
Fake account. You are simply a misanthrope. You have no account history. And you used a straw man to distract from the point. It would have ruined the natural energy in their songs so I'm quite happy it didn't exist then as many recordings these days are clearly over digitalized and quite boring in that regard. Now kindly go be a misanthrope somewhere else please. :) @@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat
Excellent video -- I agree with your assessment! My experience with Soothe has been that it has rarely made it to the end of a mix. It is exactly as you said, it was making my mixes worse and it removed too much character. I now use notch EQs to remove nasty resonances that are annoying in the overall context. On vocals I rarely remove upper midrange frequencies, usually only the tubby or boxy lower midrange (usually somewhere between 400-600 Hz). On a rare occasion when I receive an extremely poorly recorded signal, I'll consider using Soothe.
Youre right, but let me tell you I am as a Dubstep and Drum and Bass Producer love this tool. I wouldn't use Soothe on instruments or vocals unless I clearly hear an interference signal that I can't get out with an EQ. But for bass design let me tell you this tool rocks!
Currently, beatmakers or sound engineers make sounds that all have the same texture. Originality is often forgotten in favor of technique. Personally I consider Bill Haley's 6 songs for the film Rock Around the Clock as one of my models. Perfect mastering given the technique of the time. It was so perfect that Haley spent her life making remasters without doing any better.
I think they have their use cases. Soothe 2 on rhythm electric guitars and overheads is a god send. Or just any poorly recorded audio, it can tame a lot of issues due to suboptimal mic placement. The problem is when people slap it on every channel or put it on something that’s well recorded and just doesn’t need it. Great plugins that most do not need and should be used not even a quarter as much as they are used.
Having done a null test to see what these type of narrow band dynamic equalisers are adding to the mix, I don’t want the distortion they produce added to my tracks.
Using a compressor is easy. It just reduces dynamic range. The threshold just shows after how many db does the compressor activate. Usually you have a dotted/straight horizontal line going across a signal. if the signal's amplitude is above that line then the compressor is on, otherwise off. Let's say you have an acoustic guitar and you just pluck chords with your fingers. You can set the threshold in a couple of ways. Either ABOVE the body of the sound and below the peaks, which ignores the body and only compresses the initial plucks, taming the peaks and making the entire sound more "leveled" or BELOW the body, which compresses the whole thing. On vocals I like to use 2 compressors, one to level out the vocal by putting the threshold above the body but below peaks, and the other to smooth it out by putting it inside the body. Next you have ratio. Ratio (x:1) just means for every x db above the threshold you're left with only 1 db. If a sound is 10db above the threshold and the ratio is 5:1, then that sound will only have 2db left over the threshold after compression. It's 2*5db=10db, so only 2db left. Then you have attack. Attack is self explanatory: the compressor activates after x ms. Let's say that a sound shoots over the threshold and the compressor should activate, but the attack is set at 40ms. For 40ms nothing will happen and only AFTER the compressor kicks in. Best way to understand attack is if you have a really strong transient that you want to get rid of such as a palm hitting a bongo or a pick plucking a guitar string. You may not want those transients, so a quick attack time is necessary. By cutting out the transient, the body of the sound also comes forward, making the whole thing seem louder. Lastly you have release. Release is the amount of time it takes for the compression effect to fade away after a signal either stops or drops below the threshold. Hopefully this helped!
@@KavasPVP thank u so much for that. its actually a very good explanation. Because i compose mainly acoustic music, pianos violin the occasional synth, sometimes is a bit harder to find tutorials on youtube for that type of music. What are your favorite compressors? (plugins)
It takes time to learn how a compressor sounds. Just play around with it and you will eventually learn what all the parameters does. And develope your taste; mix like how you want it to sound.
I used the master assistance to give me a reference point of my master but I don’t rely on it because sometimes it takes away to much bass for the sake of balancing. Because I do other things prior it’s not that much of a difference. I also do things in the 2 track mix to mid/side the bass so the track sits better with vocals when I do my thing
Like most everything in mixing in mastering, they are tools to be used with consideration and the constant question: better or worse - or just different? Actually, I would never attempt to solve something with Gullfoss in individual tracks. But a hint on the mix bus mostly does the charm for me. Unless: see above.
Serious question: If you use soothe2 on a track, and then you bounce it in place/print it. What happens if you throw in another soothe2 on that new printed track? Does is create new curves or does it recognize the signal as "perfect"???
It probably will look at the remaining resonances and start attenuating those...or just push the same ones down even further. Just put two instances on a track, no need to bounce and see.
In my experience, overusing soothe creates its own kind of harshness. Thats generally how/when I know I need to focus a smaller area or use it more subtlety. When you remove every peak of x width you're then left with new peaks of a slightly thicker width
You know what’s funny, I’m watching this on a phone and when you enable the plugin, the songs sound more balanced and clearer on my iPhone. So I’ll stick to using them thanks. I guess it sounds “dull” on your monitor system but I think these plugins help improve translation. 🤷🏾♂️
This Vid just gave me a sigh of relief. I bought soothe 2 two years ago and haven't used it once on vocals,,, every time i used it, it made the source dull, even when mixed 50% with 1 or 2 db/s i had to ask myself was it actually making things smoother or better and the answer is NO. i knew it was popular among top mixers and was making me feel as if i just didn't get it. Baphometrix also shared similar sentiments on a youtube Vid.
i think it depends a lot on how you set it up and where you are going to use it. esp the higher ranges, mid, high mids etc. getting obsessively processed on a single band setup. the sidechain function is very useful because it has a much faster response/processing time with less artifacts. there are cleaner ways to achieve the basic kick-bass-sidechain setup, but doing it like Jaycen Joshua is not bad. the problem seems to be that people think they are buying a tool that fixes things without knowledge or effort.
