FabFilter have garnered an enviable reputation in the world of audio processing with their legendary plugins. Can they bring some of that magic to an already overcrowded synth plugin market with the new FabFilter Twin 3 synth plugin? Three Experts check it out and give their verdict.

FabFilter Twin 3

No guesses that with the name FabFilter Twin 3, there has been previous incarnations of this synth VI. Twin 3 builds on the previous versions of Twin with a dizzying list of updates, here’s a list of new and improved features;

• IMPROVED - Fully redesigned, highly simplified interface, with an easier workflow, including a new design of modulation sources and floating modulation slot panel

• IMPROVED - Improved the oscillator and filter sound quality, with built-in, analog-modelled drift. Added a fourth oscillator

• NEW - Introduced large Filter Freq/Peak offset knobs, which adjust all filters at once and can be modulated as well

• NEW - Added high quality effects section with reverb, delay, chorus, phaser/flanger, drive and compression

• IMPROVED - Introducing a full-featured preset browser, with support for tags, favorites and easy searching and filtering

• NEW - Added arpeggiator with host tempo sync, groove/legato controls and transpose, note order and latch options

• IMPROVED - Resizable interface, full screen mode and customizable scaling

• Endless modulation options, with all the 16-step XLFOs, XY controllers, envelope generators, envelope followers and MIDI sources you will ever need

• IMPROVED - Four versatile filters with filter panning and adjustable slope and shape (low/high/band pass, bell, low/high shelf or notch)

• IMPROVED - Easy drag-and-drop modulation with 100-slot modulation matrix

• IMPROVED - Ring modulation for oscillator 1+2 and 3+4

• IMPROVED - Carefully designed and curated factory presets, plus support for earlier Twin presets

• IMPROVED - New slope settings for the envelope generators open up a much wider range of possible shapes

• IMPROVED - 64-voice polyphony and unison

• NEW - High Quality option, enabling internal oversampling for the best results

• NEW - Introduced Source Level (-200% .. 200%) control for XLFOs, EGs, EFs and MIDI Sources, which scales the output of the source. Of course, this can also be modulated

• NEW - Live modulation visualization for targets and sources

Using FabFilter Twin 3

Often there’s a trade off in the world of synths. Power or ease of use. At one end of the spectrum we have hardware modular, which offers almost limitless flexibility, but for most mere mortals it can take them several hours to get a sound that resembles a car alarm. At the other end is the rompler with a ton of presets and some basic editing options to tweak the sound.

For a lot of people, neither of the above is an option. One costs a ton of money and involves too much time getting a sound, the other is effectively the McDonalds of music creation, fast, easy, but ultimately derivative and not offering much creative nurishment.

Of course there are some very good offerings already out there that attend to some of the above, such as the brilliant Omnisphere by Spectrasonics, but for most people who love it, that’s just another preset player, albiet an impressive one. It’s not that anyone hasn’t tried to fill the gap between the two synth camps.

However, what FabFilter seem to have done with Twin 3 is create something that has the instant gratification and ease of a rompler with the creative exploration options of a modular synth, sans car alarm!

The sound engine in Twin 3 is impressive and the routing is almost limitless. If you are already a FabFilter plugin user then the interface and UX is going to feel familiar, meaning you can get up to speed and be creating complex routings that end up looking like the London Underground map without sending your head into a spin.

In a nutshell, there are presets to get you started but then you can go down the rabbit hole of creativity if you wish. What this means is that with Twin 3, you are unlikely to hear the same sound twice appearing on tracks in the charts. It means sound originality is almost guaranteed, whoever you are and wherever you are on your sound journey. Check out our video below to see this in action.

Expert Panel - Hit or Miss?

In every Expert review we ask three of our team of contributors to give their first impressions of the product. We ask them to give the product a hit or miss, based on factors such as originality, innovation, usefulness, quality and value for money. For each hit the products gets an Expert Award. One hit and it gets our bronze award, two hits gets silver and for a hit from all three of the panel it gets a coveted gold award. Of course if there’s three misses, there’s no award.

Brent March

As someone who has owned many FabFilter plugins, I definitely had an expectation of the GUI, feature set and learning curve that Twin 3 would present me. Full disclosure, I’m an avid FabFilter user and absolutely love their plugins. Finding someone to disagree with that sentiment will prove tricky. In my eyes they can do very little wrong when it comes to developing and upgrading brilliant software. 

