THE_SMOOTHER 2 Manual

What it does: Defines a frequency region where the plugin hunts for and processes resonances. Click empty spectrum to add one (centred where you click), drag it horizontally to move it, drag the band edges to resize its frequency range, right-click it (or click the trash icon in the band toolbar) to delete it. Range/units: Up to 8 bands anywhere between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. Bands sit side by side and never overlap — dragging one into its neighbour pushes the neighbour along, and edges snap together when they get close. Hovering an edge shows its exact frequency. In your music: This is how you aim. Park a band over 2–5 kHz harshness, 200–400 Hz mud, or sibilant highs — and leave everything else alone. Pro tip: Start a band wider than you think, then squeeze the edges inward while listening in Delta. You'll hear the moment you've boxed in the offending frequency.

What it does: Sets how strongly detected resonances are attenuated within the band (in LIFT mode: how strongly dips are lifted). Range/units: DEPTH knob, 0–100% (new bands start at 50%). You can also drag the band's depth line on the spectrum up/down — a readout shows the percentage while you drag. In CUT mode the fill hangs from the top, in LIFT mode it rises from the bottom. The global AMOUNT scales every band's depth at once. In your music: Your core "how much smoothing" knob. Low = gentle taming; high = aggressive de-resonance. Pro tip: Push depth too far on purpose to find the resonance, then back off to the lowest setting that still solves the problem. Subtlety wins on vocals and master bus.

What it does: Switches the band between cutting resonant peaks (CUT), both cutting peaks and lifting dips toward an even target (SHAPE), or lifting dips only (LIFT). Range/units: CUT → SHAPE → LIFT; click the mode button to cycle. New bands start in CUT. The button is greyed out while the band's sidechain is set to UNM (Unmask). In your music: CUT de-harshes/de-muds; SHAPE evens a range toward a smooth target; LIFT dynamically fills in frequencies that dip below their surroundings, for brightness or presence. Pro tip: Use SHAPE on a busy midrange where some notes are too hot and others too shy — it pulls the whole range toward an even target instead of only cutting.

What it does: Selects which channels the band processes. Click the channel button in the band toolbar to open its popup. Range/units: L+R (both sides, shown as a link icon — the default), L, R, M (mid) or S (side). The popup also holds the LINK slider (see Stereo Link) and a balance slider (L/R, or M/S) that shifts the band's depth toward one side: in the centre (L=R) both sides get the full depth; slide toward one side and the depth fades out on the other. In your music: Tame harshness only in the stereo sides, or only in the mono center, without touching the rest of the image. Pro tip: De-ess a wide stereo vocal by targeting S only — you'll soften the sizzle in the spread without dulling the up-front center.

What it does: Controls how narrowly the suppressor targets resonant peaks — effectively the Q / bandwidth of the corrective notches. Range/units: SHARP knob, 0–100%, semitone-based (default 50%). Shown in CUT and SHAPE mode. In your music: High = surgical, pinpoint notches on individual ringing tones; low = broader, gentler smoothing across the band. Pro tip: For a single ringing note (a resonant guitar body, a tom), crank sharpness for an invisible fix. For general "harshness," keep it lower so it breathes.

What it does: Sets the threshold for what counts as a resonance versus normal program material. Range/units: SELECT knob, 0–100% (default 50%). In your music: How picky the band is. High selectivity grabs only the most pronounced peaks; low selectivity smooths more of the spectrum. In LIFT mode it works the other way round: high selectivity lifts only the deepest dips. Pro tip: If the plugin is acting on material you want, raise selectivity until it only catches the genuine offenders.

What it does: Shapes how the suppression curve responds as a peak rises above the threshold. Range/units: KNEE knob, 0–100% (default 50%). Lower = softer, higher = harder. In your music: Softer knee = gradual, transparent onset of suppression; harder knee = a more decisive clamp once a resonance crosses threshold. Pro tip: Soft knee for vocals and acoustic sources where transparency is everything; harder knee for drums where you want it to grab decisively.

