Oeksound SOOTHE 2 Plugin: Worth It?
Вставка
- Опубліковано 5 лип 2024
- ☛ We help audio engineers master the craft, go pro, and make an impact in the industry. Learn more about the Pro Production System at utm.guru/ue2YY
☛ Grab your FREE mixing cheatsheet and get on my list for the best audio training on the web: mixcheatsheet.com
I've been hearing about this plugin more and more over the past year or so. It's probably the most hype that a plugin has received in the audio community recently!
I was never convinced that I needed this plugin when I saw the ways people used it, but I decided to download the trial and give it a shot. Here's my honest first reaction!
![Lp. Последняя Реальность #97 ЧЁРНАЯ МАТЕРИЯ [Анти Скинт] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/k4MjXCzKsYw/mqdefault.jpg)
Love the video style!! Really stepped up with the production. Great job diving in and really assessing the plugin - seriously putting it through it's paces!
When you are recording out of your house this plugin is amazing. My overheads do not sound as good as yours after they are recorded. I think for home studio engineers this plugin can really help a lot of tracks.
I just bougth the soothe 2 in the "rent-to-own" way and I have to say it doesn't work as well as you can do it with the native eq on reaper. I bought it cuz I'm violinist and I wanted to get rid off from the harsh sound in my recordings, but if you don't have a plugin to find harsh sound like fabfilter pro q, for example, soothe 2 is kind useless:(
My 2 cents... Jordan, you have helped me in many areas of mixing that I couldn't wrap my head around but this review was a little bit disappointing... If I had ever just put an SSL Channel Strip on a track and turned a couple knobs and not really put it through its paces I would also not like an SSL Channel Strip... With that said, the place this plugin shines is in the reduction of EQ/Harmonics. If you would have taken EQ points and put them where you hear problems and not just use the default setting you would have heard different results.
One place I like to use this is as a side chain from my kick to my bass instead of a multi-band compressor. I put an EQ curve from 40 to 80hz and Soothe just slitely ducks the bass for the kick to poke through. I also use it as a side chain from guitars to bass so the bass can poke out a little. Here I put EQ curves at 500, 1k and 1.5k to hear bass runs and top end for those competing frequencies. What is nice is it only happens when needed instead of all the time.
Hope this helps, because I find it very useful as a tool just like every other tool we have in our toolboxes.
Yeah he just put it on and basically complained about it lol. He barely moved the depth knob.
Thank you so much for unmasking the hype. I said the same thing about this plugin that it simply "does not make it for me". I feel I can achieve the same if not better results with the process and plugins I already own. I mentioned it on a circle of friends who also work with audio and are part of the hype and they roasted me for saying that....I will definitely share this video with them! Thanks!!!
Same can be said for all plugins and hardware for that matter, it really depends on how and where you use it.
@@sKarredtoon Yes, any plugin or piece of hardware that does not do nor offer anything different than what one can achieve with the ones already owned is just a waste of money and time, but specially this one that seems to have such a hype for being so "magical" when it is not.
@@correametalit absolutely is if you aren't working with source material that's already perfect. It's great for home drum recordings which are always gonna sound harsh.
Hey Jordan, thanks for the review!
I'd suggest using Soothe on the cymbals only with higher sharpness value. "Matte Cymbals" preset may be a good starting point for the purpose.
Also, the mix sounds nice and punchy, it has bright higher mids range overall, so when you start taming down those frequencies on a particular part in the context of the mix, it makes the element sound less bright and less definitive.
I record a lot of classical music with a single stereo pair and then master it at home. Soothe is incredibly helpful in that scenarios. A lot of metallic percussion can be too abrasive or forward compared to other things, and soothe can push it back in the mix without the other instruments losing clarity (it takes a lot of time to get that dialed in with a multiband comp).
Also pianos can have a weird low mid resonance that can move around depending on the keys being played, and soothe again can take care of this much better than any multiband comp.
Just my two cents!
I totally agree with you from a theoretical point of view since I haven't used so far, I just downloaded it. The reason I want to try it is because I get a lot of build up resonances from Horns, or Oboes, just to mention something; also strings. I think this could be the solution to clean up those tracks since in classical music definition is a great deal.
