Obviously, well done to you for making this happen - but I feel a big shout out to Baby Audio is also due. It's great that they took the criticism on board and actually did something about it! It's a shame that the 'big plugin boys' don't listen.
@@campar1043 Fair point! But on the other hand, companies such as Waves have been called out many, many times - yet I've not seen them making better plugins.
Not gonna lie, didn't think the original was a big deal, but hearing it now, it's night and day. Props to Baby Audio for being honest and working hard to improve it.
This was a nice surprise! I've been speaking with the developers, and they are wonderful and very open to feedback. I've been meaning to post a follow-up video too. Thanks for this!
Thank you Wytse. This is why I am subscribed to you. You are always speaking to the viewers, and are extremely passionate about everything with fidelity, and your genuine care towards to the audio engineering community. I've been supremely benefitted by your insight, and I will always be a loyal fan as many others will because of your compassion and care. Thank you for being a honest RU-vidr. Regardless of any prejudices, our little community here is truly influencing audio for the better :)
A lot of respect. This is the most honest RU-vid channel and my go to for reviews. Could you please review the Focusrite "fast" plugins next? @Whiteseastudio
This plugin always had huge potential, and yes it's sitting in my rack. I am thrilled that they took time to actually resolve something. That says a lot about the company and your channel.
This is great. I had purchased Smooth Operator hand in heart as I had noticed that although it did what I wanted it for (reduce resonances, i.e. in heavily filtered pads or poorly recorded instruments), it was adding something to the sound that I couldn’t pin point. Will update at the first opportunity to check. Fantastic to see reviewers and manufacturers working together to make better products - everybody wins. Keep it up WS and BA!!
The most important lesson I have learned is to always put a sine wave in a plugin a hear and see what it does at different frequencies. A sine wave is the purest sound form.
I'm an idiot - i just figure out the Wyt-se and White Sea thing. I've only been watching these videos for 2 years. Also +1 on Not Snake Oil revisit, I don't think I need this plugin but kudos to the vendor for a) listening and b) actually pretty fast turn around time.
Wow! I really have watched a bunch of review videos on this plugin, but NOONE mentioned the distortion problem. Hats off to you for noticing it, publishing it, and for baby audio to fix it!
super proud of YOU and everyone who's subbed to this channel (or pledged on patreon) ...this is f'n amazing. S/O Baby Audio for being genuine with resolving issues!
Awesome news, I happen to be a fan of checking out and supporting new plugin ideas like this and I did notice the unexpected harmonic noise you pointed out in the 1.0.0 version, and I just downloaded the 1.0.1 version and will check it out.
Great video and a wonderful resolution. I work in software development and you do in fact have to balance, every day, between perfect and good. You always hope to get to perfect or "better" at some point and its great how Baby Audio have reacted. Thats a very modern, agile approach where they really take into account the users feedback as they release their software. kudos to both you and Baby Audio.
Dan Worrall also managed to get an old Stillwell plugin fixed pretty much the same way. Developers can say how indiscreet it is to openly publish issues with a product, but they have to understand this is opening them doors to become heroes. Which is a way better promotion for their work than any paid advertisement.
Something I wanted to bring up earlier in the original review: I don't agree with the assertion that "spectral dynamics is not needed to make great records because records of the past never used it". One could have made a similar assertion when FET compressors appeared (in contrast to opto-compressors). I understand that the point you were making was that spectral dynamic processing is not absolutely necessary to make a great sound. At the same time, I also think that every tool that helps address an issue can and should be used. Furthermore, a tool that can add some creativity is also recommended. After all, compressors were originally used as more of a utilitarian tool and now can used as a creative tool. (Edit: I just heard you did address it in your way =] ) All that said, it's good that developers do respond to issues. For instance - and yes, I know you have issues with this particular company - when Waves issued last year their take of the Abbey Road signature RS124 compressor, several individuals pointed out an issue that did not reflect the characteristics of the original. A month or so later, they issued an update addressing it and it was much better. And finally, I am a champion of having as many different opinions on tools as possible, especially when you know the position of the reviewer. You have made it very clear that you prefer hardware over software whenever possible, though you are not opposed to it if it helps to address issues in a clear and consistent way. And it's great to hear your side of things because I treat it like a data set for my own analysis, if you like. And it's great to hear from someone else who perhaps champions ITB more or is content with not having a studio filled with hardware. So all in all, we are contributing to making better sounds =]
Nowadays there are also many digital plugins and synthesizers that can produce different frequencies than real physical instruments. I think that's also why you can't compare it with the past. You have to be much more selective in your processing.
You are the man!!! You always keep it 100% real regardless of the backlash. If there were more people in our industry that seeked the truth above all else. Respect!!! Keep fighting the good fight.
And that's why I watch your videos and respect your opinions, you tell the truth or the way you see it even if it's not what the developer would like. To be honest, there are really really few RU-vid channels that do this. Most of them say only good things about everything that comes into their hands. As for Baby Audio I appreciate them fixing this issue, but the thought that they asked you to take down the video, that is not something I like and for sure don't want to support this kind of behavior. That's why I thank you for sharing that information. Highly appreciated!
You've got plenty of viewers because you've got a really great philosophy! Thank YOU. We love your rants about the plugins industry, but now you know you can change the world! Let's get started!