What it does: How quickly the suppressor reacts to a newly appearing resonance. Range/units: ATK knob, 1–100 ms (default about 50 ms). Turning the knob up makes the attack slower. In your music: Fast attack catches transient ring/harshness instantly; slower attack lets the initial transient through for a more natural feel. Pro tip: On cymbals and snares, slow the attack slightly so the stick/transient stays punchy and only the ringing tail gets smoothed.

What it does: How quickly the suppressor recovers after a resonance passes. Range/units: REL knob, 10–500 ms (default about 255 ms). Turning the knob up makes the release slower. In your music: Fast release follows the source closely and snappily; slow release is smoother with less pumping. Pro tip: If you hear breathing or pumping, slow the release. If suppression lingers and dulls following notes, speed it up.

These three are your "dynamics feel." Treat them like a compressor's brain: selectivity sets what triggers it, attack/release set how it moves.

What it does: The SMART/MANUAL button in the band toolbar picks how the band scales its depth. SMART (the default) scales the depth automatically by how far each frequency pokes above the band's average level: the strongest peaks get the full depth, frequencies that barely stick out get less. MANUAL switches that scaling off and reveals the CLIP knob. Range/units: SMART or MANUAL, per band (default SMART). In your music: SMART is hands-off, program-dependent smoothing that leans in hardest on the worst offenders. MANUAL gives you an even treatment across the band plus a level ceiling. Pro tip: Leave it on SMART for "set and forget" mix cleanup; switch to MANUAL when you want a band to clamp a range only once it gets too loud.

What it does: A level ceiling for the band. Anything in the band louder than the CLIP level is pulled down toward it — how far depends on DEPTH — on top of the normal resonance smoothing. Only shown when the band is set to MANUAL; a dashed line across the band shows the level on the spectrum. Range/units: -60 dB to 0 dB (default -60 dB). In your music: Tame a honk, a boomy note or sibilance only when it actually gets loud, and leave the quieter passages alone. Pro tip: The lower you set CLIP, the more of the band gets caught. Watch the dashed line against the spectrum and set it just under the peaks you want to tame.

What it does: Maximum amount of lift a LIFT band may apply. Range/units: 0–24 dB (default 12 dB). Shown only in LIFT mode. SHAPE bands use a fixed lift ceiling of +6 dB instead. In your music: Caps how much a band can lift, keeping enhancement from running away. Pro tip: Keep it modest when adding "air" on a master bus — a little dynamic lift goes a long way.

What it does: Tilts the band's target curve around the band's centre — warm (left) emphasizes lows, bright (right) emphasizes highs. Range/units: TILT knob, -12 to +12 dB per octave, centre = FLAT (default). Shown only in SHAPE mode. In your music: Steers tonal balance warmer or brighter while smoothing. Pro tip: A gentle bright tilt across a wide SHAPE band on a dull mix adds polish that follows the music instead of a static high-shelf.

What it does: Controls how much the left and right channels are linked for processing. Range/units: LINK slider in the channel popup, 0–100%. It matters when the band processes both sides (L+R). In your music: High link = matched L/R processing for a stable center image; low link = channels react independently. Pro tip: Raise the link on lead vocals and bass to keep the center rock-solid; lower it on wide stereo material to let each side breathe.

What it does: Lets a signal on the plugin's sidechain input drive this band. Click the SC button to cycle through the options. Range/units: SC (off, default) → UNM (Unmask) → SCR (SC Resonance). With UNM, the band ducks this track wherever the sidechain signal is prominent in the band's range (the mode button is greyed out). With SCR, the band looks for resonances in the sidechain signal and cuts those frequencies from this track. When the sidechain is silent in the band's range, the band leaves the audio alone. Route a sidechain to the plugin in your DAW first. In your music: Let another track trigger or guide suppression — unmask a band so another element cuts through, or carve out what rings in a competing part. Pro tip: Put THE_SMOOTHER 2 on a synth pad, feed the lead vocal into the sidechain and set a band over the vocal's range to UNM — the pad dips to make room only when the vocal needs it.

What it does: The power button in the band toolbar bypasses the selected band. It stays on the spectrum, dimmed, with all its settings. Range/units: On/off per band. In your music: A/B a single band's contribution without deleting it. Pro tip: Build several bands, then bypass them one at a time — you'll quickly learn which ones are actually earning their keep.

