Introduction
Fabfilter have introduced Pro-R 2, an incredible sounding reverb with intuitive musical controls and Fabfilter’s unique interface design. It has 3 algorithms – Modern, Vintage and Plate and a range of room models from small ambiences to huge cathedrals. It is available direct from the Fabfilter website in VST, VST3, Audio Units, CLAP, AAX Native and AudioSuite formats typically priced at £144. A 30 day evaluation version is available. In addition, an auv3 version for ipad is available from the app store.
Overview
If you’ve used other fabfilter plugins, the GUI will look familiar to you. Fabfilter create GUIs that are easy to use whilst containing a range of controls and they also present you with a range of visual information.
The interface has the main controls at the top, decay rate eq towards the middle, post eq towards the bottom and a spectrum analyser is displayed here too. There are further controls at the bottom including midi learn, analyzer settings, output options and screen resize settings.
In Use
The main controls of Pro-R 2 offer a range of intuitive controls. You have predelay which is the delay between the original sound and the start of the reverb. This is useful for giving a sense of space or more natural sounding reverb when a longer predelay is used instead of a longer decay time. This can be a time setting or you can sync to host tempo.
Character setting allows you to go from a transparent reverb to introducing subtle modulation to a more pronounced chorus / phaser effect.
Thickness setting applies a combination of density and saturation.
Distance gives you the effect of moving closer to or further away from the sound source.
Brightness adjusts the clarity and also the high/low frequency balance. This helps get a more natural sound because high frequencies are often absorbed in rooms depending upon the wall surface and furnishings for example.
Stereo width adjusts the apparent width but also controls internal stereo linking and channel cross-linking.
Ducking gives you a quick and easy way to get better separation between the wet and dry signals.
Auto gate is a cool feature that triggers on the input signal with automatic threshold, attack and release settings tuned for drums but you can get interesting sounds with other sound sources.
Freeze is a cool feature to have available, it effectively freezes current reverb settings although some controls such as character and brightness can still be adjusted.
There’s also a mix knob which controls the dry/wet balance and mix lock which locks the mix setting whilst changing presets to allow you to more easily compare different settings.
The quickest and easiest way to get a feel of the type of sounds that Pro-R 2 can produce is to look at and try the presets. There are huge number split into categories for ambience, small, medium, large and very large spaces as well as gated and tempo synced.
The following are examples of the sort of sounds that Pro-R 2 can produce although they are a very small sample from the huge possibilities that Pro-R 2 offers. I’ve used a full drum loop, synth loop and vocal loop for these examples. Each sound starts with the raw loop and then the same loop repeated with 4 different types of reverb applied. I’ve used one other effect, Fabfilter Pro-L 2, but only to ensure consistent levels.
This next example uses individual drum stem loops, initially there are no effects and then I’ve applied ambience to each of the individual stems. Maybe a bit over exaggerated using this on each stem but it shows how Pro-R 2 can easily change the sound character.
Decay Rate EQ
Whilst algorithmic reverbs tend to have a low/high crossover function for independent control of low and high frequency decay rate, Pro-R 2 offers control of the frequency spectrum with up to 6 bell, low/high shelf or notch curves allowing you to design reverbs of any style and character. This means you can easily create a multiband effect, have short decay times at some frequencies and long delay times for others. This is shown by the blue line.
Post EQ
This offers up to six EQ bands with automatic gain adjustment to freely shape the final reverb sound. This is shown by the yellow line.
Surround and Dolby Atmos
Pro-R 2 supports a number of surround/immersive formats up to 9.1.6. Dolby Atmos. When you add Pro-R 2 to a surround channel it will automatically adapt, for example the output level meter will show all channels with appropriate labels.
When used in surround mode, decay rate and post EQ have a speaker button to control which speaker set and channels will be affected by a curve. You will also see a surround settings button at the bottom and a tilt controller with a slider for every main control at the top of the interface.
IR import
Although Pro-R 2 is an algorithmic reverb, it has a very interesting feature that allows you to load an Impulse Response from an actual, real space. Pro-R 2 will then convert the IR to settings that match the characteristics of the particular space. Fabfilter acknowledge that results will never be perfect, more ‘ballpark’ but this offers an alternative customisable substitute for an IR reverb.
Spectrum Analyzer
This is a real time frequency analyser that helps show the reverb behaviour and the effect of the decay rate EQ and post EQ. The post processing spectrum is shown by default but you can also show pre + post or turn it off. If you’ve used Fabfilter Pro-Q this will look familiar, the thin white line shows the real-time output and behind this soft yellow curves fall off and fade in relation to the reverb time. You also have an optional piano display which visualises the range of frequencies over a regular 88 key piano keyboard.
Screen resize
There are lots of options for screen size, you can go full screen with one click and there are 3 resize settings of medium, large and extra large. Scaling options give you additional settings relative to the system default.
Midi learn
You can control Pro-R 2 parameters directly using midi, the midi learn feature allows you to associate any controller with any parameter.
Conclusions
Fabfilter Pro-R 2 is a stunning sounding reverb effect. It is very easy to use and can create a whole range of reverbs from small ambiences to huge cathedrals. The decay rate EQ and Post EQ allow you to easily further shape and define your reverb sound exactly how you want it.
