There are PLENTY of uses for this plugin that are immediately apparent to creative and clever mixers! Simply putting it on a source, twiddling the knobs at random and then declaring that it 'should NOT exist' is pretty ignorant.
I agree with White Sea most of the time. With regard to this particular video, I agree that analyzing your studio signal chain to eliminate sources of bad sound or weak performance is important. I have done that with my studio. With regard to this particular plugin, I tried it, even though I have Gullfoss and other similar plugins. At the end of the day, for me, on a vocal track I was working on, I heard an improvement that I did not get with other plugins. For me, that was enough to buy it. Moral of the story: As White Sea consistently recommends, try a plugin for yourself and make your own final decision.
The main objective is to have an Equalizer for each task, not to try to process the entire spectrum with a single plugin, especially for the attack and release settings for each area to be adjusted, to compress the body of the low end more but let the transients pass, For example... For now it is the only one that has Attack and Release. The mid side knob is also important... Can be used as a multiband Gate The fact that it is very light on the CPU is also a plus point. There is also the fact that the objective curve is not strictly set to a pink noise, which you can adjust with the points, more or less, and with the Tilt, to balance more. It might be a good idea to watch the Mars Citizen video. The idea of this smartEQ is his. He and the guy from wavefactory are in close contact. Greetings.
.... On a guitar track I'll put this first, then eq after it. Its helpful for tone - using it in conjunction with an eq and compressor, kinda like how I'll use a pultech to shape a tone
It uses pink noise to achieve the balance , you don't have to use it on everything, in my own opinion i think its a great plugin, i especially like the de-essing preset. Its a tool, if you take some time to actually learn how to use it , you will definitely change your opinion on it. I have done this with other plugins thinking that they sucked only to beat myself for not using the plugins more often.
You made a good point about diving into your setup or a clients setup to fix a problem before using a plugin like this. Though, as an engineer that isn’t really at a high level yet, I appreciate what this plugin can do. Often times I’m receiving tracks from self-produced artists that don’t quite know what they’re doing. Having a plugin that’s constantly attempting to reach a flat frequency responses allows me two things: 1). It can somewhat neutralize the frequency response of something that wasn’t engineered well (I typically use it on bad guitar tones), and 2). It can add a subtle sense of movement that seems to liven up the track. I use Equalizer first to prep the track, and THEN I dive into my usual processing! I use this plugin subtly of course, but it is mostly for the reasons stated above. When I engineer my own music or receive higher quality tracks, this isn’t really something I would rely on. I do, however, enjoy occasionally using this on sources with a wide range of frequencies. It can help a source maintain a more consistent tone throughout (like a really dynamic vocal). It saves time that would have been spent with something like automation. It’s definitely not a replacement, but these are just my use cases! Anyways… love the video! Hope you’re doing well :)
My understanding is: Soothe - alters resonances. Gullfoss - alters masking. Equaliser - creates a flat response (hence named “equal”iser). To me, it seems more like something that’d be in the Izotope RX bundles…like ‘flattening’ a chunk of frequencies (because there is a freq selection section), etc. I bought it first day, impulse purchase 🙄, but haven’t played with it much… …so I’d love to hear anyone’s uses with it.
you are right. But there is a similarity between gulfoss and equaliser. They both EQ the scource dynamically towards an "ideal curve". The difference is that the gulfoss curve is not straight and is supposed to be "human preference". But yes, it can also mask/unmask, while the "equaliser" barely can (a tiny bit due to the attack and release controls). In my opinion equaliser is only helpful if you want to quickly check if you'd prefer a flatter curve on an instrument or mix or there is too big of an unintended dynamic change in some frequencies. It's one of the weirdest concepts and thus most useless plugins I've seen. But that's just my opinion.
Soothe is most useful as a side chain device for me. You can sidechain your kick and bass, or my favorite is lead vocals side chained to the synth or guitar bus. It allows you to push everything harder without masking.
Other than Soothe, Gullfoss and this product all being somewhat automatic multiband dynamic tools, they don't seem to have much in common. Soothe and Gullfoss certainly are not made for the same purposes at all. I thought this review was kind of unfair and it seems like you didn't really even want to find a use for this.
It’s probably also based on a fletcher munson curve like gulfoss is. The one thing I will say that I much prefer about this vs Gulfoss is that there’s an attack and release knob. With gulfoss if you wanted to use this on the mixbuss you’ll often start to hear artifacts from the process reacting so fast. I will say that I occasionally like to use plugins like this to slightly enhance and clear up some samples or instruments before I go ahead and do my own EQ with a channel strip plugin or something of the sort. I actually find it works great as a first EQ stage for vocals too. I often start by cutting out any unnecessary low information in RX Pro, and then do some leveling to -18 inside there just to make help the compression stage later on. And then after that stage i’ll slap a gulfoss on it in the DAW with some subtle settings just to clear up the vocal and tame some of the low mid and high mid resonances. Works pretty good for me.
Gullfoss uses an FFT (or "spectral") based detection circuit, and it doesn't just try to flatten out the frequency spectrum of the material. Wavesfactory EQ uses regular multiband splits, and the dynamic bands actually tries to flatten out the spectrum. Might be useful in some cases for some people, but I'll personally pass on this one. Tried the demo for a day, but I couldn't find any specific tasks that I feel it would be useful to me. It does work as expected though.
Wait! Fuck this plugin, do a video on the “Digital Harshness, 96k, set your system up Correctly” story you told! You literally said we don’t Need these Plugins if we setup our system to where there Is No Digital Harshness.
Dear Wyste, I know you are trying to pump out a lot of content but your "just open the plugin and try shit" format has really failed you here. In my experience, plugins like this are actually pretty helpful to put on chordal instruments that have fat harmonies in some parts (ie not what you'd experience on funk song) and it dynamically EQs the mids in a way that is impossible to do with a regular or EQ or multiple band compression. I would never think this would be super helpful on a sparse funk mix that's already balanced, so I feel like this whole video was just a waste of everyone's time. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just trying to point out that just because you can't find a use for a plugin after zero seconds of thinking about it doesn't mean it won't have utility some where.