@@yamielsuarez6472 Yes it can be very helpful in that case! Although I find often if I'm using a lot of soothe then I'm relying too much on the direct mics and not enough on the mains (or the mains were not well placed)
That’s a good indicator
Works great on cymbals you recorded in your basement with your buddies 10 years ago before you knew how to mic anything
Lmao this dude
Well, it is a nice plugin for bad mixes. I think the better way is trying to make good mixes
Definitely a good tool to have in your arsenal. Especially if you’re like me, and predominately mix and can’t always attest to the quality of the tracks being given to you.
@@najinelson6742 Could use it within the mix on each track needed while mixing to tame resonances before Eqing.
You should read the manual or see a instructional video about it's features. You only used 1/5 of this tool functionality. It can go way deeper in laser focusing the problems of the signal if you know what buttons to push(or move, in this case).
yeah, this was NOT a good demonstration of Soothe2, mostly because he didn't understand the controls. Particularly the frequency range control.
This.
1/5? no.
As he says, he only spent 10 minutes with the plugin. Blatantly shows that he doesn't know how to use it and insists that his mixes are too good to benefit from it. Pointless video imo.
@@JeremyRobberechts you have to understand that Jordan's technique is getting the tracks good just from the recording process so his source tracks usually don't have problems that require these types of plug ins. So this plug in is definitely is not for him.
cool trick to try using is the sidechain function.. throw soothe on a synth / guitar group that is fighting the vocal and key off the vocal into soothe.
If you have time to, try to use some more of their presets as opposed to the default setting. Outside of cymbals, guitars and vocals, try using it in very very slight amounts on the master bus. I find that it just makes it a but more ear friendly (it's one of those last 2% moves). Great video, cheers!
If you have problems with harsh cymbals try TDR Slick EQ and use the eq and output saturation in conjunction with some cutting in the harsh area.
The wet/dry knob goes a long ways if it's doing too much. You can also play with sensitivity and boosting a tad more to get the frequencies you're after.
Great video man! thanks. Could you do a review of Soundthoery Gulfoss EQ?
You can see it more and more used by the most professional engineers. I am a URM Academy member for years now and I seen it in action plenty of times. It is definitely a problem solver that sounds super transparent when you know how yo use it but once again.. you need to have a problem first otherwise it will just screw up your mix big time!
God, my room mic would definitely need it, when I compress it hard it gets harsh with some whistling frequencies.
@@francismcfadden3305 not really, sometimes you want at least one room mic to be explosive snare mic, so you may want to use heavy compression there. There's no such thing as "odd thing to do"
@@francismcfadden3305 I only have a mono one. I do it so it can pump and bring out the body of the drums.
@@camdendebruin6667 Also you can use a muliband to reach almost te same spot! See this video> ua-cam.com/video/8z4X8WZv33s/v-deo.html
Appreciate the vid dude! I feel like a lot of reviewers are getting too excited about this one without seriously considering whether they'd actually use it 3 months from now. I would however recommend you try blind testing with this plugin - that way your going off what you think sounds better. Also I think beside it not touching dissonant or tonally unpleasant frequencies I think the problem is what is actually defines as 'harsh'. it has a sensitivity knob which is good but yet I wonder how it's discerning which sounds are objectively not as good as others.
Just an observation. When the music itself is in-your-face, which some people may term as 'harsh' and kick drum and kit is head-bashing thrash metal.... well, there's not a lot of subtlety to start with. If you approach it like a conventional ratio-threshold compressor you'll get it wrong nearly every time. It's a resonance reducer. It's clever if you follow the manual. As someone said, you should have read the manual because how you used it was never the intention of the developers. It's closer to Gulfoss though not quite the same and if you approach it as pure compression then you'd be better off looking at it like an Aphex Compellor as it's designed to be transparent. not designed to remove anything other than transients that won't go away with conventional transient EQ cutting/damping.
I gotta agree, even though some of my favorite engineers love Soothe, I don’t get much use out of it on rock mixes. I will add, the best use for it I’ve found is in sound design. It’s quite useful there, where you have to really carve space in these huge sounds.
Great video dude, have never really understood the hype about Soothe 2 so was cool to see you use it and share your thoughts about it! Also interested to know who the band is/what the song is in the video as its a really heavy sick track?! Would be cool to see a video about your thoughts on cool drum/guitar/vocal fx and how you would go about creating something like the guitar effect at 6:00 in this video, always been interested and intrigued by creation of such fx to create more impact on the listener!
This is something I'd use in vocals a lot. Most of my mixes are ruined because of my unability to spot and adequately adress vocal resonances. My mixing room is untreated, so this AI or whatever could possibly hear what I can't.
