I Tested Every Spectral EQ Plugin: Who Wins?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
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At the end of the day, the best plugin for you is the one that helps you give your mix the feeling you’re looking for. You can all test these with the free demos and come to your own conclusions
Nobody listening on Spotify is gonna notice which resonance suppressor you reduced a muddy piano with. They only notice the feeling that a song gives them
I think the music production community on TH-cam needs to relax a bit and remember that^
I love making these vids, none of them are sponsored, and I appreciate anyone who’s interested in them or finds them helpful. Let’s get back to having fun making music
So true. We use what we have at the time and hope for the best. I started my Career on Pro tools 5. Stock plugins, there were very few 3rd party software plugin companies. Waves, Focusrite, Oxford a few others. I started w stock pro tools plugs, then slowly moved to waves, and everything else that followed. In some ways, I would learn that some of the stock plugins did better than I rearlized. So this changed me early on, to not neglect the basic tools before Fab Filter eqs, Resonant Freq, reductions, multi band compression etc...
as much as i appreciate all the limitless hours spent explaining the science behind every plugin and feature, it made me lost the love of making music because I know there will always be toooo much to learn, no matter how u learnt.
I believe there is a threshold, and nobody talks about that.
Even though mixing was always my favorite part alongside writing music, I started to feel so lazy and unmotivated just because of the amount of plugins/concepts/ideas i was exposed to. Sometimes, I get a vocal track with like 19 plugins, just for the vocal to sound better RAW at the end. So I just close my DAW and keep feeling bad for knowing too much (if it makes sense).
@@mbayasi I hear you but less is more can go a long way.
@@pocket1684 that’s true, but you always be like, what if i add this or do this instead, you lose all the motivation:/
@@mbayasi I hear you. I've gone through all of it. I studied every top engineer, and while most will tell you what works for them might not work for you, at a certain point you start to realize its not so much about having every plugin but more so limiting yourself to work w whats comfortable for you and what works. I've done so many shootouts w every plugin I own, that I started getting rid or usings certain plugins and I also found that some of the free plugins that came w my DAW are sometimes just as good or better. Keep your head up. It can be overwhelming for sure.
The best thing about Fab Filter Pro Q4 is that it's basically 3 EQ's in 1 and that comes in handy when you want to be efficient with producing.
it's such a workhorse and so fast to work with, best BF buy for me this year!
Would suggest adding a third category - sound quality. I would be willing to jump through hoops if the quality were superior.
Bingo this test is incomplete
Yeah I should have taken more time to add that. The sound quality does definitely matter more when you get into vocal mixing or bigger changes. The only ones that noticeably sounded worse to me are Reso, dove, and smooth operator
But my view about these plugins is when someone listens to your mix on Spotify, they’re really not gonna hear a difference if you reduce a couple dB’s of low-mids with SpecCraft vs Soothe vs DSEQ3 vs any of these other plugins. That’s why I think UI is important to be able to get ideas from your head into your mix as fast as possible without interrupting creative flow
@@BigZMusic Excellent point. I'm with you in thinking a person listening through AirPods might not pick up all the nuances of my careful mix!
So that brings up a good point I've been meaning to ask someone - what aspects of a mix really matter? How far should I go to get that perfect reverb? Should I mix only on AirPods? Etc.
Thanks again for the vid - it's made me think...
@@splitrockmusic Yeah that's interesting to think about. Cause you're right, quality obviously matters to a certain degree but the average listener will only notice the overall balance and not the small technical changes. I think all the small changes in a mix do add up to make it sound good in the end. So if it's possible to do that without losing sight of the bigger picture of how the mix makes you feel then it's probably good to mainly make changes based on feeling and how things translate across different speaker systems
@@BigZMusictruth.
I've done similar test. Keep in mind that before doing so I was using Melda Spectral Dynamics for couple of years. When it comes to sound quality nothing beats Melda, hands down. It's the most professional tool out of all of them. But yes, the interface, GUI are not user friendly at all, you need some time to learn this plugin properly. And also it's not quick to use, I agree with that. But when it comes to sound quality Melda has no competition
Thank you, a really comprehensive overview. I am not sure if the sound quality was considered adequately and how it sounds might be subjective after all. However, Its a great start to do your own reasearch knowing what you can skip right out front.
