Fabfilter Pro-C 3

[cryophonik]

I would think that most people buying something as advanced as a Pro-C v3 would have a working knowledge of compression, limiting, expansion, and gating. If they don't, it's not terribly difficult to understand and the information is readily available all over the web/youtube. Yes, there will be people who buy it with no real intention of ever becoming a power user, but Fabfilter designs these tools to be used by people who do understand them.

You’re acting like fabfilter is some obscure company. They’re arguably the top 5 biggest name in plugins. At least close.

To answer my own question I’d be surprised if even 10% of users knew how to use expansion for gating. The impact on their bottom line from overlap with pro-g is minimal.

OK, you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. I never said nor implied that Fabfilter is obscure. I'm just saying that expansion is not some obscure process that is difficult to understand. Neither of us know what this "C" release is for sure or what features it will or won't include. I simply stated that it seems unlikely they would include a feature that is the sole purpose of one of their other plugins. But, maybe they will and that's fine with me, too.

[elxsound]

I would think that most people buying something as advanced as a Pro-C v3 would have a working knowledge of compression, limiting, expansion, and gating. If they don't, it's not terribly difficult to understand and the information is readily available all over the web/youtube. Yes, there will be people who buy it with no real intention of ever becoming a power user, but Fabfilter designs these tools to be used by people who do understand them.

You’re acting like fabfilter is some obscure company. They’re arguably the top 5 biggest name in plugins. At least close.

To answer my own question I’d be surprised if even 10% of users knew how to use expansion for gating. The impact on their bottom line from overlap with pro-g is minimal.

OK, you're just arguing for the sake of arguing. I never said nor implied that Fabfilter is obscure. I'm just saying that expansion is not some obscure process that is difficult to understand. Neither of us know what this "C" release is for sure or what features it will or won't include. I simply stated that it seems unlikely they would include a feature that is the sole purpose of one of their other plugins. But, maybe they will and that's fine with me, too.

I’m just surprised all the UK peeps are not saying what they think that C stands for.

I’m going with C is for Cannabis. Fabfilter is going to announce a major brand of edibles to be sold/distributed from the good folks in Netherlands. With that said, the worst weed I ever had was in Amsterdam.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

[jtsterays]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

Im curious, what do you want in MB2? I feel like it's pretty feature rich already, only thing I miss is being able to do both upward and downward in parallel to emulate the OTT sound.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

Im curious, what do you want in MB2? I feel like it's pretty feature rich already, only thing I miss is being able to do both upward and downward in parallel to emulate the OTT sound.

Modernize the interface a bit, add the different compression styles (per band) that were added in Pro-C2, Audition triggering, range knob, hold control, deeper sidechain options, deeper MS/Stereo options, Auto-Gain.

Basically: Pro-C2. but multi-band.

[coroknight]

(and also being able to combine expansion + compression like fuse compressor/ott would be cool)

[jtsterays]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

Im curious, what do you want in MB2? I feel like it's pretty feature rich already, only thing I miss is being able to do both upward and downward in parallel to emulate the OTT sound.

Modernize the interface a bit, add the different compression styles (per band) that were added in Pro-C2, Audition triggering, range knob, hold control, deeper sidechain options, deeper MS/Stereo options, Auto-Gain.

Basically: Pro-C2. but multi-band.

Would be wild if they just combined them, but I doubt it.

[bmanic]

I asked them back in the day when Pro-MB was in beta why there aren't more options for compression behavior and more creative options.. and at least back then it was designed as a singular tool for being as transparent as possible. It was never meant to be a "do it all multiband smash machine". It was meant to work invisibly, which it really does excel at.

Also, FabFilter are quite stubborn when it comes to changing the perceived niche of their plugins so I would not be surprised if a Pro-MB successor doesn't have any more algorithms or any supreme flexibility built into it. I hope I'm wrong though..

