FabFilter Pro-Q 3 makes all audio on my PC silent if I use it in Equalizer APO. It works fine elsewhere, like if I load it in a DAW.
It worked fine in EAPO for about a month too, but then it stopped.

I thought it was a bad crack, so I removed Pro-Q and all FF registry entries. Installed R2R complete bundle. No luck, still the same.

Now I don't know if there are still leftovers somewhere from the bad crack or EAPO has a problem with Pro-Q.

 

Does anyone use Pro-Q (latest 2022 version) in EAPO without issues?

 

I tried 2023.02.06. Works fine here.

 

Thanks. Do you mean you just installed it now for the first time and it works?
It worked fine for me too for the first 30 days.

 

Yes, that's what I meant. It could be that it timebombs. I think there was a duscussion about this somewhere.
You could try the latest version (the one I mentioned). If you already use this one, I don't know.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

I've performed some more extensive testing. Now I'm convinced that these R2R releases are timebombed in EAPO. This goes for both "Fabfilter.Total.Bundle.v2022.02.15" R2R and "Fabfilter.Total.Bundle.v2023.02.06" R2R.

The reason most people aren't aware of it is because this timebomb doesn't affect the typical usage in a DAW, but it does affect EAPO usage. Even in EAPO, if you change a setting after the timebomb (like, tweak a frequency in Pro-Q) it starts working again, but it if use as you typically would (without touching it after the initial setup) you get silence.

Here's how you can test and confirm this timebomb:
(0. have a clean system with no previous FabFilter cracks)
1. install the R2R bundle and authorize Pro-Q (or another plugin) with the serial
2. set it up in EAPO and play some sounds through EAPO and the plugin with a media player
3. set the date in Windows to 2 months from now
4. restart
5. play some sounds again
The result is that the sound will now be muted, unless you interact with the UI in EAPO.

[edited the steps with some more details]

There are some mentions of this problem in the EAPO sourceforge forum, but I thought that was for older releases and that R2R have fixed this for 2022 and newer. I guess not.



And I'm still looking for a way to clean out all FabFilter related stuff from my system. I thought I had it figured out in another thread, but I was wrong. Deleting that registry key resets the trial, but it doesn't remove this time bomb, so there is still FF data hidden somewhere.

 

Last edited: Apr 7, 2023

I think it is a problem with EQ APO, not a time bomb. I tried to use FabFilter plugins in EQ APO many years ago on Windows 7 and had the same behavior, silence until some parameters were changed. So I ended up using different plugins and never tried FF in EQ APO since. There are reports of some R2R releases time bombing, but i never used one of them and the ones I used worked perfectly in Reaper, Studio One, Audition and Ableton Live.

 

Maybe... But if it's not a time bomb, why would it work fine for 30 days (which is also the length of the FF trial) and then stop working? Like, why would EAPO mute a plugin, just because it was installed 30+ days ago. That doesn't make sense to me.

And I also don't have any problems with other VSTs in EAPO, only with these cracked FF plugins.
And there's no mention of this problem in the FF forum either. I'm sure that if this happened with the legit versions it would be fixed by now.

Nah, I'm like 99.99% convinced that it's a timebomb/bad crack from R2R.

 

you have not mentioned anything about blocking any "phoning home" these plugins are being allowed to do within this EAPO program. Do you have the FF plugins firewalled in, or have you blocked their web addresses in your hosts file?

I'm not on windows so I can't help. But if I had to bet money here, it would be that r2r's work was done correctly and something about your current installation or it's configuration is the problem. js

 

Could also be, that it simply is not properly licensed from your side. 30 days might just be the demo phase.
Try FF_SignatureCheck.exe from R2R.

Instructions from R2R:

Valid signature = Safe, No Timebomb
You can find that legit FabFilter plugins and R2R release have valid signature

 

The plugins are not phoning home. And they're installed properly with a valid R2R signature.

You don't have to believe me, try this and see for yourself. You can do it in a VM too:

 

Sounds strange that the FF timebombs would only affect one (kinda obscure) host. Both Total Bundle v2022.02.15 and v2023.02.06 worked for me in Reaper and Bitwig without any problems.