Despite using FabFilter’s mixing and mastering plugins on a daily basis, I have no experience with any of their VI software. At first glance, Twin 3 instantly reminds me of Timeless 3. I love that FabFilter has their own visual identity. It’s a refreshing change to see a pro-audio plugin developer not using skeuomorphism and etching rack ears, scratches and nails into their entire product line. It makes learning the plugin so much easier, and less distracting. Upon first glance, it didn’t take me long to figure out the layout of Twin 3. To the left you have your oscillators, in the centre you have filters and envelopes, and to the right your FX. It’s great to see the mod matrix in the exact same location as on Timeless 3, Saturn 2 and Volcano 3.  Not only is this a simple visual aid for manipulating existing presets, or creating your own, but it also actually represents a typical signal path. Well done, FabFilter! As an existing FabFilter user, continuity is definitely an important factor when using multiple plugins from one developer.

The presets sound good and the detail is as you’d expect, fantastic. I also found 'tweakability’ to be a breeze. Nothing is overly complicated or hidden behind menus. Everything you need is right in front of you. If you have even a basic understanding of synthesis, Twin 3 will have little to no learning curve. If you’re not an existing FabFilter user, that learning curve will require a little more time. I could practically guess where half the controls were coming from previous plugins like Pro-Q3 and Timeless 3. 

My only gripes with Twin 3 would be the following:

1. For some reason I can’t resize this past ‘large’ or 200%, unlike other FabFilter plugins which I can go fullscreen with. Perhaps this is just on my Mac, but I really need as much screen real estate here as possible given the controls are quite small

2. Despite nothing being hidden away on Twin 3, I do find the controls and scripting to be a little on the small side. I find myself squinting when looking at some of the smaller controls. For example the Phase Sync button. 

3. Given this plugin is so user friendly, I think it’s an ideal synth to learn basic sound design. For that reason it would be nice to see a few more features like a sample based oscillator. I can’t help thinking how well a wavetable oscillator would function on Twin 3. The lovely filter display seems like an ideal place to take advantage of some 3D wave guides.

Those minor gripes aside, Twin 3 is well worth checking out. HIT!

James Richmond

Twin 3 is a significant upgrade from Twin 2, a plugin I am fairly familiar with but I must admit that it has not been my first call virtual instrument. Twin 2 sounds great but I found the interface let it down.

Twin 3’s interface is much more modern and the plugin is far easier to use because of that.

A great deal of thought has been put into giving you the most commonly used features without hiding too much behind drop down menus. I especially like the scrolling waveform view behind the Oscillator controls. It looks great and makes it easier to design sounds.

It isn’t just the interface though, the plugin’s feature set has been greatly expanded- four (rather than three) oscillators with an excellent drift function, double the number of filters, better modulation, better effects; across the board this is better in every way.

I am not particularly interested in presets but as part of the review it seemed appropriate to compare and contrast some of the sounds against their Twin 2 versions. Twin 3 feels snappier and richer, especially with Twin 3’s ‘High Quality’ 4X oversampling setting enabled.

The new arpeggiator is pretty good, although can feel a bit fiddly and with a range of only two octaves.

That aside though, Twin 3 is a fantastic upgrade and I imagine it is going to be elevated to the small collection of virtual instruments I use on a daily basis.

Well done, FabFilter. Definitely download the 30 day trial and see for yourself. HIT!

Russ Hughes

Twin 3 manages to combine the ease of a rompler with the creative options of a modular synth, making it not only a great sounding synth, but immense fun to use.

Often you find yourself fighting with a plugin to try and get it to do what you hope it will. There is none of that with Twin 3. It is incredibly intuitive, so when you go looking to do something it responds as you would expect.

There was one thing that tripped me up and that is the sidechain option when using the Envelope follower. It doesn’t work in all DAWs and in all plugin formats. In Studio One I could only use it as a VST3. That may be a restriction of the DAW, but it’s worth nothing for those wondering why it’s not working when they try it.

The presets are good, and act as a great launch pad for making sounds your own. They are not in the league of the aforementioned King of VIs, Omniphere, but they are still very usable.

The power of Twin 3 rests in the ability to create incredible sounds yourself, without needing to have a Phd in Computer science or read the manual. You’ll need to know some synth basics, but once you’ve got the fundamentals nailed down then with the almost limitless routing you’ll be off to the races.

Twin 3 deserves to be a success, it’s everything a good synth plugin should be and more. HIT!

FabFilter Twin 3 gets an Experts Gold Award