Subjectivity and opinion all well and good: But in this review the baby was thrown out with the bath water. The only crime or "should not" I can detect here is Wavesfactory's branding this plugin with a blank term! Opens the gate for confusion and delusion - a slippery slope. Without having even tried out "Equalizer", some users might find it useful. If it gets a creator faster to where he or she wants to go - brilliant. It's fine to be thorough but sometimes finished beats perfect. In fact most of the time. Gullfoss is in my own toolbox - I use it sparingly (and not all of the time) in the very late stage of a mix or in mastering to achieve some last layer of shine or clarification that otherwise hasn't been yet achieved. Where I do agree: "Equalizer"' 's concept and design used as a "special sauce makes everything taste good" is a route up the garden path.
Strange, I run all my sessions now a few years at 96 kHz, even with my not so great equipment, I always had the impression it sounds better in the mixing stage, later after mastering the difference is still there but not that big anymore - the thing with the filters cause of nyquist and stuff makes sense to me
I agree. Go back and edit the mix. That's how we learn. I have Smart eq, Soothe etc. but they only get used when I can't go back to the mix or to sorry sort an issue with a source track that can't be re-recorded.
I understand the sentiment in the comments, but if it sounds good it's good. It's a tool, (valid) philosophical musings aside. I love this thing on busses to inject/suppress energy in a unique way, at 5% Mix setting. Nothing wrong with a little sweetener.
This plugin makes EQ moves based on nothing else but an "ideal curve" that is a flat line. It doesn't care about instruments, moods, notes, different parts of the songs, etc. - it's always working towards the same thing. It should always be superior to EQ the individual tracks to taste and if you still want to make more general changes that affect all tracks playing together, because you got handed a finished mix for example - why would you aim for a straight line, instead of what you want to hear for THIS song?
@@akagerhard without getting too deep here, there's a biological reason why we perceive pink noise as an ideal - and this plugin makes sounds tend towards it. beyond this - I twist knobs and if I enjoy the resultant sound I move on. It has worked ok so far ;)
there is a reason different instruments and different songs have different frequency curves. And different moods are also associated with different frequencies and different tones are by definition different frequencies. It is pretty ridiculous to aim for a flat curve, especially throughout a song. Just because twisting knobs leads to a pleasing result, that doesn't imply that the functionality of the plugin makes any sense! You can also go through random settings on an EQ and stop at a pleasing result. To me that's not engineering. One should strive to understand what one is doing and why one is doing what one is doing. ;)
I have been watching your videos for a long time and I love them. Sometimes you make me laugh so much and sometimes I learn something. I find it so funny how a guy who hates plug-ins do so many plug-ins “reviews”, I appreciate so much your honesty, you are great. But today I'm going to be honest with you, I understand when you say this kind of plugins shouldn't exist but they exist and they are great. I don't think they can save your life (mixes) but they can be helpful. I have been mixing music for 30 years now and I can tell you that many times the worst mistake I do is losing perspective, I can go to places that are not the right for the song and sometimes I understand it too late. These plugins can bring you back on track and give you another perspective (sound wise obviously) and help you to make choices (mostly eq). I love analog gear and do get me wrong I would like to buy so many gear but I can't afford that so I try my best with plugins I think there are amazing plugins and others that are horrible but I try to be open and receptive, I don't trash the plugins if they don't have auto gain 😅. Thank you for your videos and your time, always a pleasure to see you. ✌️
Hmm... Nearly £65 for an EG plug, that's not a bad price. But we already got these intelligent EQs, soothe2 by Oeksound, Smooth Operator by BABY Audio, and Sonible’s new smart:EQ 3 plug, do we really need this too?
Bit like saying "Fender make electric guitars... do we really need any other manufacturers too?" Yes, is this answer. Monopolies are no good for anyone. Choice is king. And this plugin rocks, I use it all the time.
Fyi, you can draw on the positive side of the graph as well, not just the bottom. Considering how resource intensive Soothe can be, will be interesting to see how this performs. I wonder if you can sidechain this like trackspace and soothe...
I watch almost every video and I´m very impressed by your know-how and your accuracy. But I see that you always test your plugins on tracks that are already perfectly mixed. So there are no really problems to fix. If you think about the non-professionals (like me) who haven´t your experience or 200.000 $ or more hardware, speakers, converters, 24 Tapemachine...we have problems on mixes that we can not fix by "changing to RME Converters" or similar. Some of us do not even hear the difference between oversampling or not. So some plugins are quite helpful on a base of "don´t know exactly what they do, but it´s clearer now". There are many pros watching your channel, but don´t forget the amateurs... Thanks for all
Always a fan of your insights. Had a feeling you wouldn't particularly love this plug-in. It seems to be a very love/hate kinda plug-in from the comments I've seen floating around on various channels. For me, it happens to be love, but it really comes down to how someone intends to use it. I've found it to be a "secret sauce" kind of plug-in and am really glad it exists.
It´s a quite interesting story you are telling us about how you got rid of digital harshness by oversampling your projects at 96kHz, do you think at 88,2 it would have exactly the same results? or those extra 7,8 Khz will make the difference? Thank you!!!
Gulfoss does something different - it looks for specific frequencies that it deems are or are not attractive sounding from a source based on human hearing
I quite like this plug-in because it makes sense to me and I can control it better than similar products. If it lacks one thing it would be a reverse switch to do the opposite of what it is doing. You do need to lessen the effect on both extremes of the spectrum and save that as default.
i tried it it always doing the same curve on every tracks ! boosting high, boosting lows and cutting middle even on tracks that doesn't t need it ! so strange it boosts 30 hz on every track and we don t need that. after using it on 5 different tracks in a song everything was sounding too bright, uncontrolled basses and lack of middle. i put gulfoss and this plug on my backing vocals buss and gulfoss sounds 5 times better, so i won t use it again it sounds like a pre defined eq always doing the same thing no AI at all in it ? which AI will boost 30 HZ in hi hat and vocals ??? or i am missing something in using it ??
