Fabfilter Pro-MB multiband compressor/expander

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Pro-MB$199.00Buy

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Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it

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Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
Was on the fence and decided to try it on a cue I was working on.I was mainly interested in using it on the stereo buss but actually ended up used it on an instrument that seemed to be a bit buried in the mix. The mb lifted it right out.
I bought it. No doubt I will use it on the buss and individual tacks.

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Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
+1
Excellent

Transparency & ease of use are it's greatest strengths for myself.

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Breval wrote:
Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
+1
Excellent

Transparency & ease of use are it's greatest strengths for myself.
Sounds good. I have a good price as well since I have a bundle with them

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dblock wrote:
Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
Was on the fence and decided to try it on a cue I was working on.I was mainly interested in using it on the stereo buss but actually ended up used it on an instrument that seemed to be a bit buried in the mix. The mb lifted it right out.
I bought it. No doubt I will use it on the buss and individual tacks.
I am interested if you could have achieved similar results by simply using an eq on the individual tracks. I'm not pulling apart your statement, jsut curious.

Recently been put of by multibands but I am mainly in the box and no acoustic instruments personally.

May demo it eventually.

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MFXxx wrote: Recently been put of by multibands
Fwiw,
I stopped even looking at multiband compressors years back.
I got comfortable with the idea that I just dont know wtf I am doing with them. :hihi:
That said, it is mostly my faith in FF's genius interface/tutorials/presets that makes me absolutely sure I need this one, and that it will be much harder for me to mangle mixes with it.
ImageImageImageImage

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MFXxx wrote:
dblock wrote:
Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
Was on the fence and decided to try it on a cue I was working on.I was mainly interested in using it on the stereo buss but actually ended up used it on an instrument that seemed to be a bit buried in the mix. The mb lifted it right out.
I bought it. No doubt I will use it on the buss and individual tacks.
I am interested if you could have achieved similar results by simply using an eq on the individual tracks. I'm not pulling apart your statement, jsut curious.

Recently been put of by multibands but I am mainly in the box and no acoustic instruments personally.

May demo it eventually.
Usually I do use an eq but sometimes eq I'll end up changing the characteristic of the sound more than I want. In this case the mb helped me lift the sound out of the mix without changing the sound so I can see how it would be very useful especially when you want to do things with the sound without changing the sound which is what eq does if that makes sense.Just my opinion of course.

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highkoo wrote:
MFXxx wrote: Recently been put of by multibands
Fwiw,
I stopped even looking at multiband compressors years back.
I got comfortable with the idea that I just dont know wtf I am doing with them. :hihi:
That said, it is mostly my faith in FF's genius interface/tutorials/presets that makes me absolutely sure I need this one, and that it will be much harder for me to mangle mixes with it.
Lol. I don't know either and that's the biggest difference between say, my Waves Multiband compressor and Fabfilter....presets! LOL!

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I always say that presets on dynamics plugs are just a waste of time.
I guess that is basically true, but it seems like FF makes an effort to include presets that teach the features, and serve as good starting points.
Plus, Dan Dubs on dem tuts...
(Can we start calling him that? Dan W. W=Dubs. Whatever...)
ImageImageImageImage

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highkoo wrote:I always say that presets on dynamics plugs are just a waste of time.
I guess that is basically true, but it seems like FF makes an effort to include presets that teach the features, and serve as good starting points.
Plus, Dan Dubs on dem tuts...
(Can we start calling him that? Dan W. W=Dubs. Whatever...)
Not a waste of time. I use presets in most everything. It's more about how you use them. I use presets and get my music placed. Nobody so far cares if I used a multiband compressor preset and probably wouldn't have a clue if I did anyway much less rejected a cue because I did. I've had cues rejected because they thought the music sucked or just wasn't what they're looking for but not because of a multiband compressor preset use.
I always try and steer clear of some but not all generalizations like that. I like to try it before I accept it. If it works for me, it works. But that's just me.

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MFXxx wrote:
dblock wrote:
Keith99 wrote:Any more feedback on this now people have had a chance to try it? I am undecided on getting it
Was on the fence and decided to try it on a cue I was working on.I was mainly interested in using it on the stereo buss but actually ended up used it on an instrument that seemed to be a bit buried in the mix. The mb lifted it right out.
I bought it. No doubt I will use it on the buss and individual tacks.
I am interested if you could have achieved similar results by simply using an eq on the individual tracks. I'm not pulling apart your statement, jsut curious.

Recently been put of by multibands but I am mainly in the box and no acoustic instruments personally.

May demo it eventually.
Well one way to "lift" things out of a mix is by using the upwards compression setting on the critical 2 to 5kHz region so that you get a bit more energy in between the peaks. This keeps the instrument from becoming harsh but it still becomes noticeably brighter and more forward. This can not be achieved with EQ.

Pro-MB is also extremely good at "cutting away mud" without actually reducing the peak values at all. For this I use the Expander in the 200 to 600Hz region so that the peaks remain untouched but between the peaks you get dips. Very handy.. again something you can not do with an EQ.

This plugin is extremely deep and versatile. It'd be a shame if people only take it as a typical multiband compressor when in fact it is much more.

If you guys have some problematic or otherwise interesting audio snippets I can process them for you and post the preset. There are so many uses for Pro-MB that it's ridiculous.

Cheers!
bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle

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highkoo wrote:I always say that presets on dynamics plugs are just a waste of time.
I guess that is basically true, but it seems like FF makes an effort to include presets that teach the features, and serve as good starting points.
Plus, Dan Dubs on dem tuts...
(Can we start calling him that? Dan W. W=Dubs. Whatever...)
Presets are NOT a waste of time on dynamics processors but the user MUST REALIZE that he/she must change the threshold and usually the release too according to the program material.

In Pro-MB this can be a bit tricky to achieve so instead of messing with all the thresholds I always recommend people instead manually "gain-stage" the plugin. This can be easily done in Pro-MB by holding ALT (CMD on mac?) and dragging the input volume knob/box. This way you can control both input and output at the same time, thus gain-staging the plugin to get the desired gain reduction. You can then further fine tune this with the Mix knob.

Cheers!
bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle

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Good tip bmanic. I just bought it and have been playing around with the presets - some amazing possibilities. Should replace EQ in a lot of places.

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I demoed it and I like it. Quite a flexible multiband compressor/expander and dynamic EQ. The GUI is great as always and so far what I heard sounded great.

I can totally see me using it as an easy to use multiband expander. It's nice to bring out the transients in certain areas for more punch and life. Now that I think of it, it would have been nuts if there had been an actual transient shaper built into each band just as in Saturn :D

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