spectral rebalancers/optimisers – Effects Forum

I haven’t looked deeply into the differences between the many tools available for influencing the spectral balance of a mix, but have been using Mspectraldynamics for a couple of years. It’s a compressor of sorts, or rather it will smooth out the spectral balance in the time domain with attack and release settings, with the user setting the threshold. So it’s not claiming to know an optimal balance towards which to nudge a mix. Sonible smart EQ has the same sort of functionality with less control.

The blurb on the Gullfoss website makes it sound like they developed some space-age technique that only the Buddha can comprehend, but I believe I’ve seen claims that it’s just pushing things towards a typical spectral distribution, which may or may not be appropriate for a given track. But it appears to have more options for user-specified outcomes.

Then there’s Teote, DSEQ and others, and a distinct case of resonance suppression which isn’t my interest here. But they all seem to be capable of mix bus usage. Apparently Ozone have entered the fray too.

How much do these plugins vary and can they all be used to much the same ends?