FabFilter Mixing Bundle
By Adam Gallant
I
am admittedly late to the FabFilter party.
After years of seeing their plug-ins on
production tutorials such as “Mix with
the Masters” and, most recently, “Making
Records with Eric Valentine,” I had to test
them out. I thought it best to break down
the review based on the bundle’s individual
plug-ins and share a few highlights from our
tests. I will say that these plug-ins are incred-
ibly powerful and my breakdowns are a mere
scratching of the surface.
Pro-Q 3
Pro-Q 3 is a brilliantly designed equalizer
plug-in. When instantiated, the UI presents
a frequency analysis of the source and EQ
bands are added with a double click. The
display is intuitive and resonant frequencies
are easy to spot. If the cursor hovers over
the bottom portion of the frequency graph,
the display shows peak frequencies with
numbers and slows the curve’s response
time down to make it very easy to read. This
setting is called “Frequency Grab” and is, like
most features, something you can disable
and enable. This UI feature makes jobs like
identifying harsh esses on vocals or boomi-
ness on an acoustic guitar effortless. On
stereo material, individual bands can operate
in mono, mid-side, or dual mono, making this
perfect for treating instrument buses and
master bus processing.
Pro-Q 3 is not just an EQ; it is a multiband
compressor. Right-click to make any band a
dynamic EQ, swap between compression or
expansion, and again, treat in mono, mid-
side, or dual mono.
A new feature worth mentioning is the
cross-plug-in communication. In Pro-Q 3, you
can view any other instance of Pro-Q in your
session; for example, if you are working on
the bass guitar and want to check in on your
kick drum’s frequency graph, simply click the
analyzer at the bottom of the plug-in window
and you will be presented with a list of all
the Pro-Q instances in your mix session. Also,
the plug-in will display possible overlapping
or colliding frequencies with the Collision
Detector – a great tool for carving out space
around conflicting sources.
Pro-G
Pro-G is FabFilter’s very popular gate plug-in.
The lookahead on this plug-in is extremely
effective and the attack time starts at 0.00
ms – perfect for preserving transients on live
drums. This gate tends to not get chattery by
default; it is clean-sounding and takes little
to no time to dial in. Pro-G also highlights
what FabFilter is best at: extremely intuitive
and informative displays. As material plays
through this gate, a waveform view is scrolled
left to right and material removed by the
gate appears dark and in the background
and material above the threshold (allowed
to pass through the gate) appears in the
foreground and is brighter. For what appears
to be a simple gate, there are many features
built in: mid-side processing, ducking for side
chain, MIDI import functions for sidechaining,
key filtering, and more.
Pro-DS
Pro-DS is ubiquitous in the mixing tutorials I
see online. In use, I can say that it is the most
transparent de-esser I’ve encountered. Put-
ting it on vocals yields an immediately pleas-
ing result. There are two operation modes: a
“single vocal” and “all around.” Single vocal is
an intelligent de-esser that does a spectacu-
lar job of narrowing in on esses while the “all
around” mode sounds like a great frequency-
specific compressor. Pro-DS can also operate
in mid-side or stereo mode, making it useful
for taming harsh high-mids on an instrument
bus. The metering is well thought-out with
a waveform scrolling window, input gain
meter along the threshold knob, and a 2-20
kHz specific frequency analyzer to help hone
in on problem areas.
Pro-R
Pro-R is a versatile reverb with a brilliant UI. No-
table features are the ability to control the EQ of
the reverb’s decay tail as well as EQ the overall
output of the reverb. Reducing the highs on
the decay can clear out room for vocals and/or
help with de-essing the reverb. The Character
control adds subtle echoes and modulation
while Brightness and Distance settings have a
sense of realism unique to this plug-in.
Timeless 2
Timeless is a delay plug-in with a quick and
easy-to-adjust filter set. Some real fun can be
had by sifting through the amazing amount
of presets. Filters can be applied to the feed-
back circuit alone or the full delay output.
The modulation sub-section is extremely
powerful for shaping the delay and linking
modulation effects to MIDI tracks and de-
vices, the audio source, an XY pad, and more.
Timeless is powerful for shaping drum loops
and synth pads and would be well-suited in
any EDM producer’s toolbox.
Saturn
Saturn is a multiband saturation and distor-
tion plug-in with endless possibilities. It
has a wide range of presets from subtle to
blitzed-out with emulations of tube, tape,
amps, as well as feedback and band-specific
modulations. There is also a setting called
Smudge that adds timing/delay effects
that remind me of some SoundToys effects.
Saturn is unique in that you can distort spe-
cific frequency bands of source material. The
sound is extremely flattering on the top end
and can be as smooth or harsh as desired.
Saturn has been living on my vocal bus to
add air and subtle saturation to the high end
of lead vocals.
PRO-Q 3
PRO-C 2
TIMELESS 2
Pro-C 2
Last but not least is Pro-C, FabFilter’s amaz-
ing compressor. It again features the most
informative display I have ever encountered.
It has the same easy-to-read scrolling wave-
form view, which also contains the output
and a reduction line. The side chain filter has
extremely detailed controls. With a list of op-
erational modes and presets, this plug-in will
perform a wide variety of tasks from leveling
out a bass guitar performance to subtle bus
compression. I found it to be most enjoyable
on instrument buses for adding glue and
control to lows and low mids.
Overall, FabFilter’s Mixing Bundle is far
more expansive than I was anticipating.
These seven plug-ins can easily replace
what I am doing with 30 others in my DAW.
FabFilter does an amazing job of present-
ing a clean UI while keeping a substantial
list of features one or two clicks away.
Incredible work by FabFilter – this bundle is
a joy to have in the tool kit.
Adam Gallant has worked in all facets of digital
audio production, from music composition to
location and post audio for television and film. He
currently owns and operates The Hill Sound Studio
in Charlottetown, PE.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 23