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Generally not on the mix/master bus. Typically on the individual channels. Though if you only had a 2-track (vocal mix and instrumental), you can do some unmasking by ducking out some of the clashing frequencies on the instrumental track to make room for the vocals.
It’s generally a good practice to sidechain (using soothe or any other method) to create space in the mix so the drums can sound punchy. You can also use it when instruments are clashing with each other. Ducking down the secondary instruments (even on the transients only) will create space for the primary ones you want to pop in the mix.
@@user-qh5uy8xi5m correct. If you want the kick to be punchy and it’s getting masked by a bass or 808, you’d sidechain the kick and duck out the bass to allow the transient to come through the mix. You can do it with a soothe, a compressor, or an EQ… same thing for instruments. If there’s masking happening, you can use soothe to unmask by side chaining the instrument you want to take priority in the mix to a secondary instrument that you want to duck down.
Sonible sounded better, imo. I felt it unmuddied your mix a bit and wasn't extreme, at the same time - albeit your mix sounded just fine too. A little tweaking - mainly with Smart:Comp and I think you would like what you have there. At the end of the day, its up to you, right? Now, Izotope stuff is also good, but if you are going to use their AI, you really need to do some adjusting or just use it without that at all. Nectar is amazing with vocals and has more tools than I would ever use, built into it. They also have a relay plugin, that you can drop on other channels. None of these tools are going to give you a finished mix or master, but imo Sonible comes closer to that. Ozone 11 can screw up a good mix fast, in what should be a mastering, more subtle plugin - its too extreme. You can also find similar reference tracks in your genre and load them into profiles in Ozone, which is actually pretty cool and usually comes out a bit better that way, than their references. I like to divide up mixing vs mastering plugins a bit more and use the hell out of Span, during both. Metric A|B is a great tool to do comparisons with, even with reference tracks. I have the Izotope suite, with the annual deal and it pays for itself in just the Ozone 11 upgrade, as well as the new RX, let alone the recent updates to Nectar and Neutron. Sonible pushes out regular updates and the only thing that I think I actually had to upgrade was Smart:EQ4, which was an improvement. For Sonible I feel their EQ is pretty good and their Smart:Limit is very easy to use. I am on the fence with Smart:Comp, as I feel there are a lot of great compressors out there already, even in your DAW of choice. Spectral compression aside. I have also picked up some of Sonible's Pure plugins - and I am a bit meh, albeit they do make for quick easy checks on tracks or a quick early mix down - just don't forget about them later. I never have anything on my master to begin with, as I need to know about problems earlier and always use a pre-master in a mix down, so I can separate things a bit more. Good comparison video!
I use Sonible Smart EQ 4 group feature on the individual tracks or busses and Izotope Ozone 11 on the master bus for mastering, that seems to give me the best results. BTW, I like your tune, sounds like you're composing for GTA 6 or something, lol.
Sonible on individual tracks with Izotope on master makes absolute sense. As far as my music, just TV and Film sync placements. Maybe I need to pursue some video game placements 👀. Thanks for watching.
I just discover your a week ago and love to see the way your work and show your workflow. Im a producer and i like to see new artist on youtube. Fresh refresh. Very good job Adrian.
Very helpful video. I am currently a Smart EQ4 owner and have had issues with grouping in my Studio One DAW. I was able to fix the issue (sometimes) by turning off my vpn. Not sure why those two things directly affect each other, but it helped me. On another note, Since I mainly record vocals in home studio (bedroom), Smart De-esser has been a life saver. Its fast, and makes it easy.
I think Sonible just needs to iron out some of the stability kinks. Their entire Smart suite has great potential. However, the constant bugs and instability means that many musicians (including me) will opt for other options, especially when working on critical mixes.
I personally don’t. Some do. The reason I don’t is because I like to separate my 808 and any other bass from my drum bus. If you stem out your track at the end and want to make artistic/eq changes after, you’ll be limited if your 808 is on the same track as your drums.
Hey - I was referring to seeing the frequency masking/overlap of other channels that have Smart:EQ, not the individual analyzer. Sonible gives you the group feature whereas Pro Q3 gives you a visual of the signal of other channels that have Pro Q3 and where masking is happening. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
I noticed one thing you did to change what Ozone wanted. You changed it's choice from Rock to EDM. How did it sound and compare before you made that change? Just FYI: I have both the iZotope and the Sonible products and use them both a lot. Great video, BTW!
Good question. I didn’t actually check. I changed it to Hip-hop/Rap since I wanted to profile to be genre specific. Regarding using Sonible and iZotope, I think I use at least 1 iZotope module in all of my songs but not for their A.I capabilities. Sonible has been hit and miss on my end mostly due to their instability with FL Studio. I do use them in Cubase though.
