Soothe3 vs Soothe2 Upgrade 2026: $55, Grace, Soft/Hard

This Page Is the Soothe3 Upgrade Delta. It Is Not a Soothe2 Tutorial.

Stay here for Soothe3 versus Soothe2 in 2026: ship date, $259 / $55, the February grace window, Soft versus Hard, zero-sample tracking latency at base rates, eight nodes, and 9.1.6. Do not use this page as a Soothe2 depth-curve school, a de-esser 101, or a Bloom tone-shaper review.

oeksound’s own what’s-new copy is the feature primary. The user manual (last modified 4 August 2026) is the latency and node primary. Mixonline (20 May 2026) and Gearnews (19 May 2026) are the USD price primaries we quote. This September 2026 page is that delta, not a claim that Soothe3 first shipped this month.^[3][4][6]

Harshness alternatives (Gullfoss) and oeksound Bloom live on related pages. Pro-Q 4 and Neutron 5 are EQ/mix-assistant tools, not resonance suppressors. This file does not teach Soothe2.

Launch: 19 May 2026. List $259. Soothe2 Upgrade $55.

oeksound’s Soothe3 changelog marks 1.0.3 as the initial release on 19 May 2026. 1.0.4 followed on 21 May (Ableton Live crash, large-buffer graph stutter). 1.0.5 landed 29 June 2026. Cite the changelog for the ship date; Mixonline’s 20 May write-up is the next-day trade note.^[1][6]

Mixonline: Soothe3 runs $259; an upgrade from Soothe2 is $55. Gearnews the same week: €229 ($259) new, €50 ($55) from Soothe2. KVR’s 19 May news post prints €229 / $259 / £199 and notes upgrade paths for Soothe2 perpetual holders and rent-to-own subscribers. Cite those posts for list; do not paste a random storefront sale as the official 2026 number.^[6][8][7]

The product page includes a fully featured 20-day trial with no feature lock. iLok account and License Manager are required; a dongle is not. One licence activates three machines. All purchases are final on oeksound’s spec block—run the trial on your FL / Ableton / Logic session before you pay.^[2]

Grace: Soothe2 Bought After 18 February 2026 Is a Free Soothe3.

oeksound’s upgrade support page is explicit: if you purchased a Soothe2 licence after 18 February 2026, you are eligible for a free Soothe3 upgrade licence. Claim it on oeksound’s grace-period page; do not pay $55 first and hope for a refund.^[5]

KVR’s launch note repeats the same cutoff. The support page does not print “on or after 18 February” and does not name 19 February as the start. Use oeksound’s wording: after 18 February 2026. If your invoice is 18 February itself, ask oeksound before you click Buy.^[7][5]

Perpetual Soothe2 and Soothe[1] holders outside that window still get the paid upgrade path. Rent-to-own is a separate console. This page does not track grey-market licence transfers.

Soft vs Hard: Adaptive Threshold Versus Soothe2-Style Grab

Soothe3 keeps two processing modes. Soft mode is oeksound’s most transparent resonance suppression, with an adaptive threshold. The manual: it behaves the same regardless of input level, reacts to relative tonal changes, and is the default starting point for vocals and other sources with a wide dynamic range between phrases.^[3][4]

Hard mode is “in the style of Soothe2,” with a fixed / level-dependent threshold. oeksound: more aggressive control and the popular sidechain effects. The product page: Hard is more reactive to dynamics and is the door for a compressor-like grab or for overdoing it as a creative effect. The manual: Hard is carried over from Soothe2 with tweaks; high depth can mangle the source on purpose.^[2][4]

Gearnews: the two modes are more distinctly useful than in Soothe2—Soft almost level-independent, Hard compressor-like. Mixonline repeats the same split. If your Soothe2 vocal preset lived on a heavy, level-dependent grab, start Soothe3 in Hard and A/B Soft before you decide the $55 did nothing.^[8][6]

• Detail replaces Sharpness + Selectivity One Detail knob sets how narrow the cuts are. Higher detail: deeper, narrower notches. In Soft, high Detail also slows detection slightly to keep steep cuts cleaner. The product page quotes Thomas Warren calling Detail the biggest upgrade from Soothe2 on vocals.^[3][2]
• Depth is not a dB readout The manual: the numeric Depth value is not absolute dB reduction; the reduction graph is. Cranking Depth in Hard can reach extreme notches (the manual names up to 40 dB as a creative ceiling). Use Max cut if you want harder Depth without unbounded dips.^[4]
• Sidechain is a toolbar SC button External sidechain plus sidechain listen live in the toolbar. Reduction then follows the key. That is the Hard-mode kick-versus-bass and vocal-versus-bus workflow Soothe2 users already know, not a new product.^[4]

Low Latency: 0 Samples at 44.1 and 48 kHz. Tracking Is the Point.

