Anybody try comparing it against soothe yet? Can I uninstall soothe?

 

Right now I'm using 4 EQ's: DMG Equilibrium for everything I want to be as high quality as possible, Boz Transgressor for drum shells, DSEQ for the resonance taming(prefer it over Soothe) and TDR Nova for dynamic EQ and subtractive parallel filters that actually work like the additive ones. Still have PROQ-3 but found out I preferred Equilibrium and Nova. I'll try PROQ4 to see if it can replace any of these. I have specific reasons why I prefer the ones that I do, and generally the fabfilter "we choose parameters for you behind the back because they will always sound good" approach is not what I want.

 

happy with a little upgrade to the Dynamic Mode, the Spectral Mode seems okay for now. SmartEQ style group EQing looks fun but never liked that workflow, tends to overdo stuff. Saturation kinda okay. Tonebooster EQ Pro covers everything that Pro-Q4 couldn't, all good.

Technically Pro-Q4 capable of transient/sustain control with cleverly using attack and release control in Spectral and Dynamic Mode. It's just not straight forward. SplitEQ, HOFA Transient EQ, Equilibrium, Crave and 100 more powerful digital EQs when it calls for but Pro-Q4 (or FF Pro-Q series) will always be the front line for me.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2024

With this update, FabFilter had the potential to outpace its only remaining competitor in the market, Sonible. However, the Instance View in Pro-Q4 lacks a feature to unmask all tracks with just a few clicks. Considering the excellent overview already offered in the plugin, such a function would have been a brilliant addition. It's a missed opportunity—looks like SmartEQ will remain my go-to.

 

its definitely not a soothe killer, but its good.

 

What makes you say that Claro is much better? I own it and I find it okayish.

Yes, they have the multiple instance view. DDMF IIEQ had this a decade earlier than Claro by the way. Claro is very laggy and feels unoptimized to me. And it seems that Sonnox has no plans to provide bugfixes and updates once they released a plugin.

The new Pro-Q4 on the other hand looks like a total beast. Not only does it implement the multi-instance feature (their implementation seems better, since you can jump to any channel, as opposed to choosing only two out of all available channels as in Claro), but also apparently it can do the Soothe and the Trackspacer thing (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Claro doesn't even have a basic dynamic EQ function as Pro-Q3 had. Pro-Q4 on the other hand now has an advanced dynamic EQ section, that can compete with the best!

 

Last edited: Dec 15, 2024

YES! somebody else who experienced this. Its super unoptimized and laggy. glitchy even.

 

Feels a lot more responsive to me when adding nodes and moving things around. The position of the frequency response is also better (I prefer it centered instead of more higher up like Pro-Q). I prefer Claro's much cleaner interface and how it scales the visualization with Q changes, along with showing you resonances if you need to go surgical. Also, the produce tab has really great curves that can shape pretty much any sound in seconds, together with the flawless auto-gain.

You're the second person saying this now. I believe both of you and I agree that Sonnox could do better. They just left the plugin the way it was released. Last update was last year, I doubt there's no room left for improvement.

That said, it works great for me. Not sure why it doesn't work for you, though. Are you running Windows and do you have a dedicated GPU?

The only issue I had with Claro was when I tried to symlink my VST3 folder to another drive. Claro would crash my DAW when exiting a session and would deauthorize a couple minutes after loading. After moving it back, everything worked great again.

Pro-Q4 impressions:

I still don't love the workflow, but the saturation, analog Q and spectral processing are awesome. Huge wasted opportunity by leaving out split EQ, though. Overall, I'm a fan and I plan on using it for a while.

 

Not op, but im the other person with the Claro issue. Im running mac M1 Ultra. I have no problem with 95% of plugins, Claro is one of two or three. I run really large sessions, easily over 100 tracks, and rarely run into graphics or cpu issues. Regarding Pro Q4 agreed it quite nice. I see a lot of people on gearspace asking for split eq, maybe they will release a 4.5 update next year. We can hope!

 

I'm on Windows 10 here, so maybe there's a bug in the Mac version that is causing this. If the other guy is also on Mac, I guess that could be it.

Here's a recording of Claro running on a session that is bringing my CPU to a crawl:

For me, that's how Claro runs every time since I demo-ed it before buying. Never had any sort of lag.

 

This is what I'm wondering

 

wow, crazy! looks very smooth. bummer i didnt have that experience. I'll try re-installing.

Its great, but im no uninstalling soothe. Its not really the same. I mean, it is, but yah completely different workflow and results even.

 

I don't really like soothe, but compared to SpecCraft (that is basically soothe), I think there's space for both in a mix. Lots of vocals I receive get very harsh at 10k, and Pro-Q4 did a great job cleaning that up. If I can clean it up during EQ, that means I don't load TDR Arbiter only for that job.

In regards to the algorithm, I think Fabfilter did really well. Sounds great, and the best part of it is not to use it to cut, but instead to boost frequencies. Try that on a high shelf, it's a day and night difference compared to dynamic EQ.

 

Pro Q4 new features & improvements:

- NEW Advanced Spectral dynamics processing, to effectively and precisely treat problem frequencies in your audio
- NEW EQ Sketch: just draw the desired EQ curve in one go to setup initial EQing
- NEW Work fast and efficiently: use the Instance list to view and control any other Pro-Q 4 instance in your session
- NEW Use the Gentle and Warm Character modes to add analog warmth to your mixes
- NEW Copy and paste EQ bands or presets between plug-in instances

- IMPROVED Highest possible sound quality
- IMPROVED Optional Dynamic EQ mode for all bands (Bell and Shelf shapes), with adjustable attack and release, optional side-chain filtering and external triggering
- IMPROVED Continuous slope setting up to 96 dB/oct for all filter types and ultra-steep 'Brickwall' slope setting for LP and HP filter
- IMPROVED Gorgeous Retina interface with large interactive EQ display, multi-band selection and editing for maximum ease of use and efficiency
- IMPROVED Operates in zero latency mode, high quality linear phase mode with adjustable latency or the unique Natural Phase mode
- IMPROVED Filter shapes: Bell, Notch, High/Low Shelf, High/Low Cut, Band Pass, Tilt Shelf, Flat Tilt and All Pass
- IMPROVED EQ Match feature to automatically match the spectrum of another Pro-Q 4 instance or an external signal
- IMPROVED Built-in spectrum analyzer with Pre-EQ, Post-EQ and external spectrum visualization, adjustable range, speed, resolution, tilt, freeze and collision detection

 

All the new features were great, I enjoyed this update

I hope they change the piano UI in the next updates. It's reversed. Black keys become white. White keys become black.

 

I did a simple CPU test and put it on the inserts of 24 tracks. Surprisingly, the CPU load was negligible for the number of plugins.
My test cannot be taken as gospel because I have a grunty CPU and plenty of RAM as a note. If I compare it next to much heavier plugins like Acustica, Arturia and Softube it is by comparison very CPU friendly, for those who do not have a grunty CPU. Someone with an early i7 or less and only 8-16Gb RAM would need to post to get a more accurate reading.

 

Last edited: Dec 14, 2024

Really quick - What version of soothe are you all on currently?

What version of pro-q?

 

Claro runs perfectly on my Mac Pro 5,1. But, every once in awhile; I will open a Logic session and it will say Claro could not be found. I think it is either another plugin failing validation, or I haven't logged into the iLok manager in a long time. I rerun the installer, and it is back to normal. No reboot required even. I am using the v2.01.0[411] build due to it being MacOS High Sierra. I had previously been using the v1.x and had no problem with that version either.