I do a lot of ads where Soothe , Trackspacer and Gullfoss all come in very handy to deliver fast mixes.
Soothe comes in handy for poorly recorded voiceover. We often get movie stars who send in their voiceovers recorded on their iphone because they can't be bothered. It is a great way to fix the hash.
Trackspacer is of course the best ducking compressor. I used to use Pro MB but trackspacer just made it so much easier. If you can't hear the VO you lose the job.
I use gullfoss exactly as described on their website for SFX and slightly tweaking the master, sometimes on the vocal to make it overbright on a busy mix.
All these plugins are on our template and I make sure that assistant engineers understand their use before letting them create any mixes.
I have no idea whether A-list engineers use them but they are well thought tools that take out a lot of boring work.
I guess the whole point is to choose plugins that work for you. Monday morning's we usually buy a new plugin if everyone enjoyed it after the trial period. If it passes 3 months it goes on the template.

I think marketing creates the problems for new or casual users because lack of basic experience. For a inexperienced user, marketing creates a problem or demand first. Then the developer will proclaim your solution for $29.

Then add in GEARslutz, and not only experienced, but newbies as well reply. I have said for years, procedures, techniques, examples...the stuff Mix With Masters and a host of others charging big money is so much more valuable than rambling off about what gear fixes what, or some inane subtle gear shoot-out.

Unfortunately some pros and knowledgeable engineers have been run off or have just given up several years ago due to newbies hiding behind their computer with nothing to show.

And yes. I notice plenty of hobbyists that simply love the tool...maybe a DAW or effect...and have nothing musically to show for it. There's nothing wrong with that as long as they aren't pretending...

I use both Track Spacer and Sooth2 when I feel there may be a call for it. That decision alone takes a lot of experience. Sooth used very subtle.

TrackSpacer...I would be curious with any users who don't use it in the traditional kick drum over bass guitar or over typical pad...or over the very dated EDM wall of sound.

I seem to have an allergy to overhyped plugins. No fabfilter, slate, soothe, etc… here.

I was the same way for such a long time. Until I got PRO-Q 3 and started to realize that it was time to join all the hype trains.

What’s so great about pro-q3? If for any reason I want to see a frequency analyzer while eqing Waves Renaissance EQ, TDR Nova and Avid Pro Multicomp can all do that. But I’m not a mix with my eyes kind of guy. And the 3 aforementioned plugins more than have me covered for EQ, dynamic EQ and multiband purposes, plus super narrow band cuts, ultra steep hpf/lpf. Am I missing anything?

Probably not. Maybe the workflow

The extreme ease of use, doing all the above in one plugin. Everything else feels clunky and primitive after you get used to ProQ3.

With true brickwall Q on the high and low pass, 96db Q on bells, piano view of frequency, an analyzer that can compare all instances of proQ3 in a session showing overlapping frequencies and problem areas, EQ match of incoming signal, spectrum grab, and analyzer freeze.

I wouldn’t considering these over hyped at all. The idea that they are overhyped is overhyped lol. Depends on your needs though to be fair. I certainly would need more control then the 3 tools you’ve listed as your go to.

I don’t use ProQ do to it suiting my workflow taste but it does have spectrum grab, piano roll, dynamic Eq and plenty of bands all in one…that hard to find outside maybe Kirchhoff. Renaissance Eq can’t hold a candle next to this in terms of sheer power… unless you don’t need these addons.

I prefer Reso over Soothe for its transparency and control however if someone wants something easy and relatively safe if used conservatively, Soothe is hard to beat for anti harshness or low to low mid build up. Both of these tools imo if you need to be really surgical will out shine Nova depending on the task…

For multiband compression, the only one that I find works for me in MD4 from TC but in general I guess most wil do the job.

this is exactly it, proQ3 is my go to precisely because I can always get what i need done ridiculously quickly

I was also against the hype train. I felt that if I avoided using tools that made things too “easy”, that I was only cheating myself.

Being able to quickly solo bandwidths, without having to notch and sweep around. Getting a consistent idea of multiband dynamics, as well as sidechain quickly, being able to square off my bells with steep shelves, all quickly and easy in one spot that is not distracting to the eye.

And I think that’s the biggest misconception to people who are afraid of mixing with their eyes. I get it… but the main thing for me is that with all these functions going on at the same time, it’s not distracting to the eye, so you don’t have to worry about mixing with your eyes as much

I find it funny the Soothe ad on the side ....

