FabFilter - Pro-C3

Incredible sound and character

FabFilter Pro-C 3 is a high-quality compressor plug-in for the most demanding engineers. Whether you need subtle mastering compression, an upfront lead vocal, that magic drum glue or deep EDM pumping: Pro-C 3 gets the job done with style

The way the Pro-C 3 shows you the compression is ingenious. All of the FabFilter plug-ins seem to be designed to be simple to use and easy to get results while sounding incredible.

- Tony Maserati (Grammy Award Winning Engineer & Producer)

Pro-C 3 is FabFilter's flagship dynamics processor, rebuilt from the ground up with six new compression algorithms, dedicated analog-style saturation, and a significantly expanded side-chain section. It is engineered to handle the full range of compression tasks an engineer encounters across mixing, mastering, and immersive audio, from transparent gain control on a master bus to aggressive, hardware-style pumping on drums and synths.

14 Compression Algorithms Across Three Categories

Pro-C 3 ships with fourteen distinct compression styles, split into Modern, Classic, and Utility categories. Six are new to this version: Versatile (general-purpose compression for any source material), Smooth (low-ratio glue compression with longer envelope timings), Upward (pumping upward compression), TTM (combined downward and upward compression across multiple bands), Op-El (opto-style tube compression modeled on vintage hardware), and Vari-Mu (variable-mu compression with the harmonic richness associated with classic tube compressors). These sit alongside the original eight algorithms carried over from Pro-C 2, giving engineers a single plugin that can substitute for an entire rack of hardware-emulation compressors.

Character Panel: Built-In Analog Saturation

A new Character section introduces three selectable saturation types: Tube, Diode, and Bright. Each adds a different flavor of harmonic coloration and analog drift, with adjustable Drive and switchable Pre or Post Compression routing. This lets engineers dial in anything from subtle warmth on a vocal bus to overt, characterful distortion on drum or synth elements, without reaching for a separate saturation plugin.

Expanded Side-Chain EQ

The side-chain EQ section has doubled from three to six bands. Every band supports the full filter shape library from Pro-Q 4, including all-pass and brickwall low-pass/high-pass slopes, and each can be set to process the full signal, mid-only, or side-only. This makes it possible to build highly specific trigger signals, for example ducking only the low end of a bass bus off a kick drum, without affecting the rest of the frequency spectrum.

Flexible Triggering: Internal, External, MIDI, and Host Tempo

Beyond standard internal and external side-chain triggering, Pro-C 3 adds MIDI triggering and a new Host Sync mode. Host Sync generates an internal pulse synced to any tempo-based note value, with adjustable offset and trigger length, making rhythmic ducking and pumping effects possible without routing an external trigger track. A new Auto Threshold function dynamically adjusts the threshold so that compression behavior stays consistent across input signals of varying level, which is particularly useful on dialogue, podcast, and broadcast material.

Immersive and Surround Support

Pro-C 3 includes full immersive audio compatibility, supporting Dolby Atmos® configurations up to 9.1.6, with customizable channel and stereo linking for surround and object-based workflows.

Workflow and Interface

The interface has been redesigned around a large animated level and gain-reduction display, with an optional knee display for visualizing exactly how compression is being applied in real time. A Compact layout is available for engineers who prefer a traditional, metering-focused view. The preset browser supports search, tagging, metadata, and favorites, along with copy/paste of settings across plugin instances. Pro-C 3 also integrates with the Instance List introduced in Pro-Q 4.10, allowing multiple Pro-C 3, Pro-Q 4, Pro-G, and Pro-DS instances across a session to be viewed and controlled from a single, zoomable interface.

Technical Specifications

• 14 compression styles across Modern, Classic, and Utility categories
• 3 Character saturation modes: Tube, Diode, Bright
• 6-band side-chain EQ with full Pro-Q 4 filter shapes, including brickwall slopes
• Mid/side processing, including mid-only, side-only, mid-to-side, and side-to-mid routing
• Internal, external, MIDI, and host-tempo-synced side-chain triggering
• Auto Threshold, intelligent Auto Gain, and Auto Release
• Adjustable lookahead from 1–20 ms
• Up to 32x oversampling
• Dolby Atmos® immersive support up to 9.1.6
• Variable stereo linking and channel linking, with a configurable Range parameter to cap maximum gain change
• Audition Triggering for monitoring exactly where and how compression is being applied
• Sample-accurate automation, MIDI Learn, undo/redo, A/B comparison
• Formats: VST, VST3, Audio Units, AAX Native, AudioSuite, CLAP (64-bit, Windows and macOS)

Upgrading from Pro-C 2

Pro-C 3 installs alongside Pro-C 2 rather than replacing it, so existing sessions using Pro-C 2 remain fully intact and continue to open without issue. Pro-C 2 presets are also compatible with Pro-C 3.

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