There's just no reason not to have pro-q 4. So glad they added spectral. Anything I can do to reduce the amount of plugins I use is crucial for me.
MAN I LOVE YPUR CONTENT ❤️🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
Plan to get Pro Q 4 somewhere down the line but decided to grab the Waves Curves Equator for like $35 and honestly? Not disappointed so far.
Soothe2 + Spec Craft - THE BEST! ... natural and nothing artificial / good video
Baby Audio is actually a Spectral Compressor. Thats why the Compressionhub.
You've basically summed up the last few years of my life in a short video. Years back I auditioned DSEQ3 and Soothe 2 and went for DSEQ3 as I thought it sounded a bit better (and was much cheaper) and that's been all I've had. But I tried Speccraft a few months back and after demoing it for a couple of week I bought it because the UI for DSEQ3 is awful and I couldn't wait to see if it was ever going to be updated. I don't think Speccraft sounded better than DSEQ3 but I got to where I wanted to be so much quicker.
Then Pro Q4 came out and I demoed that and wondered if Speccraft was a mistake. I'm still holding back on upgrading to Pro Q4 but when I do (and I'm sure I will do at some point) it will be for the resonance stuff because it's very nice to have that as an option in my main eq plugin.
Tokyo Dawn Records Nova EQ GE should be here too. Great video man!
it's not about the plugin, it's about the "track" - bravo big z!
Good overall comparison. SpecCraft seems pretty capable. If I didn't already own Pro-Q 4 and was satisfied with it, I'd probably give SpecCraft a shot over the others. Soothe is great an all, but it's iLok and I never purchase PACE/iLok plugins.
I'm a newb who recently bought Soothe 2, & fab filter pro q4. After reading about the two on youtube, I determined that soothe 2 would be my go to and I probly wouldn't use FFQ4 much. I was wrong. I couldn't get soothe 2 to improve my sound, and it just made it worse. But with FFQ4 it only took a few minutes to realize a better sound, particularly with their presets. I concluded that soothe 2 was for reducing bad sounds, but I just redo bad sounds before EQ. Maybe I'll have a different opinion after I use them more?
I pretty much agree with you, however, in I do think Soothe 2, Bloom and others can be useful, but I go by the song, instrument etc... Sometimes each of these will do the trick or sometimes its combination and using these things in subtle manners while trying to use the proper eqs, compressors etc...to et the sound right w/o these tools, sometimes those resonant frequencies, or dynamics might be needed even if they rae introducing some flawed harmonics. I've cleaned some mixes up the point of losing excitement. Some types of music, instruments might be really out of control, other times maybe its better to keep the harmonics and or use saturation. Or simple subtractive eq, or multiband compressors.
your last track "Lost" is amazing !!!! An extended version for dj mix soon ?
I would have liked a comparison of the sound
Great review, but what about the sound?
SpecCraft you can adjust the Q with just mousewheel :)
I use SpecCraft, Soothe, and MSpectralDynamics in my mixing... Soothe for the rough things (kick/bass sidechain for example when I don't want to duck the whole bass away), SpecCraft for the precision work that may be needed, and Melda's when I need full control of the attack and release behavior to make it sound right. I have a bunch more that you showed here, but they get no use unless I'm feeling adventurous and have a bit of a sunk cost fallacy issue going on... :P
In general though, spectral compression is something you should only use when it's actually needed. In most cases it's not. It's an "issue fixer" tool, not a general purpose tool.
Do you ever use other DAWs for different use cases? specifically Ableton, Pro Tools, or even PreSonus Studio One?
Gotta admit since I stumbled upon speccraft I think I'm sold. It's everything I wanted out of soothe and more.
I love you video's-!! they are very simple and smart.
First what you need doing - check what this plugins do with the signal
Got Speccraft during their introductory price, couldn't be happier. It's 89$ now, can't see the reason to pay for Soothe when Speccraft really does everything Soothe does and more.
There is another resonance suppressor called Florah by Ewen Bristow that you might not be aware of because he is a small developer. I would be interested to know your thoughts if you have the time to look at it
I tested this and couldn't get a good result, but I may not know what I'm doing.