I thought this too, but then I started using reference tracks and saw that my vocals were way to harsh and it was just my ears tricking me that brighter was better. Defo use references in conjunction with these tools. Soothe has saved my butt on so many vocals.
100% agree with all these. The assistant programs are great WHEN you have issues you can't correct with traditional methods. Throwing them on an already good mix, or track, is overkill. Don't fix what's not broken. Thanks so much!
If you're throwing it on anything with no inherently reason, YOU'RE the problem, not the plugin. Plugins like Soothe2 have virtually complete manual controllability. The finished sound is what YOU set it to create
I totally agree with what was said in this video. Both Soothe and Gullfloss are a crap shoot on whether their algorithms are going to help or hurt a particular mix. The AI in Ozone is overrated. All of these are more of a psychological "benefit" that one thinks AI is magically solving a problem. However, the same thing can be said about the online AI mastering service that is advertised here as well.
It's unfortunate that you had bad experiences with ozone. I've had only great experiences with the latest version (ozone 11). As with any AI plugin, suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt. If there are drastic changes being made, it usually tells me there's a bigger underlying problem with my mix. That being said, it's always correctly labeled the genres of my mixes. In prior versions I have found the AI suggestions questionable but I almost always agree with the choices in 11 (even if I dial them back significantly). AI plugins offer suggestions and ultimately it's up to the engineer to decide if they're the right move. So on that point I definitely agree with you
Almost every time I put Soothe on a track, I end up taking it off. For me, it kills everything interesting about a sound. When you remove resonances, you often remove the character of a sound. I think Soothe can be good for very specific applications, but most of the time I don't end up liking what it does. That's true even when I dial back the depth or the mix. I think modern mixers are too obsessed with having everything sound perfect, and the result is music that sounds overly controlled and polite.
Yeah im not interested in sooth anymore, ive noticed it makes things dull too. But i rather like izotope stuff, not only because it gives me a decent starting point fast, but also gives me 75% of the tools i need for most mixing/mastering tasks with one click, and a bunch of standard tools are inserted on the track. But you can't just always rely on what they suggest, because a lot of time what it wants to do is off base.
This should be titled "misusing these plugins is ruining mixing" And then the video could be about how these modern-standard plugins are so advanced and in widespread use, that a lot of ppl are using them without really understanding how to use them *effectively.* ..and then link us to a good mixing tutorial video 😁
Every plugin can ruin your mix if misused I use Soothe a lot, but with my ears too, and tweak the settngs to get what sounds good. You dont just throw a plugin there and expect good results
I think a good mixer must know this: plug-ins for resonances let you clear those in a vocal, but that’s all. If you want space in a mix, after that plug-in, you must EQ the voice accordingly (later in the chain or in a submix). Let’s make it clear: resonance plugins are for taming resonances. That’s all!
Thank you for another great video. I think that the point you have made that AI plugins don't really know your mixes as well as you do is very true. So I think that you should be the ultimate decision maker when using these plugins instead of fully relying on these plugins. I personally use them for resonance suppression, which works really well. Also they can make suggestions. I started boosting mids with the smallish Q and increasing stereo field in the midst too after ozone suggested it. It think my mixes sound much better now. But I think that ultimately we should be the ones to decide if we wanna go with the AI suggestions or not.
these plugins are good for crappy recordings that's why they can be a great tool, cant always just re-record something so they can get you out of jail in some instances....they said you cant polish a turd, but these plugins have a good go at it.
Totally agree. I've gone back to using just the actual tools that have been around forever like straight up eq, compression, etc rather than "intelligent" plug ins.
Reso allows you to be surgical in what cuts you add and how much they are attenuating, so you should be able to get some decent results. Like anything else though, it can be overdone, and at that point it will start hurting the music more than it helps it.
Always use those ears folks with good monitors or headphones. You can still use plugins to your heart's content but your ideal sound may be different than what preset eq plugins are adjusting to. Adjusting to those preset parameters too aggressively can take away from your sound.
A very important topic: When using tools like Ozone, Neutron, etc., I've observed that the sound tends to become 'thin' or harsh. Moreover, the AI assistant is not 'perfect'. When processing audio to conform to the 'tone balancing' curve, achieving a good sound can be challenging. For instance, in my current mixing project, the 'tone balance' indicates excessive low end. However, when I attempt to reduce the low end to match the curve, the result sounds terrible. Consequently, I've started relying more on my ears. Additionally, if everyone follows the same technique, it's likely that every mix will sound alike. Finally, I appreciate the 'full' and 'warm' quality of mixes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, a time when these plugins didn't exist at all.
This is the similar reason why I never use presets to get me there quicker. Invariably the present, in the context of any new track is useless, most of the time. It's just as easy, to simply dial in the sound from the start. The very notion of putting a plugin in and slapping across the mix, comes to mind, when presets are used, however in the context of the genre and the style, how would anybody else know what your song needs?
