Gullfoss vs Soothe 2 vs Smooth Operator vs Teote vs DSEQ 3
In this blog you’ll learn about the similarities and differences between Oeksound’s Soothe 2, Soundtheory’s Gulfoss, Baby Audio’s Smooth Operator, Voxengo’s Teote and tb-software’s DSEQ 3
5 plugins which do resonance suppression, dynamic eq and mix fixing.
The links to the individual plugins are in the bottom of the blog as well.
Also the video just below will go over this as well with many soundexamples.
Resonance Suppression
They all do smoothing, they are often compared.But they all are different and have their specific strengths and skill set.
What these 5 plugins have in common is that they all do resonance suppression in one way or the other.
I have found a improv freejazz vibraphone track which has a lot of dynamics and resonances.
Ideal to test the 5 plugins for their resonance suppression.
Oeksound Soothe 2 does a really good job at reducing the vibraphone resonances without much tweaking.
When I turn up the dial fully I can basically remove the entire vibraphone which leaves just these drums. Impressive.
Gulfoss does resonance suppression well, but not as precise as soothe 2. If you get past 100% here it start to sound like the vibraphone is somewhat that choking.
DSEQ removes more of the low end in default.
it really pays off to have the AI learn the audio and to dive in the sensitivity bands to get the resonance suppression results you’re after.
I can also remove the vibraphone as I could with Soothe2, maybe even more.
Teote does resonance supressing more subtle then the previous three and also adds immediately a sound. So it sounds somewhat different. It does reduce the resonances to an extend but of course not as much as DSEQ or Soothe 2.
Smooth Operator requires to set the frequency threshold immediately, and with this vibraphone it will supress resonances, but it sounds more choked then with the previous 4.
Now this isn’t the main function of this plugin, but Smooth Operator can work well, if not too extreme for just resonance suppression.
Soothe 2 and DSEQ are purely resonance suppressors and it’s clear that these two perform the best by a distance in comparison to the other three.
Auto Balancing and Mix Fixing
Auto balancing, mix fixing and mix improving are also a key feature of these plugins.
It may be clear that these 5 plugin do it differently.
Soothe 2 and dseq use resonance suppression and harshness removal to improve an overall mix. While the other three add frequency balancing features to shape your mix and tracks even more.
In the video, I did a quick comparison with my own voice.
Soothe 2 will do a quicker smoother sound on my voice then DSEQ 3 right out of the box and by going to Vocengo Teote, my voice will sound more finished.
The real, more finished sounds happen in Smooth Operator and most of all gullfoss which sounds most polished.
Of course when you dive in more then I just did you can get a better result probably.
Now when using the plugins on the masterbus the results may be different again.
For DSEQ3 the same applies as before.
And with the resonance suppression, letting the AI work really benefits the overall sound.
By going in adjusting the separate bands for sensitivity you can really dial in where you want the plugin to work.
It helps to compensate the output volume and play with the mix control to get a huge improvement on the masterbus.
Soothe 2 is instantly working well, and also needs a bit of output boost to compensate for the frequency reduction. It helps to work subtle with Soothe 2 on the master and have the sharpness and selectivity dialled up and use soft and not the hard setting.
Teote is the first of the three who do mix fixing and multiband dynamics to really adjust the audio to a sort of ideal sound.
Teote has many choices in sound and ideal eq curves and as you can hear it really finalises the mix.
Smooth operator is the most suitable for extremer, sound sculpting settings and works well on the master bus if used with care.
Gullfoss now actually features a special mastering version which is part of the regular install.
All controls are a lot more precise in comparison to the other gullfoss versions.
By adjusting the settings you don’t notice a big change right away, unless you bypass or adjust the boost.
Then you really notice the change.
Gullfoss is by far the most smooth and musical on the masterbus of all 5.
So for mix fixing or adding that finalizing touch you best can choose Teote, Smooth operator or Gullfoss. With DSEQ and Soothe 2 you probably want to add some extra eq after.
Gullfoss is the most musical and transparent of them all.
Teote and Smooth operator add more color and are more present withtheir processing.
Conclusion:
If you’re only looking for noise suppression and harshness reduction DSEQ3 and Soothe 2 are the obvious ones you need. Soothe 2 is the one to choose for fast result and an instant smooth sound.
DSEQ 3 can also achieve that, but needs a bit more work but also offers more flexibility and functions.
For overall mix improving you cant go wrong with Gullfoss for musical an transparent processing, Teote and Smooth operator are more hands on although they also can work more transparently if you want.
Teote, Soothe 2 and DSEQ offer oversampling while Smooth Operator and Gullfoss don’t.
Some of you might find this an issue, I don’t really. I use my ears when I mix and if it sounds good, it sounds good.
Price wise there are some huge differences when there’s not a sale happening.
The links to the plugins are in the description below, also often they are in sales for way less money then I just showed.
The plugins have their own separate video review where I go way more in depth on each of the plugins.
Watch them in the playlist displayed on screen right now, or the link in the description and pinned comment.
Don’t forget to subscribe and like this video, I’ll see you in the next one.
Get the plugins here: Baby Audio Smooth Operator: Plugin Boutique : https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/16-EQ/7565-Smooth-Operator/?a_aid=5f3b0b4e8b099 Adsr sounds: https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/software/baby-audio-smooth-operator-intelligent-signal-balancer/#a_aid=whitenoisestudio
Voxengo Teote: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/53-Multi-Effect-/6986-Voxengo-TEOTE /?a_aid=5f3b0b4e8b099
TB Proaudio DSEQ 3: https://www.tbproaudio.de/products/dseq
Oeksound Soothe 2: https://oeksound.com/plugins/soothe2/
Soundtheory Gullfoss: https://www.soundtheory.com/home