I wish you had been clearer form the start that 'digital harshness' is aliasing, and its entirely avoidable even at 48k if you have decent hardware and your software is using higher resolution for processing (as everything should). The one place i havent managed to avoid it is NAM, but cab emulation kills that fast.
For most working pros with properly tuned rooms, there's no real need for this...........however, for those of us who are still learning and don't have a finely tuned work space, it could be used as a teaching tool, just like SmartEQ. It will suggest what it "thinks" is wrong, then you can turn it off and go back into your mix and address those things. It's not useless imho, but I get why a lot of pro engineers poo poo these things .
Gullfoss isn't even comparable to this. Gullfoss can identify frequencies thst are being masked or dominated, this thing just naïvely flattens the whole frequency spectrum.
Gulfoss too equalizes the whole frequency curve towards an "ideal frequency curve" - which is very naive too. But yes, on top of that it can mask and unmask a bit.
That song is like Toe Jam and Earl. In my experience with this plugin it seems to add digital harshness and pushes everything to start sounding brittle and thin.
How do you use AI in your workflow? What kinds of software are you using for this purpose? And what exactly is the AI doing for you? I’m just curious how you implement AI within your workflow. Great video, though.
Isn't a gulfoss, gulfoss is a resonant supresor. This is a equalizer LITERALLY, I mean the goal of this plugins is to generate a sounds with all frequency at the same level, low, low-mid, mid, high-mid and high at the same level, without any kind of curve. But, for me, isn't useful at all, cos I like to create curves hahaha
Why would anyone buy this when they could get SmartEQ and use dynamic mode? Then you have specific target curves for sources and inter-plugin communication. Not to mention it's just a great overall EQ. If you want SmartEQ to do this job specifically then just load a pink noise curve and boom you have it, but with way more control. Maybe I'm just biassed because I like the Smart plugins lol.
96khz for mixing is key. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and it’s a noticeable improvement. Over sampling at 48k is not as good, and just forget 44.1, we should ban it. And having very good converters is key. I’ve got the best of the best so now I’m in heaven. Thank you for advancing the 96k agenda!
@@nnctnlavIf you're going to use that logic, then consider that 48k is the next most popular rate, so you should work in 48k to really cover "everyone".
Strange to say "we already have plugin X and plugin Y". Sure, and they're more expensive and also have different features. Also strange to say the conclusion while sitting in a professional studio. Most people are not using a professional studio. If something sounds good to you, do it. Who cares how it's acheived.
@@choosers5177 I have no idea why this channel has become this big. Maybe for his antics - like everything else in this coming of age. I would use my voice in a constructive way based on an minimum of knowledge - not like this guy. But I guess it is hard times being a mixer/engineer. Spending time on all these "reviews" instead of mixing...Money talks.
@@choosers5177Yeah, he doesn't read manuals, doesn't have the breadth of vision to know what anything might be used for, it's quite a disservice to the developers. He gives an opinion based on half arsed play about and all the monkeys clap, it's like the Hunger Games. I have no idea why he even does this channel, I think only beginners and the uninformed think his opinion is worthy, when they'd much better going and watching Eric Valentine or someone. Of course, saying such things huts his feels and causes his mental health to do something. FFS.
@@ensomelephant1864 actually this kind of approach to the plugins workflow hurts his mastering business. Who would hire him after seeing those amateur plugin usage?
@@chizzulwinduh1941 I have to agree. I don't want to heighten the mental challenges he's suffering with and commented about the other day but as I was watching that video even I was thinking to myself "does he watch and listen to himself in these videos?" He often can come off as trite and condescending - almost entitled like, which could explain the ruthless internet flaming him now and then. then you have someone like Dan Worrall for e.g, The GOAT. it becomes clear WS' reviews are quite pale IMHO.
We actually need them or you have to automate the eq parameters for the whole song to achieve the desired results. This gulfus sothe zynaptiq u filter tbproaudio eq etc are the future.
i agree! But most ''semi professionals'' dong give a sh.. about microphone placements, oversampling, phase cancellation, crest factor or freq. masking.. they just do things and expect someone to fix it in post...
The goal of these plugins is to make it so we don’t have to learn anything or do anything in order to be creative humans. We just want to push a button and crank out a song we had nothing else to do with. No learning, no decision making, no mistakes, no imperfections, just have the algorithm do it all. Bam. Instant Nashville.
I assume you still cut-and-paste tape with a blade and glue, to keep consistent with this philosophy. Or just maybe, the fewer obstacles between creativity and execution actually benefits art?
@@ferromontanino I mean, I do use tape regularly (there’s no glue involved in the process) and I do like to set up an environment where I have to struggle a bit in order to execute certain things. I make sketching ideas super quick and easy, but I do go through quite an ordeal, which I feel has yielded thousands of tiny little creative things that would not have happened otherwise. I like the journey, and I like to make it as interesting for myself as possible. Learning more about the craft is an added bonus. I try not to be a judgy asshole about it, but some of these things designed to keep us from being involved I feel just need to be seen that way. People can be so good and do amazing things, I would hate to miss out on that as a culture. Or worse, for someone to do something amazing, but nobody believes it because there’s a button that makes it possible for anyone. Look what regular people think of auto tune. Now, even though a lot of people can sing incredibly well, the current view is “now kids need auto-tune in order to sing anything. Everything is auto-tuned”
@@ferromontanino you’re right though. If the real intended execution is exactly what that tool delivers, then I can’t really argue with that. I just like getting the fingerprint of the 1 human doing the 1 unique thing, whatever that thing may be.