I think that soothe 2 it's more for single elements (mainly vocals) than for the master bus...Btw you obviously use these plugins if you need them. I mean, for example, why applying a soothe 2 to a vocal already processed to sound aggressive if soothe's job is taming and making it smoother and "flatter"? They're tool and they should be used if you need them...
I think overall these plugins are pretty useful, at least soothe since that's the only one I've actually used. I don't really ever use it unless I'm specifically trying to resolve an issue though. For instance if I like what it's doing in one part of a vocal and not another I'll just automate the plugin to be off until I need it so that it only turns on to fix a problem.
While I agree that these plugins should not be used ‘out of the box’ with the first settings, there are at least two critical omissions in your reasoning. First, with ozone, you neglected to bring up two critical points: (1) you can easily flip the genre and correct any incorrect reading (2) you can use the AudioLens tool within there to bring in a reference mix. Second, while you did mention that ozone itself doesn’t take into account individual tracks, you completely omitted Neutron, which does let you balance in between tracks. You can use neutron to mask or unmask various tracks. I can’t speak for the other tools you mention, but I will say that ozone is a very useful tool. It gives a great starting point, but you will need to use your ears to make some final tweaks.
I mainly use Gulfoss for color on some synth sounds, but I wouldn't put it on the final mastering chain. Soothe is great for masking issues, and giving a quick fix for terrible recordings - it's a helpful tool if you use it as such. I agree that a lot of the AI-driven plugins these days make a lot of stuff sound samey, and it's a shame. But just like Garage Band makes the average Joe think he is a kick-ass composer because the stuff sounds decent, it all kinda lacks character and the fun that the bare-bones method brings with it. Thanks for the video.
I'm gonna disagree with you around 80 percent. I don't know how to explain it but here I go. Mastering assistant is a point of reference for someone to start mastering a song. I also think this kind of plugins are for beginners to advance audio engineers. For the example that you added with ozone you did not gain stage the input and the AI will not fix that problem because the sound is extremly high at it will do it best to give you a point of reference to start mastering. Also everything start with a good mix before start throwing plugins to each channel. After that we can check the mix with the help of Gullfoss master. I do own Ozone and after I do the AI processing I change and I add whatever the mix needs to be completed.
I don't mess with these types of plugins. Glad to hear this point of view. Reminds me of the time I tried AI to master a rock song. It attenuated the mid range in the vocal...it was there to cut though the mix! So vocals became dull and buried. AI is not best used this way imo.
I wouldn't use soothe2 or any other similar plugin on a full master or audio clip. This is very good tool for getting rid of unwanted frequencies in certain range similarly like using multiband compressor or single band dynamic eq althoug shoothe is more detail oriented. Just is it wisely.
I've always agreed with this. Nobody needed these tools in the 80s for incredible mixes, so how much are they really doing? Regards "the analyse in solo" well then - put it on a group of tracks then. Also, I use sooth 2 for de-essing, hi hat taming and also it's got the fastest sidechain of any plugin ever, so using sooth to duck the bass with the kick is better than any other side chain Gulfoss on the master can add a touch of balance and shine. Individual instruments it's best in recovery mode on not so well recorded vocals it instruments. They're tools like anything else. Best used in the right way in the right context. But overall, AI agree. It can dull mixes if you're overdoing it or relying on it instead of getting it right at source.
I can agree with most of this, but toward the end of vocal sidechaining with soothe and inverting the signal, I still have to take that chance. It has the mix louder. it really was one of the best things I've used ever since you covered it. other than that, I don't usually use these plugins.
All things in moderation ... As a general rule, if I put Soothe 2 or Ozone on a track and I don't like what it does to the track, I don't use it. That is the case with any plugin.
the trick is that way less is more... and knowing how to use a thing ... and in the case of these types of programs its best to know what they are doing... rather than just turn a nob clockwise means better and counter not as good... good info/vid
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As said in other occasion, both sooth2 and Ozone11 can be used however you want, and you can listen to every single move you make. So, it's up to you. Mixing and mastering myself the same songs, what I often do, is master my way and then lounch Ozone for a check. It is an outside and standard look to the song. And I see if it suggests something I didn't think about. Plus, Ozone, Neutron, Nectar are great music suites full of different plugins you can use the way you want.
Sonible smart eQ4 take in count all the tracks
if you put it in all the tracks you can balance between tracks like you want
Well, most of the time SmartEQ 4 does a good job but I once had a song where 5 out of 6 of the EQ curves had to be reversed by manually setting the compensation amount negative because the default behaviour of SmartEQ was to shape the tonal balance so that each track was more or less flat while a proper mix was to emphasize the peaks of each track because each instruments had their places in the spectrum and were not interfering with each other. So even if SmartEQ is taking other instances into consideration to calculate an eq curve, it doesn’t guarantee that it’s always the right thing to do.
@@AndrewCCMget a better computer. Mine works just fine with it
@@fcmas @fcmas Perhaps... But when a M1 can't handle something, it's a pretty heavy plugin IMHO. I have entirely too many plugins and see how others work in comparison....It works fine across a handful of channels...but more than 5 or 6 and it chokes my machine. I do have a M3 Max MBPro...but it's not my studio machine.
adel ? xDDDD
@@AndrewCCM you don't have an M1 if you can't handle 5-6 instances. Lol..if you do, I didn't realize M1 chips were so bad. I've added tons of these all over 200+ track sessions
Soothe 2 is gold for guitar and vocals recorded in an untreated room. I could never get rid of all the reflection just by eq.
