Sonible pure:EQ

Sonible’s AI‑based EQ processing just got easier to use and more affordable.

Having won praise for their range of ‘smart’ AI‑based plug‑ins, Sonible decided to create a more accessibly priced and more streamlined AI‑assisted offering, in the form of their new ‘pure’ range. The subject of this review, pure:EQ, is one of four such plug‑ins, the others being pure:comp, pure:limit and pure:verb.

Pure & Simple

Simple and quick to use, pure:EQ attempts to give each of your audio signals a better frequency balance with a minimum of fuss, and it really is incredibly straightforward to use. Once you’ve inserted it on a suitable instrument track, you just choose the type of source from the included list of instrument profiles, then let pure:EQ audition a few seconds of the sound. The plug‑in learns the frequency response and creates an EQ curve that aims to address any problematic areas, and deliver a more balanced sound. There are profiles for most common instrument types and, as well as individual drum instruments, a complete drum kit. (There’s no ‘master bus’ or ‘full mix’ profile, so the design intention seems to be tailoring individual instruments rather than, say, mastering).

pure:EQ ships with profiles suitable for most common instrument types.You can adjust how the frequency curve is applied using a compact and straightforward set of controls. Balance adjusts how forcefully pure:EQ applies the suggested frequency curve, with low Balance values just nudging things towards the frequency response target, values around 100 hitting the frequency target more closely, and values over 100 exaggerating the response. You can also choose between three Style settings (warm, neutral and bright), with the first and last of those essentially applying a tilt to the target frequency curve that favours lower or higher frequencies respectively. The EQ adjustments respond dynamically to changes in the source too, and the Dynamic control sets how quickly the frequency filter adjusts to the changing input signal. Finally, the Range controls allow you to limit the frequency range to which adjustments are applied.

Applied to a variety of sources such as guitars, drums, bass, keys and vocals, it did a pretty good job on the whole — and if I needed to knock lots of individual elements of a project into shape before I actually started mixing, I think this could offer a pretty quick and mostly foolproof means of going about that. I suppose I should point out that it doesn’t then go on to mix those individually balanced sources for you: the the plug‑in considers each source in isolation, comparing it with the targets you select, so when mixing you’ll still have to perform the usual sort of EQ moves to make the various sources work well together. But after applying pure:EQ, you might well be doing that from a better starting point, and find you can get more from your conventional EQ tools. Finally, this is not a plug‑in I’d want to use in a recording/monitoring chain, since pure:EQ’s cleverness comes at the cost of some (admittedly fairly modest) latency.

Bundle Of Joy?

As long as you appreciate what this plug‑in is (and is not) intended to do for you, pure:EQ should impress you: it offers decent results with a minimum of fuss, making this a plug‑in that anyone could use — it’s beginner friendly, but even experienced mixers could find a place for it in terms of speeding up their initial mix workflow.

pure:EQ should impress you: it offers decent results with a minimum of fuss, making this a plug‑in that anyone could use...

While exploring pure:EQ, I also had the opportunity to investigate the other three plug‑ins in the range, and I reckon Sonible are onto a winner with their ‘pure’ concept. They all bring the same simple workflow and all delivered impressive results (I found pure:comp and pure:limit particularly impressive). Individually, they are very accessibly priced, but the ‘pure bundle’ is an absolute bargain.