I am looking at a ProQ3 ad off to the side!

I keep seeing that old Waves add.. “Put L1 on everything!”

Soothe is amazing when used gently. It does something that no EQ does. Having difficult setups like upright bass playing next to the drums, this plugin can clean up in a ways without harming the natural sound of the instruments, it's fantastic.

Trick for me is to have only one or two frequency ranges edited by one instance of Soothe 2 with highest oversampling and resolution. In a mix I can easily have 5 or more instances of Soothe 2, which unfortunately melt my Mac quite a bit.

You probably know this, but you can set the real time quality low, and the bounce quality high, so that you can work with more instances. Its really not the much of a difference in sound.

Makes for some lengthy bounces that can't be done in real time. But solves the CPU issue while you work.

yep, real time and offline settings are separate, which is cool. But I mix in a hybrid setup with analog outboard so I need to bounce in real time.

Same but the sound radix stuff is saving me hours of time.

No unless you want less interesting gain:q dependencies and dirtier dynamics than what you already own.

Bumping this thread since bought Smart Eq4. I love these plug ins for the attitude mixes that I use before sending out to session players or mixers.

Bob O said everything you add you take something away. These add a lot, yeah sound processed which I can live with as the takeaway.
Soothe to me was subtle Gullfoss was hugely interesting but wasn’t in the right space for it. Need to revisit but using Unfilter and Intensity which are big moves lol!….

Not sure, I would say that that a pro mixer will use a plugin on better source material, and the plugin won't do all the mixing for you, but there are plug-ins like Ozone 11 that help to make mix decisions.

I also never bought TrackSpacer since it could always be done natively.

Laser by SweetSonics is definitely worth comparing to TrackSpacer. I would say it is much, much better and also has the ability to help you with mixing decisions.

Can you explain how you can do what trackspacer does “natively”?

Sure, you can use a compressor that is sidechained to any signal and make it duck at a specific frequency.
Fruity Peak Controller for FL allows for frequency-specific ducking.
Or FL's Frequency Splitter works, along with a compressor on the bands you would like to duck.

Same concept would apply in other DAW's.

A non-native solution I'm also thinking of is sidechainable, Multi-Band Compressor, e.g. waves c4/c6 or fabfilter mb or even pro-q3 (has dynamic eq nodes)

Free max device, soothe on a budget.
https://maxforlive.com/library/device/9429/boba

OK, sure, but I would have to pick "a" frequency, right? The Trackspacer type plugins duck at every frequency. At whatever frequency.

That's the workflow that TrackSpacer set out to simplify and automate. 32 band automatic spectral matching. Attack/Release behaviour and a frequency range only if you want either of them. Otherwise it's one knob to taste, and job done. Game-changer.

It also does a great job as a variable crossover point (i.e. it effectively follows the pitch) between two sounds playing the same notes but in different registers. Very handy for basslines where you want to add a sub underneath.

Another one that works well is the Focusrite FAST Reveal. Similar concept as Trackspacer but it seems to need less CPU.

This is how I see it as well. "Rival" or "competitor" plugins to Trackspacer are one thing, but to me, being able to do something "natively" implies that by chaining a few included plugins together, you are achieving the same functionality.

Yeah, I’m not aware of an easy way to do this with built-in or free plugins in any DAW.

You can do a lot manually but it takes a whole lot longer of course.

i suppose native is not the best term, since that can refer to native to the os. stock then.. but IL refers to their stock plugins as native and i guess it just sounds cooler.

I hear what you're saying about the dynamic following.

speaking of dynamic following, i feel that bass xxl by Denise Audio is really useful with the midi follow feature, vs rbass which doesn't have it. bass xxl has a different purpose to TrackSpacer, but similar application concept? Might have to try out TrackSpacer or Focusrite's FAST Reveal again...

Voxengo Soniformer can do similar things like Soothe or MSpectralDynamics.

https://www.voxengo.com/product/soniformer

I've been playing with the Sonible SmartEQ 4 recently, placing it on stems and priority tracks and seeing what it can do with unmasking. The results are surprisingly good. I'm wondering if anyone else on this thread has used it this way. Different beast than Soothe or Trackspacer but seems like it would share some of the same application cases.