FabFilter has just released "Timeless 2" a tape delay come modulation monster plug-in. It's the latest in a little flurry of releases and updates from the Dutch duo Floris Klinkert and Frederik Slijkerman. They haven't popped up on my radar since Fabfilter One a couple of years back, which is a half decent fat synth with a quite extraordinary quality of filter, so I thought it would be nice to have a look and see what they've been doing with themselves.

Along with Timeless 2 they have the Simplon, a nice basic filter; Volcano 2, which takes filtering to whole other level; Pro-C compressor; and the Twin 2 synth of immense quality and power. Anyone reading this should immediately go and download the demo Total Bundle - right now! Here's the link - http://www.fabfilter.com/download/

Love to do a full review at some point but for now here are some first impressions:

Timeless 2

Whoa, what a thing. Delay plug-ins are always useful but often a bit boring to look at and uninspiring to adjust - set sync, feedback, mix and off you go. But Timeless 2 is not going to stand for that sort of nonsense, it's covered with interesting buttons and knobs and vector thingies all of which have a pleasing effect once you start mousing around. The interface on this (and all the others) is beautiful and it really draws you in and begs you to fiddle with it. Modulation options are huge, chaining up various LFO, filters, steps, feedback loops. As you click about more controls reveal themselves or slide into view and there's enough presets to keep you interested for hours. Just lovely :)

Volcano 2 and Simplon

The Simplon is nice, it's a great sounding filter but the Volcano 2 is so much more and right down my alley. I want more than one filter, with LFO's a-plenty, where i can sweep thing's all over the place and see what's going on - this is the fellow.

Pro-C Compressor

Great to look at - it's always good to have an impressive interface with things you haven't seen before that are actually useful. Easy to use, sounds great, does what it says on the tin.

Twin 2

This is a great synth. They've really cracked the whole user interface thing, it's a joy to use, a fiddlers pleasure - knobs, filters, vectors and acres of modulation and effects available in bottom area that slides along to reveal more and more options. The sound is "big", fat, wide, quite aggressive but not in a distorted way. It's strength for me was in its thick sounds, stabs and farts - but the filters again here are fabulous, with such a feel to them.

Summary

The Twin 2 synth is easily on a par with synths from say Arturia but offer something different - maybe Massive from Native Instruments is a better comparison. They're not cheap but are comparable to their peers - i just wish the bundle a bit cheaper so i could afford it! They do have some good bundles on the website and i'm finding the FX Bundle with Volcano and Timeless pretty tempting.

http://www.fabfilter.com