@@stevedoesnt i fully hear you, i started making music as a kid using Impulse Tracker, literally the most manual and crude possible process, and still to this day incorporate an Amiga 500 into my studio for the sound and workflow - even when a bitcrusher would suffice. This said, if we care about the maximum number of Creative people being able to Create, we should want to break down as many barriers as possible between idea and execution. This is the beauty of where things are going - removing the laborious and creativity-killing aspects of creation. And in the end, nobody's forcing anyone to do anything. I just think that it'll be impossible to keep up with "the kids" if actively avoiding these types of inevitable plugins.
Seems like these kind of plugins are just designed for people who are trying to cut corners. I doubt the very best producers use them because they already know how to solve problems in better ways
It should exist. Just not for you. I am not doing work for other people like you, and don’t want or need to do the type of detailed detective work that you’re doing. So these products are perfect for some people. And I don’t think this is similar to gullfoss at all and use both
It's not a good algorithm. Very unnatural sounding. I don't know.... Maybe it's good for some kinds of electronic music or something like that. Maybe that was what it was being tested on? It's my only guess the thing sounds terrible on anything That's supposed to sound it all organic.
Yet another Gullfoss?🤔 Problem is that most of the time you don't need/want stuff to sound "flat" really, nor dynamic flat or EQ flat, because it exclusively depends on material (which ALL sounds different -and should do it!-. For that reason all these plugins are nonsense.
Which is exactly why he does it, to Entertain rather than Inform because that gets more clicks. Problem is, are you really Sure that X plugin is "snake oil'? Or did he just put on a performance for your entertainment, at that plugin developer's expense, and if that's the case, ultimately at your expense too. If that Was a valuable tool for Your workflow, but you were more interested in His cynicism than your music, did he really Heal the market?
Actually soothe is the way, nothing compare, gullfoss is just too much subtle, sometimes I barely can hear the difference… pray for a low latency contender for soothe and this is an instant buy
I don't understand this comment when Gullfoss can go from 0 to 100...there's no "too subtle" or "too heavy handed" when there's so range in the plugin. I always start at 25 or 30 percent and go from there.
I need to clarify… gullfoss is like ok can’t ear what happen and suddenly this is too much. So when you stay in a descent zone this can be just some magic polish clarity, really love it. but clearly If i need to keep just one it will be soothe, when I use it in every case it sound really better. like i said in other comment, actually I use soothe smart eq pro.q and gullfoss almost on everything I need to correct.
I have couple of AI plugins and at first it was a bless for me until I realized it rip offs the soul of the track. Yeah it may not be perfect but who/what is? Imperfections are more valuable to me lately. Though I must admit I value Wavesfactory a lot but this one does not get to me unfortunetly. The Trackspacer is a better tool for me I think.
There are PLENTY of uses for this plugin that are immediately apparent to creative and clever mixers! Simply putting it on a source, twiddling the knobs at random and then declaring that it 'should NOT exist' is pretty ignorant.
I agree with White Sea most of the time. With regard to this particular video, I agree that analyzing your studio signal chain to eliminate sources of bad sound or weak performance is important. I have done that with my studio.
With regard to this particular plugin, I tried it, even though I have Gullfoss and other similar plugins. At the end of the day, for me, on a vocal track I was working on, I heard an improvement that I did not get with other plugins. For me, that was enough to buy it.
Moral of the story: As White Sea consistently recommends, try a plugin for yourself and make your own final decision.
The main objective is to have an Equalizer for each task, not to try to process the entire spectrum with a single plugin, especially for the attack and release settings for each area to be adjusted, to compress the body of the low end more but let the transients pass, For example...
For now it is the only one that has Attack and Release. The mid side knob is also important...
Can be used as a multiband Gate
The fact that it is very light on the CPU is also a plus point.
There is also the fact that the objective curve is not strictly set to a pink noise, which you can adjust with the points, more or less, and with the Tilt, to balance more.
It might be a good idea to watch the Mars Citizen video. The idea of this smartEQ is his. He and the guy from wavefactory are in close contact.
Greetings.
.... On a guitar track I'll put this first, then eq after it. Its helpful for tone - using it in conjunction with an eq and compressor, kinda like how I'll use a pultech to shape a tone
It uses pink noise to achieve the balance , you don't have to use it on everything, in my own opinion i think its a great plugin, i especially like the de-essing preset. Its a tool, if you take some time to actually learn how to use it , you will definitely change your opinion on it. I have done this with other plugins thinking that they sucked only to beat myself for not using the plugins more often.
You made a good point about diving into your setup or a clients setup to fix a problem before using a plugin like this. Though, as an engineer that isn’t really at a high level yet, I appreciate what this plugin can do.
Often times I’m receiving tracks from self-produced artists that don’t quite know what they’re doing. Having a plugin that’s constantly attempting to reach a flat frequency responses allows me two things: 1). It can somewhat neutralize the frequency response of something that wasn’t engineered well (I typically use it on bad guitar tones), and 2). It can add a subtle sense of movement that seems to liven up the track. I use Equalizer first to prep the track, and THEN I dive into my usual processing!
I use this plugin subtly of course, but it is mostly for the reasons stated above. When I engineer my own music or receive higher quality tracks, this isn’t really something I would rely on.
I do, however, enjoy occasionally using this on sources with a wide range of frequencies. It can help a source maintain a more consistent tone throughout (like a really dynamic vocal). It saves time that would have been spent with something like automation. It’s definitely not a replacement, but these are just my use cases!
Anyways… love the video! Hope you’re doing well :)
My understanding is:
Soothe - alters resonances.
Gullfoss - alters masking.
Equaliser - creates a flat response (hence named “equal”iser).
To me, it seems more like something that’d be in the Izotope RX bundles…like ‘flattening’ a chunk of frequencies (because there is a freq selection section), etc.