What it does: Solo-listen to only what is being removed within this band's range. Range/units: On/off (default off). Delta and Solo are exclusive per band: switching one on switches the other off. In your music: Hear exactly the resonance being subtracted so you can dial depth and frequency precisely. Pro tip: This is your tuning superpower. Drag the band while in Delta until the removed sound is all problem and no music — that's the sweet spot.

What it does: Auditions only the frequency range of the band, unprocessed. Range/units: On/off (default off). In your music: Isolate and zero in on the problem frequency region. Pro tip: Solo to find the offending area, then switch to Delta to fine-tune the fix.

What it does: The arrows at both ends of the band toolbar step the selection to the previous/next active band, from low to high frequency. Range/units: Cycles through active bands (wraps around at the ends). In your music: Quickly edit each band's parameters in turn. Pro tip: On a complex master chain with many bands, use prev/next instead of hunting on the spectrum — faster and less error-prone.

What it does: Listens to your audio and proposes resonant frequencies as markers you can turn into bands. Click SMART in the bottom bar to open its popup, pick a source profile, then hit START LISTENING while the audio plays — the cell counts up (LISTENING 4.2s). Hit STOP LISTENING and the suggestions appear as green markers with frequency labels; the cell shows how many are left (DONE (3 left)). Click a marker to add it as a band, right-click it to dismiss it, and press and hold the S button under a marker to audition that range before you commit. DISCARD PREVIEW in the popup ends the preview. Range/units: Up to 8 suggestions. When the suggestions appear, your existing bands are cleared to give you a clean slate — Undo brings them back. Let it listen for at least a second; if nothing is found, a message tells you why (for example NO SIGNAL DETECTED - IS AUDIO PLAYING?). In your music: Problem-frequency detection at the push of a button — a brilliant starting point for de-essing, de-harshing or de-mudding without manual hunting. Pro tip: Don't accept every suggestion. Press and hold each marker's S button, and only commit the ones that genuinely sound like problems.

What it does: Tunes SMART's detection for a specific source type. TARGET uses the sidechain as a reference curve and suggests where your track sticks out against it. Range/units: AUTO (default), VOCAL, DRUMS, BUS, BASS, TARGET — picked in the SMART popup. The chosen profile shows in the cell (e.g. SMART - VOCAL). The popup also has a KEY row (ON/OFF, root, scale) that stays in sync with the KEY popup. In your music: Tailors auto-detection to the material so suggestions are more relevant. Pro tip: Use TARGET with a reference track on the sidechain to nudge your source toward a sound you love.

What it does: The DELTA button in the bottom bar lets you listen to everything being removed across all bands at once. Range/units: On/off. If any band has its own Delta or Solo on, that takes priority. In your music: Confirm the overall character of what the plugin is taking out of the mix. Pro tip: If Global Delta sounds like music and not just junk, you're over-processing somewhere — back off the busiest band.

What it does: Tells the suppressor what key the song is in, so it can weigh "is this note supposed to be here?" alongside its usual "is this peak ringing?". Click the KEY cell in the bottom bar to open the popup (KEY - SPARE IN-KEY, SUPPRESS THE REST): an ON/OFF switch, a ROOT dropdown (C to B), a SCALE dropdown with six scales — Major, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor, Major Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Blues — and three sliders. In-key resonances (the music) get their suppression depth pulled back by up to the PROTECT amount; out-of-key ringing (the junk) gets pushed harder by up to the BIAS amount. TOL sets how many cents off-pitch a peak can be and still count as in-key, with a gentle falloff so the naturally-detuned upper harmonics of in-key notes (5ths, 7ths) stay protected. Range/units: ON/OFF (default OFF); 12 roots × 6 scales (default C, Natural Minor); PROTECT 0–100% (default 70%); BIAS 0–100% (default 35%); TOL 5–50 cents (default 25). The cell shows the short form, e.g. KEY: F# MIN. KEY settings are saved with your profiles; profiles without KEY settings (older ones and Phil's Profiles) load with KEY off. In your music: Clean ringing and harshness out of tonal, busy material without ever chewing on the actual notes of the performance — the mask leans against the junk and spares the music. Pro tip: It's a nudge, not a hard mask — the resonance detection stays in charge and KEY only tilts its decisions on the cut side (CUT bands, and the cutting half of SHAPE), so it can never boost anything. It works at full strength between about 120 Hz and 9 kHz and fades out to nothing below 60 Hz and above 15 kHz, where key information stops being meaningful. Turn KEY on and SMART's markers take the key into account too, so the brightest suggestions really are the safest cuts.

