Fabfilter Volcano 3 Out now

[Ploki]

demoed it for a bit now and while the features and workflow are quite nice (except for the by today's standards mediocre step LFO), i'm asking myself what they actually improved on the filter sound?
Never owned V1 or 2, but i was asking me the same when i was demoing Timeless 3 which supposedly also has it's filters improved for a more analog sound.
Didn't have T2 installed at that moment for 1:1 comparisons, but what i heard reminded me exactly of the meh sounding ones in T2.
Hard pass for me.

I can't null out 2 and 3 at all and they sound a bit different.
I was playing a bit with 48dB slope and peak at 1 with Extreme and FF One/Classic model with simple LFO, and Volcano3 sounds less raspy and broken, but the overall character is the same. There's less HF chirping and stuff and they behave better (less detuning when you swipe Fc through a peak frequency)

Since i already liked the Volcano2 filters, this is for me is an improvement.

[Ploki]

*snip

[bmanic]

Volcano 3 has definitely been revised a bit in terms of fidelity but the overall filter response and non-linearities are from the same original concept as far as I can tell. It's just been refined (less aliasing, better non-linear response, stability and resonance behavior).. especially the "classic" model (the original filter from FabFilter One synth).

I also happen to be one of those that like the filters in One/Twin/Volcano but they definitely can't compete with something like The Drop which is an excruciatingly perfectionist take on analogue modeling.

[NomadMonad]

If you push the LFO into audio rate modulation you can get some sort of crazy bit crusher effect.

!!! it's loud !!!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/qodso8ov2fnbd ... s.wav?dl=0

[NinjaToon]

Volcano 3 has definitely been revised a bit in terms of fidelity but the overall filter response and non-linearities are from the same original concept as far as I can tell. It's just been refined (less aliasing, better non-linear response, stability and resonance behavior).. especially the "classic" model (the original filter from FabFilter One synth).

I also happen to be one of those that like the filters in One/Twin/Volcano but they definitely can't compete with something like The Drop which is an excruciatingly perfectionist take on analogue modeling.

I've said as much before in this thread but for me Volcano is less about the filters themselves and more what you can do with filters. Now some people will say you can do more with shade or whatever but for me the workflow of Volcano (along with the low latency and performance) means I just always reach for it.

It also sounds good to me.

[Ploki]

Agree with ninja and bm.

Also I always liked fab’s filter sound anyway.


Also i just demoed The Drop and tbh it didnt phase me. Might be analog but i can get a lot of nasty digital shit out of it quickly.

I much prefer uhe runciter when going nastier than volcano

[FapFilter]

Yes, The Drop's saturation can sound pretty digital too and the filter FM of some of the newer NI algorithms does sound slightly better to my ears aswell, but the behavior of the envelopes is top notch for me.
I also don't necessarily need “true analog sound“, i just for some reason never gelled with Fabfilter's filters and this one is sadly no exception.

[Ploki]

Try uhbik runciter - but its reallllyyy dirty.

Filters are like reverbs kinda i guess. Not as much about objective quality but about flavor

[FapFilter]

Try uhbik runciter - but its reallllyyy dirty.

I still have it, but actually never really used it much
For REALLY dirty, i'm using NI Driver, but for highly modulatable and capable filters i'm either using Fruity Love Philter, Zebrify, or the internal ones of my synths.
The Drop is great too in this regard, i just wish it had more flexible MSEGs like Serum or Zebra, etc.
Not the biggest deal, but still

Filters are like reverbs kinda i guess. Not as much about objective quality but about flavor

definetly. I wouldn't even put The Drop in the spot of “the best filter ever“, because while it sounds great (to my ears) it is sounding pretty oldschool analog most of the time and not too rarely some nice digital filters beat it for me.
It's also “just“ one LP + one HP

[NAD]

Don't sleep on the presets. There are a few hidden gems there, ready setup for your mixing tasks. Check the 'Basic' folder. You have a quick setup of BPF, HPF, LPF and Notch where I've already routed an Envelope Follower that you get instant control over and an LFO.

I would love if you could go into some detail about some of the presets. For example I noticed that you use several filters even in some of the most basic presets and I wonder what was your thinking behind that. Or for example how you picture someone using the other presets in the basics folder that aren't for typical filtering duties such as the Audio Enhancer or Phase Panning.

Sure.

