FabFilter Pro-Q

[bmanic]

Originally Posted by fragletrollet

Ok, I guess my t-racks bundle covers that need.

I have the T-racks bundle as well and haven't touched the EQ in a long time. The FabFilter EQ is simply so much easier to use (unless you like knobs). Having said that, I think the bell filters in the IK Multimedia linear phase are a bit different shape and react differently to deep cuts/boosts, than the FabFilter so I think it'll be great to have both..

Cheers!
bManic

[jonmoore]

Originally Posted by bmanic

I don't know.. I'm afraid to ridicule myself. In my honest opinion I think it "sounds" GREAT! But it is possible that I am fooled by the polished interface. I really like the Nugen Master EQ as well but these two definitely sound different when compared in linear phase. I think the Nugen one is based on FFT and the fabfilter on forward/backwards.. I'm not sure though.

Also, the minimum phase mode sounds really really good.. well if there is a difference but my immediate thoughts are that it "sounds" as good as the Flux Epure. Extremely clean and easy to get very quick results.

Cool. Thanks for the feedback.

JM

Leftside Wobble

[miro]

Originally Posted by bmanic

.. but I'm sure it's placebo, we all know all EQs are identical, don't we?

Cheers!
bManic

could be, could be...
this thing really looks nice, but is surely supposed to be "another clean" digital EQ (sure, they all have their curves)
with linear/minimum phase option and other nice features, and it's great to use as i can see...

but on the other side why should i again buy another "good" EQ while i already believe to have more than enough of them...?
i personally don't feel the need of replacing my stock, DDMF or T-Racks EQ's (jeez...how many plugins were demoed and thrown
away again...time for a OS wiping/reinstalling soon..haha!)

looking at GS's new product alert and having more money that i could spend + being a total consumer victim, i'd find myself
spending more time buying new plugins than being creative and using the ones i have. luckily it's not like that


P.s. i'm sure this EQ is great though

[Coyoteous]

I have everything except the compressor, which I can currently get at the max discount... almost did it yesterday. I guess I'll wait until the EQ release here in the next few to several hours, and go from there.

You guys make some great points about digital EQ's. I want one that will take the place of all my others, but this one is already falling short. It does look good, though. Missing features, AFAICT, are over-sampling and the vintage shelf in TrackPlug.

I didn't really expect the vintage shelf, and I believe the Pro-Q HP/LP and shelves are resonant. It looked like the Q control is active for at least one of them in the video. Also, I've been using the Simplon filters as limited/special EQ.

I have DP, and although I don't use it much, I like the Gain/Q relationship switching in the MasterWorks EQ. Flux, DDMF, Redline, apulSoft and others all seem to have a unique feature or two.

I have AirEQ, AngelTone, AR Brilliance Pack, BIAS SuperFreq and Repli-Q, IK Pultec and LP, Wave Arts TrackPlug, EricSound UniQ and FreeeQ, Sonic Studio SonicEQ, Pod Farm preamps, Uhbik Q and bx cleansweep.

That probably misses a few. Most of them were cheap, free or came in a bundle. Although, I do have over five hundred bucks in the first three... that's gettin' into hardware money!

Oh, well... it's nice to get new stuff and need it. I kind of want Pro-Q, but do I need it? Probably not... but it does have a cool graph! I like the FabFilter stuff I have, other than the lack of numerical entry. We'll see.

[miro]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

I have everything except the compressor, which I can currently get at the max discount... almost did it yesterday. I guess I'll wait until the EQ release here in the next few to several hours, and go from there.

You guys make some great points about digital EQ's. I want one that will take the place of all my others, but this one is already falling short. It does look good, though. Missing features, AFAICT, are over-sampling and the vintage shelf in TrackPlug.

I didn't really expect the vintage shelf, and I believe the Pro-Q HP/LP and shelves are resonant. It looked like the Q control is active for at least one of them in the video. Also, I've been using the Simplon filters as limited/special EQ.

I have DP, and although I don't use it much, I like the Gain/Q relationship switching in the MasterWorks EQ. Flux, DDMF, Redline, apulSoft and others all seem to have a unique feature or two.

I have AirEQ, AngelTone, AR Brilliance Pack, BIAS SuperFreq and Repli-Q, IK Pultec and LP, Wave Arts TrackPlug, EricSound UniQ and FreeeQ, Sonic Studio SonicEQ, Pod Farm preamps, Uhbik Q and bx cleansweep.

That probably misses a few. Most of them were cheap, free or came in a bundle. Although, I do have over five hundred bucks in the first three... that's gettin' into hardware money!