Yeah, I use both as well. I still have much to learn about the Sonible groups feature and the unmasking capabilities. I did do a test on it a while back and I was rather suprised. The unmasking thing made a somewhat significant difference. I will have to take some time and learn more about the intricasies of that feature. Thanks again for the video!
bro i can not figure out how to make groups in sonibleEQ4 the option isn't there when i open the create group window. i put the eq on every instrument mixer channel but they aren't recognized. any suggestions? this is the first video i have seen with it in FL is why i ask
Which version do you have? Sonible updated EQ4 to 1.0.2 in March. All you have to do is create the group and then click “add instance”. You should be able to see the list of every channel that has EQ4 on it… the problem with FL studio is when you save the project and reopen it. There’s a bug that doesn’t recognize the group once the project is closed. It still keeps the EQ filter settings but you can’t change the group anymore. As of 1.0.2, it’s still not fixed.
@@InspiredWithAC i have the same problem in Fl Studio, even with the newest version... also the gui does weird, jumpy changes on it's own without me clicking anything.. now the plugin is useless for me. this sucks :/
@@fdgggfh24 yeah. I found the update made it worse for me. Last thing Sonible said was that they’re working on a fix. I haven’t heard from them since. It’s a darn shame if they don’t address it. Not sure how they will compete with other plugin providers if a large user base (FL users) can’t use their product.
Yes, but not on every track. Sometimes I sidechain with an EQ. Sometimes I don’t sidechain at all. It all depends if the track needs it or not. Sometimes panning and a little EQing does the trick. But if I’m trying to create space for my drums or something in my melody mix, then side-chaining with Soothe will often do the trick.
Are you using it inside of FL Studio? If so, I did a follow-up video here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TGmP4S-p--c.html I’m comparing Sonible Smart:EQ with Pro Q 3 and touched on the instability issues I’ve been having with Smart:EQ 4, especially in FL.
Great video. If only there were things like this when I started. Nobody on the net talks. All instruments and plugins. You can save everything in Broswer. In your own Folder. And then, if you wish, just drag your instruments to the Channel Rack. As well as plugins in the mixer. also mixer presets. Load your Folder In Broswer. Create additional Folders as. Bass, Guitar, Piano, Plugin for Vocals.... Open the desired VTS on the Channel Rack. Find the instrument you want. Rename and paint. When the plugin is open, go to "Save present As.." and drop it into your Folder in Broswer. You can also mark your folder as a Favorite in Broswer and hang it as a Tab in Broswer. With this you can have your 20 favorite guitars in one place. just drag it into the Channel Rack. The only minus is that you will probably research instruments less with this system.
Well said. It’s definitely something people don’t talk about enough. Regarding complexity, the more complex the template, the less flexibility in regards to new instruments and sound exploration. However, when you’re on a tight timeline and you need to have a song composed, templates are an absolute necessity. It’s even more important when you get into orchestral pieces. Different sound banks and patches have different track delays. A patch from a Spitfire strings library will have different attack time than one from Cinesamples. You don’t want to set the track delay (for those who don’t know - it’s the little clock icon in the mixer) for each library every time you start a project. Orchestral projects can easily take an hour or longer to simply get it up and running / routed.
I bought Smart Limiter some years ago hoping it was going to be an incredible limiter. Boy was I wrong, never gonna buy anything from that company again *haha*
Anything in particular, if you don’t mind me asking? Was it high expectations for the “smart” features? I personally didn’t care much for those but I’ve been disappointed about the overall stability and constant bugs.
@@InspiredWithAC The GUI is kinda great to be honest but I did not fall for how it sounds. I don´t own many limiters but I like Ozones limiter way better to my ears. I have also listened to Pro-L2 limiter and that also sounds really great.
@@michaelhonormusic really? i just did a comprehensive test with the smart limit and pro l2 for the past few days and every time again and again i found that i like the sonible a bit more, and in terms of gui i actually like the fabfilter more. i have the oxford limiter too and i think the smart limit is more transparent between those 3. i am curious to know why you say that?
@@Lennie_peled You should stick to what you like, trust your ears. To me L2 and Ozone sounds more musical and can be pushed harder (not that you should drive a limiter to much) before it starts to sound distorted.
Yup I flagged them as favorite. And then the screen just went back and forth. Then i just left it like that without putting anywhere just "starred" them in the list of vst and it was working. Dragging them manually in a folder is also ok. The plug in still has issues when opening but when you close or open it again then its working ok
I bought both. AI mixing is trash. Straight garbage. Nectar and Neutron are great because of the modules included, not the AI. Sonible, on the other hand, I wish I had not purchased. Nothing special about the Smart compressor and the Smart EQ interface is bad with its small windows and menus. Good luck dialing in the dynamic eq setting with such a small pop up menu.
isnt it doubling the volume of the piano when it is also routed to the master ? my vocals get louder and louder when l keep adding sends. And also, when l have a vocal chain and l make a send for a reverb, dosent my vocal chain feed into that reverb/delay etc or whatever im trying to route ?
