Fabfilter Twin 3 --Released Feb. 7th

[bmanic]

One last thing. I was delighted to read that CC64 was now hard-wired to sustain. Except that it doesn't seem to be. It did not work in any patch I tried. Is there some global setting that needs to happen to get this to work? Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

This problem was encountered when using Blue Cat Audio Patchwork as a the VST (3) host. In Cubase, Twin 3 sustain works as expected. Patchwork successfully hosts any number of other VST 3 instruments for which sustain works just fine; only Twin 3 seems to have this problem.

Looks like the Twin 3 VST3 plugin has a bunch of issues with some "wrapped" hosts. NI Komplete Kontrol also seems to have all kinds of problems with specifically the VST3 plugin. I'll write this down for the rather chunky bug list I've been gathering here but if you can be bothered, please write about this on their own forums. More voices always help in getting the bug reports through!

[Jac459]

Purchased this few days ago and absolutely love it. I do have Phase Plant and Pigments and for sure, they are more flexible, but Twin 3 is the Mother Of All Substractive Synths for me. It is so easy and intuitive to sculpt the sound, you have a visual response of what you do on the filters immediately and you can superpose, make them series, parallels, affect specific oscillators, it is all very very fun. I can do the same in Phase Plant for sure, but it is damn funnier and intuitive...

Oh, and I think it is the end of Diva era as best analog... (No shame here, Diva is an old lady already).

@bmanic: Really loved your intro tune and the way you build-up. You are guilty of the fact that I downloaded and ultimately bought this synth .

[vitocorleone123]

Purchased this few days ago and absolutely love it. I do have Phase Plant and Pigments and for sure, they are more flexible, but Twin 3 is the Mother Of All Substractive Synths for me. It is so easy and intuitive to sculpt the sound, you have a visual response of what you do on the filters immediately and you can superpose, make them series, parallels, affect specific oscillators, it is all very very fun. I can do the same in Phase Plant for sure, but it is damn funnier and intuitive...

Oh, and I think it is the end of Diva era as best analog... (No shame here, Diva is an old lady already).

@bmanic: Really loved your intro tune and the way you build-up. You are guilty of the fact that I downloaded and ultimately bought this synth .

Diva is best at being Diva, not the best at emulating specific synths (some more than others, admittedly). I sold it off and moved on months ago because others sound better to me, and I didn't need the kitchen sink philosophy. Specific emulations surpassed Diva trying to do specific emulations a long time ago (but those specific emulations can't mix and match to create new things like Diva).

I'm also enjoying Twin3 overall. I ended up purchasing it, so my two "modern" VAs are Hive2 and Twin3 (I have Vital but never use it).

[dmbaer]

... if you can be bothered, please write about this on their own forums. More voices always help in getting the bug reports through!

I'll be happy to. But there doesn't seem to be a very organized bug reporting mechanism on that forum. Care to start an "Official Twin 3 Bug List" thread? You probably know your way around that forum better most folks.

[Jac459]

Specific emulations surpassed Diva trying to do specific emulations a long time ago (but those specific emulations can't mix and match to create new things like Diva).

I'm also enjoying Twin3 overall. I ended up purchasing it, so my two "modern" VAs are Hive2 and Twin3 (I have Vital but never use it).

I was thinking of "modern VAs" specifically. I could have named Dune 3 also. I find twin 3 a "king" potential in this sector.
Flexibility is not the strength of twin 3 but I am very very impressed by its workflow, the UI and the control (and feedbacks) you have on filters. And yes, to my ears it sounds great.

For specific emulation, I am a sucker for synapse Obsession. I also own synapse The Legend but I just prefer Oberheim over Moog.

[rod_zero]

I don think FF modulation system UI become more bloated in this round of updates, I feel the size of the modulators was easier to navigate.

Overall I think FF is not improving UI usability, just trying to upgrade graphics to look more modern.

[liquidsound]

That Delay with those 4 dedicated Filters inside its panel (and you can modulate all the Filters Parameters!) is sick!
I just wish the Reverb was a mini clone of Pro-R.

[Jac459]

I don think FF modulation system UI become more bloated in this round of updates, I feel the size of the modulators was easier to navigate.

Overall I think FF is not improving UI usability, just trying to upgrade graphics to look more modern.

