Specs, DAW Computer, Opinions

[pipelineaudio]

Seems like everyone who brings their Apple Silicon computer to its knees uses plugins from iZotope. What does that tell us about the efficiency of these plugins?

Both that iZotope makes some seriously munchy plugs and that the Apple Silicon power claims are WAY beyond realistic. Even with that said, they are insanely powerful

 

[Digital Igloo]

I love Soothe and use it all the time, including when pre-mastering. (Thanks to Mario Quintero for that tip.)

But don't sleep on Sound Theory's Gullfoss. What it accomplishes is borderline magic; scroll down and watch the videos. Haven't (yet) felt the need to dig into Ozone or Neutron at all.

Premastering chain: Gullfoss Master > Soothe 2 > Fab Filter Pro-Q 3 > Fab Filter Pro-L 2 > Logic Multimeter

 

[fretworn]

I love Soothe and use it all the time, including when pre-mastering. (Thanks to Mario Quintero for that tip.)

But don't sleep on Sound Theory's Gullfoss. What it accomplishes is borderline magic; scroll down and watch the videos. Haven't (yet) felt the need to dig into Ozone or Neutron at all.

Premastering chain: Gullfoss Master > Soothe 2 > Fab Filter Pro-Q 3 > Fab Filter Pro-L 2 > Logic Multimeter

Thanks for sharing that… Super interesting and something I’ll take a look at more closely.

 

[Whizzinby]

I love Soothe and use it all the time, including when pre-mastering. (Thanks to Mario Quintero for that tip.)

But don't sleep on Sound Theory's Gullfoss. What it accomplishes is borderline magic; scroll down and watch the videos. Haven't (yet) felt the need to dig into Ozone or Neutron at all.

Premastering chain: Gullfoss Master > Soothe 2 > Fab Filter Pro-Q 3 > Fab Filter Pro-L 2 > Logic Multimeter

So you use this on the master bus after mixing?

I need to check it out.

 

[Digital Igloo]

So you use this on the master bus after mixing?

I need to check it out.

Or on the master bus while mixing. I tried it on multiple output busses at one point and it was too heavy-handed; it tends to work best on more complex material like full mixes.

EDIT: Gullfoss is always trying to Tame and Recover frequencies, so if, for example, your mixdown drops into a solo vocal breakdown or something, Gullfoss will attempt to make the vocal fill the empty spaces (boost non-existent frequencies) which sounds really weird. I'll automate Tame and Recover to 0% in these instances, or edit in the vocal line from a non-Gullfossed bounce.

 

[fretworn]

Now GASing for a sale from Oekaudio and SoundTheory …

 

[Whizzinby]

Digesting this ATM. This guy does some great tutorials.

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

IMHO Gullfoss does a better job at balancing the frequency spectrum of a mix than iZotope. Neutron/Ozone always seem to do too much. Gullfoss can act more subtly while magically lifting the blanket from the mix.

 

[fretworn]

Digesting this ATM. This guy does some great tutorials.

Yup - just saw it lol

 

[fretworn]

IMHO Gullfoss does a better job at balancing the frequency spectrum of a mix than iZotope. Neutron/Ozone always seem to do too much. Gullfoss can act more subtly while magically lifting the blanket from the mix.

Funny enough, that’s exactly what I heard in a demo.


(might have mentioned while the wife was passing through the room that I might spend a little money today on some software… Lol)

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

I can also recommend Sonible‘s smart:limit plugin. It combines limiting with spectral balancing and is really good at it.

 

[Whizzinby]

Me when someone mentions a new recording plug

 

[fretworn]

 

[fretworn]

Gullfoss is truly amazing- targets one of my core clarity and mids issues, but so well done! Thanks @Digital Igloo

Soothe2 is very cool too - need more wheel time though to sort through the options

thanks fellers!




EDIT: just ran the rig out of resources lmao

 

[laxu]

I don't know what thread this should go in, but I'll throw it here.

Today I found that enabling the Intel integrated GPU on my 13600K significantly affects the buffer size I can use on my audio interface. I have a discrete RTX 4090 in my system, thought I'd just enable the iGPU as a backup. Well, turns out even just watching YT meant popping from my audio interface unless I raised the buffer size from 64 to 128!

Disabled the iGPU from BIOS and the problem went away, 64 works just fine again. FFS Intel, this kind of stuff shouldn't be an issue!

 

[fretworn]

Alrighty … lol … I overcooked the crap out of a mix last night. Even printed an audio file for mastering to get over the processing limits of RT plugs in Logic.

I went and checked the reference track and went “oh shit!” “Where are the low mids?”

Way too much Gullfoss and Sculptor on the mids … will redo later … I love this stuff

 

[fretworn]

Gah!

Mixing Hell … lower-level achieved!

I guess that will force me back into writing music and finish the idea lol

I think I learned a lot. (Not fully synthesized yet. This seems like voodoo sometimes.) It’s somewhat easy to lose the vibe of the tune with all the tools at the end too. Learning

I’ll totally remix after I finish recording the tune.

Then …

 

[Digital Igloo]

Alrighty … lol … I overcooked the crap out of a mix last night. Even printed an audio file for mastering to get over the processing limits of RT plugs in Logic.

I went and checked the reference track and went “oh shit!” “Where are the low mids?”

Way too much Gullfoss and Sculptor on the mids … will redo later … I love this stuff

Yep, really easy to overdo Gullfoss. Generally, I never set Tame or Recover over 30% and almost always set Bias and Brighten so the little bars disappear. For the most part I leave Boost on 0.0dB. And of course constantly A/B with Bypass or option-click values to A/B them individually.

 

[fretworn]

Yep, really easy to overdo Gullfoss. Generally, I never set Tame or Recover over 30% and almost always set Bias and Brighten so the little bars disappear. For the most part I leave Boost on 0.0dB. And of course constantly A/B with Bypass or option-click values to A/B them individually.

Lessons learned today ha ha ha … I was just heading down to pull everything off, write some actual music, and then reapply with a less ham-fisted approach. Lol!

It started off as a good mix and I wrecked it by making it mo’ betta

 

[mavrick102000]

Oh man and I had just bought the iZotope advanced....More money...Awesome
MacBook is down atm. I opened it up to upgrade the internal SSD, and found some fluffy pillow lithium batteries while I was in there

So I haven't even bothered to install everything yet. Waiting on the new battery pack to arrive, along with a new to me iMac i9 (8 cores and 64GB of RAM) should be good for a bit.

And still need to get some better drum plugins and a midi controller. But the hidden fun money is about depleted.

The wife is onboard for the midi controller/keys for my birthday or Christmas - tough to choose without playing them due to individual keybed preferences. I'll have to see what the local GC has around to test. I haven't mentioned I might also want a Maschine mikro MK3 to her yet.

I really miss my old Roland with 88 full-size weighted keys at least for acoustic piano instruments - it just feels more natural to me.