Need advice. Fabfilter vs Ableton's Audio Effects

[onebluesphere]

Hello
I need an advice from anybody with experience on Fabfilter's Mixing and Mastering Tools, Pro-Q, Pro-L, and Pro-C.
There is a 25% percent Summer Sale on Fabfilter products, and I have the money to expend on it.
Could somebody who has used them both, Fabfilter's effects, and Ableton's Compressor, The glue, Limiter, and EQ Eight, give some advice? Compare them?
I do not have much experience on mixing an mastering.
Is it worth the price?, which has Better sound? ease of use? fun to use? best results?
I do not know, maybe Ableton's effects are as good, or maybe I do not understand them (both) well now, but I have the money now and if it is worth it, and I can take advantage of the price for the future.
Thanks!

[login]

In my opinion those 3 (Compressor, eq, and limiter) if you are in live 9 you don't really need any update,

In 9 you have 2 compressor, one clean (with interface very similar to pro-c), and one vintage inspired The glue (that is very highly regarded a a superb emulation), the EQ is very clean and neutral, as Pro-q and now it also shows spectrum, and well a limiter is very simple so unless you seek a very specific character anyone will do.

On other hand I find Fabfilter creative effects at least more inspiring and and different that Live's native version:

. Volcano: more options, more models quite good sound
- Saturn - lots of options and creative uses for it, band splitting is also very usefull.
- Timeless, this is just a different taste that ableton delay but is also quite fun
- twin 2, more powerfull than analog (feature wise), also different character.

[swishniak]

my 2 euro cents:

- fab pro-q - much more flexible (quicker to navigate + different modes of dB depth).. L9s eq seems to be based on it and is getting quite close to it. but the 30 db mode makes me go for the fab filter version more often than not.

- saturn - the best sounding digital version of analog distortion that ive heard.

yeah - buy em.

[onebluesphere]

Thank you all for your advice,
I downloaded trials and I am checking.
Sale ends August 1.
As far as now, I think Pro-Q feels better. Maybe Pro-L is not so much better. Still don't know about Pro-C.
Saturn is really good.
Timeless 2 I own and do recommend.

[GUY SMILEY]

If you want my opinion, I would do a bit more mixing and mastering using Ableton's built in tools, and then at least you'll know what you think you're looking for (from other plugins) in the long run. You mention you're not that used to mixing yet, and so now would be the wrong time to start spending out on new pieces of equipment. What you're essentially saying is that you haven't mastered the tools you have, but you want new ones anyway.

EQ8 is fantastically versatile and has a lot more to it than may first meet the eye (like adaptive Q, and mid-side processing)
It's GUI is also absolutely excellent.

The Glue compressor is a market leader in software compressors, and is very highly considered. Not to say that there aren't many other equally good compressors out there which sound different and work differently, but the Glue, Ableton Limiter and the EQ8 are all that you need until to begin with. Save your money if you can, you'll appreciate the Fab Filter stuff a lot more once you know how and why it differs from Ableton's built-in plugins, you may decide in the long run you'd rather have more flavours of compressors (like NI's Softube emulations for example) instead of another digital eq ?

Just my opinion though. Feel free to ignore it.

[UnCL0NED]

^^ Yeah, what Guy Smiley says...

[guardner]

Fabfilter rocks all over the place!

Pro-L is the best software limiter I ever used (and compared to hardware limiter, it has much more possibilities!!!).

[pencilrocket]

Use your ear?

[rozling]

Don't be a dick. OP is looking for opinions of people with more experienced ears and more experience with the software.

Personally I haven't tried the FF mastering plugins but Timeless/Volcano/Twin are some of my favourite plugins in terms of sound/ease of use (and I very much prefer working with their GUIs than the ableton equivalents), so I would give a general thumbs-up for their stuff. YMMV!

[pencilrocket]

I'm serious. Firstly, listeners aren't with expreienced ears. Secondly, it's a matter of taste whether user feel easy to use. Thirdly, all commercial software produces okay sound. Conclusion, trust your ears and your personal taste. You can try their softwares without any dongle.