Maybe you were overusing these plugins? I literally never use them other than in sound design, or gullfoss to spice up my mastering chain. Idk I'm happy with my mixes, but I'm DEF not overusing these plugins.
I appreciate your thoughts. I personally believe that like all tools they can be used for good and bad. I like to limit processing to target areas of harshness. If I like something with a little grit, I’ll leave it in and then often amplify it, but can use these tools to quickly and transparently de-ess and clean up particular regions without having to be super surgical setting multiple dynamic bands. Always love the vids!
👍
Those plugin are not ruining anything. This is just a presentation of missusing them. I do not think those plugin are like a must have and it is needed to achieve a great mix because ultimately this is true with any plugin.
But without missinterpreting the use of the plugins there cant be edgy content that causes comments, like ours.
💯
Exactly and thank you. They are tools like all the rest. Stop confusing these youngsters SAGE AUDIO!
This is like the 3rd video of this dude where he missuses plugins and then proceeds to make general statements on why you shouldn't use them. Time to block this channel so it doesn't pop up on my timeline again.
You are right, my friend. I noticed this also, they are cutting the frequencies that are responsible for mix body.
The AI assistant of Ozone is not trained to properly master a track that is already mastered. Also, the best way to get good results is to use Audiolens to capture the tonal balance of a reference track that is in the same style and has a tonal balance that we want for our song. Then use this curve with the AI assistant of Ozone to give us a good starting point. Note that even in the AI assistant window you can choose the amount of loudness, saturation and strength of eq compensation that Ozone will use when trying to hit the requested profile. Ozone is an AI assisted mastering suite but it’s far from being totally automated, we still have to ear the results and decide if it’s ok.
Yeah this is 100% PEBCAK errors, dude needs to RTFM before he starts making tuts
Just learn to use it. Gullfoss master recovery at 27% ? And Soothe at 5 ? Great "experts" you are.
Why aren’t more people talking about this! Just ventured into this sound field and subconsciously felt this, great to see a video breaking it down so coherently
Great video! I only use soothe 2 on clean guitars that are harsh in a mix where i don’t want them to poke out too much. I like it on vocals sometimes for de-essing, but it’s not a go to. I also use soothe 2 on some master bus processing if there’s weird resonances. I try gullfoss lightly on every master though and it helps with some stuff, but if i don’t notice it doing anything significant i take it off. Sometimes it can really tighten up the low mids and low end and i like it for that. I think too many people rely on it too much and it makes their mixes have less character.
They are great tools. One trick I like to use is to see what these intelligent plugins are attempting to do to the mixbus and then go back to my mix and try to get there with more traditional methods. They seem to be trying to match to a pink noise curve or something like that, which is very useful in heavily processed genres like bass music.
Don't buy plugins, spend your money on our services instead...
Spending money on mastering instead of plugins 💯
@@summerfazed plugins are like one time payment. Get ozone 11 whatever. Learn to use it effectively then you'd be good for life
@@CraigScottFrostwrong, can’t mix a turd. Your arrangement with frequency spectrum in mind and top notch recording is more important
Leveraging the knowledge and experience of others for a fraction of the cost of learning and practicing yourself. Good thinking!
It's more like, you shouldn't buy Ai plugins that will take away the flavor that you add on your own as you learn how to do the job yourself.
Taking the time to sharpen your skills and develop preferences is far more important.
If you aren't confident in you abilities yet, there are both free and paid services out there that can help you to further grasp anything from the fundamentals, to the more advanced concepts of mixing and mastering audio.
U have to learn how to use the plugins. They are great if u understand what to do with em. Izotope is that deal.
You're the best teacher 👑 🙌 ever!
Huge fan and student from Africa, Zambia 🇿🇲
honestly this is one of the best videos you have made !! very forward thinking ! saying that ' these plugins are doing these things in solo ' was a real gem .. !! thank you .. another gem was putting the master in !!! 🙃 ''' if the plugin is not intelligent enough .. '' wow !!!! thanks again !! these plugins still need to be used but with confidence and with moderation !!! small increments !! mix knob etc thank you
Sidechain compression with Soothe2 is amazing.
I use Soothe 2 in instances where i have really strange noticablle resonances. (So not very often) It takes a few seconds to clean them up this way. I don't use it for anything else, and while I have licenses for all those other plugins, I have no use for them.
Yeah, I heard it's for soothing resonances mainly from live recordings or shite samples. That's how I use it anyways.
Important subject! I agree 100%. With these kind of tools, we loose so much of the vibe, too.
I was sooo pumped to try Sonible Smart:EQ 4...then it wouldn't work...turns out what's under the hood is old, dinosaur bones plus Sonible's customer service is a ghost.
"You have all the tools you need. Don't blame them; use them" - Dan Worrall
I can totally see why these can be abused. I use soothe predominantly on heavy guitars to fix the insufferable upper mids and sometimes on very poorly recorded material like rough vocals. I use gulfoss as a gentle shaping tool on vocals and acoustic, and sometimes lightly on the master bus, but I mostly just use these as a first step and if I don't get what I'm wanting from them I move to another tool. But people who aren't confident in their ears I can see overusing these as a crutch.
