I hit a new record in spending on an iPad app this week, and it was due to actually sitting down and using the iPad as an effect send with the 4x4 USB audio interface on my mixer that I’d never used, together with one of my main modular cases.
I discovered that while I had some phenomenal iOS reverbs (FAC Alteza, Eventide Blackhole, Phonolyth Cascade), they tended to really take over, in many cases obscuring or at least altering the character of the dry signal. Sound design has been paramount in my choice of modules and I want that character to come through. I tried turning down the knobs and mix, but the FX either still betrayed their artificiality or felt too pedestrian when stripped back to the basics.
I went on a trip through demos, and discovered one that was masterful. As an educator, I learned things from this presentation. It was an official tutorial from Fabfilter, for their Pro-R 2 release earlier this year. Not only was the demo great, but the software sounded great as well. It might seem odd to buy a plugin whose strength is in realism (and spend a lot on it) when one is putting completely artificial sounds from a modular or other synth through it, but what it does is provide that additional stereo richness and enhancement without taking over (at its most extreme, it provides a chorus effect that starts to get into shimmer territory, albeit highly tunable).
The knob controls are sensible and easy to tweak, there are a lot of presets, and there is a sophisticated curve-based EQ (with real-time spectrum analyzer) plus something similar for frequency-based delay enhancements, so lots to adjust if warranted. The new release offers “Vintage” and “Plate” models in addition to the previous “Modern”, and can translate IR files into settings (a rabbit hole I want to avoid at least for now).
Fabfilter have a summer sale on through this weekend, 25% off. With that, Pro-R 2 cost me $30 US, about 1/15 of the price of some of the hardware pedals I occasionally covet. If you do nothing else, take a look at that official tutorial. It is worth fifteen minutes of your time.
I have an iPad Pro M1 from 2021. While processing the external signal from my modular in AUM, CPU was 5% on the default setting. Poking around in the presets, I could get it to 7% for the more lush ones, but no higher. There seem to be some presets with “Synth” in the name, and others tagged as such (improved preset browsing is apparently also a release-2 feature).
I did look at it, though I did not try it (how does one do that without buying?). I watched some demos and comparisons. Toneboosters seems to be the budget competitor to Fabfilter, and if I were in the market for a full suite, I would definitely consider them. But I don’t want any of the other Fabfilter plugins, which are designed for things I don’t do (like actually finish tracks or polish music for external consumption). I figured I could spring for the premium product just this once. Besides, that video is more satisfying than many movies I’ve paid money for. That is worth something.
The thing with FabFilter is that they’re seen as “the standard” by many - and that can be worth a lot.
Can’t blame your tools if you know the pros use the same.
Price aside, the only main downsides I’ve seen to the FabFilter plugins is that they are iPad-only, and I find that the UI can be a bit small at times (small fonts).
When I was looking at EQs, the consensus seemed to be that the ToneBoosters and FabFilter apps were very similar, but FabFilter had a few more options (steeper filters, and the option to use more) and was a little bit more efficient at small buffer sizes.
But the ToneBoosters apps will run on a phone - which might be important to some.
A phone is more convenient, and I have an old one, for example, just sitting plugged in on my bedside table for late night / early morning purposes, that could easily be pressed into modest app duty. I don’t know if TB Reverb is workable on an iPhone 8 / SE but I have used Eventide Blackhole. The default setting is kind of massive, but interestingly enough, the preset called “Blackhole” is much more modest, with a mix setting of 18%. Not bad if one needs a quick sweetener.
@shovelhead highlighted digistix 2 being on sale but yeah it is great, and has had plenty of upgrades, it’s just not as ‘eye candified’ as some.
I’ve got almost all of Paul’s apps, they are very deep and extremely well thought out!
Enjoy
Blackhole and Crushstation have their particular use-cases. The former more as an insert effect for my atmo layers. All their delay and pitch shifting stuff is on my pile of shame.