There has been others who has complained that every R2R FF release has timebombed for them eventually, but it usually has to do with old files and registry items being left over from V.R FF release.

If this was true, I would have noticed it as well since I have Pro-Q and Pro-C as default inserts on all new tracks created in Reaper. On many of the tracks I don't touch Pro-Q until I've come far into the mix. On some tracks I don't touch Pro-Q at all, but it's there just in case I need to do some EQing. If the tracks would constantly mute without any reason I definitely would have noticed it.

 

Yeah, it's a bit strange. But Equalizer APO is not a typical VST host, it works differently. Like, it doesn't show the GUI changes when the audio is playing, for instance.


I also tested the CE-V.R version (FabFilter.TotalBundle.2022.2.CE) and it too goes mute in EAPO after 30+ days.

So either both failed to crack it properly or the problem exists in the legit plugins as well. I only tested with the legit trial and when the trial expires after 30 days it doesn't mute the audio.
So I don't think the legit versions have this problem, but someone with a license would have to check to know for sure.

 

I do not think, that it is advisable to generalize this problem.
There are many people out there, who use those plugins cracked on a regular basis since years. Registration stuff on windows is complicated and can be pretty nasty to deal with.
It is more advisable, to first make a check on a different clean system.

 

Which is exactly what I did.

If you already have a FF plugin working in EAPO now, you can confirm it yourself. Just change the date in Windows from February to April and restart. (But make sure the date isn't reset by the BIOS or a time service.)

 

Yes, I confirmed that it's still working, by setting my date to 2024.
You can by the way deauthorize the plugins in the FabFilter application as well. Maybe it works after this.

But I definetely do not think that this is a general problem you got there.

 

Which media player did you use for the playback?
You need to make sure it's not using ASIO or WASAPI Exclusive, because those bypass EAPO.

There's another little detail, which I didn't mention very explicitly earlier: This time bomb starts counting only when the FF plugin is loaded and working in EAPO, not before that.
So if you just install EAPO and FF and then increase the date it's not enough. Even if you open the FF plugin in a DAW and authorize it and then increase the date it's not enough. The FF plugin needs to be active and working in EAPO first. Only after that will a date increase produce muted audio.

It's weird, but that's how it works. It looks like EAPO triggers its own time counter for FF plugins from the moment they're loaded there.


I have confirmed this problem on different systems. I'm 1000% convinced it's a general problem.
It's still possible that there's another Windows-related variable involved somewhere, but this happens on a clean system too without any previous plugins or cracks.

 

below is a comment from the Equalizer APO page. Personally, I wonder the importance of a system wide EQ for anything, and then needing to nest another 3rd party eq inside of it.

Rather than relying on an open source program, I would just load it in my DAW or another program from a vendor with a larger user base (example: Audacity). r2r may test things extensively; but there is no end to the numerous possible configurations and programs like EAPO to test against.


johnrobmillerPosted 2022-08-19. As of 8/19/22 on Win 11, this is deprecated. The usability of this app is horrible regardless -- it takes an outrageously long time to learn how to use this thing. The user has read through a brick wall of text like this is some developer's documentation. The end result is that the app does not work (fails silently, no error) and the documentation links to dead links as a part of the installation.

 

Last edited: Feb 26, 2023

This is something else then.
Could be that EAPO does something there. But I'd simply use Kirchhoff then, because this would be too stupid for me.

To me it's pretty simple. I learned how to use it pretty quick.
It has got some problems with audio drivers, which is not uncommon in windows. But usually they are pretty easy to fix, after fiddling around a bit.

You question dsp's in general then.
But yes, I also do not see a reason why to insert an eq vst in there. (If you do not need the dynamics part )

 

Last edited: Feb 26, 2023

Kirchhoff just doesn't help/show you what to do, like Pro-Q3 can. I'd probably use Kirchhoff either way and not know about this "bug". What I question, honestly is the need for this program EAPO at all. But beyond that, I would not use software from an open-source vendor on GitHub, and not expect it to have all sorts of it's own quirks and nuances. Nevermind it being "supported". If it works you are lucky; and if not, find another solution.

I would label this thing as a white whale, rabbit hole and end up deleting or not using EAPO unless I had some dire need for that specific program. Then I would find a workaround.