FabFilter User Forum
ProQ4 still messes with Protools
Hey there, I have reported issues with ProQ4 already a while ago.
That was sill on my old 2010 Mac Pro, so I figured maybe something to do with an older system. Now I am on a mini M4, everything runs smooth as butter with Protools HDX, all kinds of plugins including all fab filter plugins.
But the only troublemaker is ProQ4. It somehow messes with the audio engine in a very unpredictable way.
Examples (that only happen as soon as ProQ4 is involved)
-muted tracks somehow play through an FX return (super weird)
-a track at a certain position in the session won´t play audio unless I insert any plugin (also super weird)
-ProQ4 will randomly not react to external side chain signals anymore, although it did just fine when I set up for example spectral ducking
That is super annoying, because I don´t know what it may be messing up somewhere randomly in my session and I may not notice right away. I only dare to use it and immediately commit and get rid of the plugin ASAP.
I suppose it has something to do with the way different instances of ProQ4 can "talk" to each other? Something that spreads further than just the track it is sitting on?
The Plugin is awesome, but I just can´t use it and use ProQ3 instead, which is really a shame since the new version has the cool dynamic tools.
Farbfilter guys: what is going on there? :)
Hi Patrick,
That sounds like some weird issues we have not heard before.. Is this going on in all your session or just specific ones?
First of all, what OS version and PT version are you running? Can you send us a small session in which you have this issue, and send some steps to reproduce. You can send it to info@fabfilter.com.
The instance list actually only accesses the graphical engines of the other plug-ins. It does not directly sound related to me, but who knows..
Hi there,
I use OS 15 (Sequoia) and Protools 2024.10.2 (HDX)
Previously I used an older Mac Pro from 2010 with an older Protools and older OS.
So this is a fresh install, and funnily I get similar funky behavior.
The problem is, that these bugs occur randomly, and often it is resolved when I restart protools and re-open a session, and sometimes it only occurs when I open a session that ran fine when I put ProQ4 in...
I know, that isn´t really helpful when troubleshooting.
What is really strange, is that it sounds like I am the only one having that behavior? Although the two systems (old and new) I used have nothing in common...go figure.
I am 99.99% positive that it is from ProQ4, since everything else (including all your plugins) never cause any issues, my system is running super solid, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week every week.
Is there any other log or info somewhere in the system I could share instead of a session (since the issues are so random, and may not be there when you open that session)?
I would really love to see that resolved/identifies to be able to use that great plugin without doubting it all the time and in the end not using it anymore because I need reliability...
Thanks any way for your great work!
Hi Patrick,
Can you send us small video if one of these issues occur so we can have a look? It would also be helpful to get a copy of a session in which this issue occurs.
Did you try a newer version of Pro Tools? Even though a plug-in may seem the root of the issue, sometimes there's a communication bug between the host and the plug-in and it's not necessarily a bug in the plug-in itself. There have been a lot of changes in plug-in processing between Pro Tools 2024.10 and 2025.12.
I understand you don't want to break a running system. It is possible though to have two version of Pro Tools running on the same system. Just rename the current Pro Tools application before you install a new version and you will have access to both.