Pro-Q

New features in FabFilter Pro-Q 2

We have improved Pro-Q 2's EQ Match feature so you can save the input spectrum as a reference spectrum. When opening EQ Match, you now have various choices to use as the reference: a previously saved reference spectrum, the main plug-in input or the side chain input. This makes it much easier to set up and use EQ Match.

Another cool new feature is the Permanent Spectrum Grab mode: click and hold in the spectrum area until the spectrum freezes and turns blue. You can now grab multiple peaks in the frozen spectrum, unlike the regular Spectrum Grab mode which only allows you to grab and adjust a single peak. Just click once on the background to exit Permanent Spectrum Grab mode.

Last but not least, the frequency scale at the bottom of the interface now displays the frequency under the mouse cursor if you hover over the display or move the mouse slowly. If the piano display is enabled, the key under the mouse cursor is highlighted and its note number is shown. You can turn this on or off by clicking Show Frequency On Hover in the Help menu.

Bug-fixes and improvements for all FabFilter Pro plug-ins

Pro-Q 2, Pro-R: Added a workaround for a bug in Ableton Live on Mac that could cause the Q parameter for a band to be reset to its minimum value when dragging it around in the AU plug-in version of Pro-Q 2.
Pro-C 2, Pro-DS, Pro-G, Pro-MB, Pro-Q 2: Added a workaround for a bug in Ableton Live that caused latency compensation to work incorrectly when loading a session that sets the parameters such that the plug-in doesn't have latency, in combination with a default preset that does introduce latency. This only occurred with the VST plugin format and caused Live to use the latency from the default preset.
Pro-C 2, Pro-DS, Pro-G, Pro-L: Fixed a bug that caused the plug-in interface to use more memory than needed if the display was not enabled.
Pro-C 2: Updated the AAX plug-in to enable the dynamics display on the Avid S6 console.
Improved Avid S6 page tables mappings in the AAX plug-ins, now more closely following Avid's conventions for a better workflow.

Fixed a bug that caused knobs and sliders to respond incorrectly to subtle mouse movements while dragging on OS X and on High DPI displays on Windows
Pro-MB: Renamed the existing interface size options to Medium and Extra Large, and added a new intermediate Large option that will fit comfortably on 1920x1080 monitors on OS X
Pro-MB: Fixed a bug when deleting a muted band in Dynamic Phase mode: the mute effect would remain audible after deleting the band
Pro-MB: Fixed display behavior when zoomed in horizontally: display curves and dragging would not work correctly for bands docked at the left or right edges of the frequency scale
Pro-MB: Fixed sidechain filtering control behavior when zoomed in horizontally in the display
Pro-MB: Fixed possibly incorrect gain change reporting for bands that use compression in combination with a Stereo Link setting below 100%
Pro-Q 2: Fixed a bug in the VST 2 plugin (introduced in Pro-Q 2.02) that caused the Auto Gain setting to always be set to Off when loading sessions saved with Pro-Q 2.01
Various small visual fixes and improvements

Added Retina support on OS X and High DPI support on Windows.
Introducing Solo Gain. While soloing a band, you can now adjust the listening gain by moving the mouse up and down.
Fixed a bug that caused the Gain Scale slider (in the output section) not to work in Linear Phase mode, and improved its behavior in Natural Phase mode.

Improved the piano display: you can now drag multiple selected curves in parallel, and double-clicking the piano display creates a new curve at this position.

Improved solo mode for Bell and Notch filters to better isolate the frequency area of interest. When soloing Low/High-Cut filters, the Q value now always stays the same, making it easier to just fine-tune the frequency.

Added support for displaying the current EQ curve in Avid's S6 control surface.

Fixed a bug in the Auto Gain feature: it would not correctly compensate bands that are in per-channel mode (L/R or M/S). For example, splitting a stereo band would double the auto gain effect. This now works as intended while preserving compatibility with existing saved sessions. If you have a saved session that uses Auto Gain, simply disable and re-enable Auto Gain to get the new behavior.

Fixed a bug in the VST3 plugin that could cause the sound to stay the same (not using the new parameter values) after using Undo or loading a preset.

