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FabFilter Plugins

Are you aware of the story of Noah’s Ark? You know, the one about a man who builds a huge vessel to hold his family and two of each animal to save them from a great flood that would envelop the world?

Well… I’m going to assume you did! Fabfilter makes me think of this story vividly. Why? It has everything you need to fine-tune the sound you are looking for! It’s a little quirky that THIS is what comes to mind when I think of these plugin packages, but it’s 100% true! Just as Noah had all he needed in that vessel sailing the flooded lands, I have what I need for sailing my sessions in the mixing or mastering stages.

Fabfilter has gotta be my first choice for equalizing, gates, de-essing, and limiting. Let’s have a look at Fabfilter’s Pro-Q 3, Pro-G gate, Pro-DS, and Pro-L2 Limiter. While Fabfilter offers more than just these plugins such as the Saturn saturation, for example, I will be focusing just on the ones listed above. If you want to do some of your own research after this, more power to you!

Pro-Q 3

If you just started to work with Pro Tools, chances are all you would have at your disposal is built-in plugins. So your first EQ is probably going to be either the EQ 1-band or 7-band. While starting out, these EQs aren’t the worst in the world- they are limited. Compared to Logic’s Channel EQ, however, the 1-band/7-band are, frankly, not good for professional studio recordings, especially dialing in high tones in soprano vocals ( and I should know! ) or mid-tones in pianos.

Enter the Fabfilter Pro-Q 3! Equipped with a high-quality phaser, dynamic EQ, individual band mid/side processing, solo features, built-in gain, and wait for it….

The spectrum analyzer!

Why, oh why, would I need to gush about the spectrum analyzer? By sectioning out a part of my track, I can dial in low cuts, the after-effect ringing from a guitar slide, cut out the highs’ and correct the mids. All while using both my senses of sight and hearing to figure out what I’m looking for. While I would never recommend you just do visual mixing, It can be extraordinary in expediting the EQ process. The smooth response time and attention to detail added to this make it a winner all on its own.

Pro-G Gate

For the best sonic outcome while gating I would recommend the Pro-G Gate. Setting your threshold, range, and wet-to-dry ratios is a breeze. Like the Pro-Q 3, you can visual mix here as well. 7 times outta 10 I gate purely drums. Getting the snare out of the ride is somewhat possible while in the EQ process, but gating is just way more effective. Gating drums with this? A little too easy. With the Pro-G side chains, precise metering, and visual aspects are more than enough to buy what they are selling.

Pro-DS

You could shell out on the best preamps, spend thousands on that microphone you think is “the one”, certain words in vocal tracking just always seem to pop the wrong way. With post-it often becomes more apparent. The Pro-DS is transparent which is what I love about it. It comes with modes like single vocal and all-around, which can help with high-frequency limiting. Its look ahead up to 15 ms is perfect for fine detailing ahead of the current. This de-esser is great for triggering gain reduction effectively without much effort on the engineer’s part. Built-in plugins can’t touch this.

Pro-L 2

So you gated, de-essed, and EQ’ed the session. Yet, you still think that your readings are coming in a little too hot. Enter Pro-L 2 limiter. Peaks, clips, and loudness metering are standard for the Pro-L 2. While I personally wouldn’t use this in my mixing process, I would use it in mastering. Getting my levels ready for release in today’s music marketplace is key. We all are used to how a track should sound – even the crazy razor-sharp metal engineers know the sound quality is key to an optimal experience. To adhere to these loudness standards the Pro-L 2 does it well and using advanced settings to dial in only helps the customizability needed for a mastering engineer’s arsenal.

So Is Fabfilter Noah’s Ark For The Sonic World…?

To me, although some might call it silly, yes. The story reminds me that even if a storm is going on outside, as many sessions can be, my sturdy ship of plugins can help me navigate the weather.

Give Fabfilter a try, I really think it can help a lot of new engineers like students just starting out. If you are a broke high school or college student tight on cash, they do offer an educational discount of 50% off. Just fill out a form and picture of your student ID, and music teachers also qualify. So definitely check it out, 100% helped me out.

 

 

Affordable Starter Plug-ins

Post Grad Resources:

This time around for post-grad resources, I looked into plug-ins must have’s for those starting out on their own. Ones that are quality and include an affordable price or offer free downloads. As always, this article is opinion-based. I am sharing information that I have gathered in hopes that it can help other young professionals.

Waves Silver Bundle

The Waves Silver bundle is an excellent package of plug-ins to have. It includes 16 different plug-ins, several different compressors, limiters, equalizers, reverbs, and delays. Waves Silver also includes two different analyzers, which I think everyone needs to have in their toolbox. It offers several different transparent and character plug-ins which offer users the option of transparency or to add coloration to tracks. It is repeatedly said to provide a solid foundation of plug-ins for the purchaser.

Waves state the bundle is geared for music production, mixing, and mastering in personal to professional studios. It comes with all of the basic plug-ins you may need to take a mix from start to finish. I personally have used over half of the plug-ins in this bundle and find all of them to be incredibly easy and simple to use. They do not evade scrutiny though. Compared to other similar plug-ins, the Waves plug-ins appear outdated and may be clunky to use due to its dated appearance. GUI can be a big deal to some users and several of the plug-ins on this list have a really pleasing interface to work with. But at just 89 dollars, it is a lot of bang for your buck.