Soothe2’s lookahead latency kept it off most tracking chains. Soothe3’s low latency mode is the tracking/live door. oeksound what’s-new: zero samples of latency at base sample rates and about 1 ms at higher rates.^[3]

The manual’s latency chart is the number to quote. Low latency: 0 samples at 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz; 96 samples at 88.2/96 kHz; 192 samples at 176.4/192 kHz (the table header prints 174.4 kHz for that column). Regular processing is 2304 samples at 44.1/48. Linear-phase is 3456 samples at 44.1/48—do not arm that for a headphone mix.^[4]

Trade-off, still in the manual: low latency forces quality to normal + minimum phase and drops lookahead, so Soothe reacts a bit later (vibrato is the example). Lock the mode if you load presets on a live rack. Product-page copy: use it while tracking so the performer hears a more polished signal. That is the $55 argument for anyone who records vocals in the same session they mix.^[4][2]

Eight Nodes, Eight Shapes, Tilt, Max Cut, 9.1.6

Soothe2 used a fixed set of sensitivity bands. Soothe3: create or delete up to eight bands on the depth curve by double-clicking the reduction graph. Right-click to pick a shape first. Band shapes: low cut, low shelf, high shelf, high cut, bell, bandpass, band reject, tilt. Bandpass nodes run in parallel if you only want isolated ranges treated.^[4][3]

What’s-new also names tilt controls (scale Detail, attack, and release frequency-dependently), Max cut (drive Depth harder with a ceiling on the deepest notch), a collapsible side panel, linear-phase for parallel or unlinked mid-side, and multichannel up to 9.1.6 with channel-set linking. Linear phase is not the tracking mode. Minimum phase remains oeksound’s default recommendation.^[3][4]

Formats on the spec block: 64-bit VST3 and AAX on Windows 10–11 (no Windows ARM); VST3, AU, and AAX on macOS 10.14 through macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple Silicon native, Intel through macOS 15. Pro Tools 2018.1 and up. Confirm the live spec before you buy for an old OS.^[2]

When the $55 Upgrade Is the Move. When Soothe2 Can Stay.

Pay $55 if Soothe2 is already on every vocal, hat, and bus and you want tracking-safe latency, Soft’s adaptive threshold, Detail as one knob, or Atmos 9.1.6 linking. Skip the invoice if you only park Soothe2 on a mix bus once a month and the 2304-sample regular mode never blocked you—run the 20-day trial on one current beat before you upgrade a licence you barely open.^[2][6]

Do not buy a full $259 Soothe3 if you already hold Soothe2 perpetual. Do not pay $55 if the grace form applies. Do not treat Bloom as this upgrade; Bloom is oeksound’s adaptive tone shaper, a different product, covered on its own related page.^[5]

FL, Ableton, Logic: One Pass to Decide the Upgrade

This checklist is the upgrade decision, not a Soothe2 mix course. Confirm the live manual if your DAW version moved after August 2026.^[4]

1. Check grace before you pay $55
   If the Soothe2 invoice is after 18 February 2026, use oeksound’s grace page. Otherwise use Upgrade on the Soothe3 page. RTO users go to Rent-to-Own Management.^[5]
2. Install the 20-day trial next to Soothe2
   Keep Soothe2 in the session. Insert Soothe3 on a duplicate vocal and bus. oeksound: all purchases are final, so the trial is the real A/B.^[2]
3. A/B Soft versus your old Hard-style grab
   Start Soft at default, raise Depth until it over-cooks, back off, then try Hard at a lower Depth if you miss the Soothe2 compressor grab. Use Delta to hear only the cut.^[4]
4. Arm low latency only on the tracking chain
   Session at 44.1 or 48 kHz: low latency reports 0 samples. Mix print: leave regular or linear-phase as the source material needs. Do not freeze a tracking preset that locked low latency onto the master.^[4]
5. Stop before this page becomes a Soothe2 course
   Once the instance is up, depth-curve craft lives in oeksound’s manual—not here. Gullfoss, Bloom, Pro-Q 4, and Neutron 5 are related tools, not this upgrade.

Bloom, Gullfoss, and Soothe2 Mix School Are Out of Scope

This article does not walk Soothe2’s old Sharpness/Selectivity pair, does not review Bloom, and does not pick Gullfoss versus Soothe on a harsh mix. Those comparisons are related slugs. FabFilter Pro-Q 4 and Neutron 5 are also related mix tools, not substitutes for a dynamic resonance suppressor.

As of Sep 2026, Soothe3 1.0.5 is the current changelog line. Recheck oeksound’s download page if you are reading this after a later point release.^[1]