FabFilter Volcano 3 online help

Table of contents

Filter display

The interactive filter display at the top right of the interface lets you add up to four high-quality, analog-like, self-oscillating filters, full of character and with internal saturation. The thick yellow curve shows the overall frequency response of the filters. Most of the filter parameters can be easily controlled via the display, either by clicking and dragging, or via the parameter value display. Here's how it works.

Filters

Creating filters

  • To add a new filter, simply click on the yellow overall curve and drag it up or down.
  • Alternatively, double-click or Ctrl-click (Command-click on macOS) on the display background.

Note: when using one of the per-channel routings (L/R or M/S), filters will always be created or deleted in pairs.

The shape of newly created curves is determined automatically depending on where you click, and once you get used to this, it's a real time-saver! Do you need a notch? Just double-click in the far low area of the display. Want a low-pass or high-pass filter? Double-click or drag in the left or right areas.

Selecting filters

  • Click the filter's dot or the colored area around it to select it.
  • Click and drag on the display background to select adjacent filters by dragging a rectangle around them.
  • Hold down Ctrl (Command on macOS) and click another dot to select multiple filters. Hold down Shift and click a dot to select a consecutive range of filters.

Adjusting and editing filters

Once you have selected one or more filters, the display highlights the shapes of the selected curves. You can easily make adjustments by simply dragging them around:

  • Click and drag a selected dot to adjust the frequency and peak of all selected filters. If you have multiple bell or shelf filters selected, the peak of all selected filters will be scaled relative to each other.
  • Move the mouse wheel to adjust the slope of filters, making the selected filters narrower or wider. This works while dragging or when the mouse pointer is above a curve. Alternatively, adjust the slope of all selected filters by holding down Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) while dragging vertically.
  • Move the mouse wheel while holding down Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) to adjust the peak.
  • Hold down Ctrl (Cmd on macOS) and drag horizontally to adjust frequency panning of the selected filters. Filter panning lets you filter the left and right channels differently. It works as a stereo balance setting for the center frequency of the filter. For example, when you set panning to a negative value, the left channel will be filtered with a lower center frequency, and the right channel will be filtered with a higher center frequency. You can use this to create various stereo filtering effects, especially in combination with modulation.
  • Hold down Shift while dragging (or while using the mouse wheel) to fine-tune the settings of the selected filters.
  • Hold down Alt while dragging to constrain to horizontal adjustments (frequency) or vertical adjustments (gain).
  • Hold down Alt and click the dot on a filter once to toggle its bypass state (enabling or disabling the filter).
  • Hold down Ctrl+Alt (Cmd+Alt on macOS) and click the dot on a filter once to change its shape.
  • Hold down Alt+Shift and click the dot on a filter once to change its slope.
  • Double-click a dot to enter values in the parameter display (using the Tab key to step through Frequency, Peak and Pan) or double-click the values in the parameter value display directly. Note that you can enter frequencies in various ways, like "100", "2k", "A4" or "C#2+13".
  • If you right-click on the dot for a filter, a pop-up menu appears with various filter settings. This is a quick way to modify the filter while you're working in the display.

Filter parameter display

Next to each filter's dot in the display, the parameter display shows the exact parameter values for the filter, along with quick controls to bypass or delete, and change its shape or style. You can double-click a value in the display directly to edit it.

Most of the filter parameters (drive, frequency, gain, peak, filter panning, delay, level/pan), can be modulated. Just drag a source to a line in the parameter value display, one of the filter controls or to the filter dot directly (to modulate the frequency).

Tips

  • When filter modulation is taking place, the display will show the modulated result curve as a thin yellow curve that gets fuzzy for quick modulation.
  • If filter panning is in effect, or if the routing mode is set to L/R or M/S, additional result curves will show the overall filtering curve for each channel: white/red in stereo or L/R mode, or light salmon/blue in M/S mode.


Next: Filter controls

See Also
Overview
Modulation

Table of contents