I fully agree with the dullness of many of the intelligent processors. However, with that being said, at least with the Izotope products you can capture the EQ curve of whatever you want. Find a song/part/etc that you like capture it. Then you can use that. You aren’t AS reliant on the developer’s taste when it comes to Izotope’s products
I have Soothe but i never use it on the master bus, i find it useful to tame highly resonant frequencies on certain sounds. I do also have Bloom from Oaksound which i have used on the Master bus, but only if it pleases my ears, it has helped the odd track here and there to just sound clearer. I think the idea is not to use any of these plugins as a crutch for lazy mixing.
This just came at the right time as I was mixing my song. The issue is technology enabled music production at home but mixing profession takes many years to master. No AI tool to fix all mixing issues yet. You still have to master those AI tools too...
rather than ruining mixing, theyre very easy to misuse or overuse
You can misuse any plugin or tool, its just even easier with soothe2 for example, but that doesnt make them bad tools or "ruin" anything
Dont overmix and use your ears :)
💯
A funny use for me of Ozone Assistant is to turn it on and see what it would change, then turn it off, basically as an opinion since I always work alone and don't have access to someone I would trust quickly. Does it get the right genre and boosts 10db in the low end? Does it lowers how wide are my mids but widens the tops? Does the impact thinghy do a lot of work or does nothing? After studying the results for a minute I ask myself: why did it do that and was it better? Does my mix need a bit of that? Sometimes the answer is no, sometime the idea is interesting. Basically I use it for what it is, an assistant, a subordinate of mine which may have an interesting opinion and not as my lead mastering engineer.
Your critique of soothe 2 doesn’t mean the plugin is bad.. it means the producer needs to know WHEN to use it and not just throw it on everything and forget it. It’s definitely got a purpose tho; I have to disagree with your assessment. That being said, I still just subbed lol
I do use soothe and a few other dynamic eq's but just in small moves.
Right, intentional small moves is the way. It's not a cheat code for good sounds.
these plugins aren't meant to be used on the master, but rather on individual tracks & not too much because yeah they will take the character out of the sound. ozone's one is the worst & most aggressive, i believe its a spectral processor rather than a dynamic eq like gullfoss or sooth, it makes things sound like low bit rate mp3
With Soothe 2 turn on 4x over sampling and it won’t sound “dull”
I use these type of plugins to know we're I'm at as far as frequency build up from multiple sounds around the same frequency
Curious as to what people think of these for new mixers, or even just musicians who want to make their own demo without becoming a professional engineer? Will they get you a good result?
It's good with noiz shaping but not with the lows
I use a free plugin called Spectral Compressor for resonance suppression and spectral balancing, it is not intelligent, but that means it lets you dial it in
Literally my favorite plugins. I just use soothe 2 when I feel there are 2 sounds fighting with sidechaining one of them. Just don't overuse it and you're safe.
Back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, they really knew how to use these plugins properly-at least judging by the quality of those recordings.
😂
Their plugins was the size of mini coopers.
If you add the effect on a whole spectrum of an instrument or vocal of course you are going to take away too much from it. If you narrow the ammount of frequencies that are affected by the plug in in only those areas where you might feel it needs it it’s definitely going to improove your mix. Remember is not about taking away all the resonaces, just the ones ruining your mix but you play by ear maybe you just need to know how to use them to make your mix be really improoved. 😉
I think you make good points, however I think those points only apply to acoustic and recorded tracks. I believe soothe's main target audience is electronic producers, and sometimes electric basses and electric drums can be far to harsh and far to messy to just try eqing. Soothe is a tool where if you use wrong it'll ruin your mix (just like ott), however it can also make your mix sound crisp and clean without having ear piercing transients or highend.
The algorithm of these plugins is not a mystery. They are dynamically pushing the signal toward pink noise curve.
Plugins don't ruin mixes. The person using them does. Re-evaluate how you are using them. I noticed the attack time was always fast. Try slowing it down and using the filters to focus the "dulling" on the frequencies that are protruding.
7:34 Words of comfort, Thank you sire
F6 ftr or fab q3 ❤ only
I'm mixing for 3 years but I still dont exactly know what Im doing, so mu way is this:
It sounds better? Okay, I use it.
I agree. They make sound flat and dull to a certain extent. Soothe is useful when the vocals were recorded in a bad room acoustics. In this case, it is really challenging to fix all the unwanted resonance and comb filtering surgically. So in this case, I use it in 30% of parallel and EQ again on it. Or sometime it’s good to check the problematic frequency as an analyser.
Shots fired!!
But in all seriousness, thanks for addressing this. I’ve privately held the same suspicions for some time now. And usually I’m met with hostility when making these criticisms.
I agree 100%. More often than not, these tools totally dull and degrade mixes. I own both Gulfoss and Soothe and haven’t used either for some time now. And I honestly don’t miss them.
My mixes sound better without them.
AI = eventual singularity = sameness= Boring. He's got a great point about these plugins and I have a feeling that if Led Zeppelin, Queen and any of the great classic rock bands used them then life would have been extra boring.
@@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat Speaking of Intelligent Processors. Thanks for the insult. :)
Fake account. You are simply a misanthrope. You have no account history. And you used a straw man to distract from the point. It would have ruined the natural energy in their songs so I'm quite happy it didn't exist then as many recordings these days are clearly over digitalized and quite boring in that regard. Now kindly go be a misanthrope somewhere else please. :) @@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat
@@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat Replies missing. LOL.
