Hi,

You’re about to obtain one of my fully bidirectional Max for Live wrappers for Pro-Q4. I truly believe this will have a profoundly positive impact on your workflow in Ableton Live.

Available models

• 4000 – all the detail you’ll ever need.
• 73 – very broad curves, perfect with Pro-Q’s warm mode to get that “iron” sound.
• 550 – also broad, but finer than the 73. Flip between shelf and bell filters.
• Tube - famous curves. (Only available for Kirchoff-EQ at the moment.)

Installation

1. Move the downloaded .amxd file(s) into Live’s Max for Live folder:
   /Users/User/Music/Ableton/User Library/Presets/Audio Effects/Max Audio Effect/ProQ4-4000-Vst3.amxd
   
   (Tip: You can also open this folder by right-clicking any Max for Live device in Ableton’s browser and selecting “Open in Finder”.)
2. Move the ProQ4 preset that came with your download into FabFilter’s preset folder.
3. Load the wrapper onto any track.
4. When you first open the patch, Pro-Q4 will likely open in its default state. Open Pro-Q4’s plugin window and load the corresponding preset (e.g. channel_4000.ffp).
5. Now save the M4L patch as a preset under your preferred name by using the disk button in the upper-right corner. This will store Pro-Q’s state, so the next time you load your preset it will open with those settings by default.
6. Note: You can also create your own Pro-Q presets. The EQ bands controlled by the patcher are mapped in chronological order (e.g. Band 1 = Low Cut, Band 2 = Low Shelf, etc.). However, I recommend not using stepped mode when you do so, as there is a lot happening under the hood and it may lead to funky behavior.

Operation

• Even though the wrapper is built to recreate the creative focus born of analog hardware limitations, you can still take full advantage of Pro-Q4’s more advanced functions—and faster than ever before. Simply click the yellow button to open the plugin window, a far more convenient solution than Live’s tiny wrench icon. The first 4–6 bands (depending on the model) are fully bidirectional, so any changes you make in the plugin are instantly mirrored in the wrapper.
• Stepped Frequency enabled (model 550 and 73): wrapper mirrors the hardware exactly.
• Stepped Frequency disabled: frequency control spans Pro-Q’s full spectrum, with frequencies displayed as in Pro-Q4.
  (Example: a 10 kHz shelf in the 550 translates to 2.4 kHz in Pro-Q4.)
• Unsure about a knob? Hover to read the Live info text.
• Pro-Q quality modes are fully supported; any latency changes are automatically reported to the wrapper.

Note: In stepped mode, the frequency dial itself is not yet fully bidirectional—but the correct value will always display beneath it.

Important Notes

• You must own Pro-Q4 to use these wrappers. (This is not a standalone EQ.)
• Currently, most wrappers support only the VST3 version of Pro-Q4.
• I have only tested this with Ableton 12 on Mac.
• The Tube-style version could not be built for Pro-Q4 due to missing correct shelf filters, so I build one for Kirchoff-EQ. Make sure to check it out!

Happy mixing!