Oh, well... it's nice to get new stuff and need it. I kind of want Pro-Q, but do I need it? Probably not... but it does have a cool graph! I like the FabFilter stuff I have, other than the lack of numerical entry. We'll see.

do you realize what a long list of EQ's you've just listed?
we're all addicted!


by the way: it's 139€ / 199$

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by miro

do you realize what a long list of EQ's you've just listed?
we're all addicted!

by the way: it's 139€ / 199$

Oh, I know... but I want to actually have fewer that do more!

Thanks for the heads up... they're right on time. Here's the manual:

http://www.fabfilter.com/help/ffproq-manual.pdf

added: it's too bad there's no intro discount. OTOH, their multi-product discounts are good and I appreciate the lack of pressure without a time-limited sale.

[jonmoore]

Been playing with the demo all morning and I'm sold. Sounds great in Zero latency mode. The workflow is the best I've yet encountered, so easy to dial in exactly the setting I had in my minds eye. Minimum impact on processor overhead (in fact it's so low you can easily insert it as part of an EQ chain that includes "colour' EQ's and refine the results). No real digital harshness (although I'll still be reaching for the Brilliance Pack when boosting highs). And finally, the discount is significant if you own 2 or 3 other products in the FabFilter range.

In saying all that, I'm definitely going to use my 30 day demo period before reaching for my credit card (been bitten once too many times by shiny new toy syndrome!).

JM

Leftside Wobble

[RusRant]

Where I have really liked Timeless and Pro-C, I can't see getting another EQ regardless how good it may be. I have about 6 that I regularly use, that's more than enough. You guys are addicts!! Now compressor plugs is an illness with me!!

[miro]

Originally Posted by RusRant

Where I have really liked Timeless and Pro-C, I can't see getting another EQ regardless how good it may be. I have about 6 that I regularly use, that's more than enough. You guys are addicts!! Now compressor plugs is an illness with me!!

come on...the "compressor trend wave" is coming to it's end...it's all about tape & valve saturation now, didn't you know?

[elmolemon]

I just played a little bit with the demo and i really like the workflow with this one.

The GUI "feels" good and is very intuitive to use, which would be the main selling-point for me.

It's a nice clean EQ!

Maybe i'll demo the Pro-C too and if i like both i might...

[RusRant]

Originally Posted by miro

come on...the "compressor trend wave" is coming to it's end...it's all about tape & valve saturation now, didn't you know?

Never, They'll pry the compressor plugins from my cold, dead hands!! Plus, I have real valves for saturation. thumbsup

Originally Posted by elmolemon

I
Maybe i'll demo the Pro-C too and if i like both i might...

Definitly try Pro-C. It's a great plugin.

[miro]

Originally Posted by RusRant

Never, They'll pry the compressor plugins from my cold, dead hands!! Plus, I have real valves for saturation. thumbsup

:-)

[sbackdoor]

Loving the Fabfilter stuff. But in this case, hm, I dunno.
Tried it and can't see any benefit of using this over Logic's EQ. Sounds kinda like the same too....

[Solar]

Simply love the Hi's in this Eq.... very subtle, gentle and musical!

Great work to Fabfilter!!!

[DivineMusic]

using the demo currently and though i like it i have fell in love or lust with the team dnr Mixcontrol....
though at time i want a few extra eq points, that where i open up a flux epure or oxford eq...
not sure if ima buy this eq just yet... as stated before its a shiny new toy but is it gonna change my work flow at all.... not really....
love proC though

[Coyoteous]

Via KVR:

There is a low level distortion bug in at least one platform/format combination of the initial release.

FabFilter is aware of this and is working on a fix.

[MarsBot]

This is a good EQ, especially in GUI which is very fast and easy to use. In terms of sound quality and value, the Refined Audiometrics PLParEQ3 costs a similar amount, is also linear phase, and definitely sounds better.

So if you're on a PC, I would demo PLParEQ3 along with Pro-Q before you make a decision. Of course, the PLParEQ has only 3 bands and it's a total CPU hog. The sound is better though.

[Coyoteous]

Which LP mode(s) did you compare?

To change the processing mode, use the Processing seting in the bottom bar of the interface.

- Zero latency mode is the default. While it introduces phase changes, it is CPU-efficient and doesn't result in any latency, so it is the best mode for e.g. live usage. Also, it's quite possible you might like the coloration introduced by the phase changes when mixing, for example.

- Linear Phase - Low Latency provides linear-phase processing with a minimal latency. Use only with low Q settings, or when only changing the mid-high part of the spectrum. With a sample rate of 44.1 kHz, it results in a total latency of 3072 samples (about 70 ms).

- Linear Phase - Medium Latency is a good compromise between low-frequency resolution and latency and we recommend to use this in general for linear-phase processing. The total latency is 6144 samples at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz (about 139 ms).