Excellent video -- I agree with your assessment! My experience with Soothe has been that it has rarely made it to the end of a mix. It is exactly as you said, it was making my mixes worse and it removed too much character. I now use notch EQs to remove nasty resonances that are annoying in the overall context. On vocals I rarely remove upper midrange frequencies, usually only the tubby or boxy lower midrange (usually somewhere between 400-600 Hz). On a rare occasion when I receive an extremely poorly recorded signal, I'll consider using Soothe.
Be interested to hear your take on the “mastering” section of the master channel in Logic.
Youre right, but let me tell you I am as a Dubstep and Drum and Bass Producer love this tool.
I wouldn't use Soothe on instruments or vocals unless I clearly hear an interference signal that I can't get out with an EQ. But for bass design let me tell you this tool rocks!
Currently, beatmakers or sound engineers make sounds that all have the same texture. Originality is often forgotten in favor of technique. Personally I consider Bill Haley's 6 songs for the film Rock Around the Clock as one of my models. Perfect mastering given the technique of the time. It was so perfect that Haley spent her life making remasters without doing any better.
I think they have their use cases. Soothe 2 on rhythm electric guitars and overheads is a god send. Or just any poorly recorded audio, it can tame a lot of issues due to suboptimal mic placement. The problem is when people slap it on every channel or put it on something that’s well recorded and just doesn’t need it.
Great plugins that most do not need and should be used not even a quarter as much as they are used.
Like you said as long as the tools are used right and not just slapped on.
Having done a null test to see what these type of narrow band dynamic equalisers are adding to the mix, I don’t want the distortion they produce added to my tracks.
i still dont know how to use a compressor. so i throw a couple in there so when people ask, il l go "yeac cuz u need to tame them dynamics"
Using a compressor is easy. It just reduces dynamic range. The threshold just shows after how many db does the compressor activate. Usually you have a dotted/straight horizontal line going across a signal. if the signal's amplitude is above that line then the compressor is on, otherwise off. Let's say you have an acoustic guitar and you just pluck chords with your fingers. You can set the threshold in a couple of ways. Either ABOVE the body of the sound and below the peaks, which ignores the body and only compresses the initial plucks, taming the peaks and making the entire sound more "leveled" or BELOW the body, which compresses the whole thing. On vocals I like to use 2 compressors, one to level out the vocal by putting the threshold above the body but below peaks, and the other to smooth it out by putting it inside the body.
Next you have ratio. Ratio (x:1) just means for every x db above the threshold you're left with only 1 db. If a sound is 10db above the threshold and the ratio is 5:1, then that sound will only have 2db left over the threshold after compression. It's 2*5db=10db, so only 2db left.
Then you have attack. Attack is self explanatory: the compressor activates after x ms. Let's say that a sound shoots over the threshold and the compressor should activate, but the attack is set at 40ms. For 40ms nothing will happen and only AFTER the compressor kicks in. Best way to understand attack is if you have a really strong transient that you want to get rid of such as a palm hitting a bongo or a pick plucking a guitar string. You may not want those transients, so a quick attack time is necessary. By cutting out the transient, the body of the sound also comes forward, making the whole thing seem louder.
Lastly you have release. Release is the amount of time it takes for the compression effect to fade away after a signal either stops or drops below the threshold.
Hopefully this helped!
@@KavasPVP thank u so much for that. its actually a very good explanation.
Because i compose mainly acoustic music, pianos violin the occasional synth, sometimes is a bit harder to find tutorials on youtube for that type of music.
What are your favorite compressors? (plugins)
@@iggswanna1248 Fabfilter's C 2 is my go-to compressor. It gets the job done, it has an intuitive interface
It takes time to learn how a compressor sounds. Just play around with it and you will eventually learn what all the parameters does. And develope your taste; mix like how you want it to sound.
@@iggswanna1248 Idk where my reply went but Fabfilter's C2 is my go to compressor
I believe the Gullfoss meant to be used more in mastering than individual tracks
When you know what you're doing and why, these are great time saver tools.
I used the master assistance to give me a reference point of my master but I don’t rely on it because sometimes it takes away to much bass for the sake of balancing. Because I do other things prior it’s not that much of a difference. I also do things in the 2 track mix to mid/side the bass so the track sits better with vocals when I do my thing
Like most everything in mixing in mastering, they are tools to be used with consideration and the constant question: better or worse - or just different? Actually, I would never attempt to solve something with Gullfoss in individual tracks. But a hint on the mix bus mostly does the charm for me. Unless: see above.
This is what growing as an audio engineer is all about. Amazing video 👏
Serious question: If you use soothe2 on a track, and then you bounce it in place/print it. What happens if you throw in another soothe2 on that new printed track? Does is create new curves or does it recognize the signal as "perfect"???
It probably will look at the remaining resonances and start attenuating those...or just push the same ones down even further. Just put two instances on a track, no need to bounce and see.
sounds like a fun experiment. keep running it back through lol
In my experience, overusing soothe creates its own kind of harshness. Thats generally how/when I know I need to focus a smaller area or use it more subtlety. When you remove every peak of x width you're then left with new peaks of a slightly thicker width
It would be like having two instances of the vst in series
You know what’s funny, I’m watching this on a phone and when you enable the plugin, the songs sound more balanced and clearer on my iPhone. So I’ll stick to using them thanks. I guess it sounds “dull” on your monitor system but I think these plugins help improve translation. 🤷🏾♂️
This Vid just gave me a sigh of relief. I bought soothe 2 two years ago and haven't used it once on vocals,,, every time i used it, it made the source dull, even when mixed 50% with 1 or 2 db/s i had to ask myself was it actually making things smoother or better and the answer is NO. i knew it was popular among top mixers and was making me feel as if i just didn't get it. Baphometrix also shared similar sentiments on a youtube Vid.
i think it depends a lot on how you set it up and where you are going to use it.
esp the higher ranges, mid, high mids etc. getting obsessively processed on a single band setup.
the sidechain function is very useful because it has a much faster response/processing time with less artifacts.
there are cleaner ways to achieve the basic kick-bass-sidechain setup, but doing it like Jaycen Joshua is not bad.
the problem seems to be that people think they are buying a tool that fixes things without knowledge or effort.