What it does: Measures how much quieter (or louder) the processed signal is than the input, then sets the output to match. Click GAIN MATCH in the bottom bar to open its popup, hit START MEASURING while the music plays (the cell reads MEASURING), then STOP & PREVIEW. Press APPLY to add the measured amount to OUT, or DISCARD to drop it. Range/units: Measured correction up to ±12 dB; OUT stays within its ±12 dB range. Measuring pauses while the global DELTA is on. In your music: Keeps perceived level constant for fair before/after comparison while smoothing. Pro tip: Always A/B level-matched — "louder" can fool you into thinking a setting is better when it's just hotter. Re-measure after big changes.

What it does: Scales the depth of every band at once — one control to dial the whole treatment up or down. Range/units: 0–100% (default 100%). Drag up/down; double-click resets to 100%. In your music: Pull the whole effect back a touch without touching a single band. Pro tip: Set your bands a little heavier than needed, then use AMOUNT as the final "how much" fader.

What it does: Sets the final output level of the plugin (OUT in the bottom bar). Range/units: -12 dB to +12 dB. Drag up/down; double-click resets to 0 dB. In your music: Make-up or trim level after processing. Pro tip: Use GAIN MATCH to set it for you, or nudge it by hand to bring the smoothed signal back to unity before it hits the next plugin.

What it does: Shows the live amount of gain reduction being applied across the spectrum (GR -2.4 dB). It turns green once the plugin is working by more than about half a dB. Range/units: dB, read-only. In your music: Your instant readout of how hard the plugin is working. Pro tip: Watch it while you A/B: if GR keeps climbing but you can't hear an improvement, back off DEPTH or AMOUNT.

What it does: Selects processing/analysis quality; higher settings use more CPU for cleaner, higher-resolution suppression. Click QUALITY to open the popup. It has two rows: REALTIME (what you hear while playing back) and OFFLINE (used when you bounce or export). LIVE is a special option: the detector keeps running for analysis and control, but the audio flows through a zero-latency filter bank instead of the spectral engine — 0 samples of latency instead of one full analysis window. The honest tradeoff, stated right in the UI: a touch softer, reacts slightly later. Global and per-band Delta and per-band Solo still work in LIVE, and detection scales with your session's sample rate, so it holds up at 88.2 and 96 kHz. Range/units: ECO, NORMAL, HIGH, ULTRA, MAX, LIVE in each row. Defaults: REALTIME = NORMAL, OFFLINE = ULTRA. A caption strip describes each level in plain words — hover to see what it trades before you commit.

In your music: Trade CPU (and, in LIVE, a hair of resolution) against latency and detail — from zero-latency tracking to mastering-grade suppression. Pro tip: Use LIVE in the REALTIME row to record vocals or perform through the plugin with no latency; run ECO/NORMAL while arranging; bump to ULTRA/MAX for the mixdown or master. Leave OFFLINE on ULTRA or MAX and your bounce gets the full engine regardless.

What it does: Disables all processing and shows a "BYPASSED - CLICK ANYWHERE TO RE-ENABLE PROCESSING" overlay. Range/units: On/off (default processing ON; power-icon button). In your music: Instant true A/B of the whole plugin. Pro tip: Bypass frequently while mixing. If the bypassed version sounds better, your settings are doing harm, not help.