I have that and the full paid version. Cpu intense even more if you side chain it. He needs to add quality options (oversimplified and cpu lite m9des)
9:57 The frequency curve is already set, several points are on the screen for whatever reason and you gave it a 10/10. I smell a bias here. Next hiccup at 24:10 for giving soothe an 8. You can‘t change parameters on different bands and can‘t lift the bands up overall while suppressing but criticize that ProQ4 can‘t be „that“ smooth on the bands. You know it also has a normal dynamic EQ mode (and also M/S and sidechain) … right? Having to set up multiple instances of a plugin to get results is a big flaw in comparison. The last plugin is good but i also have the feeling you pushed it a bit to the top. I don‘t see a 10/10 compared to Melda.
Yeah, that was kinda strange.
He didnt to Phil Speisers and thats the cheapest
because it is bias.
Ofc it is biased BigZ sald it a few times during the vid. 😂, Feel free to make an unbiased test.
@@yaredkatani But what's the point of showing the progress from start to the end, but on some products start from halfway? Way to make a corrupt video.
I heard “in your eyes” as something else. I blame my brain for this 😉
I use soothe but I thought to try the new pro q4 since multiple instances of soothe can be heavily cpu draining. A cpu consumption comparison would go a long way here.
Great video dude! Thanks a lot.
in my experience they are like limiters, it's good a have few different ones as they are a bit program dependent
Why was Soothe2 already set up in the first test though? :D And seriously 8/10 for control when you have to use multiple instances all the time :/
Looks like Big Z has setup his own default setting for Soothe, so all instances he opens up will be setup to tackle the low mids. He later mentions in his shootout summary that he uses it to quickly clear mud from the low mids.
@@mjsmith5569 You could do this with most of the other plugins too … not a valid argument.
That’s my default setting for Soothe, even with the stock default setting it would’ve taken an extra 5 seconds
@@BigZMusicshould’ve shown that extra 5 seconds for fairness
Wild, I heard of SpecCraft before. Great to know its that good and like 1/3 the price of Soothe 2. I will be sure to share this info!
Big Z, do you have any suggestion for best transient shaper for layered percussion?
It would have been nice to also test a free solution like TheMasker
Who's that by? I can't find it. And do you like using it? Thanks
Or cheap solution like Hornet Sleek.Also the indy dev plugin Flora is only $13 right now and claims to be a soothe alternative.
@@mutanthorrorshowits a free open source plugin, I gave it a quick test and it seemed to work pretty good. It was a little difficult for me to turn up the suppression. Another interesting and affordable option is DERES by WA Productions
what about sonible? smart eq4?
Or wrong category?🤔
I like the adaptive function on the smart EQ. In most of the cases it makes the sound more transparent. So if it works for you as well you should stick to it.
Oh, no... you missed 'M-Clarity 2' -- could beat 'em all!
Great work, Z.
I think there are some "unbalances" in the votes... 10/10 to Tb Pro Audio control after saying it has most but not all - and does it have ratio and other controls per band? Other plugins lost points for not having them... For Melda plugins to reset a value just right click it, it's out of standard I know (there was debate on this on their forum) but it's there easy and quick.
And, apart from user interface and amount of control.... where's the judgment in the actual quality of the results, which in the end should be one of the most important deciding factors?
I like a lot your channel and your content, but this time I'm not sure you've nailed it...
No actual sound quality/clarity category? What the hell do I care if I can control or look at a plugin if the sound of it is bad?
Yep
I was waiting this video from you my friend ❤
Hell yeah Big Z is the Man!
LOST IN YOUR EYES NANA MY MIND IS RACING
I had just started the video…Thought you just meant big z so dreamy lol
@@same.different lol, that vocal loop gave me a brain tumor after 10 minutes on repeat!!
@@Zhaliumyeah I just skipped to the verdict for that one
Great video, thank you for the content
Great, next one do IDX/Bloom/Gulffoss/Ozone-Neutron Sepctral!
you are a blessing
Soothe is mega expensive while Spec Craft is a lot more reasonable. It's not cheap but very reasonable, do might look into this myself. Thanks for the video
SpecCraft. But pro-q 4 can add in spectral mode!
