JAX Unisonic (Audio Unit) vs Microtonal Lab

JAX Unisonic is a special Audio Unit, able to produce up to 8 additional voices from any audio input (also polyphonic audio) by multiplying and shifting it in pitch and other parameters. Audio Units require a host application for operation. The concept of JAX Unisonic is loosely derived from ‘Unison’ which was adopted from the ancient analog synthesizer world, where manufacturers and sound designers intended to fatten the sound by multiplying and stacking available voices together. Also digital synthesizers did adopt this technique to fatten sound sources. Due to the instability of analog oscillators and components and some wilful detuning, an interesting sonic effect is achieved, giving the produced tones significantly more presence and life. Unison voices are still excessively used in modern music styles today. (In classical music compositions ‘unisono’ basically means a performance, where multiple instruments or voices play the same parts in an ensemble fashion.) Technical Now JAX Unisonic can simulate this sonic effect with any audio source by incorporating a bank of independent time domain pitch shifters, that are optimized to detune and spread artificially multiplied voices in panorama. It can be understood as a kind of super chorus generator or an ensemble like effect with variable, realtime controlled intensity and pitch relation. But it is clearly something more. With JAX Unisonic you can create up to 8 additional voices, that will be passed thru a chain of pitching and positioning, creating massively fattened sounds with any kind of voice input. Additionally you may transpose each voice individually per semitone to max. +/- 1 octave, something that cannot be achieved with usual choruses, unison or ensemble effects and moves the results slightly in the direction of the category “harmonizer” effects. Although the harmonic results can be programmed (automated) freely and are not auto generated in any way, as on some available other harmonizers. The used pitch shifters in our JAX Unisonic are NOT based on the phase vocoder paradigm (FFT) and do not introduce the static latencies, which are unavoidable by the latter. A time domain pitch shifter in contradiction, uses very small delay buffers, where the latency is dynamically adjusted (dependent on the used pitch shifting amount) and much smaller and nearly latency-free. Such pitch shifters are better situated for live usage therefore. Although, such pitch shifters sound slightly more raw and tend to produce disharmonic overtones with more extreme values. Usage JAX Unisonic may be used as a massive unison effect generator or more decently for creating various, more subtile effects for improving sonic qualities of parts in a composition. For instance controlled voice detuning, manual pitch correction, doubling of vocals or solo instruments or just to give some boring voices more interest and static sound some special movement. It is even usable with drums, adding subtile or even massive new frequency components.

Microtonal Lab is a complete microtonal music studio for iOS. Break free from the 12-note octave and explore the infinite space between the notes. AUv3 PLUGIN Use MicrotonalLab as a plugin inside GarageBand, AUM, Cubasis, Drambo, and any AUv3-compatible host. The full step sequencer, tuning system, and SF2 instruments are available directly in your DAW. Record sequences as MIDI regions with automatic tempo sync. HARMONIC GALAXY Discover musical intervals as a visual universe. Every dot is an interval above the root — its size shows consonance, its color shows its position in the octave, and its number shows the exact distance in cents. Pinch to zoom and new microtones emerge from the depths. Build custom scales by tapping intervals and save them to your library. MICROTONAL KEYBOARD A fully playable keyboard with exact microtonal tuning. Choose from piano, strings, marimba, vibes, bass, pad, flute, or synthesized waveforms. Activate any scale from the library and the keyboard reconfigures to show precisely those notes. Supports glide between notes for expressive playing. STEP SEQUENCER A 16-step sequencer with microtonal note assignment per step, velocity, gate, and swing control. Syncs to the host tempo in AUv3 mode. LAUNCHPAD A grid-based launchpad for live performance. Rows correspond to scale degrees, columns to time — tap to toggle notes and play your patterns in real time. SCALE LIBRARY Browse world scales from dozens of musical traditions, including Arabic maqam, Indian ragas, Persian dastgah, Javanese gamelan, and many more. Preview any scale, then activate it across all views with one tap. TUNING SYSTEMS Switch between 12-TET, 19-TET, 24-TET, 31-TET, and 53-TET. Full access to all scale degrees in the sequencer for every tuning system. MIDI EXPORT Export your sequences to standard MIDI files with full microtonal pitch bend on each channel. Import directly into any DAW for further production. FX Filter (low-pass with cutoff and resonance), reverb (from small room to cathedral), and delay — all controllable via XY pads in real time during playback. Microtonal Lab is built for composers, sound designers, music theorists, and anyone curious about the music that lives between the keys.