Fixed a bug in the VST3 plugin that caused the saved parameter state to be ignored when opening a saved Audio Montage in WaveLab 8 (this fix is not needed for WaveLab 8.5.10).

Fixed a bug in the VST3 plugin that caused the latency to be reported as zero when opening a saved Audio Montage in WaveLab 8 and 8.5.

Fixed a bug in Natural Phase mode that could cause an incorrect frequency response with some rare combinations of frequency and slope settings with Low Cut and Notch filters.

Fixed a bug when double-clicking a control to enter a new value: clicking outside the input box now accepts the new value while previously it would discard it.

Fixed a bug in the AU plugin: pressing Cmd+Q to quit the host while Pro-Q 2 was in full screen mode would cause it to crash.

Fixed a bug when zooming out in the display when Analyzer Freeze is enabled: this would create a large blob on the left side of the display in the analyzer.

Fixed a bug with Full Screen mode in the 32-bit VST2 plugin in Cubase on Mac OS X when 'Always on top' was enabled: the plugin window would float on top of the full screen window. In addition, keystrokes are now correctly passed to Cubase in this case (e.g. playback start/stop).

Small other bug fixes and improvements.

Natural Phase mode to perfectly match the magnitude response of analog EQ'ing while also closely matching the analog phase response, without noticeable pre-ring or a long latency
Full Screen mode for super-precise adjustments
Spectrum Grab: just grab and adjust a peak in the real-time spectrum analyzer right away!
Universal slope support for all filter shapes, for example enabling you to make ultra-narrow bell filters or very steep shelves. Slopes up to 96 dB/oct are now supported, including 18, 30, 36 and 72 dB/oct
Highly improved Linear Phase mode, offering a better magnitude response and smooth changes without zipper effects
New EQ filter types: Tilt Shelf and Band-Pass, in addition to the existing Bell, High/Low Cut, High/Low Shelf and Notch filter shapes
Gain-Q interaction option: when enabled, Q and gain influence each other in a pleasant way often found in analog mixing consoles
EQ Match feature to automatically match the spectrum of another track via the side-chain input
Auto Gain automatically adjusts the output gain to compensate for the audible gain loss or increase introduced by the active EQ bands
Improved spectrum analyzer with adjustable range, tilt, freeze, and horizontal zooming
Optional piano roll display
Flexible interface resizing
Full output level meter
Phase Invert option
Highly improved CPU optimization: Pro-Q 2 uses less memory and is more than twice as efficient as its predecessor!
Improved analog magnitude matching in Zero Latency mode

Fixed a bug that could cause typed parameter values to be rounded incorrectly, e.g. when double-clicking to enter a frequency value in FabFilter Pro-Q.
Fixed a bug in all AAX plug-ins: after deactivating a bypassed plug-in in Pro Tools, the state of the bypass parameter would not be restored correctly on reactivation.
Fixed a bug in the AAX version of FabFilter Twin 2 that caused the external side chain input not to work in Pro Tools.

All plug-ins are now available as 64-bit AAX plug-ins for Pro Tools 11. The 32-bit AAX plug-ins have also been updated to the latest AAX v2 format and requires Pro Tools 10.3.5 or later. RTAS plug-ins for earlier versions of Pro Tools are of course also included.
Changing parameters via the mouse wheel will now correctly record automation and generate proper undo states. In addition, you can now also control switches with the mouse wheel.
In the presets menu, changed the Options > View Program/Bank Numbers command to Enable MIDI Program Changes, which now actually enables/disables MIDI program changes as well as showing the program/band number for presets. This ensures that the plug-in only responds to MIDI program changes when this is desired.
Fixed a bug in FabFilter Pro-Q that could cause mouse wheel changes for multiple selected bands to affect one band only.
Fixed a bug in the VST3 plug-ins with a side chain that caused side-chain audition not to work if the main input was silent.
In FabFilter Twin 2, changed displayed delay sync parameter values in the interface to correctly describe the sync duration.
Fixed a crash in FabFilter Timeless 2 that could occur when clicking the Dry Enabled button or Dry Knob after having resized the interface.
Fixed a crash in FabFilter Twin 2 that could occur when dragging a modulation source over the Main EG component button.
In FabFilter Saturn, fixed a bug in the display that could cause the level sliders to be at the wrong position after opening a saved project in Wavelab 7.
Fixed a bug that could prevent sample-accurate processing of recorded MIDI control change messages.
Fixed a bug on OS X that could cause help hints to pop up even if the mouse cursor was outside the plug-in interface.
Fixed a bug on Windows that could cause a system sound to be played when pressing Enter after typing a parameter value directly.
Various small bug fixes and improvements.

