FabFilter's Pro-R offers music mixers a powerful yet minimal interface to control a very unique reverb synthesizer. Pro-R’s seven main controls are all you need to quickly dial in ambiences from very small, claustrophobic boxes anywhere up to ginormous arena-size spaces with up to 10-second (RT60) reverb decay times.
My all-time favorite parts of Pro-R are the six-band Decay Rate EQ and Post EQ features. Both of these EQ curves are displayed as different colors superimposed on top of a beautiful spectrum analyzer depiction of the currently running reverb.
With Decay Rate, you can control the length of the reverb decay time at up to six different frequency points using any of six individual low/high shelving filters, peaking EQ or notch filters to boost/cut the reverb’s decay at the selected frequency. With Post EQ applied to the output of Pro-R you’ll discover up many sound design ideas immediately.
In reverberant rooms, the high frequencies decay faster than the lower frequencies, and with the Decay Rate EQ, you can completely redesign the reverberation’s timbral nature. I also liked the Distance control that allowed for the precise dimensional placement of the source within the synthesized space.
FabFilter’s Pro-R sells for $199 MSRP downloadable, and I’m highly recommending it to anyone who is looking to design special reverb treatments very specific to their music.
fabfilter.com/products/pro-r-reverb-plug-in
Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
