After having reviewed their entire product line here at ProTooler, I decided there was only one thing left to do, see if I could ask them some questions about their philosophy, products and company. Here’s a short interview with FabFilter.

First off, I’m glad you have decided to port your product line to the RTAS format, but I have to ask, why now?

Do you mean “why did you wait so long” or “why already at this point”? Well, we started of with just the VST format and started support AU and VST for mac shortly after that. Supporting RTAS is a different story. As a developer, you need to become an official Digidesign third-party developer, which takes some time and effort. Of course, we would like to support important platforms as soon as possible…

Will you make your plug-ins TDM compatible?

We are thinking about it. FabFilter Twin would be the first candidate. However, programming for the TDM system is VERY different from implementing the RTAS format. We would need to re-write and re-organize quite some code to make our plug-ins run on the specific Protools HD processors.

Your plug-ins are of what I call “the experimental kind”, with many controls and, even more so, a whole lot of possibilities, in contrast to the regular, say vintage emulation plug-ins. What drives you to create these types of plug-ins?

Actually, we kind of disagree with you on the ‘many controls’ subject
When we started to create plug-ins, we wanted to make a statement. We created FabFilter One: a monophonic synthesizer (version 2.0), with just one oscillator and filter, few controls and a modern, non-vintage-looking interface. We pointed out that FabFilter focusses on sound quality and usability and that we don’t just add hundreds of features. So also, we try to innovate instead of emulate, especially with our interfaces.

Of course, our latest products have more possibilities and features. But still we try to make highly usable, fairly simple, one-page interfaces, while most plug-in developers stuff their plug-ins with more and more features and hide the knobs and switches in multi-tab interfaces, which results in a longer learning curve for new users.

With the definition made of what I refer to as experimental plug-ins, I’d like to continue on that path. To me the RTAS market have somewhat been lacking these types of plug-ins, would you agree on that? And do you think there will be a change?

That’s quite difficult to say. This could be the effect of Digidesign’s strict policy towards third-party developers. There are a lot of experimental plug-ins our there, but there only available as VST or AU, and not as RTAS. I do hope that more plug-in developers would stop emulating hardware, especially interface-wise. For example, why rebuild legendary poorly-usable interfaces when you can make life easier?

You are very good at recycling specific components of your plug-ins, like the filters, but do you still continue to update the algorithms?

Yes, we continue to develop current algorithms and new ideas. For example, our filter algorithms have actually evolved from fairly simple (FabFilter One) to more complex (FabFilter Twin, Timeless) with many different characteristics. In Timeless, we also introduced new algorithms, for example the tape- and stretch delay routines. Creating new products is always a combination of using current knowledge and inventing new stuff; you have to find a workable balance between the two.

What plug-ins can we expect to see from FabFilter in the future?

Can’t tell yet. However, expect something soon

Any last words?

Just a big thank you to all our dedicated users!