Fabfilter Twin 3 --Released Feb. 7th

[Ploki]

I don't like the new style interface - you used to be able to adjust everything with the mouse, now it's keyboard modifiers with everything. Don't they realise that means you can't adjust anything without taking both hands off the keyboard? Evidently this was designed by computer nerds, not musicians.

What can you not adjust with the mouse?

filter pan

[Hanz Meyzer]

Well, this synth has one very unique feature: Kind of a whole Volcano instance per voice (limited to 4 bands). And those filters come with various saturation colors. I only know Falcon which has an eq per voice, but without all those fancy saturation options. I miss MPE support and a comb filter mode though. Audiorate LFOs would be nice. A general pre-filter gain/drive with compensation would have the workflow easier, too.

Btw. is there a way to fadein an lfo, e.g. for vibrato, without sacrificing a whole env?

The GUI is nice, but it feels like quite a bit features were removed only to keep the gui simple.

[pierb]

A general pre-filter gain/drive with compensation would have the workflow easier, too.

That's also disappointing. How come they didn't include the filter drive from Volcano?

[Niowiad]

I only know Falcon which has an eq per voice, but without all those fancy saturation options.

Can't think of too many.
Plasmonic has (basic) saturation and EQ per-voice.
MSoundFactory also has lots per-voice FX.

[teilo]

I only know Falcon which has an eq per voice, but without all those fancy saturation options.

Can't think of too many.
Plasmonic has (basic) saturation and EQ per-voice.
MSoundFactory also has lots per-voice FX.

Also Phase Plant.

[aMUSEd]

I don't like the new style interface - you used to be able to adjust everything with the mouse, now it's keyboard modifiers with everything. Don't they realise that means you can't adjust anything without taking both hands off the keyboard? Evidently this was designed by computer nerds, not musicians.

What can you not adjust with the mouse?

filter pan

Also, from the manual:

'Hold down Ctrl+Alt (Cmd+Alt on macOS) and click the dot on a filter once to change its shape.
Hold down Alt+Shift and click the dot on a filter once to change its slope.'

This is insane - luckily I can at least assign all these things to Komplete Kontrol knobs - looks like the only way to control this sensibly now

[Dombaeb]

Well, I was playing with it for 2 hours and I must say that this is the only real bread & butter synth I don’t have yet. Especially because of it’s simple architecture and awesome tweakability on the fly.

This central filter section is genius. I didn’t know that before, but I was dreaming to play with four filters so easy. It sounds very upfront and clean in good sense. Overdrive in effects section has only one algorithm, but this is the right algorithm. Overall, FabFilter completely cut choice paralysis and programming (BUT, LFO drawing is still pain in the a*s). You can tweak and sculpt sound so easy having only mouse, not a single MIDI controller. I think this is kind of unique achievement in soft synth world.

As I said, LFO drawing still sucks.

Damn, I will buy it, I’m afraid…

[rydan]

Out of all their new releases, Timeless is easily the worst one. It _sounds_ incredible and you can get some fantastic results, but unless you use it every day you're gonna open it and have to take a minute to figure out how to get where you want to go. The interface on that is the least intuitive of any delay plugin on the market, and I mean it.

Very much disagree! Given the ENORMOUSLY COMPLEX modulation possibilities, the interface is great. Much MUCH better than Timeless2 (which I never used due to a horrible GUI). (The XLFO:s would be much better implemented as drawable multi-segments though...)

[bmanic]

All of you who have feature requests (FM, PM, different type of oscillators etc) I highly suggest you write these down on the FabFilter forum as the guys at FF very rarely read any other forums (if ever). I did give FabFilter a HUGE wish list about a year ago when it was discussed that Twin 3 may be the next plugin on the update list. I can see a lot of those same suggestions here. Unfortunately, I'm merely one dude and they are a stubborn bunch that won't budge on certain things just because I say it would be a good idea (case in point: The new FF UI system which some of you may remember from the Timeless 3 thread, I quite dislike).

Here are just some of the things I asked for in an updated Twin 3:

1) Very different oscillator types with FM and crossmod
2) New filter types with Drive as a mod destination for all of them
3) Completely new envelopes and LFOs (those old things are so archaic in 2020+ timeline)
4) A completely spline based system for all midi modulation sources (keyboard tracking, velocity etc)
5) More midi mod sources like random note, note flip/flop and flipflipflop, voice number etc.
6) Effects order user re-arrangeable! (one of my very first requests when I got to see the first alpha version)
7) A separate monophonic EQ/filter section before the main output
8.) More options for mono playing (low/hi note priority etc)
9) A mod matrix listing of all connections at a glance
10) A lot more control over envelope and LFO re-triggering and syncing
11-99) .. a lot more requests

And for contrast, here are some things they did implement that people have been asking for:

1) Effects section, albeit a bit simplistic for my taste (and no way to reorder!! I hope they add this feature at some point)
2) Sustain pedal native support, without having to assign it manually (this was so dumb in Twin2)
3) Better sound quality (less aliasing everywhere basically)
4) A few more flavors for the basic oscillators (we got a new square and a new triangle, not much but I'll take anything at this point!)
5) Much better envelopes. Way snappier and way better logic in how they operate during note stealing
6) Arpeggiator


In the end, they basically kept Twin as it's always been, with 60 more modulation slots though, so you shouldn't easily run out of them at least. It's relatively simplistic at a quick glance but capable of some rather beautiful sounds if you dig in and do some work. It's a bit of an odd synthesizer. Sounds good in my opinion and is rather fun to explore once you get the gist of it's inner workings.

