Does Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 have any weaknesses?

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One of the questions in the Valhalla DSP survey (for the free VSM) is: What is your favourite plugin ?
Fab Pro-Q2 immediately came to mind, so that was my answer.
It is what it is, a fantastic EQ.

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Robert Randolph wrote:Pro-Q 2 has 'natural phase mode' which is a minimum phase mode that's somewhat close to (and IMO better than) mixed phase. (pg. 18 of the manual here: http://www.fabfilter.com/help/ffproq2-manual.pdf for more)
Could you explain why you like it better?

Edit:
I may actually found the answer myself: https://soundcloud.com/acondigital/sets ... hase-modes

I've found an explanation from Stian:
These are two entirely different concepts. The mixed phase mode results in a phase response that is as close to linear as possible while restricting the duration of the pre-ringing to a user defined duration (anywhere between 5 and 120 ms). There are some sample rate conversion tools that use a similar technique (e.g. Izotope SRC), but it is a novelty in equalizers as far as I know.

Due to the nature of sampled systems, it is not possible to capture the exact phase response of analog filters when getting close to the Nyquist frequency. The natural phase mode in Pro-Q2 is an attempt to match an analog phase response more closely in the high frequency region at the expense of a steep phase shift when reaching the Nyquist frequency.
I would like to see M/S or L/R per band, and improved EQ match. Providing parallel mode couldn't hurt either :)
I really like the spectrum grab mode when getting rid of the nasty resonant frequencies, really helps doing things faster.
Last edited by Lesha on Mon Jun 27, 2016 2:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
It's easy if you know how

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Beatworld wrote:One of the questions in the Valhalla DSP survey (for the free VSM) is: What is your favourite plugin ?
Fab Pro-Q2 immediately came to mind, so that was my answer.
It is what it is, a fantastic EQ.
I use FabFilter Pro-Q all the time during plugin development, to get a quick overview of the frequency response of my algorithms.

Sean Costello

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valhallasound wrote:
Beatworld wrote:One of the questions in the Valhalla DSP survey (for the free VSM) is: What is your favourite plugin ?
Fab Pro-Q2 immediately came to mind, so that was my answer.
It is what it is, a fantastic EQ.
I use FabFilter Pro-Q all the time during plugin development, to get a quick overview of the frequency response of my algorithms.

Sean Costello
Yep, a very informative GUI :love:

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Zexila wrote:Yes, fixed slopes, doesn't have mixed phase mode, check this one instead and wait for TheoM to chime in. https://acondigital.com/products/equalize/

Yes i do recommend Acon but ProQ2 is an exceptional EQ..

It is true the acon has more shapeable cut filters where the fab filter are fixed at 6db intervals and one shape, but the fab filter also does stuff acon doesn't.. You really can't lose with either of them.
The Sir is good too as is of course DMG stuff.

OP decided on ProQ it seems which is no doubt a good choice.

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Beatworld wrote:One of the questions in the Valhalla DSP survey (for the free VSM) is: What is your favourite plugin ?
Fab Pro-Q2 immediately came to mind, so that was my answer.
It is what it is, a fantastic EQ.
That was my answer to the question as well. There's just no way around it. I use Pro-Q 2 way more than any other plugin I have, way more. It's everywhere. Why? Because it just works. It's almost second nature.. I just pop it on a track, fix mid or side, left or right, or whatever. Heck, I even open it up just to look at the analyzer.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

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lesha wrote:
Robert Randolph wrote:Pro-Q 2 has 'natural phase mode' which is a minimum phase mode that's somewhat close to (and IMO better than) mixed phase. (pg. 18 of the manual here: http://www.fabfilter.com/help/ffproq2-manual.pdf for more)
Could you explain why you like it better?

Edit:
I may actually found the answer myself: https://soundcloud.com/acondigital/sets ... hase-modes

I've found an explanation from Stian:
These are two entirely different concepts. The mixed phase mode results in a phase response that is as close to linear as possible while restricting the duration of the pre-ringing to a user defined duration (anywhere between 5 and 120 ms). There are some sample rate conversion tools that use a similar technique (e.g. Izotope SRC), but it is a novelty in equalizers as far as I know.

Due to the nature of sampled systems, it is not possible to capture the exact phase response of analog filters when getting close to the Nyquist frequency. The natural phase mode in Pro-Q2 is an attempt to match an analog phase response more closely in the high frequency region at the expense of a steep phase shift when reaching the Nyquist frequency.
I would like to see M/S or L/R per band, and improved EQ match. Providing parallel mode couldn't hurt either :)
I really like the spectrum grab mode when getting rid of the nasty resonant frequencies, really helps doing things faster.
Thanks for the correction.

I do however prefer the natural phase mode of Pro-Q 2 still, as it sounds more natural with really extreme settings.
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Robert Randolph wrote:I do however prefer the natural phase mode of Pro-Q 2 still, as it sounds more natural with really extreme settings.
After listening to the audio examples, I believe I would prefer it, too.
What is the best way to measure/hear pre-ringing?
It's easy if you know how

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lesha wrote:
Robert Randolph wrote:I do however prefer the natural phase mode of Pro-Q 2 still, as it sounds more natural with really extreme settings.
After listening to the audio examples, I believe I would prefer it, too.
What is the best way to measure/hear pre-ringing?
Play with boosts on some hi-hats. Pretty clear usually.
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MogwaiBoy wrote: Just wondering though if Pro-Q 2 has offline rendering (oversample) modes?
As I understand it, linear processing (like EQ) does not benefit from oversampling. Non-linear processing (like compression) will benefit. So, there'd be no reason to include such a feature in even the best of EQs.

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Thanks everyone for all the informative discussion - it's really helped me. I endeavour to get this plugin :)

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Robert Randolph wrote:
lesha wrote:
Robert Randolph wrote:I do however prefer the natural phase mode of Pro-Q 2 still, as it sounds more natural with really extreme settings.
After listening to the audio examples, I believe I would prefer it, too.
What is the best way to measure/hear pre-ringing?
Play with boosts on some hi-hats. Pretty clear usually.
I actually used low cut on a low frequency sine signal, pretty easy to hear. I didn't like mixed phase too much because it smeared the transients like linear phase does.
I am interested if there is a way to see it graphically?
It's easy if you know how

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Robert Randolph wrote:I do however prefer the natural phase mode of Pro-Q 2 still, as it sounds more natural with really extreme settings.
Late to the party, everything else is answered, personally would use mixed phase mode only on bass and only thing that delivered what I need is that and Equilibrium after some tweaking, so that's weakness of any other EQ plugin, it can't give me that result.
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For me the weakness lies in the fact that the interface and it's visual nature is quick to put you to a "mixing with your eyes" mentality.

It is a fantastic tool but for that reason i use it sparingly! When the situation is right, it is superb.

In most cases though I prefer something that forces me to listen.

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Original Poster here... I've bought Pro-Q 2 in the Marketplace and will report back when the license arrives and I've had a decent amount of time to get to grips with it :)

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