FabFilter Pro Q2 EQ

[RyanC]

Wow only $69 right now if you own all their stuff, love their policy! I had sorta planned on skipping this one (who needs another eq?), but thought I'd check it out. Yeah it rocks, the M/S mode, the min phase works well for parallel stuff as does the linear modes, auto-volume is handy and I find the spectrum grab really handy for things like a ring on the snare etc.

With their *bundle* pricing I figure at this point anything they make is pretty much an instant buy, I'm hoping for a badass FF reverb now.

[Southsidemusic]

Hey Friends

Can someone who have that EQ and who have several other EQ's please explain what this one does? I am not a negative guy but when we sit with 30-40 EQ's already and most of them UA/Softube/McDsp/Waves and Console 1 aswell as loads more we never use, where does this plugin eq come in? I mean the sound can't be that different as it's digital compared to actual gear but I have noticed that yes, more expensive plugins DOES sound better so if we are to buy this one, where would it fit in and what makes it better than say UA Pultec and Softube?

Thank you in advance, I would love to get it at this price if I see why we should get it. Inbet alot of us here are swamped with plugins and some (like us) have soo many that we never even had time to test them so are we all just getting stuff because we have been Brainwashed (like me) or are there a significant difference between these new plugins I have missed?

Christopher

Audiodeluxe has it for 160 USD so thats a good price I think.

[Rosco1969]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

Hey Friends

Can someone who have that EQ and who have several other EQ's please explain what this one does? I am not a negative guy but when we sit with 30-40 EQ's already and most of them UA/Softube/McDsp/Waves and Console 1 aswell as loads more we never use, where does this plugin eq come in? I mean the sound can't be that different as it's digital compared to actual gear but I have noticed that yes, more expensive plugins DOES sound better so if we are to buy this one, where would it fit in and what makes it better than say UA Pultec and Softube?

Thank you in advance, I would love to get it at this price if I see why we should get it. Inbet alot of us here are swamped with plugins and some (like us) have soo many that we never even had time to test them so are we all just getting stuff because we have been Brainwashed (like me) or are there a significant difference between these new plugins I have missed?

Christopher

Audiodeluxe has it for 160 USD so thats a good price I think.

Christopher,

I just bought this EQ and man, I love it. It's probably the ease of use, the user friendliness of it along with the fact that it just looks amazing, the GUI is so intuitive and is gorgeous. The side chain feature I think is pretty awesome (e.g you could side chain in a kick drum and have the analyser show you the kick as you eq the bass, that kinda thing).

Anyway, as someone who has a few EQ's myself, I can honestly say that this will be my "go to" EQ.

Go for it, you won't regret it.

Rosco

[JFreak]

I don't know what to say.

On the other hand an eq is just an eq and if you know how to use it, does it matter what GUI it has?

That said; a mic is a mic and if you know how to use it will help a lot. But we all know what is a difference between budget condenser (say, a rode) and a high end condenser (say, a neumann).

My point being, there might be such comparable differences in sonic qualities of EQ plugs that would be revealed in fair A/B comparison...

But that said, it needs to be a very big difference if it is better than Sonnox EQ (IMO).

[Rosco1969]

Don't like it?… don't buy it… I liked it… so, I bought it!..

It's all subjective.

I just think, it sounds great, it looks great, its usability is great, it's feature set is great.

I'm glad I have it. That's all.

[Eric Lambert]

Eqs do have a sound, and they introduce unwanted artifacts. The idea is to have a palette of different sounds which you can choose from for different situations. A lesson on when to use each would be impossible to explain on a forum but it's often enough just to experiment with each plugin, on different types of material/instruments, so that you understand how they interact. For instance, a certain mellow guitar might require a harsher top end from an eq whereas another guitar might become shrill and a smoother eq would be preferred. The examples would go on forever but experimentation is how you find these synergies, and these synergies can be shortcuts to great mixes.

RE: the FabFilter, to my ears it retains much of the high fidelity and weight of the original signal without introducing phase distortion which muddles the sound. It ads or subtracts without making the instrument sound affected. That's a [bleep] sentence but it makes sense if you've compared poor eqs with those like this one, or SSL's X-eq - eqs which don't get in the way.

As a test, we introduced 12 or 13 bands of eq and threw their gain in drastic positions, additive and subtractive. Having done this in the past with other eqs, they'd destroy the instrument (to varying degrees) but toggling bypass on the FF somehow maintains the integrity of the source, only changing it's tone without softening or making it harsh or introducing huge phase issues.

No, it's not the only eq you'd ever need, but it's made our short list and will get more use than nearly every other eq plugin we own.

[tamasdragon]

Ok, yes, it is just an eq. But! As with all things in our profession, the sound and usability matters, a lot actually. This a very good sounding eq even in extreme settings. The other thing is, the gui is so well designed that it always helps you reach for the right parameter. With this, and with some addon features you might be able to achieve perfect results faster. And imho this is very important.

[southboundloco]

Its just an EQ alright but its a freaking good one...

[uQbar]

Finally spent some quality time with this plug this weekend. All I can say is very few plug in makers get me going "holy crap I love this" the way FabFilter does. I'm sold.

[YYR123]

After demoing this and the HOFA iQ-EQ the HOFA sounds better, I don't know if this is related to the dynamics on the HOFA of what.

But the channel strip vocal preset just sounds good (with some tweaks)

Pro q looks great and I love the way the graph resizes when you pull it past the lower settings - but HOFA sounds better !!!

My $0.02