oeksound Soothe2 is a plugin in its league. You can look at it like an intelligent dynamic EQ that automatically detects resonances on any kind of sound source, and attenuates them based on a series of settings you can dial in with its parameters.
It does the job you’d do with multiple instances of a dynamic compressor, more hassle, in more time, and probably with poorer results.
GUI
The GUI at first looks like a parametric EQ. We can split it into two main parts: the parameters module and the spectrum module.
The parameters module on the left is designed to set the overall behavior of the plugin.
We have a big depth knob that controls how much gain reduction is being applied to the signal.
Then, several controls help us determine how surgical or musical we want the attenuation to be, the speed at which the gain reduction kicks in and out, plus a few common settings like M/S or L/R, channel link, balance, Dry/Wey, trim, delta, bypass, oversampling, and sidechain.
The spectrum module on the right looks like a parametric EQ. Here you can set multiple nodes, and each of these nodes allows the user to set how sensitive Soothe2 should be in that frequency range. So, it works like the sidechain filter section of a compressor.
The preset library is easy to navigate.
On the top right, we have the undo/redo buttons, A/B, and A to B options.
How I use it
The most notable uses I’ve found for this plugin are 5:
- controlling sibilances on vocals
- de-mudding the bass
- shaping the snare/clap
- little touches on the instruments bus
- taming nasty high end on the drum group (when it can’t be dealt with on individual channels)
Conclusion
As far as I can tell, this plugin is irreplaceable.
I love how easy to understand it is. Even though I’ve heard of it and watched a few examples online, I never really paid attention to the controls, so I was a complete noob when I first opened it, and the learning curve hasn’t been steep at all.
The preset library offers many ideas for implementing it in your mixes.
If you’d ever want to invest in a third-party plugin, Soothe2 is among those few options on the market that instantly pays off the money spent on it.
Here you can buy oeksound Soothe2
