# TB Pro Audio DSEQ vs Soothe 2



## Piano Pete (Jul 24, 2020)

Recently have been intrigued by the offerings of TB Pro Audio (which I found while doing research on Soothe) and Oek's Soothe 2. Has anyone had experience with both? When mixing, I'm definitely a big fan of only affecting problem spots/harshness when needed while allowing those frequencies breathe otherwise. These sorts of plugins seem to potentially be a godsend when dealing with a bunch of small, or large, peaks that may shift around more than desired.

From reading various reviews and use cases, it appears that Soothe can function more transparently than DSEQ, but can easily be overused. Meanwhile, people seem to be very quick to say that DSEQ is better than Soothe, usually quoting the price difference. Especially in the world of samples and vsts, I'm interested to see how both of these hold up and whether the additional cost is worth it for Soothe. I think the majority of people I have spoken with have used either of these plugins, but I have not met anyone who has used both.

Thanks in advance.


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## GusGranite (Jul 25, 2020)

Hi - new here but I would recommend demoing MSpectralDynamics by Melda Productions as well. I picked it up on offer before the two plugins you mention were released and still think it does a little more (having demo’d them after). It is a very powerful plugin. The Melda UI is like Marmite though (love/hate).


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## Piano Pete (Jul 25, 2020)

Thanks for the suggestion. Will look into that one!


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## GusGranite (Jul 25, 2020)

Piano Pete said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. Will look into that one!



Often 50% off and sometimes 70%. All good plugins though. Let is know where you land.


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## Piano Pete (Jul 25, 2020)

OK.

For those in a similar situation that I am, looking at both of these plugins and trying to determine if Soothe 2 is worth the extra money or not...

Wall of text incoming.

I have spent a few hours today comparing and testing both TB Pro Audio's DSEQ and Oeksound's Soothe 2. I have tested them in single track scenarios, buss scenarios, and during mastering. For reference, I was testing this in a 1.6k track Orchestral session within Cubase 10.5 Pro. This is a full mix session with printed live takes, prior audio stems, and VSTs. All tracks enabled.

General Testing Parameters:

Both of these plugins were tested using the various quality settings found within. Soothe 2 Features 4 quality settings (eco, normal, high, ultra) and 2 oversampling settings (x1,x2,x4). DSEQ features 5 quality settings (eco, normal, high, ultra, ultra 2) and 2 oversampling settings (off,x2,x4). The bulk of my testing was done with Soothe 2 on Normal x4, and DSEQ Ultra x4.


Computer Performance:

Soothe2 - Between the two plugins, Soothe2 is more resource heavy; however, not enough for me to write it off from use. This is not a scenario like 2cAudio's B2 (love it but its a hog) and Breeze 2 (also love it, but I wish B2 was as lean as it is). 

The default settings enable one to instantiate more than enough instances for what one could comfortably be using; however, if you really need to hit something with it, i.e Ultra settings x4, the amount of resources it consumes DRASTICALLY increases. In this scenario, this sort of Multi-spectral EQ is really being used for repair, and like Iztope RX, should be used to repair and print said audio file.

DSEQ - DSEQ is lighter in cpu usage than Soothe2. With DSEQ set to Ultra 2, x4, it utilizes the same amount of cpu as Soothe2 does at Normal x4. Because of this, more instances can be loaded; however, unless I were to place it on every take in this session, which I would never do anyways, I cannot see much benefit here. Maybe on lighter machines than what I have, but even then, I would not write off Soothe2 for DSEQ purely from its DSP demands.

General Thoughts - Both work well. With Soothe, I would definitely recommend using more restraint of where it is being used. These sorts of plugins can be easily over utilized. With that said, if more instances are needed, this is where altering the quality settings comes into play. Rather than just going Ultra x4 and thinking "more = more", adjusting the oversampling and quality to suit the needs of the situation more than brought its average resource usage back in line with DSEQ. 

If there were a lot of small peaks that were constantly moving, lower oversampling and higher quality was the better choice. If there was not as much movement, thus less demand for it to be refreshing where the position of the bands were, normal quality and higher oversampling was better. 

To be honest, Normal x4 was more than enough to work with for a lot of the issues I like utilizing these types of plugins for: dealing with harsh frequencies that shift and move around or frequency masking between tracks.

UI:

Soothe2 - A simpler, cleaner UI. Less to be distracted by. Nice tooltips.
DSEQ - While not as chic as Soothe, it shows all the information one could want.

