Ik multimedia tracks vs fabfilter?

[Caine123]

Hey guys i used tracks 3 a lot in the past and i had no fabfilter but the authorization and plugins from ikm were and maybe still are? Glitchy and buggy a lot if times. Fabfilter is super fluid and awesome.
Do anyone from you used or use both and have experiences if fabfilter can replace tracks 5 or does tracks 5 got some unique tone, features? Eg is the opto comp different from the opto comp Option of pro c?
Or does the brickwall limiter have anything special what pro L doesnt have?
Especially soundwise.

[NinjaToon]

Stick with what you have. Some IK plugins are very good some are average, you don't need any of them.

You still have to install everything (they are changing that in the future apparently) and they have an authorisation app now.

They do a group buy (buy one get x amount for free) once a year; I would not buy anything from them outside of that offer which happens at the end of summer into autumn.

If you want coloured effects there are plenty out there from Kush, PSP, Sonimus etc, etc, etc that you can demo.

[lwj]

It's an odd comparison.
The IK stuff is meant to emulate analog gear. So it'll have a specific sound. The fabfilter stuff is meant to not do that. The EQ and compressor are clean. The opto-mode in Pro-c2 gives the compression behaviour of an analog opto compressor, but just the compression curve.. not the coloration. You use Saturn to add colour. Between the two of them you should be emulate a lot of different 'analog' compressor sounds, but you have to know to what you're doing.

They're different approaches, but neither is better or worse.. just whatever suits you. I used to swear by my analog emulations, but as I get more experienced I gravitate towards the clean and more precise way of working that fabfilter represents.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

It's an odd comparison.
The IK stuff is meant to emulate analog gear. So it'll have a specific sound. The fabfilter stuff is meant to not do that. The EQ and compressor are clean. The opto-mode in Pro-c2 gives the compression behaviour of an analog opto compressor, but just the compression curve.. not the coloration. You use Saturn to add colour. Between the two of them you should be emulate a lot of different 'analog' compressor sounds, but you have to know to what you're doing.

They're different approaches, but neither is better or worse.. just whatever suits you. I used to swear by my analog emulations, but as I get more experienced I gravitate towards the clean and more precise way of working that fabfilter represents.

This.

I'd also add, the quality of the IK plugins really varies. I don't consider the T-Racks suite "best in class" except for the Tape Collection, which is on a whole other level and eats CPU for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and I really dig the Sunset Studio reverb and their Leslie (although it lacks noise - which is not very Leslie-like).

Fabfilter's compressors, limiters, and EQs are on the clean end of the spectrum but very good at what they do. I honestly don't use Pro-C2 all that much, but it's there when I need it and I'm happy enough with it when I use it.

Tokyo Dawn Records (TDR) is one company that I'd say does a "best of both worlds" type of approach. Some of their plugins have color, while also being best in class when it comes to sound quality, and others can be very clean (Nova for example). Top stuff. And they have excellent free versions of most of their line.

Jon V Audio has a compressor called FIRComp 2 that I'd put right up there with Pro-C2 as a clean compressor, only it costs way less!

Just some extra stuff to check out if you're not familiar with some of the other options. If someone said, I could only use either T-Racks, or Fabfilter, or TDR plugins for compression and EQ duties, even though TDR has fewer plugins, those would be the ones I would pick.

[kranick]

IKM’s R-RackS has a lot of great stuff! For example Stelth Limiter is one of the best limiters on the market now. Fabfilter ProL is great and I like it so much, but I found that I use Stelth more often.

[Saukar30]

It really depends on your usage. If you have an intent of using something simple for color, T Racks is tops. For Fabfilter you can make it sinple but you can do way much more complex modulation and other things that leave T Racks in the dust.

[Ploki]

FabFilter is great. You have Saturn and Volcano3 for color and they cover - a lot - of ground.
They're rock solid, have timely updates and work are probably the most stable and well coded plugins you can buy.

[Trancit]

FabFilter is great. You have Saturn and Volcano3 for color and they cover - a lot - of ground.
They're rock solid, have timely updates and work are probably the most stable and well coded plugins you can buy.

But at the very end there are nothing but absolutely standard sounding plugins like 99,9% of the others out there which are packed just into a nice GUI with 2 or 3 extra features to justify charging 3 times the money the others cost...

[Ploki]

But at the very end there are nothing but absolutely standard sounding plugins like 99,9% of the others out there which are packed just into a nice GUI with 2 or 3 extra features to justify charging 3 times the money the others cost...