Trust me, i have the knowledge. Iv'e put more effort into this plugin than any other since it cost me 200 quid ^^ @@SoundsBy80K
Turn on 4x oversampling in the quality tab. It won’t sound as dull
I thought this too, but then I started using reference tracks and saw that my vocals were way to harsh and it was just my ears tricking me that brighter was better. Defo use references in conjunction with these tools. Soothe has saved my butt on so many vocals.
Thanks for the input Scott, i'll keep that in mind.@@ScottThePisces
100% agree with all these. The assistant programs are great WHEN you have issues you can't correct with traditional methods. Throwing them on an already good mix, or track, is overkill. Don't fix what's not broken. Thanks so much!
If you're throwing it on anything with no inherently reason, YOU'RE the problem, not the plugin. Plugins like Soothe2 have virtually complete manual controllability. The finished sound is what YOU set it to create
I totally agree with what was said in this video. Both Soothe and Gullfloss are a crap shoot on whether their algorithms are going to help or hurt a particular mix. The AI in Ozone is overrated. All of these are more of a psychological "benefit" that one thinks AI is magically solving a problem. However, the same thing can be said about the online AI mastering service that is advertised here as well.
It's unfortunate that you had bad experiences with ozone. I've had only great experiences with the latest version (ozone 11).
As with any AI plugin, suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt. If there are drastic changes being made, it usually tells me there's a bigger underlying problem with my mix.
That being said, it's always correctly labeled the genres of my mixes. In prior versions I have found the AI suggestions questionable but I almost always agree with the choices in 11 (even if I dial them back significantly).
AI plugins offer suggestions and ultimately it's up to the engineer to decide if they're the right move. So on that point I definitely agree with you
Seems like a bit of bar lowering in that last bit😢
Almost every time I put Soothe on a track, I end up taking it off. For me, it kills everything interesting about a sound. When you remove resonances, you often remove the character of a sound. I think Soothe can be good for very specific applications, but most of the time I don't end up liking what it does. That's true even when I dial back the depth or the mix. I think modern mixers are too obsessed with having everything sound perfect, and the result is music that sounds overly controlled and polite.
Yeah im not interested in sooth anymore, ive noticed it makes things dull too. But i rather like izotope stuff, not only because it gives me a decent starting point fast, but also gives me 75% of the tools i need for most mixing/mastering tasks with one click, and a bunch of standard tools are inserted on the track.
But you can't just always rely on what they suggest, because a lot of time what it wants to do is off base.
This should be titled "misusing these plugins is ruining mixing"
And then the video could be about how these modern-standard plugins are so advanced and in widespread use, that a lot of ppl are using them without really understanding how to use them *effectively.*
..and then link us to a good mixing tutorial video 😁
I stopped buying plug-ins and use an API channel strip for 80% of my mix. I’ve gotten my best mixes this way.
Well done and this needed to be addressed. Good work
Every plugin can ruin your mix if misused
I use Soothe a lot, but with my ears too, and tweak the settngs to get what sounds good.
You dont just throw a plugin there and expect good results
I think a good mixer must know this: plug-ins for resonances let you clear those in a vocal, but that’s all. If you want space in a mix, after that plug-in, you must EQ the voice accordingly (later in the chain or in a submix). Let’s make it clear: resonance plugins are for taming resonances. That’s all!
Thank you for another great video. I think that the point you have made that AI plugins don't really know your mixes as well as you do is very true. So I think that you should be the ultimate decision maker when using these plugins instead of fully relying on these plugins. I personally use them for resonance suppression, which works really well. Also they can make suggestions. I started boosting mids with the smallish Q and increasing stereo field in the midst too after ozone suggested it. It think my mixes sound much better now. But I think that ultimately we should be the ones to decide if we wanna go with the AI suggestions or not.
6:33 lol the standard for my genre is between -5 and -4 LUFS some styles call for that loudness
yup, also EDM has heavy subgenres of dubstep, which hits -1 LUFS or even more:)))
these plugins are good for crappy recordings that's why they can be a great tool, cant always just re-record something so they can get you out of jail in some instances....they said you cant polish a turd, but these plugins have a good go at it.
Totally agree. I've gone back to using just the actual tools that have been around forever like straight up eq, compression, etc rather than "intelligent" plug ins.
I plan to try Reso on an entire mix but we'll see whether it actually helps...
Reso allows you to be surgical in what cuts you add and how much they are attenuating, so you should be able to get some decent results. Like anything else though, it can be overdone, and at that point it will start hurting the music more than it helps it.
Always use those ears folks with good monitors or headphones. You can still use plugins to your heart's content but your ideal sound may be different than what preset eq plugins are adjusting to. Adjusting to those preset parameters too aggressively can take away from your sound.