Waves CLA – 76 Compressor / Limiter

Another Waves plug-in to add to your arsenal is the CLA – 76 compressor/limiter. This combo brings character and coloration modeled after amplifiers from the 60s. Like the plug-ins talked about before, it has a similar GUI and user functionality. The price of this plug-in is unbeatable; 30 dollars. It can also be found in many of the different Waves bundles, but unfortunately not the Silver bundle.

Several of the positive features are its explosive attack, built-in distortion modeling, and sounding amazing on drums. Some argue that the coloration is lackluster, but the price just cannot be beaten. Another bonus to add is that Waves plug-ins can be added to most consoles and used for live sound. Just an added bonus if you chose to do so.

Izotope Elements Suite

This bundle is a steal of a deal with over a three hundred dollar savings. Izotope Elements markets itself as everything you need to repair, mix, and master. It bundles four different Izotope packs for the price of 199 dollars.

The first pack is Ozone Elements which includes an equalizer, imager, and maximizer. This plug-in is an excellent tool to master with. Its appearance is really nice and it combines the EQ, imager, and maximizer into one plug-in. This is a great feature that keeps your work process flowing and stops from slowing you down. This plug-in alone is one of my favorites.

The next thing included in the suite is Neutron Elements. Neutron is meant to assist in the mixing process. The plug-in comes with a 12 – band equalizer, transient shaper, an exciter, and compressor. Again, all features are combined into one plug-in; one place. At first, I had never heard of a ‘transient shaper’. What it is meant to be used for is cleaning up transients, adding punch or attack, and bringing more clarity and presence to the mix.

RX Elements represents many of the repair features of this bundle. It includes a de-hum, de-click, de-clip, voice specific de-noise, and a spectrogram view of the audio files. The spectrogram allows you to see your recording in a graph form where it is representing frequencies and their intensity against time. This allows you to target very specific frequencies that you may need to focus on.

And last on this list is Nectar Elements. Nectar Elements is also used to repair audio files. It helps clean up sibilance and overall tone, as well as set reverb and compression. The plug-in incorporates adjustable sliders to set levels of the many different features. It has a slightly different view that users may not be accustomed to.

FabFilter Essentials Bundle

The FabFilter Essentials bundle is on the more expensive end of this list. This essentials pack includes the Pro-R reverb plug-in, Pro-Q 3 EQ plug-in, and the Pro-C 2 compressor plug-in at 399 dollars. I have referred to these plug-ins repeatedly when researching for this article. They are described as being incredibly powerful, beautiful to look at, and also easy to use.

The reverbs in the Pro-R are convincing and intuitive. The selections are realistic and add a natural-sounding coloration to recordings. It offers reverbs ranging from small rooms to huge spaces. The Pro-C 2 is a transparent compressor that comes with all of the modern features to make up for its lack of coloration. Some might find this plug-in a bit more advanced compared to others on this list. But FabFilter offers tons of user resources and helpful videos on its website if you ever need the support. The Pro-Q 3 is one of my favorite EQs to use. I find that it meets all of my needs when it comes to mixing. It offers a wide range of filter types to really fine-tune your mix and the interface is one of the best on this list. I find this really important when I am focusing on frequencies and adjusting filters for any given amount of time.

The biggest plus to this pack is that it allows users to obtain good-sounding tracks in a short amount of time. The price may be on the steeper end, but the value of the product and the quality it will add to your work is well worth it to many.

Celemony Melodyne 5 Essentials

Melodyne 5 Essentials is currently just 99 dollars and is essential to anyone editing vocals, pitch, and timing. Celemony is repeatedly praised as being award-winning technology and is a reliable tool to have in the sound and music industry. There can be a bit of a learning curve with this software. The interface can appear foreign and confusing to those who are new to it. Editing pitch and time takes a patient ear and tracks can easily be taken beyond the point of sounding realistic. Thus, the creation of autotune.

Like I mentioned above, Melodyne is used for things like pitch correction, time adjustments, it can apply automatic adjustments as well as manual, and it can also analyze and transpose audio files into a musical format. This can be helpful for those who have a musical background. Melodyne 5 Essentials is supported on both Mac and Windows and can be used on most DAW’s without issue. It is also easily upgradable if you ever chose to get a fuller version of Melodyne. Therefore, the Essentials version is a great way to get your feet wet when it comes to this kind of editing.

ValhallaDSP

Last on this list is ValhallaDSP. I am always looking to add to my reverb collection and I have found ValhallaDSP is a great company to help feed my addiction. They offer several affordable reverbs, delays, and other modulating filters and effects. Currently, they are offering three free downloads; a large reverb, an echo type effect, and a spacey flanging modulator.

These plug-ins have been praised for their storytelling capabilities by designers looking to be more experimental. They are described as being eccentric and over the top. They are not intended to be used to create a realistic or authentic sound, though it may be achieved if worked at. They are also easy to use and look at. Many of the parameter descriptions show up when hovering over a given parameter. It is made to help the user achieve what they want without having them work too hard. Along with the price point, it is a really great, simplistic line of plug-ins.

That concludes the list of plug-ins I have chosen to look into for this article. I personally think they are all great additions to those who are just starting out on their audio journey or individuals who have graduated and find themselves without resources. I am sure there are many, MANY other great options out there and I welcome feedback and conversation on the subject. Furthering the sharing of information and resources to those in need and want to learn is one of my agendas and I think it is also one of SoundGirls.

Special thanks to Allen Harrison, Ryan Nicklas, David Peterson, Tyler Quinn, and Drew Stockero for helping me research this article. You are appreciated.

 

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