FabFilter

Hi Tom,

A dynamic eq is definitely on our wishlist... However, when we'll be working on this or whether it will be implemented in Pro-Q 2 or not is all still unclear.

Thank you for your feedback!

Dear Everyone at FabFilter,
I myself have been asking for a Fab Dynamic EQ some time ago.
In the meantime, I have made further experiments and experiences and would like to contribute to the debate in a more detailed way.
In my opinion, there are two generally different music production situations that require or at least benefit from dynamic EQs:
1) Occasional appearance of exaggerated frequency RANGES, such as boominess of acoustic guitars, vocal sibilance or edginess, cymbal harshness etc.
2) Occasional appearance of exaggerated FREQUENCIES due to resonance, such as sharp vocal peaks on certain vowels.

Dynamic EQs on the market do handle case 1) more or less satisfactorily (Waves F6, TDR Nova, iZotope Ozone/Neutron etc.).
FabFilter MB does a likewise satisfactorily job for these cases, too, making the available dynamic EQs dispensable.
Case 2) on the other hand is not handled by any tool I know. Choosing settings that handle the critical passages half way results in constant operation of the EQ and changes the overall sound of the track. Choosing more gentle settings does not handle the problem at all.

So I programmed a plugin converting level to Midi controller values.
I copied the track in question to a new track and isolated the critical frequencies there by amplifying them drastically with slim Fab Q-2 Bell EQs and adding 96 dB high and low cut EQ above and below. Then I appended a noise gate (Fab G) to the effects chain.
This left me with occasionally occurring "whistle" notes with a lot of silence in between.
I now used this track as the input for my conversion plugin.
On the original vocal track, I inserted Fab Q-2 with steep bell EQs on the same critical frequencies with gain reductions of around 20 dB.
Finally, I enabled Midi learn on the 0 - 200% Gain Scale slider thus connecting it to my plugin's controller output.
This setup did the job perfectly. Surgical repair of the annoying milliseconds while leaving all the rest untouched.

Conclusion: This is what a Fab Dynamic EQ should do internally. It would make it the only TRULY Dynamic EQ on the market.
Cheers
Lutz

Hi Lutz,

Thanks a lot! We'll definitely keep these ideas and use cases in mind while working on dynamic EQ'ing....

Hi Lutz,

If I'm getting what your saying correctly, it sound like the 0-200% slider became a sort of "fader" to that specific frequency.
Sort of like a 'fader rider',but only for a very specific frequency.
Whenever this frequency starts to exaggerate the slider 'rides' up and down.

What I'm not really getting is - how is it different than using a 'regular' Dynamic EQ with a very hard ratio (limiting), using a very hard knee and setting the threshold to an accurate position?

Cheers !