Since it had guitars sounding so good, I decided to try it on a lead synth next. Sometimes cutting the hi-mid smart band will actually make things sound brighter and vice versa. One thing I noticed was that boosting and cutting with the smart bands didn’t yield the same results you’d necessarily expect to get. They were already EQ’d and sounding good, but two instances of the smart bands (hi-mid and low-mid) really got them popping out of the mix. I was near the end of a mix and decided to throw a Smart:EQ+ instance on the electric guitars. This custom curve is supposed to be make mixing easier and faster, but how does it work in practice? This learning process basically creates something akin to a custom EQ curve. Engaging the magic wand during playback allows Smart:EQ+ to begins the learning process where Smart:EQ+, “analyzes your audio material, identifies spectral imbalances and proposes fully automatic solutions within seconds” (their words).
Next to the four mid bands, you’ll see a magic wand icon.
Let’s discuss what makes Smart:EQ+ so interesting, which are it’s smart bands. If you’re familiar with parametric EQ’s, as well as linear phase EQ’s, you’ll be instantly comfortable with Smart:EQ+ so I won’t cover the basics. Two smart bands, some HPF with some smoothing. There are no included presets, but being that this is an EQ, I don’t think they’re necessary and even less so if one plans on using the smart bands, which are the big selling point of this EQ. There are some smart band smoothing and gain controls at the bottom of the UI along with a “speech” mode intended for vocal use. The center of the UI allows you to either click and drag to set your bands, and you’ve got an optional “blind” mode if you’d prefer to go old school. Each band includes gain, Q, frequency, and band solo controls.
The 8 bands run across the top of the UI with the typical low pass filter, low shelf, bells (or smart bands), high shelf, hi pass filter configuration, with the option to change the filter types as needed. The interface opts for a modern, flat look and is freely resizable by clicking and dragging the lower-right corner (though the size setting can’t be set as default which is disappointing). Installation was straightforward (select folders, select plugin types, then done) and copy protection is a simple serial number, which is always appreciated.įull GUI making use of two smart bands, some HPF and some hi-shelving. While I won’t call this an auto-EQ, the “smart bands,” which are this EQ’s big selling point, are definitely a step in that direction. Sonible Smart:EQ+ is an 8-band linear-phase EQ with some unique features designed to speed up the mix process by basically “learning” your audio, and creating a specialized EQ curve to reduce imbalances in the frequency response.
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