THE Soothe 2 killer? - Waves Curves Equator

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‘’Curves Equator automatically attenuates resonances and accurately tames built-up frequencies to provide a balanced, stable sound. It opens space in a track and provides the clarity needed for an instrument or voice to punch through.

There are two steps in Equator processing:
1) creating a threshold curve that
determines what will be processed and what won’t, and
2) controlling how those sounds will be processed.
Equator can also build a threshold curve based on a sidechain signal (SC). This helps resolve buildups of conflicting frequencies and makes room for the “important” audio by cutting frequencies from a “less important” source, thus creating space in the mix.

There are two ways to create a threshold curve. Adaptive, the default mode, begins with a flat curve or a factory curve that you can mold to perfectly suit your track. It is especially valuable when you want to perform significant correction or modification to your track.
The Captured mode captures a representative portion of a song, from which it creates an accurate
threshold curve. Use this mode when you are happy with the nature of your source but want to fine-tune it, whether for resonance control or gentle reshaping.

There are several tools for modeling a threshold curve and customizing the processing, and all controls that are available to input processing are there for the sidechain signal.
Even if you run a sound through Equator and don’t touch any controls, other than the main threshold, you will hear blocky resonances fade away—maybe even blemishes you never noticed before—and make way for a more open and airy mix."

[the_handsome_bear]

This plugin isnt bad at all. Good job Waves

[Themosaicsound]

I remember when soothe first dropped it was mind blowing lol now there's so many different types. Good time to be a producer/engineer.

[danielkisel]

nice what about cpu usage of these two does one consume noticeably more or less cpu than the other, and which would be more suitable for gentle master correction for mastering?

[massivebeatzz]

Soothe is great - tje price is inflated, and unrealistic. Surprised it takes so long for competitors and improved versions to come onto the market...Now we have several to choose from.

[SoMyungJung]

Hate to admit it but after a few days of use, I like this one better compared to Soothe 2.
Even feels wrong to say it lmao

[RobRuffMusic]

This actually sounds better/Smoother and more transparent than Soothe 2... I get a ton of artifacts with soothe 2 with my low end vocals

[lilgbolahan]

For us who do live sound, it's a game changer 😊

[rafaelamartins]

Funny how he says Waves gets 'zero for originality, ' but then goes on to show all the ways it's different from the competition… I mean, this one has way more features, and you’d basically have to buy all the competing products to get what this one does.
Plus, it looks super easy to use.
That sounds pretty original to me. I’m definitely going to check it out..

[dna]

I do love that song "Embrace the Night", but the vocal could do with a lot of this type of processing! Did you mix it?

[rebirth]

So I do like that Equator works both as resonance suppressor and tone shaper(towards pink noise) but I think there's one thing missing. The problem resonance suppressors tend to have is that you spend a lot of time fiddling around because either its clamping down too hard on formant frequencies(which also affects transients) or not enough and is harsh/muddy. I feel like if they had a parallel mode using the delta(and isolate the group of frequencies you want) you could reintroduce certain uncompressed resonances just enough so the overall sound feels balanced but not lifeless.

For those wondering, the pink noise frequency response is generally sought after because it's frequency energy is balanced per octave(leading to a balanced sound). But you don't want your sound to follow this 100%- you still need certain resonances to give the sound tonal qualities(rather than sounding more like noise) and act as transient information.

[dahlhousestudios]

Great vid! Just when I thought I was out, Waves keeps pulling me back in! Word's spreading fast on this one. I reviewed it a couple days ago and I was blown away. I found it as powerful as Soothe 2—more in some ways, yet less prone to artefacts. For $40, it's hard to find a reason to NOT buy this one.
Do you think it's going to become a daily-driver for you?🤔 (Shoutout to fellow Cubase user btw!)

[marksaxon_plays]

Looks good but I wouldn't buy a new Waves plugin at this point. Their constant "pay for updates" model stinks. Between Acustica Dove, The Smoother and WA Deres, I have most of my needs covered. I think Oeksound's GUIs are very nice. Great video and review!

[sssyntax]

Anything that can tame that sound at 2;45 so well is good for me.

[digitalmarketinghumans]

This only makes it better for consumers considering how expensive Soothe 2 can be and yes, it's great, but man, this Waves Equator is awesome, especially multi band feature.
They'll probably come out with Curves Compressor soon or something like that.

[mikeillgaming]

Gotta try it out ... Im using soothe trial version right now .. $200 is too much

[PhatNoizeRecords]

Does it have mid/side processing?
Especially in your Vocal ducking example it would possibly make sense to duck guitars in the mid spectrum only and leave the sides untouched. Thanks a lot!

[wesstarmedia]

I like waves and have never had to upgrade. The negativity that some have towards the company is uncalled for and childish.

[InaktiverUser]

on vocals should i use the waves curve equator first in vocal chain to clean up before mixing my vocal or after my vocal chain to clean up the already mixed sound?

[hightyde]

What’s the cpu on this one compared to soothe2? I like soothe but it sure hogs cpu

[jrgroberts]

I have various resonance suppressors and don't much like them. It's worth remembering that actual musical instruments consist of resonance generators. On synthetic instruments they are more useful. IMHO they need to be used minimally and with caution to avoid producing nasty synthetic noises....