I bought it first day, impulse purchase 🙄, but haven’t played with it much…
…so I’d love to hear anyone’s uses with it.
you are right. But there is a similarity between gulfoss and equaliser. They both EQ the scource dynamically towards an "ideal curve". The difference is that the gulfoss curve is not straight and is supposed to be "human preference". But yes, it can also mask/unmask, while the "equaliser" barely can (a tiny bit due to the attack and release controls).
In my opinion equaliser is only helpful if you want to quickly check if you'd prefer a flatter curve on an instrument or mix or there is too big of an unintended dynamic change in some frequencies. It's one of the weirdest concepts and thus most useless plugins I've seen. But that's just my opinion.
Sonible smart eq doing a nice job for that task, I own the 3 plugs soothe gullfoss and smart eq, it’s pratically all i need before compressor
+1 for smart eq
Soothe is most useful as a side chain device for me. You can sidechain your kick and bass, or my favorite is lead vocals side chained to the synth or guitar bus. It allows you to push everything harder without masking.
Other than Soothe, Gullfoss and this product all being somewhat automatic multiband dynamic tools, they don't seem to have much in common. Soothe and Gullfoss certainly are not made for the same purposes at all. I thought this review was kind of unfair and it seems like you didn't really even want to find a use for this.
gotta need Dan Worrall to dissect this plugin, although haven't seeing him deal with these kinds of spectral equalizers before.
Yes!
He does love wavesfactory 🤷♂️
@@mthomas1091 i mean, he does the doctor from time to time with fabfilter plugins lol.
There was a plugin like this on the TC powercore platform called Character.
It’s probably also based on a fletcher munson curve like gulfoss is. The one thing I will say that I much prefer about this vs Gulfoss is that there’s an attack and release knob. With gulfoss if you wanted to use this on the mixbuss you’ll often start to hear artifacts from the process reacting so fast. I will say that I occasionally like to use plugins like this to slightly enhance and clear up some samples or instruments before I go ahead and do my own EQ with a channel strip plugin or something of the sort. I actually find it works great as a first EQ stage for vocals too. I often start by cutting out any unnecessary low information in RX Pro, and then do some leveling to -18 inside there just to make help the compression stage later on. And then after that stage i’ll slap a gulfoss on it in the DAW with some subtle settings just to clear up the vocal and tame some of the low mid and high mid resonances. Works pretty good for me.
It is not
What kind of A.I. do you use to streamline your mixing process?
This plugin made the track sounds sonically better instantly
No ITS NOT! lol 🤣🤣 On the contrary.
If sound was an image in Photoshop. This plugin would be color correction. Use this before color grading to even out a balance.
Gullfoss uses an FFT (or "spectral") based detection circuit, and it doesn't just try to flatten out the frequency spectrum of the material. Wavesfactory EQ uses regular multiband splits, and the dynamic bands actually tries to flatten out the spectrum. Might be useful in some cases for some people, but I'll personally pass on this one. Tried the demo for a day, but I couldn't find any specific tasks that I feel it would be useful to me. It does work as expected though.
This is the plugin for people who hear a plastic sound in FF PrQ3 compared to Kirchhoff Eq.
You have actually null proof to back up this statement…
…so instead: for people who hear differences despite null tests
On para gente que trabaja rapido, Bob rock
Wait! Fuck this plugin, do a video on the “Digital Harshness, 96k, set your system up Correctly” story you told!
You literally said we don’t Need these Plugins if we setup our system to where there Is No Digital Harshness.
Yes!
That's Voxengo TEOTE with less functionality...
Dear Wyste, I know you are trying to pump out a lot of content but your "just open the plugin and try shit" format has really failed you here. In my experience, plugins like this are actually pretty helpful to put on chordal instruments that have fat harmonies in some parts (ie not what you'd experience on funk song) and it dynamically EQs the mids in a way that is impossible to do with a regular or EQ or multiple band compression. I would never think this would be super helpful on a sparse funk mix that's already balanced, so I feel like this whole video was just a waste of everyone's time. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just trying to point out that just because you can't find a use for a plugin after zero seconds of thinking about it doesn't mean it won't have utility some where.
I agree
I agree. I feel as though hes reviews have condescending vibe. Sometimes pretty ignorant too
You barely tried it out. I love this channel, but that was a weak review.
Subjectivity and opinion all well and good: But in this review the baby was thrown out with the bath water. The only crime or "should not" I can detect here is Wavesfactory's branding this plugin with a blank term! Opens the gate for confusion and delusion - a slippery slope. Without having even tried out "Equalizer", some users might find it useful. If it gets a creator faster to where he or she wants to go - brilliant. It's fine to be thorough but sometimes finished beats perfect. In fact most of the time.
Gullfoss is in my own toolbox - I use it sparingly (and not all of the time) in the very late stage of a mix or in mastering to achieve some last layer of shine or clarification that otherwise hasn't been yet achieved.
Where I do agree: "Equalizer"' 's concept and design used as a "special sauce makes everything taste good" is a route up the garden path.
Tried looking for the song on apple music but i don’t know how to spell the title. Is it Aaargh or Aaaaargheeeh?
Interesting plug. With some tweaking this can likely be used as a kind substitute for Soothe.
Strange, I run all my sessions now a few years at 96 kHz, even with my not so great equipment, I always had the impression it sounds better in the mixing stage, later after mastering the difference is still there but not that big anymore - the thing with the filters cause of nyquist and stuff makes sense to me
I agree. Go back and edit the mix. That's how we learn. I have Smart eq, Soothe etc. but they only get used when I can't go back to the mix or to sorry sort an issue with a source track that can't be re-recorded.
I understand the sentiment in the comments, but if it sounds good it's good. It's a tool, (valid) philosophical musings aside. I love this thing on busses to inject/suppress energy in a unique way, at 5% Mix setting. Nothing wrong with a little sweetener.