It just sounded bad in your test because you had a very well mixed vocal already and of course it would throw it off the rails.
You really gotta learn how to use this one, it's deceptive to get it to behave in the most optimal way. For some of those harshness cuts you made on the guitar, for example, having a much more narrow Q, high pass & low pass for that area, switch to hard mode, turn the sharpness up, and tap the depth just enough to get just what you want. Use delta mode to hear what you're taking out. This plugin is a godsend for someone like me who mixes home-recorded material for other people. You are right about people using it too widely though, for sure
Thank you so much mate what a good review
You never had harsh frequencies on cymbals? Thats unbelievable actually
I think he meant he’s never had harsh cymbals where he couldn’t tame the harshness and fit them into the mix with tools he already owns. That’s how I took it at least
@@aarons6617he didn't say anything like that. In fact, what he said was kinda the opposite of that
Man knows his gain staging for cymbals
Cymbals are meant to be harsh. Just turn them down.
I totally agree your points in general, but still with Soothe u can have total control on the frequency range pulling up the dots where you want the filters work, now you are using the same preset for different problems, of course it cleans up 4k if your highest dot is set around there. This plugin is just an amazingly detailed dynamic eq, it does what you tell it to do.
Really did not see THAT Song coming after the intro xD 😂🤘🏽
Next up: Gullfoss by Soundtheory! :-)
this please
It's kinda decent but takes the punch out of the material you feed it afaik. could be transient smearing, I'm not quite sure tho! But yeah I'm interested to hear other takes too
If you know to mix properly you do not need plugins like this, soothe and gullfuss sound too artificially to me anyway and I do not intend to support such a greedy scandinavian pricing...
@@najinelson6742 I agree. Gulfoss especially. It does a horrible job on vocals...it's absolutely useless.
@@matrixate Gullfoss is amazing when used correctly. Learn how to use it.
More importantly how did you make that guitar stutter/tape slowdown effect???
i noticed that you didn't raise any of the other nodes apart far from the default red one thats raised. unless they have completely changed the ui in the 2nd version, basically, raising the dotes gets it to do more in that area, so in some cases when it wasn't doing much to the higher end, there was an additional dot in the higher end you didn't raise and therefore didn't hear it doing anything coz you didn't tell it to
Check out Spliff. It’s from Oeksound too. It’s a frequency targeted transient designer. Pretty cool actually. You might find more uses for that one.
Thank you Jordan! How about taking a look at the DeBleeder plug in by Wilkinson Audio. Jens Bogren has spoken highly of it for cleaning up drum mic bleed.
You can move the other nodes in order to soothe the upper frequencies.
Great video. I think the concept of this plugin is incredible but it doesn't look as if it is there yet. A cool feature would be to have the option to add some colour back in to the track after you adjust how much harsh freq you are cutting out. maybe the third Gen of this plugin will be a bit better.
Which artist and song is it when the guitar demonstration begins?
I use it sometimes. It really depends on the source material on how harsh it is, especially on cymbals and guitars.
Those are some hellish guitar riffs man
My bro it sounds like you really know how to mix (this isn't sarcasm), so demonstrating this on an already good mix even if bypassing existing processing in comparison to using the plug in for the first time it's not the most objective review.
I definitely don't see this as a necessity for people who know how to track and mix really well, but to a lot of serious producers who lack knowledge in getting things at the source OR being handed imperfect tracks this thing can be a godsend if utilized correctly.
Another thing to note is that this thing is incredibly easy to mis-use.. I've had to give my ears a rest to realize I killed a whole track in the mix by using this and had to either dial back or realize it wasn't necessary in the moment. But when I use it correctly this thing can be a beast!
Despite not agreeing with your review, your mixing knowledge as demonstrated in this vid has definitely earned you a sub.
on that voice it was up to -12 cut! and you wonder why it does not sound better? would you use an EQ cutting -12 at this stage in the mix expecting it to sound better?
@Jordan: on a side note - what is the band called owning the song you are testing it with?
I second this question! I was scrolling down to see if anyone asked or knew.
ua-cam.com/video/XScSP-KNDzc/v-deo.html
I liked what it did on the guitars but it seems like if you know how to properly eq it wouldn't be that necessary. I do think it could be a pretty good time saver though. It did a lot of the eq cuts you wanted right from the default in the plugin so maybe if you need to send a quick mix to someone it might be worth using it for that. I'm also interested to see what it could do to the top end of a heavily distorted bass tone.