[rozling]

I don't really understand your first point - the rest of what you've said is fair enough, but the OP asked for opinions from other people on their ears/personal taste.

A more constructive answer would have been: "Trust your own judgement." or "value your own opinion more than others", which is fine but let's be realistic: if you're booking a restaurant it's better to read the reviews first...

[philipc]

I have the Fabfilter bundle and I love all the plugins. You won't be disappointed if you do choose to invest in them. The sound quality is excellent, they're very sophisticated feature-wise and easy to use as well. That said, Live's effects are very capable, particularly once you factor racks into the equation. It all depends on your needs.

I see the Fabfilter plugins as a complement to Live. I use Live's effects if CPU usage is an issue or for live work when I need the lowest possible latency (3rd party plugins all add more latency than native devices). I use Fabfilter for mixing or if I need a creative effect that isn't easy or possible to reproduce natively. Tape delay sounds with Timeless, for instance - it's possible to create similar sounds with Filter Delay and Saturator but Timeless is far easier and ultimately better sounding. Also, Volcano has a number of different filter types that give you a much wider range of tones than Autofilter is capable of. Saturn is a vast improvement on Saturator. On the mixing side there's no comparison in terms of depth and complexity, Fabfilter is leagues ahead (particularly with the limiter, less so with the compressor and EQ). It all depends if you need that extra depth and complexity. Live is more than good enough for most tasks.

I've got the Fabfilter bundle, a couple of U-he synths and the ValhallaDSP reverbs. I've not seen a plugin I've wanted in a year or more. These lot together cover pretty much everything I could want to do.

[login]

I've got the Fabfilter bundle, a couple of U-he synths and the ValhallaDSP reverbs. I've not seen a plugin I've wanted in a year or more. These lot together cover pretty much everything I could want to do.

I would go with Valhalla Ubermod (multitape delay) and Valhallaroom (reverb) first to compliment live effects, they are cheap and they bring a a whole new flavour to the table. And then Saturn which is quite unique in the plug in world.

[onebluesphere]

I've got the Fabfilter bundle, a couple of U-he synths and the ValhallaDSP reverbs. I've not seen a plugin I've wanted in a year or more. These lot together cover pretty much everything I could want to do.

I would go with Valhalla Ubermod (multitape delay) and Valhallaroom (reverb) first to compliment live effects, they are cheap and they bring a a whole new flavour to the table. And then Saturn which is quite unique in the plug in world.

I have got 2caudio (aether, B2, Breeze).
Don't know about Valhalla, is it better?
I'm still trying fabfilter trials, still got 'till august 1st.
All your tips have been really helpful.
As of now, I see Ableton's EQ, compressors and limiter with more or less the same quality as fabfilters products (sound) .
It will be about ease of use, future possibilities, CPU usage, or even the possibility of a softube emulation like Guy smiley mentioned, for a different flavour.

[login]

I've got the Fabfilter bundle, a couple of U-he synths and the ValhallaDSP reverbs. I've not seen a plugin I've wanted in a year or more. These lot together cover pretty much everything I could want to do.

I would go with Valhalla Ubermod (multitape delay) and Valhallaroom (reverb) first to compliment live effects, they are cheap and they bring a a whole new flavour to the table. And then Saturn which is quite unique in the plug in world.

I have got 2caudio (aether, B2, Breeze).
Don't know about Valhalla, is it better?
I'm still trying fabfilter trials, still got 'till august 1st.
All your tips have been really helpful.
As of now, I see Ableton's EQ, compressors and limiter with more or less the same quality as fabfilters products (sound) .
It will be about ease of use, future possibilities, CPU usage, or even the possibility of a softube emulation like Guy smiley mentioned, for a different flavour.

Check valhalla reverbs http://www.valhalladsp.com/ Room and ubermod are excellent. but you already have reverbs.

If you are finding Live's native effects decent then I will focus on something Live doesn't have or Unique: Fabfilter Saturn, that one is really special IMO.