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Post by jtc111 on Oct 3, 2018 17:11:35 GMT -6
Because I own their frei:raum plugin, I was sent an offer to grab the smart:EQ 2 for around $10. I grabbed it even though I had no pressing need because... well, 10 bucks. The claim is that it uses some form of AI to examine a track and create a custom filter curve. I was pretty skeptical but like I said before... 10 bucks. I tried it out on some old acoustic guitar tracks that I remembered were problematic when it came to getting the sound where I wanted. I bypassed the eq I had on the track and let the smart:EQ 2 do its thing. It took about 15-20 seconds of playing the track for the plugin to finish its analysis but this thing got me as close as I had gotten without it and in a lot less time. The custom curve was a little boomy on the bottom but you can make very easily make eq adjustments in the plugin window after it sets the custom filter curve. I've only scratched the surface with this one but I like what I'm hearing so far. I don't think I'll reach for this often but when I have to deal with a track that's difficult to dial in, this plugin is a good first step. Has anyone else tried this thing? |
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Oct 3, 2018 17:36:53 GMT -6
It would be very cool to record sinwav 20-20k from your monitors with mikes in your monitoring position and see what curve it comes up with? A poormans Sonarworks?
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Post by jtc111 on Oct 4, 2018 8:22:28 GMT -6
It would be very cool to record sinwav 20-20k from your monitors with mikes in your monitoring position and see what curve it comes up with? A poormans Sonarworks? You're much more curious than I am. I'm simply happy to have another tool that can make problematic tracks more easily usable. But to your point, I'm not sure the analogy is quite right. Sonarworks reacts to room issues and affects all tracks while this plugin reacts to individual track issues. I've no idea what's going on under the hood but I like that it only takes seconds to get me to a new starting point with a track that's less than stellar. I know ideally you'd want the track to be good to begin with, but in cases where it's not, this plugin helps. Another plugin that falls into this category is the UAD Sound Machine Wood Works. A friend of mine sent me a session on which we're collaborating that had an acoustic guitar track that was recorded using the guitar's piezo pickup. It had the usual quackiness associated with piezos. The SMWW transformed it into a much more natural sounding track. I wouldn't say the plugin made it sound as good as a mic-ed guitar, but it was much better than where it started. I did the same thing for a couple of tracks in a session Vincent R. was working on and he like the results also. |
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kcatthedog
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Post by kcatthedog on Oct 4, 2018 8:29:58 GMT -6
Oh I understand but I think the Ai in this plug must be comparing to some notion of linearity , which is what sonarworks does as well, but uses multiple sampling technique.
once you had an analysed file for the sinwav measurement was just curios what would happen if yo loaded the plug on your 2 bus and used that template, by proxi, it would have been corrected for your room freq anomalies but not time domain ?
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Post by jtc111 on Oct 4, 2018 9:54:19 GMT -6
I'm afraid to find out how bad my room is. I've got GIK bass traps up that tame things somewhat but at 8x11 the room is too small to be very good for recording and tracking. But my house is small and I don't have any better options unless I want to move things into the basement that has no a/c. I'll be relocating to the Asheville NC area at some point in the next year and the plan is to greatly upsize and one of the priorities is the house has to have a good space for recording.
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Post by Vincent R. on Oct 5, 2018 5:21:45 GMT -6
jtc111 you were using it more like a mastering EQ, but yeah. You were able to shape the sound nicely with it.
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