This plugin makes EQ moves based on nothing else but an "ideal curve" that is a flat line. It doesn't care about instruments, moods, notes, different parts of the songs, etc. - it's always working towards the same thing. It should always be superior to EQ the individual tracks to taste and if you still want to make more general changes that affect all tracks playing together, because you got handed a finished mix for example - why would you aim for a straight line, instead of what you want to hear for THIS song?
@@akagerhard without getting too deep here, there's a biological reason why we perceive pink noise as an ideal - and this plugin makes sounds tend towards it. beyond this - I twist knobs and if I enjoy the resultant sound I move on. It has worked ok so far ;)
I use it the same same way. The secret is the "mix" knob! Totally agree with you!@@ferromontanino
there is a reason different instruments and different songs have different frequency curves. And different moods are also associated with different frequencies and different tones are by definition different frequencies. It is pretty ridiculous to aim for a flat curve, especially throughout a song. Just because twisting knobs leads to a pleasing result, that doesn't imply that the functionality of the plugin makes any sense! You can also go through random settings on an EQ and stop at a pleasing result. To me that's not engineering. One should strive to understand what one is doing and why one is doing what one is doing. ;)
have you done a video on the setup of the digital harshness elimination ? like the difference between 96kz and 48khz and whatever else you do?
Check out his interview he did talking about oversampling recently. It’s quite clear that working is 96k is definitely superior.
That track sounds SO MUCH better with the plugin, tbh.
Also, Soothe doesn't boost! Gulfoss is def similar, though.
It does not.
@@roberteismann1929 yea it kinda lost the mojo upon turning it on
So question where the best place in your vocal chain or vocal buss should this go to beginning or the end of your process and chain??
I have been watching your videos for a long time and I love them. Sometimes you make me laugh so much and sometimes I learn something. I find it so funny how a guy who hates plug-ins do so many plug-ins “reviews”, I appreciate so much your honesty, you are great.
But today I'm going to be honest with you, I understand when you say this kind of plugins shouldn't exist but they exist and they are great. I don't think they can save your life (mixes) but they can be helpful.
I have been mixing music for 30 years now and I can tell you that many times the worst mistake I do is losing perspective, I can go to places that are not the right for the song and sometimes I understand it too late.
These plugins can bring you back on track and give you another perspective (sound wise obviously) and help you to make choices (mostly eq).
I love analog gear and do get me wrong I would like to buy so many gear but I can't afford that so I try my best with plugins I think there are amazing plugins and others that are horrible but I try to be open and receptive, I don't trash the plugins if they don't have auto gain 😅.
Thank you for your videos and your time, always a pleasure to see you. ✌️
Hmm... Nearly £65 for an EG plug, that's not a bad price. But we already got these intelligent EQs, soothe2 by Oeksound, Smooth Operator by BABY Audio, and Sonible’s new smart:EQ 3 plug, do we really need this too?
Bit like saying "Fender make electric guitars... do we really need any other manufacturers too?" Yes, is this answer. Monopolies are no good for anyone. Choice is king. And this plugin rocks, I use it all the time.
Fyi, you can draw on the positive side of the graph as well, not just the bottom. Considering how resource intensive Soothe can be, will be interesting to see how this performs. I wonder if you can sidechain this like trackspace and soothe...
Question should this plugin go before or after the plugin chain to get the best use out of this plugin ??? Please answer thx 🙏🏽
It's very similar to the new Ozone 10 Dynamic EQ. I like the GUI, minimal, but don't know if needed.
I watch almost every video and I´m very impressed by your know-how and your accuracy. But I see that you always test your plugins on tracks that are already perfectly mixed. So there are no really problems to fix. If you think about the non-professionals (like me) who haven´t your experience or 200.000 $ or more hardware, speakers, converters, 24 Tapemachine...we have problems on mixes that we can not fix by "changing to RME Converters" or similar. Some of us do not even hear the difference between oversampling or not. So some plugins are quite helpful on a base of "don´t know exactly what they do, but it´s clearer now". There are many pros watching your channel, but don´t forget the amateurs... Thanks for all
Absolutely agree! Not all are Mastering or Recording Engineers!
Always a fan of your insights. Had a feeling you wouldn't particularly love this plug-in. It seems to be a very love/hate kinda plug-in from the comments I've seen floating around on various channels. For me, it happens to be love, but it really comes down to how someone intends to use it. I've found it to be a "secret sauce" kind of plug-in and am really glad it exists.
Do you have any video about how to set up correctly digital equipment?
It´s a quite interesting story you are telling us about how you got rid of digital harshness by oversampling your projects at 96kHz, do you think at 88,2 it would have exactly the same results? or those extra 7,8 Khz will make the difference? Thank you!!!
Gulfoss does something different - it looks for specific frequencies that it deems are or are not attractive sounding from a source based on human hearing
As an engineer I would not use that plugin. But as a musician I definitely would.
Use the right tool for the right job.
I quite like this plug-in because it makes sense to me and I can control it better than similar products. If it lacks one thing it would be a reverse switch to do the opposite of what it is doing. You do need to lessen the effect on both extremes of the spectrum and save that as default.
You're putting this EQ on the master?
i tried it it always doing the same curve on every tracks ! boosting high, boosting lows and cutting middle even on tracks that doesn't t need it ! so strange it boosts 30 hz on every track and we don t need that. after using it on 5 different tracks in a song everything was sounding too bright, uncontrolled basses and lack of middle. i put gulfoss and this plug on my backing vocals buss and gulfoss sounds 5 times better, so i won t use it again it sounds like a pre defined eq always doing the same thing no AI at all in it ? which AI will boost 30 HZ in hi hat and vocals ??? or i am missing something in using it ??
I don't really use any of these products or understand half of the things you talk about but I just enjoy listening to you talk about them
What's the title of the song?
Sandstorm
I wish you had been clearer form the start that 'digital harshness' is aliasing, and its entirely avoidable even at 48k if you have decent hardware and your software is using higher resolution for processing (as everything should).
