I respect the can-do attitude. I like to know my tools and get the most out of them as well. But at the end of the day, tools are tools and results are results. If you spend days working on something manually fixing something you could have fixed by pushing one button in a plugin like Soothe you're not going to get one once of respect from anyone as a result, A, because they won't know, and B, if you happened to include a read-me with your mixes explaining how you spent days manually fixing something that you could have done by pushing one button in a plugin like Soothe most people would just think that was kind of dumb.

 

...then that person doesn't know what they are doing, and/or has a bad source recording in the first place, and could benefit from the plugin.
Which, to me, makes your comment kind of redundant.

Agreed. That would be "kind of dumb".
Interesting hypothetical scenario/strawman you have thought up.
I'd also add that the same "they" you refer to would also not necessarily know if it sounded better or not, and don't give an aviated copulation if Soothe was used or not.

 

Yes... that's the point.

 

If this was the case for most of us, would we even need Soothe?

 

No, I wouldn't think so. I don't have it so that would imply I don't need it. What I'm saying is, if it works as advertised and one can afford it then why not- all things equal, not using it just because one is somehow against solutions that are "easy" seems sort of pompous. I'll take fast and easy every time it's a viable option. Time is money.

 

I just went to Oeksound's site and they've removed their mp3 demos which is a real shame. The mp3's convinced me to download the demo after listening to a solo violin performance raw and with Soothe. A violin can sound very hard to listen to when played aggressively in some 1-2khz ranges. You can't just eq them out without effecting the entire performances sound, especially when the pitch moves out of those ranges. Soothe makes the entire thing sound even. It's not for everything. You won't use it on beats and bass, but it can solve problems. However, those problems are rare and the question remains, is it worth the price to fix something that is not a common occurrence.

 

Tried it, hate it because of the high expectations, thanks to the hype and got disappointed .

Now I'll wait for something more interesting like buying VCV for Rack ...2 times
Or 4 times Synthmaster.
Or 200 Gensis Pro (Maybe not )

 

Besides the cpu usage when you oversample x4 and in ultra, soothe really is a good plugin and there is no way you can be disappointed same applies to spiff. I won Soothe 1, 2 and Spiff and I see it as a good mastering tool.

 

But I'm disappointed.
3 different hearing environments and still very disappointed. It feels like a placebo to me.
Just because everyone says: Oh it's that good you'll need to have it doesn't mean I have to like it. For me it's just not that good.

 

What material were you using it on? It's not a betterizer plugin. It's a problem solving plugin. If your mix didn't have any resonant frequency problems, of course it's not going to do anything.

 

Exactly and if there is anything wrong in the mastering I always have some Melda and Waves Products which do the job good enough for me (I know MSpectralDynamics is different but still works pretty well on my work.)

 

You need another environment, new studio monitors? Lol. It does something you won't appreciate until after you master and bounce it but I understand what you mean.

 

The Problem is, I first thought ok on my normal PC the Speakers are just some no name cheap crap devices. If I can't hear here a difference it's just because of the bad speakers .

But on my Studio Setup, I got some Mid range 400€ speakers and got the same thing. And on my Headphones the same. Nothing really special which would justify the price.

If the Plugin would cost like 20-30 € I would say ok it's specialized in One thing (remove resonances ) I would pay for that. But If we compare It with something like Synthmaster which is a 50€ (on Sale) all in one effect and Sound designer Tool. And maybe because I like a bit of roughness on my vocals Soothe is no tool I need.

And Now think where it came from
I know that the prices there for everything are very high. Rent for a Small apartment can be 1500€ (here it's for a similar apartment 400-500€)

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 7, 2020

For me, even without trying it, t's clear that is a useful plugin. I see two interesting but different debates that shouldn't be mixed, because nobody's right or wrong. Well, almost... lol . I see the following very obvious:

1. If you aren't experienced with mixing/mastering or just don't wanna focus on that: try using Soothe, Gulffoss, Sonible and Sound Radix tools.

2. If you are experienced, or are learning to be, with mixing/mastering: don't use it. It's obvious that it would defeat the purpose of your work. And you can potentially achieve even better results.

 

I actually forgot Genesis Pro existed. That didn't take long, or the days have gotten just TOO long lately.

 

People saying "hype" haven't used Soothe properly.
True story:
I got the demo to see what all the fuss was about and messed about with a few of its presets on jobs that the preset
name suggested, and I came to the conclusion that it was a very good de-esser but not really worth shouting about.

Then, I watched a couple of tutorial videos on Youtube and learned how to use it and had another go.
Kept using it until the demo ran out then hit the credit card immediately, risking domestic upheaval and a black eye.
I'm so impressed that I'll also be buying Spiff in their Easter sale on 11th April.

Most plugins can be substituted with another developer's take on the same thing, but Soothe doesn't have any equivalents
right now. I know that Gullfoss, Melda and ProAudioDSP make plugins that do their own thing in similar ways, and I'd guess
that somebody with the skills could use Melda MXXX to adapt MSpectral Dynamics into a sort of Soothe-like gadget,
(surprised it hasn't been done yet), but for now, Soothe is peerless. Ridiculously overpriced, like most plugins, but great
nonetheless.

 

Ive never been so fully engaged in a debate here, and its not that I even think Soothe is a "must have" plugin. I can fully understand everyone here that just feels like they don't need it, Or that it is overpriced for what it does, but im just saying it performs as advertised. It works well for me. Its just another tool in my toolbox. I just don't like that some people in here are trying to make it seem as you must be a shitty mixing or mastering engineer if you choose to use it. I would argue that you would absolutely have to know how to get the same results without the so called "automation". Otherwise why would you pay for something that you don't even know what its doing. It just sounds like a grumpy old man saying "back in my day we didn't use computers, we counted on our fingers". I never thought Id see the day where we would have plugin shame.

Sincerely, A Grumpy Old Man

 

My demo just expired... I thought I could uninstall with RevoUninstaller, make a new iLok account, and reinstall, but for some reason that doesn't work (don't know why).

I tried an experiment with kick... removed some resonances to make it sound OK, then tried to get the same effect with Soothe - got maybe 50% there (but maybe too extreme of an example).

It did help with a lot of tracks, and I'm a shitty mixer. Price is really really steep though, and I suck too much to even know if it's worth it. 200 Eurpees is too much for me not being certain.

 

I might be kicking a hornets nest by saying this, but I've never understood what the big deal is with these type of plugins. No, I haven't used it, but I've been making and mixing music long enough where I feel confident enough in saying 9 times out of 10 you can achieve close to or equal results from xyz plugin by just applying basic mixing techniques.

Sure, a lot of these kind of plugins help take the guess work or automate a lot of things that would normally take a bit longer to achieve, but we're not talking rocket science here. It's just mixing music. It doesn't have to be overly complicated. No one will ever be able to pick out "Soothe" in a mix. And not having it in a mix isn't going to make your mixes any less enjoyable to anyone listening to your music. I say save your money and instead make music that is enjoyable to listen to regardless of what plugins you use.

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2020

The reason you cannot install the demo twice no matter what you do is most likely the same as it is with Neural DSP plugins. iLok scans your hardware and stores some kind of a motherboard ID on it's servers. If a demo has been installed on a computer with that motherboard your demo won't work again. So you can buy a new motherboard, install a new Windows obviously, make new accounts and install the demo. It will work then.