I too would have liked a lot more features, bells and whistles but that was unfortunately not the goal for FabFilter.

As for presets, if you guys have any ideas for things you'd like to have available then definitely let me know. Basically there's just a bunch of presets created from scratch while noodling with the thing. I'm mostly a "keyboard player" instead of a composer so I suspect the presets are mostly for this kind of category. I like it when presets work over the whole keyboard range and are fun to explore and play (hence almost all have quite carefully assigned GREEN sliders and XY boxes, modwheel AND aftertouch support).

Please do explore the sliders and assigned XY pads. They are there for a reason and were quite thoroughly checked for ranges and usability. It always pains me when watching some videos of people using Timeless 3 where the readily assigned sliders are never even touched. They are there to make exploration of the presets fun and creative with a single mouse click+drag (or tweak them with a midi controller).

Here are some of my favorite presets, in case you are curious:

Arp/Barracuda (I've spent hours just jamming with this. Tweak MW, AT and the green assigned sliders)
Arp/Bathed in Echoes
Arp/Hollow Pluck
Arp/Unisaurus

Bass/80s sampled slap bass (this one is so quirky/wonky/weird)
Bass/Overblown Lazer
Bass/Punchy Square
Bass/Reese lost control
Bass/Spike Lee (probably my favorite stabby bass ever! Really unique sounding and responds really nicely to aftertouch)
Bass/Spike Louie
Bass/Submerged (HUGE sub bass that goes absolutely nutty with modwheel up)

Keys/Euphoria (there's just something about this sound that warms my heart! Love it!)
Keys/Kaunis (uses self oscillation as the "pad" element)
Keys/Kaunis Muunnelma (a variation on the above preset)
Keys/Oildrum Kitch (use aftertouch!)
Keys/Swelling Heart (use modwheel and aftertouch!)

Pad/Another Frontier (use aftertouch!)
Pad/Beautifully Haunting (use modwheel!! .. and aftertouch!)
Pad/Dimensions
Pad/Distant Movement (definitely use modwheel and aftertouch!)
Pad/Leaving Enceladus (very velocity sensitive and evolves for a long time! Explore modwheel and AT too)
Pad/Of Thick and Thin (explore the green Lushness slider!)
Pad/The Wire (This one has a bug where the description is missing! Sorry about that! MW and AT both assigned!)
Pad/Vintergatan (very strange pad where the chorus FX is modulated periodically. Slowly evolving so let it ring out!)
Pad/Worlds Apart (explore modwheel and AT!)

Pluck/Ivalo (Use modwheel to bring in different harmonics and explore the tight new envelopes of Twin3! May need to switch to HQ mode if you plan on playing very high notes! Or enjoy the weird aliasing up top if not!)

Synth/Cycles
Synth/Dub That Chord (instant oldschool house! I just love the "texture" of this one)
Synth/Dusty Flute (imple sound but lovely! Keeps "clicking" though, not sure why. Probably a bug somewhere)
Synth/Head Space (play quick timed consecutive notes! A sort of "arp" preset but not)
Synth/Karplus Subtractus
Synth/Majestic (too detuned? Try the assigned 'instability' slider)
Synth/Midnight Strato (use MW and AT!)
Synth/Purple
Synth/Still Time
Synth/Velvet String Ensemble (Use modwheel!! If it gets too distorted on very loud and low notes, turn off the Drive FX)
Synth/Warm Filter Bath (use aftertouch!)

.. and quite a few hidden gems in the Best of Twin2 folder

Cheers!

[bmanic]

I don't like the new style interface - you used to be able to adjust everything with the mouse, now it's keyboard modifiers with everything. Don't they realise that means you can't adjust anything without taking both hands off the keyboard? Evidently this was designed by computer nerds, not musicians.

What can you not adjust with the mouse?

filter pan

That is true! It was one of my requests that ALL the numbers in the boxes could be adjusted by mouse simply by hovering over it and dragging. Heck, this was a request already when Timeless 3 was under beta testing.

Sigh.. yeah, there's quite a few niggles I have with their UI and usability. I can't change their mind on my own though so please, PLEASE post on their forums with all these requests.

[bmanic]

Btw. is there a way to fadein an lfo, e.g. for vibrato, without sacrificing a whole env?

No. Unfortunately not. Also something I asked for but got denied. Please post on the FF forum and request this!

[fabfilter]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the feedback and discussion! Some replies:

- The keyboard shortcuts quoted above are in addition to using the mouse. The most straightforward way to change the slope or shape of a filter is via the shape button in the pop-up filter parameter value display.

- We thought about including filter drive, but couldn’t find a good way to include that without making the filter parameter display very unwieldy. Yes we could have solved this by adding more prominent filter controls, but our main objective with the GUI was to keep it as simple and elegant as possible. Whether or not we have succeeded and if you like that is for everyone to judge for themselves.

- We are looking to include MPE and VST3 note expression in a future (free) update. We had to cut that feature in order to not delay the release any longer (the comment above about this being a huge rewrite is spot-on).

[rezoneight]

The GUI is nice, but it feels like quite a bit features were removed only to keep the gui simple.

I dont think they removed a thing or do you mean they didn't add new features (which they did of course but apparently not the full checklist everyone wanted )?

[vitocorleone123]

Demoing it and find it to be excellent so far. Probably a worth addition to all the other synths I have.

[aMUSEd]

Some presets seem really quiet or not making a sound for me.