I had relegated this plugin to the dark reaches of my unused plugin folder for well over a year until I saw this. Thanks for all the wonderful info and tutorials! Keep it up my friend!
Love seeing that the devs took on board what you said and spoke with you to create a much cleaner, updated version of the plug-in. Might have to pick this up now!
I missed this follow up and I’m glad to see they corrected it. I bought it before I found your channel, based on another channel that recommended it. The fact that the other channel is medium sized, it made me not trust them as much. Thank you for your channel and information
this plugin works really great on snare especially - in original "distortion" mode it was a bit like WavesFactory Spectre, but also doing the compression like TBProAudio DSEQ - overall a very desirable result, at least for my use cases... anyway, glad Baby Audio were able to locate and fix the problem in code, but also kept the original algorithm :) as always thanks for the video - it's good to see more people actually exploring the plugin rather than randomly blabbering stuff like most RU-vidrs do :D
Baby Audio are great. I don't use their plugins religiously but they're great to have in the toolkit, and I have huge respect for their customer care and commitment to quality. Thanks for this well balanced review.
I watched a few videos demoing Smooth Operator and no one else brought up the distortion issue. Nice that Baby Audio added a high res mode to get rid of it. Before I thought it was almost too good to be true, as it was the least expensive AI-based dynamic EQ/Multiband Compressor I had seen. Now, it seems well worth its low price. Thanks for the video.
Some did mention the added harmonics but they just don't see it as a bad thing. It's sort of like just the character that this plugin gives to the sound. Soothe 2 is more transparent without any added harmonics however it's so damn expensive. Lol I'll just stick to fabfilter, tdr nova & waves f6 🤣 but hey kudos to babyaudio for "fixing" this "bug".
Way to follow through, brother. Big ups. And to be fair to Baby Audio, who rightfully have a lot of fans, I think they were always going to fix this problem regardless of our community, but it surely didn't hurt. I think we should all buy Smooth Operator if only to show how much we appreciate post-release support and being listened to. It's a good little plugin that sounds different.
Well this is probably the best video you've made, along with the previous one about the same plugin, why? because your complaint made the product better for everyone out there. It's great that you're not just saying "this sucks" but instead, "what's going on here?". You helped a company and many of their customers.
Hey buddy. I just wanted to take time to say thank you for all you do here on RU-vid for the audio community. We need more good quality people like you who are experienced with a great ear & knowhow to give us good quality non biased reviews on audio plugins. Because if we left it up to the companies everything would be great happy and honky dorry. I'm thankful we have you to depend on for honest reviews. Keep up the good work -BiG Pluck
Great! It's also good they did give us the opportunity to use the original operator. I love the noise on some of my tracks, but I have to admit I did switch on most of the tracks. And now, when we don't need to deal with the noise, it's possible to tweak it more aggressive.
Baby Audio are now a company I would go to, even though I've never heard of them before. It's so funny that most companies don't seem to get that upsetting their userbase will make them lose it and in turn caring for their products and users will be able to even create a userbase for them through videos like this one here. Oh Waves, are you hearing me and will finally stop making us pay multiple times for our products? ;)
Thanks for finding this issue and pointing it out. It's great to see a company listen to experienced users and fix problems with their tools. And any chance you'll be looking at some of Cherry Audio's incredibly cheap classic synth emulations? I'm not sure what gear you have access to in order to make clear comparisons but they seem to be getting high praise from some people who have used the original hardware. The harshest criticism I can find anywhere so far is that for a couple of the synths there are much more expensive emulations that might be a tiny bit more accurate according to some users, but then other high priced emulations are deemed inferior. I suppose at the price point it's hard to complain; it's nice for a low budget novice like me to see a company set prices that tempt impulse buys from everyone on what seem to be quality instruments.
I've also noticed that the high res algorithm seems to remove the "phase issues" that the classic mode was creating: there is a more round and present low end on the high res.
I got to say, you had pissed me off to the point I unsubscribed when you were reviewing the Tegeler magnatismus and I unsubscribed. But I watched your original post on the Smooth Operator and completely agreed with you. Now that you got a result and this fix has been implemented I gotta say, big time respect man. Fair play.
Wow thank you so much for supporting us back, mate! This is the best type of relationship between content creators and their public. I hugely appreciate it! You are the man!
I'm an amateur who uses Smooth Operator regularly on lead synth lines, which often end up being too sizzly or not smooth enough. Smooth Operator helps me tame the sound, make it sweeter and fit better overall. I like it
I'm a user, the new version is better, but the old version simply required attention to settings and using your ears. Having said that, responsive companies are great. NOTE - Analog EQ's and filters also distort. Its great on acoustic guitar and my dodgy vocals.
This is the only channel I go to for REAL reviews. The other reviewers seem to say "Hey, check out this plugin! Here's my 'review' and there's a link below to buy it. It's an affiliate link." Often, the software is garbage, and my money is gone. Those are not "reviews" those are "promotions" and it is annoying. But you, my friend, give fair critiques, point out issues, and let us decide. Also, thank you for as hard on Unison as the rest of us are. So farm they make poor products, in my opinion.
That's good. Big companies have to pay big salaries for quality control employees. These software plugin companies have free quality control on your channel. They either need to fix it or get out of the business because they won't stay in business long selling bad plugs. Good for them they chose to fix it.
