On the other, Pro-C is still a VERY good compressor in its own right and I am equally happy working on it.
On one hand, it's a very worthy upgrade which features a nice sidechaining overhaul, the added features of oversampling, range control, mix control from 0-200% (great for automation purposes), resizing options, full screen, etc and expanded features like new compression styles. Now on to the inevitable "is this worth the upgrade?" issue. I pretty much always find myself adjusting the output gain manually. My one complaint thus far is that the auto-gain doesn't seem to keep the output gain under control too well. This, coupled with a VERY modest cpu load in the absence of oversampling makes it the quintessential workhorse compressor much in the same way that Pro-Q2 offers itself up for general EQing duties. If you insist on thinking in analog terms, yes, you can get 1176 type sounds with "Punch", LA-2A type sounds with "Opto". You'd be pretty hard pressed to find a style that simply doesn't work for what you're doing. The plugin features a litany of compression styles ranging from transparent "Mastering" which clearly aims to keep itself from being heard to "Pumping" which is the direct opposite. What you see is what you get: a full featured, great sounding compressor that's equally at home taking half a db off your mix or smashing a parallel chain into dust under 4x oversampling. In an industry where the term "analog" has been beaten to death, I appreciate this.
I'd take Arouser, PSP E27, Axis, Hammer, Pro L2, Pro Q2, slate tape/fg-grey (not VMR I hate it!), Lex reverbs (LXP/PCM), eventide mod/verb FX (Blackhole/H3000/Ultratap etc) over any full waves bundle who imo have never had the greatest sound or GUIS.One thing I always tell people about Fabfilter is that they're unapologetically digital. Good bundles would be stuff from Soundtoys, Eventide (not all but most of it is cool), and maybe softube… but seriously I much prefer to just pick and choose bespoke pieces from each maker to build my own unique blend of ITB spices, rather than rely on one maker to attempt to make the best of everything. So I'll pass on bundles, I don't want/need slate's bundle either. Less plugs in PT the better for me, faster loading, less crash risk etc. I personally have no interest in full bundles from either FF or waves, they both have stuff I'm not interested in (especially waves which is massively bloated with nigh on 30 years worth of stuff I'd never use nor want clogging up my slick system I run with MINIMAL plug ins!). and PRO Q2 if I need surgical (in natural phase mode not zero latency!). Those 3 eqs are my go tos for any itb work if not printing through my Portico II (Rupert neve) or Api hardware, and the arouser + some comps from smaller makers (fuse audio, audified etc) do most the work so stuff like waves, and moreso fabfilter is reserved for the detailed work or again 'utility' - gating, de-essing, metering. Other eqs and comps I use (and prefer to all of the above) are ELI Arouser (my goto comp - flexible and great sound/action), PSP E27 (awesome character EQ based on the Avedis unit), Kush/slyfi eqs like Axis (api) and hammer (another great character eq but smooth and subtle). I usually prefer slates FG-Grey to waves SSL bus comp (both work great with D-Command), for tape I prefer slate over waves a lot. I use all of those in every project along with a handful of waves 'utlity' things like VU meters, sometimes some of their weird plugs like brauer motion, rarely an eq, sometimes a CLA76 comp. I keep a few waves plugs, some great utility stuff (meters etc), I don't like most of the GUIS on the older stuff, and even the new stuff always has laggy guis, that said I mostly use D-command for mixing so it's only an issue when I'm mousing during setup or in-depth sub mixing of a source.įabfiilter = Great surgical eq (Pro Q2) way nicer to use than anything waves has in that realm, and does work with D-Command but a bit less slick, Pro G gate is the best gate for me, Pro DS = highly respected desser, and Pro L2 is one of the best limiters out there. I'm not blown away by their 'analog emulations' as other plug-ins from other companies but plenty of people have used them for years and made big records with them so. Waves are good as they (Eqs and comps) all pretty much work perfectly with my D-Command's dedicated section, they do good work there.