General Thoughts - Both pass in my eyes. I wish DSEQ had the frequency band listed across the top of the analyzer rather than the bottom, since they also place the band controls on the bottom of the UI.

Sound Quality:

General Thoughts - Not really going to do a separate section for each plugin here. Both Soothe and DSEQ can reach the same end goal, albeit by different paths. If I had to make a hard comparison once both were dialed in to produce a similar intended sound, Soothe is slightly smoother and less harsh; however, this is with the correct settings dialed in. From my brief time testing with both, I feel Soothe can easily destroy a sound easier than DSEQ; however, with some of the extra features that DSEQ has, I feel the same could be said for it. It's all about moderation. DSEQ may be "crisper" but I also found that it was ignoring some resonant peaks that I wouldve eq'd and that Soothe had picked up on. These probably couldve been caught with further tweaking of parameters.

Control:

Soothe2 - Soothe features less independent frequency "target" bands, and its controls are presented in a simpler manner than DSEQ. By presentation alone, it was easier to get to my desired end goal without too much fuss at all. While it may offer fewer target bands and settings than DSEQ, I felt that it did a much better job following moving resonant peaks and was able to get to a "cleaner" result while doing less overall reduction, albeit more spread out and pinpointed. 

DSEQ - For me to reach the same target result as I achieved in Soothe2, DSEQ required much more input from me, and the plugin definitely provides more user control over some aspects. One of the features that I really like is that you can change the slope of how DSEQ responds to various frequencies. From my understanding, this has to do with the curve of different types of noise. The default -3db being pink. Higher values made it more reactive to highs. Lower values made it more reactive to lows. I like this.

General Thoughts - Ideally, if I could have some of the further control offered in DSEQ within Soothe2--hidden behind an advanced menu or such to keep clutter to a minimum--I would be exceptionally happy. Both offer more than acceptable feedback and control. They have slightly different workflows, but I cannot say that one was vastly superior than the other. Generally though, I noticed that in order for me to reach the same sonic goal, I had to push the parameters further in DSEQ than in Soothe. Both ended up in the same place, but Soothe definitely got there quicker and easier. Soothe also was much more responsive when I wanted to dial in the settings of the various bands. On the flipside, this could also be interpretted that DSEQ is more forgiving. I think this mostly comes down to personal preference.

Conclusion: 

Both work well, and if the evolution of software and technology has any lessons to teach, I'm looking forward to where these types of plugins end up down the road! I am all in favor of making certain balance changes only when they are necessary and allowing the original audio to otherwise breathe. Up until now, I have achieved this through lots of automation, MB, and dynamic eqs. For my use case, I feel that I will be going with Soothe2. Just the amount of time saved with it more than makes up for the difference in cost. Some things are worth spending the money on.

That being said, if you cannot afford Soothe2, I would not see any problem with ESQ. Once you figure out how to make it work the way you want, you'll be able to benefit from it the same way. If you are also resource starved or feel that you are going to plaster every track you have with an instance of a multi-spectral eq, then this may be the better option. It also may be better suited to hardcore parameter-tweakers. This may be a similar situation as the Waves plugins vs UAD plugins. Both can reach professional results.

Ultimately, I think these plugins are brilliant, if used in moderation. It is very easy to mess up something by forcing parameters to react to things that are not necessarily problematic. For seasoned mixers who want to get to a certain result without much issue, it's worthwhile. For someone who has no clue what they are doing, the plugin can be beneficial in making some decisions for you--as there are probably standard mix problems occurring at that point. Where these plugins really shine are in these situations:

A) Dynamic/resonant material that shifts around too much for traditional treatment/automation.

B) Quickly trying out different balance scenarios within them and then acting up on that information through a different plugin. (This replicates some of the happy accidents of working with old school gear).

C) Restoration.

D) Taming noise buildups ever present in samples.

In the end, I do not feel that these will automatically mix the next killer track for you, but I feel these will have a standard place within many engineers' templates. If you use these in a macro mixing/mastering scenario and you see that they are really active in a certain frequency range, I would recommend going back and determine what the cause is: addressing it appropriately. Remove some of those decisions from the plugin because they are not infallible. Odds are, you are doing or ignoring something to make it work too hard. These are probably best to catch small problems that eventually add up to large differences in the finished product.

One final note. I have to give props to the developer of DSEQ. They are extremely active over on Gearslutz and a few other forums, and they have been making constant updates and refinements to DSEQ. May be worth considering in your purchase decisions.


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## Damarus (Jul 25, 2020)

Havent seen DSEQ before, thanks for the write up! 