Sure, but that's true for 99% of all plugins - except the dev might do a 3D interface and slap a waveshaper on it and call it "Analog sounding" and list it for 299$ then sell it for 29$ in a "one time" sale and never update it again.
There's really not many unique plugins.
Unless you mean toneboosters, but i don't find TB as snappy as fabfilter and i prefer the sound of Pro-C2 over TB Compressor, but it's a great alternative on a budget.

The point with FabFilter is that it's predictable, well laid out, fast, versatile and extremely reliable, their support is quick and they fix shit nearly immediately, and when you switch DAWs or have to work elsewhere you have a set of tools you know that will 100% work and you know how to work with.

They had M1 native binaries out in a week after 13" M1 was released last year, while a lot of devs are still chugging along and are far from public M1 releases.

[lwj]

But at the very end there are nothing but absolutely standard sounding plugins like 99,9% of the others out there which are packed just into a nice GUI with 2 or 3 extra features to justify charging 3 times the money the others cost...

The GUI is worth the price of admission alone. It gets results quick and most of the plugins are operated the same way.. at this point I can work them blind.

I’d rather have that uniform workflow and excellent visualization. It’s quick and effective, it shows everything I need at a glance. Whatever I want to do is just a couple of clicks. But hey.. if someone prefers clicking through a million and one skeuomorphic GUI’s or something that looks like and excel sheet or windows 95 that’s their business.

Standard sounding? You mean they don’t cake everything with virtual analog McMojo, f**k with the clarity or introduce unwanted phasing and artifacts at the expense of a lot of CPU load and latency? That’s what I want. Can you find single plugins that do something better? Oh, I’m sure.. bit they won’t be 3x cheaper and I’ve seen nothing that also has the ease of use, stability and a full suite of effects.

Good example: Pro-R. Lushest, nicest reverb out there? No, but it’s so light on CPU I can add one on every channel and it does really nice ambience, room type of reverbs. It’s really intuitive and quick to dial that in, and to go back and tweak little things. Default sound is neutral and bright, but it’s easy to get some nice vintage tones out of it if you couple it with saturn or volcano.

The ‘extra features’ tend to be stuff I really use all the time. Most of their effects can double as a couple of different things and overlap if you use them creatively. Like, Pro-Q3 is a dynamics processor too, really powerful. Pro-mb also isn’t just a multiband compressor.

Most of their stuff can work in zero latency mode and is light on CPU, but can scale up to ‘mastering quality’ (whatever that is). I can’t remember it ever crashing either. They also don’t freak out if you automate them.

[Trancit]

Sure, but that's true for 99% of all plugins - except the dev might do a 3D interface and slap a waveshaper on it and call it "Analog sounding" and list it for 299$ then sell it for 29$ in a "one time" sale and never update it again.

Very true!

There's really not many unique plugins.

That´s true to some degree but the ones who aren´t really unique at least mostly don´t act like they would sell Lambourghinis and try to sell you a bicycle as a racing car

Unless you mean toneboosters, but i don't find TB as snappy as fabfilter and i prefer the sound of Pro-C2 over TB Compressor, but it's a great alternative on a budget.

Not necessarily Toneboosters but I always was very very unimpressed by Pro-C2... for me i.e. it cannot stand the slightest bit against DC8C or Trackcomp 2 apart from the GUI...

And how shall I judge a person who charges from me 149,-€ for a sound quality I can get at least as good (if not better) and twice as flexible from a 23,-€ plugin

The same with Saturn... Saturn is the most undistorting Distortion plugin I´ve ever seen...
The modes which distort sound extrem crappy...
The modes which I would like to use as disortion types do simply not distort if I don´t boost the input like crazy...

Pro-L2 cannot stand at all against Elephant, Limitless or Ozone´s Limiter...

Charging like the big ones but delivering worse than the small (soundwise)...
A nice GUI and constant updates are not the measures I prefer when it comes to Audio processors...

Sorry but Fabfilters are dazzlers... wraping medio core quality into some shiny clothes and everybody is jumping on the train and happily spend crazy money for something sometimes freeware has a better or at least equal quality...

[Trancit]

...
Good example: Pro-R. Lushest, nicest reverb out there? No, but it’s so light on CPU I can add one on every channel and it does really nice ambience, room type of reverbs. ...

You are joking, aren´t you...?

Even freeware like OrilRiver can sound as "good" if we want to take this term here and takes on my machine 1/3rd of the CPU that Pro-R uses...
Every Valhalla Reverb sounds double as good as Pro-R and has at max the same CPU hit if not mostly even less... not to speak about countless other competitors who don´t follow the Fabfilter way...