☛ Grab your FREE mixing cheatsheet and get on my list for the best audio training on the web: www.mixcheatsheet.com
I didn't really see you adjust the sensitivity of the frequency bands, just the depth, sharpness and selectivity. In regards to the drum room mic (and possibly other sources), it would have made sense to use one of the frequency bands to increase its sensitivity in that lower midrange that you were initially cutting with the EQ (like how you can see the red frequency band is boosted a little over 4kHz) to cut resonances in that frequency area.
I know what you mean, though; I, too, didn't really understand Soothe or think I needed it initially, but it is incredibly helpful. I find it great for getting rid of brash cymbal wash in room mics when compressing hard.
it worked great with telephone vocal effects as they are usually harsh around the 4-6k area, immediately cleans up with soothe2!
Can someone tell me which song is it.? The snare sounds amaizing
For the love of god use the delta button!! this plugin is great if you use it the same way a lot of people use saturation, just a little bit here and there
If I put it as the first plugin and from the get go it helps tame the frequencies that may become more troublesome after equing and compressing. It helps me get faster to the result desired. And on vocals a I can get them to be much brighter, becuse it controls first those frequencies that would not help me get that much brightness. But I don’t use it on everything. Last time it saved me was in a string arrangement where the recording was terrible on the mid range, put a soothe on each mic channel and instantly they sounded warmer. And that let me then put more air and brightness on them.
you can use the Mix knob to introduce more dry in the signal, and or you can use the Depth knob to dial in how much you want Soothe to do. should try that
Works wonders for bass music
good honest view man, I can't see me rushing to get this either
Interesting vid thanks for making it
it is a plugin which can only cut. that's why i like it. if it lower something a bit and the sound doesn't hardly changes / get worse, it does a good job. it unobtrusively creates space for something else.
Hey man, you should spend some more time with it - check out the presets by - and check it on the mix bus - also, it's different for different genres - check it out on pop and indie, it does a really nice job smoothing out everything (vocals, drums, piano...)
On 12:00 min if you want the low end to be affected, you have to “assign” the dots (bands) in soothe2 to where you want it to work! The red frequency band around 4/6K is “boosted” aa you can see. The higher the dot, the heavier that frequency range will be affected by soothe2. Does that explaination make sense?
TL;DR the 100Hz you wanted to be “removed” was not affected by the plug-in, which you didnt hear a difference...
I have been waiting to get this for a while now. The reason i haven't pulled the trigger on it is because a lot of what this plugin does can be done with a compressor and an EQ. Although I feel that this could speed up your work flow, you end up with the sound of sooth NOT you. if there's anyone out there who is actually trying to have their own signature sound then you have to do what YOU would do. it will take longer to not be a copy cat but in the long run you end up with a sound no one else has. which is half the reason we (as musicians play music in the first place
It is also introducing audible latency in your playback, and that timing is going to effect the overall perception of the value.
wat
The RX suite by Izotope is a really great set of cleanup plugins. The RX mouth de click is incredible for spoken word and vocals, for dry mouths specifically. It's efficacy is well worth the nearly imperceptible loss. Soothe seems cool, I might give it a go.
Surprised you didn't try any of the presets or play with the mix knob.
I've been demo'ing and can see the hype. But it's expensive and I was able to adequately approximate it with a dynamic eq. I'm not sure I would've identified the problem frequencies on my own, at least not as quickly, but I can wait for a holiday sale. 😁
hi friend the video look so nice ! What cam are you using ? Thanks !
Thank you!
Hey Jordan, Can you maybe check out the SuferEQ from SoundRadix.. Would be keen to see what your take is on it.
I had a similar experience. The plugin is impressive. I think it's especially good for saving time if you need to get a result that's ~good enough~ really fast, and especially if what you're using it on is going to get mixed up in a big soup with a dozen other sound sources, so you don't need perfection. But I find I can always do better if I put in the time working manually with a combination of conventional static and dynamic EQs. (And yes, that is with carefully tweaking all the Soothe settings.) This is in the context of voiceover at least. That being said, another plugin called Spiff, by the same company, is amazing and indispensable for me.
How to make effect at 6:28 (some kind of dj glitch)?