For me, its reallly hard to beat the look and feel of Soothe2. I'm grabbing it if it goes back on sale for sure.


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## vitocorleone123 (Jul 25, 2020)

There's a few quirks/tips to DSEQ - be sure to check out the thread on GS where TBProAudio answers some questions if you haven't already.

I tried Soothe2 and bought DSEQ. DSEQ has had some massive improvements since release. It has a lot more options than Soothe2 - so you do have to be willing to get to know it, and then it's very flexible.

Suggestion: don't buy Soothe2 for sure until you try DSEQ for yourself. If you have Soothe2, it's good stuff - use it and be happy. If you don't, to me, there's generally not enough reason to get it now that DSEQ is out unless a client is asking for it or something.


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## Damarus (Jul 27, 2020)

vitocorleone123 said:


> There's a few quirks/tips to DSEQ - be sure to check out the thread on GS where TBProAudio answers some questions if you haven't already.
> 
> I tried Soothe2 and bought DSEQ. DSEQ has had some massive improvements since release. It has a lot more options than Soothe2 - so you do have to be willing to get to know it, and then it's very flexible.
> 
> Suggestion: don't buy "Soothe2" for sure until you try DSEQ for yourself. If you have Soothe2, it's good stuff - use it and be happy. If you don't, to me, there's generally not enough reason to get it now that DSEQ is out unless a client is asking for it or something.



So far I love DSEQ, Its really great. Are there any noteable features that DSEQ has that Soothe2 doesnt have? I love Soothe2's interface a lot more, but for the price DSEQ is hard to not insta-buy.


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## Markrs (Aug 21, 2021)

Piano Pete said:


> OK.
> 
> For those in a similar situation that I am, looking at both of these plugins and trying to determine if Soothe 2 is worth the extra money or not...
> 
> ...


This is a really useful comparison and supplemented some YouTube reviews I had watched with came to order identical conclusions. All of them said that Soothe 2 did things quicker and “maybe” a little smoother but all felt they could get the same results with DSEQ but with the advantage of having more control.

If DSEQ goes on sale on Black Friday I might pick it up


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 21, 2021)

Markrs said:


> This is a really useful comparison and supplemented some YouTube reviews I had watched with came to order identical conclusions. All of them said that Soothe 2 did things quicker and “maybe” a little smoother but all felt they could get the same results with DSEQ but with the advantage of having more control.
> 
> If DSEQ goes on sale on Black Friday I might pick it up


Tbproaudio doesn’t have sales. Ever, so far. They price lower all the time, instead.

Was the DSEQ version tested above v3.5 with the new adaptive algorithms? Probably not, since that was awhile ago. Tbproaudio do quite a bit of work to enhance their software. As such, comparisons can get a bit outdated.


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## Markrs (Aug 21, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> Tbproaudio doesn’t have sales. Ever, so far. They price lower all the time, instead.
> 
> Was the DSEQ version tested above v3.5 with the new adaptive algorithms? Probably not, since that was awhile ago. Tbproaudio do quite a bit of work to enhance their software. As such, comparisons can get a bit outdated.


Thanks for the heads up, though I’m not quite sure what you mean by price lower all the time? Do you mean that the standard price is so competitive that it is like a constant sale price?


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## vitocorleone123 (Aug 21, 2021)

Markrs said:


> Thanks for the heads up, though I’m not quite sure what you mean by price lower all the time? Do you mean that the standard price is so competitive that it is like a constant sale price?


Yep. That’s their philosophy, anyway. I think all the plugins are fairly priced. Not amazing deals. Not overpriced. No PluginAlliance sales nonsense where it’s $400 one day and $29 the next.


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## vitocorleone123 (Nov 29, 2021)

I think Mastering the Mix Reso is quite good and a new entry into this domain. I'm hoping they make a few UI tweaks to make it even better, but I found it a lot easier to use (demo) than DSEQ as it's point and click for the most part. That said, I'm sure I just still need to learn how to best use DSEQ rather than add a new tool.


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## Consona (Nov 30, 2021)

vitocorleone123 said:


> I think Mastering the Mix Reso is quite good and a new entry into this domain. I'm hoping they make a few UI tweaks to make it even better, but I found it a lot easier to use (demo) than DSEQ as it's point and click for the most part. That said, I'm sure I just still need to learn how to best use DSEQ rather than add a new tool.


Reso is not quite the same, it does not follow the frequency changes, it has set points that reduce the signal like classic multiband compressors.


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