Unlike conventional EQ, these two problem solvers offer powerful spectral shaping that is time and frequency-aware. Being ideal for complex material, we put Oeksound’s magic plugins across a whole mix…
Sculpting And Fixing
Conventional parametric EQ empowers the mixer to get rid of ‘problem’ spectral content, and also to make the most of the attributes we like. With all the incredible tools available, it’s easy to give things a larger-than-life aesthetic appeal, and this has become the sound people expect to hear. On the utility side, notching out unwanted frequencies, or making room around other mix elements is a technique that most mixers couldn’t be without.
But Can EQ Fix Everything?
Because audio is a moving target, conventional EQ to this end has one noticeable disadvantage. It takes away energy in-between problem events as well. A classic example of this is the acoustic instrument that booms on a certain chord; we can EQ to cut there, but other chords will then have damaging holes in their spectra. More recently the dynamic EQ seeks to fix this with Threshold and other level and time parameters allowing the engineer to leave the good stuff alone.
Even dynamic EQ leaves us with situations where it cannot discriminate between transient events, and those longer events containing pitch information. A harsh vocal may have ‘problem’ energy at the same level and frequency that gives a kick its click, for example. In a mix processing situation, we can now zero-in using intelligent EQ tools that can discriminate between the two.
Oeksound Spiff And Soothe2
Rather than give us one enormous uber-tool to wrestle with, Oeksound have developed Spiff and Soothe2. Handling transient-aware and tonal-aware shaping respectively, they divide their considerable power and functionality between two tools, affording us the space to concentrate on a particular task. While their calming blue GUIs might appear a little austere, I appreciate the way they let the user look at the big picture. After all, what they do and allow us to control is highly complex. You can read more about their specific controls in our article demystifying their use.
Spiff handles the transient side of things, and is described by Oeksound as “an adaptive transient tool that cuts or boosts only the frequencies that make up the transient material, keeping the rest of the audio signal intact”. Although originally developed for use with voice, finding a home with many post-mixers, it is a natural tool to handle musical transients as well. It can be thought of as a kind of dynamic EQ because it is not compressing or expanding the transient portion of the signal, and is instead applying momentary EQ to fast events only.
Soothe2 is described by Oeksound as a “dynamic resonance suppressor”, also translating in use as an intelligent dynamic EQ. While it does provide compressor-style time and threshold controls to control the amount of cut at specific bands, the plugin’s emphasis is on simplicity in use as demonstrated by the large Depth control, complemented by generous graphical feedback to the right. The original Soothe plugin worked within the mid and high bands, however the wideband operation of Soothe2 makes it ideal for mix surgery as well as track taming.
Beyond EQ
In the video I cleaned up basses without losing mix weight, and smoothed out a beat’s nagging harshness without losing impact, but it doesn’t end there thanks to Spiff’s Cut or Boost modes for transients, and Soothe2’s Hard and Soft modes for radical tonal shaping. For complex material, Spiff and Soothe2 give us tools that go beyond conventional dynamic EQ, giving us clearer mixes thanks to their intelligent discrimination between time and tone.