I am surprised by your comment, because instantly having a view of how your waveform is modified by your filter(s) is somehow groundbreaking for me. I don't have any synths doing that and it DOES help a lot. You really see immediately what is going on and the feeling of subtractive synthesis being like sculpting a sound take a new whole meaning here. On the modulation side I agree that the improvement is just visual but these filters are really the whole point for me...

[Dombaeb]

Actually, before Twin 3 I wasn’t realized that substractive synthesis can do so much useful and unconventional timbres. Thanks to ability hands on experimentation. Now it’s the closest thing to hardware experience for me. And, thanks god it sounds good…

[Lbdunequest]

Actually, before Twin 3 I wasn’t realized that substractive synthesis can do so much useful and unconventional timbres. Thanks to ability hands on experimentation. Now it’s the closest thing to hardware experience for me. And, thanks god it sounds good…

Ive had and still have hardware synths and i also had the same thought. This synth gives a hardware expierience in a box. How paradoxical is that. No other synths gives me that feeling.

[rezoneight]

Upgraded my Twin to ver 3. Most entertaining and funny, intuitive UI.

Really? I found the UI to be anything but intuitive. I figured it out quickly enough, but there were a lot of moments where I was thinking, “where is…”

Yeah.
That’s you - people are different.

I’ve been a professional UI designer for 20 years with a lot of experience watching people test various products, and I can assure you that few people who didn’t use a lot of Fab Filter products would have an easy time figuring that out. I’ll not go into details, as I only do that when on a payroll, but I could easily make a few changes that would go a long way towards making it a better experience.

Dude, your 20 years as a UI designer doesn't somehow invalidate someone else's opinion that the UI is intuitive. Maybe the other poster is one of the chosen few you mentioned who doesn't use FF products and got it. Maybe they've got the whole catalog. Or maybe they just read the manual. Remember those? FF makes decent ones.

You’re changing the point. I never said it was unlearnable. I said it was not intuitive. Of course, you can figure anything out with a manual. That’s very different than something like Icarus, which is very intuitive to use for the most part. I’ve never once had to read a manual or watch some tutorial video on Icarus, but instantly I felt stuck on how to do basic things with Twin 3, and I’ve been using synthesizers since the 80s. Just go though this thread. There are tons of criticisms about the interface. If it were intuitive, you’d find almost none.

I wasn’t the guy touting his bona fides in UX design that nobody cares about man so no wasn’t “changing the point” at all, I was responding to what you said. And I’ve seen plenty of people noting how intuitive the UI is in this thread. I’ve also been using synths since the 80s (first synth…Six Trak in 1984. You want unintuitive? Try that one on for size) and haven’t found Twin unintuitive at all. That said I’ve also got most of the FF catalog and all the stuff works the same.

My problem with Twin is will they address any of the issues like effects that can’t be reordered given their lack of updates. That’s a bigger issue in my mind. The other shit can be easily dealt with via some good old-fashioned reading.

[Sparks330]

I'm planning to buy this plugin. The interface looks stunning and intuitive since I'm already used to Fabfilter plugins, plus some of the presets sound really nice.

[Harry_HH]

I'm planning to buy this plugin. The interface looks stunning and intuitive since I'm already used to Fabfilter plugins, plus some of the presets sound really nice.

Yes, and especially the warm recommendation of the plugin developing and beta-testing expert zerocrossing ecourages people to purchase the Twin 3.

[rod_zero]

The interface is on first glance intuitive, not doubt, it carries it over the good concepts of Twin 2.

But some operations have become harder, navigating the modulators is slow, first if there are more than a few the navigation bar is behind the modulators, making it awkward to click on it. Second, in the previous version the modulation sources presented all their parameters now you have to click on them to open its values. You could also see all the targets for a single modulator above it and adjust, now you have to move around the interface for each target. Overall it feels harder to navigate.

[daily patcher]

Since fab filter designs for both iOS and desktop, it makes sense they are aiming to perfect the "hardware in a box" concept. Desktop only users can expect to be frustrated by many design decisions, and I certainly get frustrated using fab filter plugins, but then I remember I can sync all my patches and open them on my iPad (with a great touch interface and amazing sound in a tablet) and the frustration is (somewhat) lessened