Still, the article ends with recommendations for use cases and purchasing recommendations, so read on if auto EQ might be something for you in this “balanced” overview. Note that this is not a shootout: all three products have their strengths, but slightly different foci. What a beautiful time to be reviewing VST plugins! Three different products, all aiming to facilitate mixing decisions, with an aptitude for taming sibilance and removing muddiness. Here, I’m taking a closer look at three newly released “intelligent” equalizer plugins: soothe2 by oeksound, Smooth Operator by BABY Audio, and Sonible’s new smart:EQ 3 plugin. The last couple of years have given us some innovative plugins, and quite a few dynamic EQs have appeared. Therefore, the plugin can also be used as an M/S decoder and encoder.įor a fresh look, enable an alternative set of filter colors in the options menu.I’ve always been on the lookout for synths and effects that redefine how we create music or that redefine music itself. Smart:EQ 2 can process an M/S input signal as well as render an M/S output signal. If you tend to work with narrow notch filters a lot, it might be worthwhile to enable the constant Q mode, providing more steeply sloped filters at higher Q values. The solo on touch mode will automatically solo every band you’re working on. Change the analyzer settings in the options menu.

You can also do a long-term analysis by pressing the “average” button. There’s a pre and a post analyzer as well as a view that shows both graphs. Smart:EQ 2 has a number of different analyzer options. By using the scale parameter in the info box, you can do relative gain adjustments. In group mode, you can change frequency and gain of the selected bands proportionally. Select multiple bands by dragging the mouse while holding the left-click or by right-clicking on the thumbs. Smart:EQ 2 allows you to group bands and manipulate them simultaneously. Double clicking on the thumb will set the band’s gain to 0. Right-clicking the filter icon in the info box allows you to change the filter type. Scrolling while hovering over the thumb will change the Q value, alternatively you can hold alt and move your mouse pointer vertically.

Holding down shift while changing the gain will lock a thumb on the frequency-axis. You can either type in precise values for each band or drag the thumbs.

There are a few different ways of controlling band parameters in smart:EQ 2. Activate or deactivate a band by clicking on the indicator dot.

Sonible smart eq 2