I’m a musician. Maybe it’s just me, but I use Soothe 2 primarily as a subtractive tool to reduce *subtle* unwanted resonances on a track or final mix. Given the genre of the music tested in this video and the continued use of only the default preset (there are many more available in the purchased product) I can understand the reviewer’s inability to note any significant valuable differences when engaging this plugin on his tracks.
Be curious your thoughts on Reso
Hey! Cool video, yeah I've seen the hype and don't quite getting. A lot of companies seem to be able to build a lot of hype around some plugins and then suddenly make you feel like you need to own it or you'll be behind in the game... right...
So actually I have a request, if possible. I already own a suite of Izotope plugins, which I love, and way before the hype on Soothe started out, there was the Sculptor plugin in Neutron and the Spectral Shaper plugin in Ozone, which seem to do kind of similar things to Soothe, but I cadnnot find a single video comparing them or even having them in the same video. Would you be willing to test those out or do a comparison ?
Thanks! Love your videos. Keep up the good work!
Hey Jordan! What camera do you use to record videos? thank u
I would like to know as well!! Looked very professional and I much prefer this style of video, instead of the smartphone selfie camera vids
For me SOOTHE 2 and his brother SPIFF is very good on solving bad mic issues. Popping lo-mids and sibilances, or bunch of hi-mids on back vocals which record with one Shure Beta 58a are no problem now.
Should have tried a few of the presets rather than the default setting to learn how it can be focused! That said, it's best used if you have a problem. I had a particularly ringy snare that I tried everything to fix. This was the only thing that worked without swampping the whole snare sound!
Seriously. He went in with a bad attitude and didn't even try most of the plugin's features. He comes off like an ultra privileged prick.
Thanks for the review, but it can do much more. Actually I only use it with sidechain, and I think it changes everything. For example, to make kick drum more readable by accurate cutting its frequencies on bass, exactly at the moment when it hits. Or cutting out snare hits from overheads.
I respect your work ...but hav you ever tried getting guitars as rich as eric rutan in like his playthrough at his studio video? Im 10 months haven't nailed it maybe his analog desk is contributing? Can you giv input?
It's not for just slapping on to make things sound better, it's a tool to address a specific problem, and it does that really well when it's needed
Smart! that's a pro approach👍
It's definitely better on tracks where you want to make it smoother and more balanced and not stand out as much. Or where you want to bring out more detail without it sounding too compressed. But yeah, if you want something to stand out in the mix those higher frequency peaks are ideal. I bet on acoustic guitar it's amazing. It would let you control the lows, mids, and highs separately and really bring out the detail of the guitar where you want there to be detail and lightly compress it in a way that's really pleasing.
I feel like using a lot of good mics and good analog equipment in the signal chain naturally fixes this. Having a good mic pre with good transformers and using a good tube compressor and something like the DIYRE Colour modules will all help smooth out those peaks in a musical and harmonic way directly in the original recording. But I guess not everyone has $2000 to drop on every channel and that's possibly where this plugin comes it - to fix problems with the original recording from cheaper signal chains.
Did you end up using this any more? You mentioned you tried it out for 10 minutes or so. Curious if you gave up on it.
Jason, can you tell us what your computer rig is and how it is optimized?
His name is Jordan ;)
Yup screwed that’s up 😐 sorry Jordan.
My OCD gets too nervous about what it’s doing to the signal lol
Your vocals absolutely popped out of the mix with Soothe on! Maybe you could of dialled back a bit on the depth!
it makes spread up to those sharp freq so they get smoother, hmmmm nice
Great video! Thanks for this! Auto subscription!
It’s amazing for sound design
It's no Gulfoss. That's for sure, though the 2 plugins serve slightly different purposes. It'll do nothing to improve the sound of your VST libraries. I do throw it on my master with default settings and the mix sounds slightly cleaner, so it's good for that.
Bitter Sweet 3 crushes this plugin. It instantly makes your drums more punchy or guitars more clear.
Now this comment I can agree with, hehe - I just picked Bitter Sweet up. Haven't tried it much yet, but seems awesome!
Also speaking of secret weapons, try u-he Satin, the only tape sim (and so much more) you need.
I had satin. IK tape machine collection is better to me.
I can't hear enough of a difference. With the hype i expected more.
but hav it.. and see i many top producers using it to vocals, not to drums!!
yeah on rap vocals this is god, use this as the subtractive eq and then you can easily put your addative eq to shape the tone, so using this and some other eq after is god mode
okay giveaway time, i might need that soothe though :) coz i am suck at mixing
Female vocals and acoustic guitars at where it shines for me. Or if I have a problem in the mids on a male vocal. But I will say if you have any kind of dynamic EQ/multi band compression (pro q, waves f6, etc..) AND you know what you’re doing, then you probably don’t need soothe.
why is the snare so thin?