- Linear Phase - High Latency gives very good low-frequency resolution. If you need to use high Q settings when changing the low end of the spectrum, use this mode. The total latency is 12288 samples at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz (about 279 ms).

- Linear Phase - Maximum Latency results in even better low-frequency resolution at the expense of latency and possible pre-echo problems. The total latency here is 24576 samples at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz (about 557 ms).

To conclude, Pro-Q lets you freely choose between zero-latency and linear-phase processing as you go. If you use high Q settings combined with low-frequency filtering, you need to use a higher latency; if you only work on the mid-high frequencies, you can get by with a lower latency.

[MarsBot]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

Which LP mode(s) did you compare?

I compared it in the maximum latency mode which sounds the best to me. And on the PLParEQ I used the best quality setting #5. I like the Pro-Q. I can't really find a better EQ on the Mac side. I A/Bed it with DDMF EQs, especially the LP10, and I think it sounds better. It certainly beats the Logic LP EQ.

I'll probably buy it because I like the GUI and I need something on the Mac side like this. I can't find anything that beats it so far on the Mac side.

Also, PLParEQ is bringing my 8 core Intel Mac to its knees in 88.2 kHz sessions. I can get 10-15 instances at the high quality setting. The Pro-Q has a similar sound at maximum latency with WAAAAY less CPU hit. And I prefer the Pro-Q sound to Samplitude's built-in EQ, so it will probably find its way into complex mixes on the PC side when I run out of PLParEQ.

[Coyoteous]

Thanks! Did you notice any "possible pre-echo problems" at maximum? I suppose I'm mainly interested in the minimum phase implementation, so all the linear phase stuff is a big bonus for me.

These are some of the features that I like: resonant shelves, resonant filters, 30 dB boost/cut and range from 5 Hz to 30 kHz. I wonder if it oversamples? Wouldn't you have to for a 30 kHz at 44.1/48?

I'll be trying it after all platforms/formats have the distortion bug fixed, unless I find out which ones have or don't have it. I don't want to have any of that cloud my evaluation. Either way, I'll probably be buying it, too!

[bmanic]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

Thanks! Did you notice any "possible pre-echo problems" at maximum?

This is true for all Linear Phase implementations. There will always be pre-ring, which is proportional to the sharpness of the Q. So, very narrow Q and cut at 70hz WILL cause pre-ring problems that can be heard (slightly depending on the material).

Cheers!
bManic

[Coyoteous]

Thanks... I need to do more studying about LP EQ. I wasn't aware that the pre-echo was Q dependent, nor about the processing delay vs. bass resolution issue.

Like I said, I'm most interested in the minimum phase implementation. I hope that it's similar to the Flux or SSL X-EQ/Algorithmix.

[aleatoric]

Great interface.

I wish it could do 2x upsampling.

[Matti]

I like this!

Matti

[Coyoteous]

From KVR:

FabFilter has updated Pro-Q to v1.01. This update features the following important bug fixes and improvements:

Fixed a bug that caused some loss of precision in calculations. This update drastically reduces the total harmonic distortion (THD).

Fixed a bug in the mono AU and VST3 versions, that caused the plug-in to be unable to report latency changes to the host.

Fixed a bug that could cause unwanted 'plops' when disabling and enabling EQ bands at lower frequencies.

Fixed possible crash in linear-phase processing mode.

[aleatoric]

I have been demoing this plugin. The interface is really great, there are tons of cool tricks with it to be learned if you dig into the manual (double click far left creates a HPF, highlight multiple bands and increase/decrease gain on all highlighted bands).

I spoke with the Fabfilter about oversampling and was told that it is really not necessary for there Pro-Q. They have a system mathematically within the plugin to ensure that no pre-warping of filters occur around the Nyquist at low sample rates (44.1/48).

They also told me (which is not mentioned on there site) that Pro-Q operates internally at 64 bit double precision.

I love the 6dB display for mastering, sound and ease of use of this plugin. It really combines a lot of things I like about all my other EQ's into one. I have not got into linear phase mode too much yet but plan too. Definitely thinking about buying this one after my demo is up.

[Coyoteous]

I'm guessing you're Mark:

FabFilter Forum

Thanks for bringing these issues up with them... I'm sold and it's on my short list!

[aleatoric]

Originally Posted by Coyoteous

I'm guessing you're Mark:

FabFilter Forum

Thanks for bringing these issues up with them... I'm sold and it's on my short list!

Yep, that's me.

[Darius van H]

Just playing with this now (at home on headphones).

AMAZING interface! - real smooth, good design.

Looking forward to trying this in the studio.

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

AMAZING interface! - real smooth, good design.

Agreed. And aesthetic pleasure in process yields good results in my experience. Aesthetics matter.

I also like the sound.

- c