The one place i havent managed to avoid it is NAM, but cab emulation kills that fast.
For most working pros with properly tuned rooms, there's no real need for this...........however, for those of us who are still learning and don't have a finely tuned work space, it could be used as a teaching tool, just like SmartEQ. It will suggest what it "thinks" is wrong, then you can turn it off and go back into your mix and address those things. It's not useless imho, but I get why a lot of pro engineers poo poo these things .
Is this the most useful in mixing or mastering?
I use gulfoss and sooth and could not find a reason for this one…
using gulfoss and reso and thought the same thing :)
Its diferent. It has a more safe approach to the eq. Anyway no one comes near zynaptiq unfilter.
Thw track title was the highlight of the video, It made my day
I find it near impossible to search for the track since it’s hard to spell
I love this plug.
I love Equalizer (and I don't know Wavesfactory). The results are more efficient and obvious than Gullfoss IMO. Thank you for your video.
Have you made a video about your 96k journey?
Really apreciate the "take a time to chillax and listen the song fr
Gullfoss isn't even comparable to this. Gullfoss can identify frequencies thst are being masked or dominated, this thing just naïvely flattens the whole frequency spectrum.
Gulfoss too equalizes the whole frequency curve towards an "ideal frequency curve" - which is very naive too. But yes, on top of that it can mask and unmask a bit.
That song is like Toe Jam and Earl.
In my experience with this plugin it seems to add digital harshness and pushes everything to start sounding brittle and thin.
Scaler eq would interest you
Literally its called Equalizer, its a dynamic Eq, why do you say it is a compressor?
because dynamic eq IS compression
The motu converters are the ones that “sucked”? Can you talk about the decision to change a little more? Or have you already?
Im not an english speaking person, didn't understand the title, always watching your vids, thanks!
this product is a time saver just use it wisely
please do slate vsx review. tell slate to send you a pair. im sure they whould love you to review it :)
How do you use AI in your workflow? What kinds of software are you using for this purpose? And what exactly is the AI doing for you? I’m just curious how you implement AI within your workflow. Great video, though.
Yes, would love to see a video on THAT. :)
@@jorykevinberger7047 I couldn’t agree more. :)
Isn't a gulfoss, gulfoss is a resonant supresor. This is a equalizer LITERALLY, I mean the goal of this plugins is to generate a sounds with all frequency at the same level, low, low-mid, mid, high-mid and high at the same level, without any kind of curve. But, for me, isn't useful at all, cos I like to create curves hahaha
I don't think Gullfoss is a resonant suppressor (DSEQ3 and Soothe are).
Why would anyone buy this when they could get SmartEQ and use dynamic mode? Then you have specific target curves for sources and inter-plugin communication. Not to mention it's just a great overall EQ. If you want SmartEQ to do this job specifically then just load a pink noise curve and boom you have it, but with way more control. Maybe I'm just biassed because I like the Smart plugins lol.
Fear of Skynet, obviously. ;)
Look, they've re-created Gullfoss
Gullfoss, but different*.
This plugin is algorithmic approximating 3dB/octave slope, not computational and built on a custom model like Gullfoss.
@@ClintMoody yeah....worse.
Gullfoss without latency. And to be honest, when I use this kind of processing, I prefer this one over Gullfoss.
@@vicneve1169 have you tried Gulfoss Live?
It's not the same. Imo it sounds excellent.
96khz for mixing is key. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and it’s a noticeable improvement. Over sampling at 48k is not as good, and just forget 44.1, we should ban it. And having very good converters is key. I’ve got the best of the best so now I’m in heaven. Thank you for advancing the 96k agenda!
in the end everyone is listening to 44.1 so it really doesnt matter that much
@@nnctnlav so wrong. And so wrong.
@@pyratellamarecordingstudio1062 nah
@@nnctnlavIf you're going to use that logic, then consider that 48k is the next most popular rate, so you should work in 48k to really cover "everyone".
what about intermodulation at higher sample rates?
Strange to say "we already have plugin X and plugin Y". Sure, and they're more expensive and also have different features. Also strange to say the conclusion while sitting in a professional studio. Most people are not using a professional studio. If something sounds good to you, do it. Who cares how it's acheived.
Plz review AAMS Auto Audio Mastering System.
The best plugin you can get it right now
Is there anywhere you actually prove the claims that 96k makes a difference?
Honest unbiased opinion as always. I do appreciate that a lot! Thank you.
It's like a lazy first impression. He doesn't even know how to use most of the plugins he "review". Its more like a comedy channel.
@@choosers5177 I have no idea why this channel has become this big. Maybe for his antics - like everything else in this coming of age. I would use my voice in a constructive way based on an minimum of knowledge - not like this guy. But I guess it is hard times being a mixer/engineer. Spending time on all these "reviews" instead of mixing...Money talks.
@@choosers5177Yeah, he doesn't read manuals, doesn't have the breadth of vision to know what anything might be used for, it's quite a disservice to the developers. He gives an opinion based on half arsed play about and all the monkeys clap, it's like the Hunger Games. I have no idea why he even does this channel, I think only beginners and the uninformed think his opinion is worthy, when they'd much better going and watching Eric Valentine or someone. Of course, saying such things huts his feels and causes his mental health to do something. FFS.
@@ensomelephant1864 actually this kind of approach to the plugins workflow hurts his mastering business. Who would hire him after seeing those amateur plugin usage?
@@chizzulwinduh1941 I have to agree. I don't want to heighten the mental challenges he's suffering with and commented about the other day but as I was watching that video even I was thinking to myself "does he watch and listen to himself in these videos?" He often can come off as trite and condescending - almost entitled like, which could explain the ruthless internet flaming him now and then. then you have someone like Dan Worrall for e.g, The GOAT. it becomes clear WS' reviews are quite pale IMHO.
We surely need even more of these! LOL
We actually need them or you have to automate the eq parameters for the whole song to achieve the desired results. This gulfus sothe zynaptiq u filter tbproaudio eq etc are the future.