Not Charging the double and offering the half but offering the double but charging the half...

But you Fabfilter fanboys you seem not to be interested in sound... all what matters to you how shiny it looks and how fast you can make it sounding mediocre...

There is a nice fairy tale: The Emperor's New Clothes...

I think Hans Christian Andersen knew what will come and wrote this to wake you up... sadly his thesis got forgotten before...

Standard sounding? You mean they don’t cake everything with virtual analog McMojo, f**k with the clarity or introduce unwanted phasing and artifacts at the expense of a lot of CPU load and latency? That’s what I want. Can you find single plugins that do something better?

If that is what you want than you should get rid of your Pro-Q and jump onto the Kirchhoff EQ if their measurements are correct... it costs the same but if it´s true what they stated then your Pro-Q is crap...

Or do you just mean that they sound exactly like your stock EQ you´ve got for free as Dan Worral shows in his comparisson videos??
Wow, that´s then of course a huge improvement!! Spending (dunno) 150,-€ for an EQ I got already for free... very clever!

Like, Pro-Q3 is a dynamics processor too, really powerful.

Aaah, you mean so powerful that even many fanboys send a shitstorm to their favourite company as they were to lazy to implement some attack and release settings into their allmighty dynamic feature...
Yes, you are right... that´s a wonderful example for the best company in the world!

But...Psssst: we don´t tell the others that even the free Nova does this better!

[Ploki]

I have a some of what you listed, i.e valhalla (plate, room, vvv) and Voxengo premium (everything).
Also have a handful of compressors (presswerk, all TDR compressors, all Softube (actually have all softube)), pulsar, but i still often fallback to Pro-C2. I really like how it sounds, esp Opto and Classic.

As far as ProQ3, its my track EQ for a reason. Not because it “sounds great” but because it doesn’t get in the way.

While saturn is not my go-to distortion unit (that would be Voxengo and tone projects) i still often pick it for agressive stuff.

Imo its not mediocre at all. Its well executed with a carefully selected feature set.
And reliability and consistency is something I appreciate a lot, because it allows me to work faster and the tools doesn’t get in the way - i know what to expect and how to get the result i’m after.

I dont want to bother with a new flavor of the month “best new proQ alternative “ that goes abandoned after a year.

Re: pro-q3 attack release:
I don’t need it nor want it. It will clutter up the interface, there are other tools i use for that (i.e soothe2 or if i needed attack/release in an EQ that bad, i’d get TDR nova, but I don’t so I don’t really care)

I shared your opinion of Pro-R until i tried it in a context of a mix, and since then it’s on my nearly every mix (along with valhalla), because its just so easy to place.

Also a big fan of timeless since v3.

I paid less because i bought total fx bundle during their 40% anniversary sale, and I don’t regret it.

While elephant is definitely my go-to, pro-l2 also gets use.

Idk, I really honestly think they’re really really good tools, and while i can understand your critiques, i think they’re overly harsh

[NinjaToon]

But you Fabfilter fanboys you seem not to be interested in sound... all what matters to you how shiny it looks and how fast you can make it sounding mediocre...

There is a nice fairy tale: The Emperor's New Clothes...

Absolute nonsense. You're really showing your ass IMO but you do you.

[lwj]

If that is what you want than you should get rid of your Pro-Q and jump onto the Kirchhoff EQ if their measurements are correct... it costs the same but if it´s true what they stated then your Pro-Q is crap...

Or do you just mean that they sound exactly like your stock EQ you´ve got for free as Dan Worral shows in his comparisson videos??
Wow, that´s then of course a huge improvement!! Spending (dunno) 150,-€ for an EQ I got already for free... very clever!

You don't even try to get my point, you're more interested in being that guy. But that's fine, project some more. Just the fact that you think in terms of fanboys tells me more than enough about you and your mentality. Maybe Pokemon is a better hobby for you?

With sales, loyalty discounts, second hand purchases I don't think I ever paid more than 70-80 euro, and often much less. I spent that money years ago on tools I've used on every single audio project since. Unlike most people here I don't try or buy every new VST or spend money on samples and libraries. Workflow is king here. Not using a stock eq allows me to work faster and more effectively. Time saved = money made... purchase price becomes irrelevant really fast. Unless you're just f**king around of course. Reliability and predictability take priority over 'sound quality' for me. The last thing I want to do is to have to cycle through a bunch of different variations of the same compressor, reverb while I'm working.. just like I don't want to flip through thousands of samples. That's not how I work. It's not effective or creative to me.

But you do you with the jumping onto theses posed by fairytale writers and all that.. Happy new year!