Fixed incorrect MIDI message handling in the AAX plug-ins on Mac OS X: this could cause unexpected parameter changes when starting/stopping playback in Pro Tools.
In FabFilter Pro-Q, fixed a bug that caused the Auto-Adjust Display Range feature not to work when dragging curves with the High Cut or Low Cut filter type.
Added a workaround in the Mac OS X VST plug-ins to ensure resizing works correctly in Ableton Live 8.
Added a workaround in the VST 2 plug-ins to ensure preset changes and parameter changes are correctly saved in Maschine by Native Instruments.
Fixed possible crash when removing the VST 2 or VST 3 plug-ins on Mac OS X while the interface is open, for example in Studio One.
Fixed white flash and some other graphical glitches when resizing the plug-in interfaces on Mac OS X (all plug-in formats).
Fixed bug that could cause the interfaces not to appear at all in some hosts on Mac OS X, for example Triumph.
Minor improvements and bug fixes on both Windows and Mac OS X.

Highlights in this update:

All plug-ins now contain the GPU-powered graphics acceleration introduced in FabFilter Pro-DS, ensuring ultra-smooth animation while leaving the main CPU free to do audio processing.
FabFilter Twin 2, Timeless 2 and Volcano 2 have a new Modulation button to easily show and hide the modulation section. By default, the modulation section is hidden to make the plug-in less intimidating at first, but you can easily look 'under the hood' when you want to tweak a preset or design your own.
FabFilter Twin 2 displays a new keyboard section in the interface when the modulation section is hidden. The component display at the top of the interface contains a new Main EG component button, letting you easily tweak EG parameters when browsing presets.
When multiple bands are selected in FabFilter Pro-Q, the Frequency, Gain and Q knobs will now let you change parameters of the selected bands while preserving their relative differences. Double-clicking a knob still lets you set all bands to the same value.
Updated all VST 3 plug-ins to support new features in VST 3.5, such as a host-provided right-click menu for each parameter in the interface. Steinberg's CMC-AI controller is now also supported.
Added mouse wheel support to buttons with pop-up menus, such as the distortion style button in FabFilter Saturn.
Added Options > Open Other Preset option to the presets menu, making it easy to open a preset that's not in the regular presets folder.
FabFilter Twin 2 and Timeless 2 now remember which section in the component display is expanded in Wide mode.
Fixed compatibility issues with Adobe Premiere on Windows and OS X.
Fixed a bug in the mono AudioSuite plug-ins that caused the Whole File option at the bottom to be disabled.
The Mac OS X version now requires OS X 10.5 and an Intel processor. We still offer previous versions for download if you need OS X 10.4 or PowerPC support: www.fabfilter.com/support/downloads.

Other changes and bug fixes:

In FabFilter Pro-Q, the Output level parameter that is displayed in the bottom bar now includes an additional decimal of precision.
Fixed a bug in FabFilter Pro-Q that caused the "Pre" frequency analyzer to use slightly incorrect input values in Mid/side mode (so it would not totally overlap the Post curve).
Fixed possible crashes or an empty interface in FabFilter Pro-DS with some graphics cards on both Windows and OS X.
Fixed compatibility issues with WaveLab 6 in FabFilter Pro-DS and Saturn.
Fixed a bug in the mono AU and mono VST 3 plug-ins that could cause it to work with an internal sample rate of 44.1 kHz even if the session sample rate was different.
Fixed a bug in the resizable VST 2 plug-ins that could cause the interface to open with an incorrect size upon loading a saved session in e.g. Ableton Live.
Fixed incorrect interpretation of parameter values that are typed in the host (e.g. for automation points) in the VST 2 and VST 3 plug-ins.
Fixed a bug on Windows that caused factory preset installation to fail if your user name contains special characters.

Bug fixes