@@choosers5177 We already have multiband compressors.
What microphone are using
I would really like to see a video about how you use AI in your process/workflow, and more about AI in general. Thanks for these videos 🤘
Which AI plugins have impressed you enough to use them with your mixing and mastering process?
They need a plugin that removes mud with A.I lol
i agree! But most ''semi professionals'' dong give a sh.. about microphone placements, oversampling, phase cancellation, crest factor or freq. masking.. they just do things and expect someone to fix it in post...
Sob’s
This plugin helps me out in mixing dialogue in post production a lot. Love it!
The goal of these plugins is to make it so we don’t have to learn anything or do anything in order to be creative humans. We just want to push a button and crank out a song we had nothing else to do with. No learning, no decision making, no mistakes, no imperfections, just have the algorithm do it all. Bam. Instant Nashville.
I assume you still cut-and-paste tape with a blade and glue, to keep consistent with this philosophy. Or just maybe, the fewer obstacles between creativity and execution actually benefits art?
@@ferromontanino I mean, I do use tape regularly (there’s no glue involved in the process) and I do like to set up an environment where I have to struggle a bit in order to execute certain things. I make sketching ideas super quick and easy, but I do go through quite an ordeal, which I feel has yielded thousands of tiny little creative things that would not have happened otherwise. I like the journey, and I like to make it as interesting for myself as possible. Learning more about the craft is an added bonus.
I try not to be a judgy asshole about it, but some of these things designed to keep us from being involved I feel just need to be seen that way. People can be so good and do amazing things, I would hate to miss out on that as a culture. Or worse, for someone to do something amazing, but nobody believes it because there’s a button that makes it possible for anyone. Look what regular people think of auto tune. Now, even though a lot of people can sing incredibly well, the current view is “now kids need auto-tune in order to sing anything. Everything is auto-tuned”
@@ferromontanino you’re right though. If the real intended execution is exactly what that tool delivers, then I can’t really argue with that. I just like getting the fingerprint of the 1 human doing the 1 unique thing, whatever that thing may be.
@@stevedoesnt i fully hear you, i started making music as a kid using Impulse Tracker, literally the most manual and crude possible process, and still to this day incorporate an Amiga 500 into my studio for the sound and workflow - even when a bitcrusher would suffice. This said, if we care about the maximum number of Creative people being able to Create, we should want to break down as many barriers as possible between idea and execution. This is the beauty of where things are going - removing the laborious and creativity-killing aspects of creation. And in the end, nobody's forcing anyone to do anything. I just think that it'll be impossible to keep up with "the kids" if actively avoiding these types of inevitable plugins.
Before your channel and reviews, I use to tried everything that came out, just loosing my time and money. Thank you.
That is a funky track alright. Made my face stink and my neck hurt .
First snake oil product from wavesfactory
TEOTE is less harsh
Seems like these kind of plugins are just designed for people who are trying to cut corners. I doubt the very best producers use them because they already know how to solve problems in better ways
So strange plugin… what it trying to accomplish… nobody knows seems to be
Why is jazz fusion so goofy sometimes
all these plugins just basically reproducing what voxengo soniformer did MANY years ago and more - it's kinda sad he doesn't get the recognition.
Do you play a musical instrument ?
Just grab an EQ!
It should exist. Just not for you. I am not doing work for other people like you, and don’t want or need to do the type of detailed detective work that you’re doing. So these products are perfect for some people. And I don’t think this is similar to gullfoss at all and use both
"People like and dislike things."
Only the hottest takes here
You have a bad day?
It's not a good algorithm. Very unnatural sounding. I don't know.... Maybe it's good for some kinds of electronic music or something like that. Maybe that was what it was being tested on? It's my only guess the thing sounds terrible on anything That's supposed to sound it all organic.
Folks, not all things are equal in equalizers. Some are better or worse than others. This one may be both, better than some and worse than others.
Yet another Gullfoss?🤔 Problem is that most of the time you don't need/want stuff to sound "flat" really, nor dynamic flat or EQ flat, because it exclusively depends on material (which ALL sounds different -and should do it!-. For that reason all these plugins are nonsense.
I'm waiting every day for you to destroy a plugin, just like you've done in the past sometimes. It seems like you've healed the market.😄Thanks a lot!
yes.. best comment in 23" 👍
Which is exactly why he does it, to Entertain rather than Inform because that gets more clicks.
Problem is, are you really Sure that X plugin is "snake oil'? Or did he just put on a performance for your entertainment, at that plugin developer's expense, and if that's the case, ultimately at your expense too.
If that Was a valuable tool for Your workflow, but you were more interested in His cynicism than your music, did he really Heal the market?
Actually soothe is the way, nothing compare, gullfoss is just too much subtle, sometimes I barely can hear the difference… pray for a low latency contender for soothe and this is an instant buy
Gulfoss is too heavy handed for me. But hey we all have different ears
I don't understand this comment when Gullfoss can go from 0 to 100...there's no "too subtle" or "too heavy handed" when there's so range in the plugin. I always start at 25 or 30 percent and go from there.
I need to clarify… gullfoss is like ok can’t ear what happen and suddenly this is too much. So when you stay in a descent zone this can be just some magic polish clarity, really love it. but clearly If i need to keep just one it will be soothe, when I use it in every case it sound really better. like i said in other comment, actually I use soothe smart eq pro.q and gullfoss almost on everything I need to correct.
That is a killer track hehe... ummm like a sandstorm
A bass band?!? OMG!!!
I have couple of AI plugins and at first it was a bless for me until I realized it rip offs the soul of the track. Yeah it may not be perfect but who/what is? Imperfections are more valuable to me lately. Though I must admit I value Wavesfactory a lot but this one does not get to me unfortunetly. The Trackspacer is a better tool for me I think.
poor Tone Empire😂😂
If gulfoss and ott had a baby