Waves Curves Equator

[MisterB]

New plugin from Waves. I think this is competition for the (IMO) overpriced Soothe2 and also TrackSpacer, when used with a sidechain input. Both of these products have been on my radar, but I haven't pulled the plug on either, or trialed them.  So, I'm not sure how they compare, but I will say that Waves Curves Equator is currently pretty darned cheap at just $40us at the moment. Compare to Soothe2 which is $209us.

 

Anyway, like I say, I can't compare them since I haven't used them all, but I did pull the plug on the Waves one, and tried it on both a full mix, and sidechained on individual channels, and so far, I like what its doing. Basically, on the master or on individual channels, it will tame resonant frequencies and smooth out your mix or individual tracks.  It can work in pretty much an automatic mode, or you can tweak to your hearts content.  Sidechaining carves out important frequencies in other tracks to give your mix space, and make sure the important instruments have their space, which I think is what TrackSpacer does (and Soothe probably does too). 

 

I'm not a fan of the Waves eco-system, but for this price, its worth a try (they also have a demo if you want), and probably worth putting up with.

 

More info at... https://www.waves.com/plugins/curves-equator

 

 

[john]

Like you I’m not a big fan. I have quite a few Waves plug ins, but they are usually a little disappointing (in my experience). Also I am not fond of their licensing.

 

That said they have a few not bad simulated reproductions. So far, less convinced by their more adventurous, experimental plugins.

 

 

[MisterB]

5 hours ago, john said:

Like you I’m not a big fan. I have quite a few Waves plug ins, but they are usually a little disappointing (in my experience). Also I am not fond of their licensing.

 

That said they have a few not bad simulated reproductions. So far, less convinced by their more adventurous, experimental plugins.

 

Do you consider this to be an experimental plugin?  For me, its not really doing anything new, or anything I can't do with plugins I already have, but I do like their simple approach and single screen UI. I usually have Izotope's Ozone on my master, but I hate how fragmented it is, with so many different modules handling a tiny aspect of your mix, requiring paging between each individual set of parameters. I'd rather have something simple like this, and probably trust Ozone just to handle the final limiter stage. Similarly, when side-chaining to allow frequency space on competing tracks, there is something about this one that makes set up a breeze. I guess time will tell if I still feel the same after extensive use.  

[Mahesh]

These kind of plugins (Gullfoss, Soothe, Trackspacer) are very much popular these days within the mixing world. It'l be interesting to see how it'll fare. If somebody tries it out let me know. For now, I'm using a free alternative called Wavegrove Vastaus which is a plugin that removes harsh and resonant high frequencies. I don't use it much but good to know I can slap it on to the mixbus on a low amount and expect to clean the high end a little.