[aMUSEd]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

Im curious, what do you want in MB2? I feel like it's pretty feature rich already, only thing I miss is being able to do both upward and downward in parallel to emulate the OTT sound.

Modernize the interface a bit, add the different compression styles (per band) that were added in Pro-C2, Audition triggering, range knob, hold control, deeper sidechain options, deeper MS/Stereo options, Auto-Gain.

Basically: Pro-C2. but multi-band.

Would be wild if they just combined them, but I doubt it.

Is Pro MB just Pro C but multi band anyway?

[jtsterays]

As excited as I am for another fabfilter plugin, it’s strange that they consider pro-mb feature complete but pro-c needs a 3rd version

+1.

It's a little nuts that they keep neglecting Pro-MB, Pro-G, and Pro-DS. But I'm sure Pro-C outsells the three of them, probably combined. So it's probably not insane from a business perspective. As a customer though, I'm not happy about Pro-C getting all the love.

Im curious, what do you want in MB2? I feel like it's pretty feature rich already, only thing I miss is being able to do both upward and downward in parallel to emulate the OTT sound.

Modernize the interface a bit, add the different compression styles (per band) that were added in Pro-C2, Audition triggering, range knob, hold control, deeper sidechain options, deeper MS/Stereo options, Auto-Gain.

Basically: Pro-C2. but multi-band.

Would be wild if they just combined them, but I doubt it.

Is Pro MB just Pro C but multi band anyway?

Not really, it's full band compression action is very off, also lacking features from C ofc.

[Daru925]

Looking forward to dan worrall's video^^

[billinder33]

Not sure why I never gelled with Pro-C. I started with it, then started using all varieties of emulations, then a couple years with TrackComp, and now have settled on TB Impress, which I'm extremely happy with. But despite a few added bells and whistles, it's actually very similar in design and function to Pro-C.

Will be interesting to see what FF comes up with. The UI is looking a little crusty compared to Pro-Q 4, so that should be a welcome upgrade. Other than that, not sure what else would pull me back into using it. Especially given what's sure to be a premium upgrade cost.

[Alexander_D]

Always excited about their stuff. So, wait so much for sure!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Also, FabFilter are quite stubborn when it comes to changing the perceived niche of their plugins so I would not be surprised if a Pro-MB successor doesn't have any more algorithms or any supreme flexibility built into it. I hope I'm wrong though..

They come across as a weird company to me. On one hand it’s like, “look how forward-thinking our designs are.” Pro-Q genuinely felt revolutionary at the time; total “right product, right time” moment. Same for Pro-C and how it visualizes compression. That was the first time I saw anyone do it that way. It was downright fun to put audio through it!

But on the other hand it’s like… look at how basic the feature sets are on Pro-G, Pro-DS, and Pro-MB, and how they’ve basically refused to update them. Meanwhile, you’ve got newer stuff like Silencer doing genuinely cool, modern drum-gate things that Pro-G2 should’ve been. Or like a noise-print/learnable gate/noise reducer. Just because gating/expansion is a basic feature doesn't mean Pro-G is feature-complete. But they seem to believe otherwise.

And honestly, in terms of sound quality / DSP, I don’t rate them anywhere near as highly as a company like TDR. Their more “creative” plugins don’t help much either; I find the modulation system clumsy and kind of uninspiring to use, and again, their filter or delay DSP isn't up there with Cytomic/U-he/Synapse or Valhalla IMO nor is their saturation top-shelf IMO.

Also, minor thing, but some parts of the UI have actually gotten worse over time (the fonts, especially). So on the one hand, they came out of the gate as being super innovative with these innovative UI's and top-shelf DSP for their day, but I kind of feel like they're spinning their wheels a bit, putting out a Pro-Q, and now Pro-C, update whenever they need to go to the cash register.

There's my "hot take" no one asked for!

[billinder33]

I find the modulation system clumsy and kind of uninspiring to use

So true. I hate using their mod system.