What it does: Saves and loads complete band configurations. Click PROFILES in the top bar. Range/units: Two lists: PHIL'S PROFILES (factory) and YOUR PROFILES. The factory set: BALANCE IT, DE-HARSH, DE-MUD, BRIGHTEN, TILT UP, GOLDEN MASTER, SMOOTHEN IT, NOSESPRAY. Search, save your own (with a category: VOCALS, DRUMS, BASS, GUITAR, MIX or MASTER) and open your profiles folder right from the browser. A profile stores all 8 bands plus the KEY settings; AMOUNT, OUT and QUALITY stay as they are. In your music: Recall task-specific starting points instantly. Pro tip: Load DE-HARSH or DE-MUD as a launchpad, then drag the bands onto your actual problem frequencies — a preset is a head start, not a destination.

What it does: Scales the plugin interface. Range/units: Drag the grip in the bottom-right corner, 0.5x to 3.0x (as far as your screen allows), or click it for a list of fixed sizes. Reset Zoom lives in Settings. In your music: Resize the window for comfort or fine detail work. Pro tip: Zoom in when drawing narrow surgical bands so you can place edges precisely.

What it does: The arrow buttons in the top bar revert or reapply recent edits to the suppressor panel. Range/units: Up to 50 steps back/forward. In your music: Experiment freely, step back instantly. Pro tip: Go aggressive while exploring — Undo means there's no penalty for trying a bold fix.

What it does: The gear opens Settings (hint language, Show Tooltips, Reset Zoom, a Tutorial link and the version number). The robot icon opens the in-app AI Assistant chat, and the book icon opens this documentation inside the plugin. Range/units: Open/close panels (no audio effect). Languages: English, Deutsch, Francais, Espanol, Italiano. In your music: In-app help and configuration whenever you're stuck. Pro tip: Ask the AI assistant how to handle a specific source — it's faster than alt-tabbing to a browser mid-flow.

1. Insert THE_SMOOTHER 2 on the vocal. Set Quality to HIGH.
2. Click SMART, choose VOCAL, hit START LISTENING while the vocal plays, then STOP LISTENING.
3. Press and hold the S button under the marker around 2–6 kHz to confirm it's the harshness, then click the marker to add it as a band.
4. Turn on the band's Delta and adjust DEPTH and SHARP until you hear only the harsh ring being removed — not the vocal's body.
5. Set ATK medium-fast, REL moderate, switch Delta off, and trust the GR readout. Toggle Bypass to confirm the win. (Or start from the DE-HARSH profile and drag the band onto your exact frequency.)

1. Add a band over the sibilant highs (often 5–9 kHz).
2. Crank SHARP for a narrow notch and set a fast ATK.
3. Set the channel to S (or leave it on L+R) so the up-front center stays bright.
4. Raise SELECT until it only grabs the "ess," not every cymbal or breath.
5. Use Delta to verify you're only removing sibilance, then dial DEPTH to taste.

1. Load the DE-MUD profile, or add a band over 200–500 Hz.
2. Keep SHARP lower for broad, musical smoothing.
3. Leave the band on SMART so it leans in hardest where the mud builds up.
4. A/B with Bypass after a GAIN MATCH — you want clarity, not just a thinner sound.

1. Insert on the master, Quality to ULTRA or MAX.
2. Try BALANCE IT or GOLDEN MASTER as a starting profile.
3. Add a gentle wide SHAPE band with a slight bright TILT for dynamic polish.
4. Raise LINK to keep the center stable, and use the global DELTA to confirm you're only removing genuine offenders.

1. Open QUALITY and set the REALTIME row to LIVE — the plugin now adds 0 samples of latency.
2. Add a band (or run SMART) over the harshness you want gone while you record.
3. Record or perform through it: what you monitor is exactly what gets printed, in time — no lag.
4. For the final bounce there's nothing to change: the OFFLINE row (ULTRA by default) takes over when you bounce, for the cleanest result.

1. Click the KEY cell, switch it ON, and set the song's ROOT and SCALE.
2. Add your de-harsh / de-mud bands as usual (or use SMART — its markers now take the key into account).
3. Raise PROTECT so in-key notes are spared and BIAS so out-of-key ringing gets caught harder; nudge TOL up if the material is a little detuned.
4. A/B with Bypass — you're clearing the junk without dulling the actual notes.