My biggest complaint about Pro-Q4 is linear phase mode only for spectral processing + lack of gentler curves. The added latency is very annoying during mixing that's why Soothe still wins
@@huberttorzewski What are you talking about? If you want it „more“ gentle than the given range of options you can switch to the dynamic EQ. Since the daw compensates for the latency and it‘s irrelevant while mixing what‘s the problem? Also every linear phase EQ introduces latency since that‘s part of the method.
@hcl8836 dynamic eq is static in frequency while spectral processing is moving with a frequency. Soothe can do that with gentler curves + it doesn't introduce that much latency as Pro-Q4. Latency compensation is not helping with latency while doing fader automation - it only delays other tracks to match them to the timing of the track with the highest latency
Love RESO for spoken word. Transparent and Natural.
i think the main thing is taht they all sound different, so you should try a few of them first and choose one based on your taste
Pro-Q 4, just open the panel and save it as a default then it starts with all the buttons present. With Pro Q4, you only need to open one plugin to basicly do everything EQ related, with the others you need 2 plugins to do everything and adding to your latency. Ain't that hard to make it a 10/10. Any way, this is just a stupid comparison. They are all spectral EQ's, but there is only one best EQ and it finishes 3rd, while the winner has the same features, but less.
Im completely agree with you but honestly your demonstration was a little unfair. Every plugin you started to set it up but with soothe 2 you already set the area for the reduction before.
I would also say that soothe and pro q (im using both plugins) are really, really good.
it seems the raise of this kind of tools is direct consequence tha most of the people dont know how to correctly record a source or just they can't.
in latest years so many "correcting" plugins were released !
which sample pack did you use for this disco house kinda track?
If you don’t own any of these, I’d say just buy the pro Q4 as you can do so much with it
More important is how they sound on a full mix
Soothe 3 is going to be fire
I like Soothe but that stupid iLok licence program is causing Ableton to crash non-stop so I had to get rid of it. Is there a way to get Soothe without iLok or maybe I'll just support FF instead with PQ4
TLDR: Fabfilter runs you fools
Would be great for a saturation plugin :)
Like 666? Why me? lol! Thanks for testing Big Z!
No Gullfoss or SmartEQ?
I really like your videos, but hey, your rating is completely out of control :)
Some plug-ins have a bad GUI rate because the sound is bad, others open with a perfect setting,... ha ha ha
I was sure TBTech would win. Great developers!
since early 2020 till date I moved to sooth, was an will be my only tool
As always great stuff, Thank you! and Speccraft yea I knew it, plus I never used soothe because I hate ilock an feel that every company that uses it nowadays rob me somehow of freedom and treat me like a thief. So writing it, I can say dialing in Spacecraft is super fast and easy :) too.
i ended up buying spec craft. It was cheaper than soothe2 and I likw it
Yeah I want it. Already got Waves Equator though but it cost like $20 in a bundle pretty much. Their IDX plugin is great too
what about sonabile eq4 ?
And what about the quality of the result??
The test I really wanted to see was does it actually work
You’re missing SA3, buddy. But great video.
Does anyone know of any good, free dynamic eqs?
MdynamicEQ by Melda is my goto, and i just checked their website since they do sales all the time and its currently on sale for $14, normally like $70. Tokyo Dawn, also known as TDR has nova. It is a free dynamic EQ, I actually used to use that before i switched to the melda one and it works pretty well. Melda's just has a lot of extra features that made it worth it for me. But probably most people dont need/use those features. There is a free demo for the melda one, so you can try them both and make a choice, but the melda one is only on sale til the end of the year, so like 2 more days. I wouldnt pay $70 for the melda one, but for $14 i think its worth it. So if you miss the sale just get Nova.
TDR Nova and ZL Equalizer among others...
@@digitalsynth thanks bro I’ll check them out
I waited for MCDCP Spectral Processor to be in this comparison.
You’re missing DSM v3. Or does this not manage resonance?
New song is gas
Thank ❤
You rely on your eyes when you listen to audio??? R u serious? Omg
Great and useful video
I’m gonna be “that guy”…when you used soothe, you already had it set to frequency area you wanted to fix unlike all the others, you started from a default patch. Also you completely missed Phil Speiser “The Smoother”
f
ab filter obviously takes the cake
content brother💯💯
I prefer the sound and price of DSEQ3. Personally I think resonance suppressors are making every sound bland and boring, they strip all the personality out of the sound. All the greatest mixes that are the references for the big engineers and the greatest records of all time we're all mixed without them, they are great because they touch you and have personality. They should be used as a last resort to fix a problem not used as a default.
