FabFilter User Forum
Fabfilter Pro-MB Timings
Hey everyone. So I noticed on Fabfilter Pro-C they give MS timings for the compressor, but they only give a 0-100% range on the Pro-MB. I was perusing through the manual trying to see if I could get a rough idea as to what that translated to in ms timings, as I've been trying to get familiar with these short intervals lately like 30ms, 60ms, etc. All I could find in the manual was this:
---The Attack knob sets the speed with which gain reduction sets in. Fast attack times are needed when you want to react on transients as fast as possible, for example to achieve limiting (Compress mode) or gating (Expand mode). The Attack knob shows a percentage value from 0% to 100%, because actual attack times are very program dependent, and even depend on the placement of the band in the frequency spectrum.
---The Release knob sets the speed at which the compressor/expander recovers from gain reduction. Higher release values will result in more subtle leveling. Like Attack, the Release knob shows a percentage value from 0% to 100%, because actual release times are very program dependent, and even depend on the placement of the band in the frequency spectrum.
Anybody have any insight on this? What exactly do they mean when they say that this is programming dependent? Will low freq compression result in longer release times or shorter? Obviously I know to be using my ears, and not relying solely on the numbers, but i'd be a bigger fan of MB if it had those ms timings.
Hi Scott,
There are two main reasons for using percentages over ms in Pro-MB.
The first reason is indeed the program dependency of the dynamics algorithms. For example: if you process a short transient, the compressor will recover very fast from it, but if it's triggered strongly for a long time, the release might take twice as much time!
Additionally, the actually applied attack/release times also strongly depend on the frequency range you are processing; low frequency bands are treated different from high frequency bands to avoid distortion and achieve maximum transparency.
For these two reasons, you simply can't specifically state that a release will take a certain time in ms.
Cheers,
Hallo Floris,
is there any chance to have the option of change from percentages to ms? So that we can choose how we would like to see the attack/release amount.
Thank you and best regards.
Doesn't using ms miss the purpose?
Pro-MB sounds so great because of these well-built algorythms of program dependancy, and you basically want to bypass them.
If you ever found it not quick enough, even when the knobs are at their quickest state, thats a problem.
Otherwise you shold be able to find the right spot
Cheers
But I still don't understand why percentage? A percentage is a ratio of one thing to another.. What is this ratio that this value indicates?
Barend
It is a ratio of the attack time of the incoming sound being compressed.
So if you have a sound source with a quick sound played with quick attack and release it will compress with an attack and release that is a percentage of the time of that sound source. And conversely if the sound source is slower to hit the peak level Pro MB will be that much slower on the attack and release.
If I understand this correctly, the attack and release as percentages means Pro MB is going to try to compress by following the incoming signal levels transient speeds.
That is how I interpret it.
Dave,
Thanks for that explanation. It makes perfect sense. I can understand now why this is the better approach.
Fabfilter should add your explanation to their manual...