FabFilter Twin 3, a classic subtractive synth plugin gets a makeover

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FabFilter has published Twin 3, a major feature and visual upgrade for its all-time classic subtractive virtual analog Synthesizer plugin. 

There are Synthesizer plugins that are simply classics. In addition to Massive, Omnisphere 2, Serum Sylenth1, and Diva, this includes Twin 2 from FabFilter 2. This has convinced many musicians for years with its excellent quality and well-balanced feature set.

The Dutch have been redesigning their plugins with modern GUIs and features for several years. Twin 2 has also received a fresh treatment and now shines with a new design as Twin 3.

FabFilter Twin 3

FabFilter Twin 3

Twin 3 got a major overhaul in all areas: GUI, workflow, engine, and more. Let’s start with the most obvious, the new GUI. FabFilter has completely redesigned Twin 3’s interface and workflow to be more immediately accessible, visually informative, and speedy to navigate.

You benefit from new scaling options and a full-screen mode. Responsive per-oscillator oscilloscopes, a useful spectrogram, flexible oscillators & filter routings with full visualization of the modulation signals are a few of the big changes.

New Oscillators With MonoPoly Style Triggering

The new engine is just as extensive. Every feature has been turned on its head and expanded with more modern functionalities. Twin 3 now hosts four oscillators (three in Twin 2) featuring an all-new oscillator poly mode similar to the Korg MonoPoly, capable of stepping through the oscillators with each incoming note. Then, you get a new modeled drift for an additional analog vibe, pulse-width modulation, hard sync, and phase sync.

More Filters

FabFilter has also boosted the polyphony to 64 voices in Twin 3, double the 32 of Twin 32. Twin 3’s filters have also doubled from two to four and got a major upgrade. They offer new vintage-style Bell, Shelf, and Notch types delivering characterful non-linear distortion. There is a new 6dB/octave slope option, and cutoff/peak offset knobs are fully modulatable giving you more advanced options. The new 4x oversampling high-quality mode is just a click away.

Expanded FX and New Arpeggiator

Another big highlight is a new feature-rich FX section featuring six colorful processing modules for transforming and polishing signals: compressor and drive effects, reverb, delay, chorus, and phaser. Every FX parameter is available as a modulation target allowing you to bring them to life.

We also welcome a new creative arpeggiator in Twin 3 with host sync, groove/legato, rate offset control, and note value and order options. Here I would have wished for a sequencer, but an arp is a good step forward.

On the modulation side, the feature remains almost the same: envelope generators/followers, XLFOs, XY controllers, sliders, and MIDI sources. FabFilter, however, has improved some of the modulation generators. There is a new transient mode in the envelope follower, for example, that turns them into transient detectors.

Further, you get new curve adjustment handles for the EG attack, decay, and release stages, and the MIDI-triggered XLFO now has a legato mode. The little highlight here is that they raised the modulation matrix to a 100 maximum.

Preset Browser

The preset browser has not been spared from the makeover ether. A new full-featured preset browser replaces Twin 2’s dead-simple menu with tags, favorites, and search and filter functions. There are also all-new factory presets and the ability to import patches from previous versions. Big like.

At first glance, this looks like a massive update for the Twin Synthesizer. It has been noticed recently that Twin 2 has reached a status where it urgently needs an update. Now it’s here, and I’m sure this update catapults it back into the top of the synths. I hope an iOS AUv3 version will be the next step.

FabFilter Twin 3 is available now for 129€/$129 USD, or GBP 109. It runs on macOS (Intel + native Apple Silicon) and Windows as a 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, AAX, and AudioSuite plugin. It is also available in FabFilter bundles. Existing FabFilter customers can purchase or upgrade with a price discount. Check your user account to see your personal deal.

More information here: FabFilter

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