I agree. For some use cases? The spectral aspect can be a handy diagnostic tool for later going in and doing more minimally invasive surgery - for example, when using (or actually trying no to use) a clipper. You can use resonance suppression to identify which specific frequency is actually triggering the clipper, turn off spectral, then go in and surgically attenuate that specific frequency. It’s handy.
Bro add some time stamps to your video please.. Love everything yu do!
Why not the Gullfoss in this Test?
They didn’t put money in his pocket like Oaksound clearly did.
That’s a plugin for a completely different purpose.
@@rfish2you give a plugin its purpose. Gullfoss reduces mud and boominess on single tracks easily, for example on Acoustic guitars. I suppose you think Gullfoss is for the 2bus only
@@jeromejamies3641
• Soothe2: A dynamic resonance suppressor for surgically reducing harshness and resonances in specific frequency areas (e.g., vocals, guitars). Ideal for fixing problem frequencies with precision.
• Gullfoss: A dynamic EQ that adjusts the overall tonal balance for clarity and polish. Best for broad, automatic improvements in mixes or masters.
@rfish2 you always just read the manual obviously without trying to find out what you can do with a plugin. Gullfoss does the job way better than soothe - resonances, harshness, boominess, mud.
Well, don't use Gullfoss on singke tracks, don't do it, cuz the manual doesn't suggest it!
useful but Timeline please !
No Gullfoss?
I started using Pro Q4 instead of Trackspacer but I soon realised Pro Q4 has like 150ms of latency whenever you turn on spectral whereas Trackspacer has none.
Exactly! That’s what I’ve been saying. The Pro-Q spectral mode just sounds like a smeared phase mess. Sure, you can get 64ms latency if you set it to low mode, but come on-if it sounds bad in medium mode, imagine how much worse it would be in low mode. That’s why I’ve been a huge fan of Speccraft ever since its release.
Trackspacer isn't a spectral eq. It isn't there to duck resonances and all that. It's just there to carve frequencies out of the way so something else can shine through. Two wildly different uses there.
@@CamTaylorDJ Okay but I don't use them for resonance I use them both for ducking.
how does this even have upvotes. ure comparing apples to oranges and then rating one or the other based on that. one is a volume ducker and the other does spectral resonance suppression. nobody cares how u personally use any of them outside of the designated usecase.
@@MARAASIM „smeared phase mess“??? Sounds like you just made up random words. Every linear phase EQ has latency, that‘s part of the design and a node in ProQ4 that‘s put in spectral mode is automatically in linear phase mode (even if overall mode is at zero latency).
nice content
Absolutely incredible comparison video. Crushing it.
Where’s the test on sound quality? That’s all that matters. Who cares if a plugin is ugly if it sounds great? Why would someone use a great looking plugin that sounds crap? This test makes no sense without a sound test.
You didnt to Speisers and thats the cheapest
Well there is one time Hornet that is cheaper which is on sale often.
I cannot agree this time. Testing these tools with just a vocal sample and a piano is not enough. When you have a complete beat and you want to quickly even out it, I would prefer Babyaudio Smooth Operator before all the others. It is the fastest way to give your music a complete different feeling and it sounds really good. Fabfilter Q4 I would choose to even out just a harsh vocal or something shown here.
Please say, Whats Good Big Z here 🙏
No love for Sonible Smart:EQ 4??
Can it do this?
I'm pretty sure that's a tone-shaping EQ, not a resonance suppressor.
It isn't a resonance suppressor.
@@mikamulperi it can.
@ I think it is not as precise
You only rated UI and Control, but not sound quality
Funky housy track ;)
Gulfoss?
Man really forgot about Sonible smh
No smart:EQ 4 in the test ? 😒
I was wondering the same
😂❤
You gave DSEQ a 9 for level of control and SpecCraft a 10 for level of control but you admitted that it can't get you separate control over the Q value for different bands. This whole review could've been a lot better. I'm going to have to give this a thumbs down.
smoother phil speiser is better than all these actually.