FabFilter

Hi FabFilter,

Has the development team thought about DC offset filter like the Voxengo Elephant 3 has? I got chance to use both the Pro L and Elephant, I like the Elephant only slightly better because of DC offset filter, Crest Factor and RMS reading. I think they both sound awesome and similar. Point of difference is I like Pro L for your creative GUI, but the Elephant is also cheaper has more features. Pro L having a DC Filter would be the icing of cake for me.

DC Filter ( Elephant 3 Manual )

This group of controls allows you to enable and fine-tune the DC filter. DC filter is applied before all other processing stages, and is usually used for removing unwanted signal’s DC (constant) offset which reduces headroom of a sound track and may affect playback quality of this track due to non-symmetry induced by DC offsetting. The “Freq” parameter specifies the corner frequency of the DC (high-pass) filter. The type selector specifies DC filter type. The “Steep” filter types offer a steeper cutoff frequency response, but a higher phase shift. The “Soft” filter types have a smoother cutoff frequency response and a lower overall phase shift. The number before the filter type denotes dB/octave roll-off of the filter (e.g. “-18 Soft” means “-18 dB/octave soft filter”).

Note, however, that DC removal filter induces phase shift and thus may affect sonic character of a sound material. Another possible disadvantage of such phase shift is that it changes envelope of the signal, having potential of introducing higher peak levels. For best results you may specify DC filter frequency as low as possible and use non-steep filter type.

My question is are going to implement or have any future plans for a DC offset filter like Elephant 3 has? If so when?

If you wish to do so, I think you will have many more Pro L sold including my purchase! I do love your FabFilter Pro L plugin. I just wish it had the additional features the Elephant 3 has for price point. Cheers, I look forward to your response.

Regards,
Sue

I used cutoff 20Hz and 36db "soft" filter to recent mastering track. It did help with getting the bass to sit better within the mix and increase od additional headroom as well. I would love the Pro L to have this nifty feature.

Regards,
Sue

Hi Sue,

We'll consider adding an optional DC offset filter to Pro-L. However, as the Elephant manual explains, filtering introduces audible phase differences, and using a linear phase filter is no option because that would introduce a very audible pre-ring effect.

Have you considered using Pro-Q to apply a completely customizable DC offset filter if you need it?

Regarding RMS reading, Pro-L provides this both in the meters and in the real-time display (it's the thin white line):
www.fabfilter.com/help/pro-l/using/metering.html

Cheers,