The filter presets in the Basic category are a combination of many filters simply to make the overall response more unique and interesting. For instance, in some analogue synths, the various slopes are made by combining multiple stages of filters within a chip and if you carefully tune each individual stage you can get unique character of a filter. Thus I gave the factory presets 3 different variations on this theme, each with their own Cutoff, Resonance, EVF and LFO controls, all mapped for convenience sake. I covered all the basics, LPF, HPF, BPF and Notch.

The Audio Enhancer was just a preset that I made for a track that I mixed where I wanted it to dynamically and subtly boost the lows while at the same time cut around the corner frequency of that same low shelf and boost the rest. I think it was made for the drumbus on that particular track but I tested it on a bunch of other audio sources and it seems to work wonders on a lot of things. Same with the "Audio Mud Remover" preset in the same category.

Filter 1 is a Low Shelf, Filter 2 is a High Shelf and by having these two very close to each other and at 12dB/octave both have a slight dip before the boost, thus it becomes a double-dip at the corner frequency. Basically it creates a sort of Pultec type response.. but in this preset it's all tied into modulation by two opposite envelope followers where the first one is a slower normal EVF while the other is a transient based EVF. Thus it boosts the "sustain" of the overall signal. There is also a 3rd filter which is a High Shelf at around 15kHz that has the transient envelope tied to it, boosting it a very tiny amount. This provides some excitement and dynamic air/sparkle to any signal.

The two Panning utility presets are based on alternative audio panning concepts. Instead of just turning down one channel and turning up the other (basic volume panning), this instead boosts and cuts the frequencies around the center frequency that you can choose. This is a quite natural way of panning things as bass frequencies are much less localized than higher frequencies. The Phase pan utility does a similar thing but instead separating the phase response of each channel.

Both of these panning utility presets also contain a Delay pan slider which instead of changing the volume it separates the channels in time, taking advantage of the HAAS effect. Basically your brain will interpret a signal that arrives first as being the "louder/more prominent" signal, which in turn leads you to hear it either left or right. It becomes interesting when you combine frequency/phase panning with delay panning. If you set these in opposite directions you end up with a psychoacustic phenomenon where the signal will start sounding like it's going behind your head.

Note, as soon as you add some Delay panning, the signal is NOT mono compatible any more. There will be high frequency phase cancellation happening in mono.

That was illuminating, thank you for taking the time!

[bmanic]

Try uhbik runciter - but its reallllyyy dirty.

I still have it, but actually never really used it much
For REALLY dirty, i'm using NI Driver, but for highly modulatable and capable filters i'm either using Fruity Love Philter, Zebrify, or the internal ones of my synths.
The Drop is great too in this regard, i just wish it had more flexible MSEGs like Serum or Zebra, etc.
Not the biggest deal, but still

Filters are like reverbs kinda i guess. Not as much about objective quality but about flavor

definetly. I wouldn't even put The Drop in the spot of “the best filter ever“, because while it sounds great (to my ears) it is sounding pretty oldschool analog most of the time and not too rarely some nice digital filters beat it for me.
It's also “just“ one LP + one HP

For crazy filter stuff I really hope Architeuthis gets his "Filters of Mass Destruction" released at some point. Those sound 100% unique and absolutely wild.

For me Volcano has always been more of an utility and crazy sound design plugin than a pure filter plugin. Just like Saturn is way more than just a basic saturation plugin.

[legendCNCD]

Yeah I guess it isnt just me who was disappointed by the saturation options. They sound really yesteryear and static :/ The Drop it is then.

[e@rs]

For those who waited for the BF sale, it's here.

I just upgraded for 28.61 EUR.

[imrae]

I'm trying to make sense of the personal upgrade system, as I have a few plugins already. (Picked up the essential bundle in the last sale, Pro-Q3 and Pro-C2 have been very nice. Pro-R good but hasn't displaced Valhalla yet.)

If I select multiple upgrades, they get increasing discount amounts... but are ordered from highest- to lowest-price, so the most expensive product gets the smallest (percentage) discount? Is it more cost-effective to place multiple upgrade orders one-at-a-time, from lowest-to-highest price, or would that miss out on an additional discount which is awarded for buying more than one at a time?

[shonky]

If you're not a pre-existing Fabfilter customer, pm me with your e-mail and I can get you an additional 10% referral discount.

Have asked before so sorry for spamming