A very important topic: When using tools like Ozone, Neutron, etc., I've observed that the sound tends to become 'thin' or harsh. Moreover, the AI assistant is not 'perfect'. When processing audio to conform to the 'tone balancing' curve, achieving a good sound can be challenging. For instance, in my current mixing project, the 'tone balance' indicates excessive low end. However, when I attempt to reduce the low end to match the curve, the result sounds terrible. Consequently, I've started relying more on my ears.
Additionally, if everyone follows the same technique, it's likely that every mix will sound alike. Finally, I appreciate the 'full' and 'warm' quality of mixes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, a time when these plugins didn't exist at all.
soothe is great. unfortunately i get latency every time i use it. so i only do it in mastering situations
My mix never sounded good with iZotope ozone. Always harsh and somehow "plastic".
This is the similar reason why I never use presets to get me there quicker. Invariably the present, in the context of any new track is useless, most of the time. It's just as easy, to simply dial in the sound from the start. The very notion of putting a plugin in and slapping across the mix, comes to mind, when presets are used, however in the context of the genre and the style, how would anybody else know what your song needs?
I use isotopes analyzer and match the sound of my sig to others Thar it sigs line that ate cheat tipping hits and then use the matering match in ozone
I think that soothe 2 it's more for single elements (mainly vocals) than for the master bus...Btw you obviously use these plugins if you need them. I mean, for example, why applying a soothe 2 to a vocal already processed to sound aggressive if soothe's job is taming and making it smoother and "flatter"? They're tool and they should be used if you need them...
I think overall these plugins are pretty useful, at least soothe since that's the only one I've actually used. I don't really ever use it unless I'm specifically trying to resolve an issue though. For instance if I like what it's doing in one part of a vocal and not another I'll just automate the plugin to be off until I need it so that it only turns on to fix a problem.
you're man enough to say it right in their faces without worrying about sponsoring and shit you deserve my respect
Sage audio never fails 🤨great platform
While I agree that these plugins should not be used ‘out of the box’ with the first settings, there are at least two critical omissions in your reasoning.
First, with ozone, you neglected to bring up two critical points: (1) you can easily flip the genre and correct any incorrect reading (2) you can use the AudioLens tool within there to bring in a reference mix.
Second, while you did mention that ozone itself doesn’t take into account individual tracks, you completely omitted Neutron, which does let you balance in between tracks. You can use neutron to mask or unmask various tracks.
I can’t speak for the other tools you mention, but I will say that ozone is a very useful tool. It gives a great starting point, but you will need to use your ears to make some final tweaks.
You have a Strong Point , maybe i should question my current ways
I mainly use Gulfoss for color on some synth sounds, but I wouldn't put it on the final mastering chain. Soothe is great for masking issues, and giving a quick fix for terrible recordings - it's a helpful tool if you use it as such. I agree that a lot of the AI-driven plugins these days make a lot of stuff sound samey, and it's a shame. But just like Garage Band makes the average Joe think he is a kick-ass composer because the stuff sounds decent, it all kinda lacks character and the fun that the bare-bones method brings with it. Thanks for the video.
I'm gonna disagree with you around 80 percent. I don't know how to explain it but here I go. Mastering assistant is a point of reference for someone to start mastering a song. I also think this kind of plugins are for beginners to advance audio engineers. For the example that you added with ozone you did not gain stage the input and the AI will not fix that problem because the sound is extremly high at it will do it best to give you a point of reference to start mastering. Also everything start with a good mix before start throwing plugins to each channel. After that we can check the mix with the help of Gullfoss master. I do own Ozone and after I do the AI processing I change and I add whatever the mix needs to be completed.
I don't mess with these types of plugins. Glad to hear this point of view. Reminds me of the time I tried AI to master a rock song. It attenuated the mid range in the vocal...it was there to cut though the mix! So vocals became dull and buried. AI is not best used this way imo.
I wouldn't use soothe2 or any other similar plugin on a full master or audio clip. This is very good tool for getting rid of unwanted frequencies in certain range similarly like using multiband compressor or single band dynamic eq althoug shoothe is more detail oriented. Just is it wisely.
Man!
This is so true!
I also came to the conclusion that these plugins do not make the best decisions, musically speaking.
Great stuff. The audio examples are very good and the simple graphical work is just brilliant 👌🎶
I've always agreed with this.
Nobody needed these tools in the 80s for incredible mixes, so how much are they really doing?
Regards "the analyse in solo" well then - put it on a group of tracks then.
Also, I use sooth 2 for de-essing, hi hat taming and also it's got the fastest sidechain of any plugin ever, so using sooth to duck the bass with the kick is better than any other side chain
Gulfoss on the master can add a touch of balance and shine. Individual instruments it's best in recovery mode on not so well recorded vocals it instruments.
They're tools like anything else. Best used in the right way in the right context. But overall, AI agree. It can dull mixes if you're overdoing it or relying on it instead of getting it right at source.
I can agree with most of this, but toward the end of vocal sidechaining with soothe and inverting the signal, I still have to take that chance. It has the mix louder. it really was one of the best things I've used ever since you covered it. other than that, I don't usually use these plugins.
All things in moderation ... As a general rule, if I put Soothe 2 or Ozone on a track and I don't like what it does to the track, I don't use it. That is the case with any plugin.
the trick is that way less is more... and knowing how to use a thing ... and in the case of these types of programs its best to know what they are doing... rather than just turn a nob clockwise means better and counter not as good... good info/vid