Visual Multi vs OttavaBassa

This is an AUv3 compatible visual effect plugin which is intended for use inside your favourite DAW such as Cubasis, Auria, Meteor, AUM etc. It will not function as a standalone app. Visual Compressor is a 4 band compressor/expander which has the ability to analyse audio in real time giving an accurate and reliable spectrum representation of your signal as well as visual feedback of compression or expansion levels. It's uses range from final mastering of songs to dynamic manipulation and EQing of drum tracks. What makes this different from a normal compressor is the ability to compress or expand frequency ranges rather than the whole mix, with up to 4 bands available. This allows you to say tighten up a wayward snare drum while adding that extra punch to the bass drum while leaving the rest of the track intact. Each of the 4 configurable frequency bands can be modified using drag and drop operations directly on the graph making it easy to understand and quick to configure. Turn on the labelling option for colour coded details. Each band can function as an EQ allowing raising and lowering the bands gain by +/-24dB. You can assign either a compressor or expander to each of the bands. The compressor allows you to compress excessively loud sounds that exceed a specified threshold. Each band has configurable attack, release and ratio settings. The expander can be used to expand sound exceeding the threshold while compressing anything below it. This makes it useful for adding dynamics or even for noise reduction of a specific band. Each band has mute and solo buttons so you can audition what is coming through a certain band, great for use during band frequency setup. There is also a bypass option which removes a band from use and reduces CPU load. You can load and save custom presets as well as copy and paste settngs between instances. This is great if you need to setup multiple instances with the same settings. One of the cool features is the ability to save up to 3 mixes and switch between them for comparision. These mixes are actually saved as part of custom presets and as the saved state in your DAW. This is the third of three products which will make up part of the 'visual' range of effects. Main Features: ○ 4 distinct frequency bands. ○ Assignable Compressor or Expander. ○ +/-24dB gain per band. ○ Assignable Q to control precise crossovers. ○ Spectrum Analyser with 'Pre' and 'Post' monitoring. ○ Vertical shift and scale options for the spectrum. ○ Mute and Solo buttons for each band. ○ Save & Compare up to 3 separate mixes. ○ Bypass option to remove a band and reduce CPU load. ○ Create and save custom presets. ○ Copy / Paste presets between instances. ○ Compressor / Limiter with Auto Makup Gain. ○ Twin VU meters with RMS/Peak display as well as peak and gate lights per band. ○ Brick wall limiter. ○ Quick Reset options for each section of the effect.

OttavaBassa has been designed for guitarists looking for a simple all-in-one plugin solution for making their guitar sound like a bass. This means you could use your standard guitar to play bass lines on recordings and during live performances. OttavaBassa is an “Octaver” effect that takes your incoming note and transposes it down by one octave putting your instrument into the range of a bass guitar. In addition to the octave-down effect itself, OttavaBassa also includes a simple EQ voiced for controlling the important low and high bass guitar frequencies, as well as built-in effects for drive, compression, stereo chorus and a simple speaker cab filter. “Ottava bassa” is a music theory direction that literally translates as “low octave” or “octave below”. It is commonly abbreviated as “8vb”, hence the icon. OttavaBassa is an AUv3 effects plugin that can run standalone, or in any AUv3 compatible host such as Logic Pro, GarageBand or AUM. OttavaBassa currently runs on iPadOS / iOS (iPad & iPhone) and macOS (Intel & Silicon) and is available as a Universal Purchase from the Apple App Store. If you’re planning on using OttavaBassa on Mac / desktop, please ensure that your favourite DAW / host supports AUv3 (not just AU). PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY! OttavaBassa has been designed specifically for use with guitar. This means that pitches below the low E string (82.4Hz) will not be handled well. Sorry bass players! OttavaBassa will perform at its best when it is given single notes played reasonably cleanly and accurately. It is not a monophonic pitch generator in the true sense, but multiple input notes (aka chords) might result in “warbles” in the processed signal. OttavaBassa uses a pitch detection method that will introduce audio latency, i.e. a delay between input and output. Please note this is not to be confused with audio interface latency, so you cannot “fix” this by changing buffer sizes or sample rates in your host app. Currently OttavaBassa has a latency of around 25ms. So whether OttavaBassa will work for you, depends largely on your playing style and whether you can live with the inherent latency. My personal perspective: I would never make a plugin I wouldn’t use myself. In fact I made OttavaBassa because I needed an Octaver for my own iPad-based live guitar setup, and I couldn’t quite find what I was looking for. I find that OttavaBassa sounds good to me, and feels responsive enough in the context of a live performance, adding bass lines to guitar loops for example. I wouldn’t do a gig without it! I thought hard about making OttavaBassa publicly available because I’ve seen many Octaver plugins get terrible reviews from folks who don’t really understand that the latency and tracking limitations can’t really be magicked away with clever coding! While I am aware of more sophisticated pitch shifting DSP advances that significantly reduce latency especially, I believe this comes at a CPU cost. So while OttavaBassa does use a less sophisticated pitch detection method than “state of the art”, this does mean it’s pretty light on CPU (i.e. around 6% running on an M1 iPad in AUM). And of course, just because it was designed for guitar, doesn’t mean OttavaBassa won’t work on other audio sources - it can sound pretty scary on vocals for example! Just be mindful of the limitations mentioned above regarding pitch range and tracking, e.g., maybe don’t put an entire mix through it and expect amazing results! Thanks for reading to the end :-) -Rob