I feel like on some overheads it doesn’t need it, but alot of tracks I’ve had would have definitely benefitted from it
just use any free de esser plugin really.
What's the name of the band and track PLS?
I found it!
ua-cam.com/video/XScSP-KNDzc/v-deo.html
I bought it years ago and have used it a handful of times. It’s a cpu hog and seems to occasional cause latency on a track during playback even with delay compensation on. It seems to be a magical plugin but in practice it becomes more of a hassle to use for me. I have not used 2 though.
Your mix on Interval's a voice within would have needed this plugin. I mean, the album sounds killer but a bit harsh on the cymbals... a bit unpleasant to my ears..
I hear you but that sounds like a case of just turning the cymbals down a touch.
That riff and Guitar tone is spicy as hell. love it. Thanks for the demonostration.
the attack parameter is one of the most important
I would say leaving the plugins on after the effect makes this difficult to judge. You made the calls in the original mix with the sound you had, but you are changing that sound before it hits the plugins. Just a thought, as I have no feelings one way or the other about Soothe. Just seems an oversight on how this, or any plugin operates.
“I haven’t dealt with any OH tracks that were harsh or have I applied surgical EQ cuts on them.”
Meanwhile, ALL of the few mixes I’ve done so far have featured recordings where drummers are crashing the living shit out of 22 inch AAX’s, which for one reason or the other, were captured at a very close distance.
So yeah, if you get good sources from your customers, good for you. If you get 4k and 5k resonant monster tracks, Soothe is really the way to go and the hype is justified.
This is the saddest aspect of mixing tutorials on UA-cam, most of their raw tracks spund amazing to begin with
@@LoganCovers91 because they do record with pro musician in a pro studio.
What's the band/song?
Found it! ua-cam.com/video/XScSP-KNDzc/v-deo.html
check out DSEQ by TB pro audio otherwise for an alternative for less money, it's not a clone but has a similar application
would be great to see a video on Gullfoss as well, i've used the trial on some mixes recently, made a nice difference but you can also really screw your mixes with it
Multi band compressor, fast attach and release, jobe done.
use is , also on vocals . after it pultec kind of eq boost
No doubt it's a good at what it does and loads of respected engineers tout it. The big question is: If you have $219.00 to spend on improving your mixes or studio. is this where you would spend it?
I'm sure the answer is subjective to the individual and most Professional Engineers spend crazy money on minimal gains, but for the Home studio enthusiast The law of diminished returns is a real thing. Anyway if it goes on sale again I might think about it but then again the DSEQ looks like it does similar things for a lot less not on sale
How can you have never heard a harsh resonant frequency in your overheads? Sometimes overheads are like daggers for your ears.
Honestly thought the overheads in this were harsh. Not sure what he's not hearing.
I did not think these were that bad, maybe a little bit of dynamic eq would help but not all recordings are done with the right mic for the job if you know what I mean(especiallybudget recordings). It could also be different listening set ups.
@@Matt-hn1qb oh no it's not bad necessarily, but it definitely could use some work. Those vocal tracks however have some serious issues. At least to my ear. There's a heavy compression that muffles some of the lyrics (possibly also poor enunciated line) and a bad pitch correction on it. I can hear through where they tried to fix it, but honestly if i was the vocalist that would have been a deleted take.
The cymbal harshness is mostly unnoticeable with the full mix, was really just wondering why he said he never hears it unless this wasn't his.
I see that you didn't set up it correctly, that's why you don't like the results you're hearing. On overheads it's really great for taming some harsh frequencies sparingly (only on some harsh sounding crash hits for example) + on vocals it's great for removing muddiness (but you need to emphasize the muddy range in soothe "eq" section and set hi cut around 600Hz + deactivate low cut). It's also cool for getting rid of some jumping out lower notes on a piano or harsh tambourines. On the drum bus sometimes it's cool for making whole drums sound more polished. Also, on a kick drum if the click on the attack part is kinda harsh it can make it sound pleasing. It's very cool plugin in my opinion and I use it on most mixes however it's working lightly and with sharpness below 4 mostly. It sounds phasey and as if there are some artifacts when I go further than 5.