Comparison

Exciter vs Multiband

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Exciter

This audio effect plugin enhances the sonic quality of your music by generating new harmonics, offering a more natural sound than traditional EQ. It provides detailed control over harmonic generation and signal mixing, and can be used within compatible music production apps.

Highlights
  • Harmonic generation for enhanced sonic quality
  • Control over odd/even harmonic balance
  • Adjustable frequency for side chain filtering
  • Mix control for blending processed and original signal
  • Input and output signal level metering
  • Undo/Redo functionality
  • A/B comparison for sound design
Read full description

Exciter AUv3 plug-in — comes as time-limited Demo-version for you to try. It gives you 5 minutes of Free play time. (You can reload the Exciter AUv3 plug-in as many times as you want, thereby you get the Demo period again and again.) Unlimited version of Exciter AUv3 plug-in comes as In-App Purchase. The Red Rock Sound Exciter will allow you to improve and enhance sonic quality of signal more naturally than with equalization. Unlike traditional EQ that just turns up the existing harmonics, Exciter generates additional harmonics, therefore there is no boost in the output signal level, this maintains a clear and balanced sound. Control & Indicator Functions: • IN meter — Input Signal Level indicator; • LEVEL — control knob for the Level of the Input Signal; • HARMONICS — this knob controls the amount of generated Harmonics; • TIMBRE — sets the balance between Odd and Even harmonics; • FREQ — sets the frequency of the high pass filter in the side chain prior to the harmonics generator. For example, with a setting of 6000 Hz all frequencies above 6000 Hz will have Harmonics generated by Exciter; • HL meter — the Level meter for the Harmonics that are created; • MIX — sets the amount of Exciter enhancement added to the original signal; • LISTEN — allows you to listen to the Exciter process alone; • OUTPUT meter — Output Signal Level indicator; • Undo/Redo; • A/B comparison; • 2x/4x/8x Upsampling; • Macro controllers; • Built-in Gain Match; • Scalable GUI. To use Exciter as a plug-in, you need an AUv3-compatible host app like GarageBand, Auria, AUM, Cubasis and more — Exciter will appear in the list of Audio Unit extensions for effect plug-ins in the host app.

About

Multiband

This audio plugin splits a single audio signal into up to four separate frequency bands. It allows for unique multiband processing using effects plugins not originally designed for this purpose, offering flexibility in audio manipulation for music production.

Highlights
  • Splits audio into up to four frequency bands
  • Enables multiband processing with standard effects
  • Multi-output mode for direct channel separation
  • Link Group mode for DAWs without multi-output support
  • Phase-preserving crossover filters
  • Uses Linkwitz-Riley IIR crossover filters
Features
Read full description

Multiband splits an audio signal into separate channels: one for each of up to four frequency bands. It is useful for doing multiband processing using effects plugins that were not designed for multiband processing. For example, you could do multiband compression using two different compressor plugins, one for bass and a different one for treble frequencies. Or you could process a chorus or flanger effect on the midrange frequencies only, leaving the bass and treble clean. This plugin has two modes of operation: Multi-output and Link Group In Multi-output mode, the app takes a single channel of input and splits it into multiple output channels. Link group mode is a fallback support mode for DAW apps that don't support multi-output audio units. In Link group mode you duplicate the input track several times, once for each frequency band. Then the plugin filters out all but the selected bands on each of your duplicate tracks so that each track contains just one frequency band. It's called "Link Group" because when you duplicate the plugin across two or more tracks you can link the instances together across tracks so that the controls that set the transition frequencies between bands automatically synchronise between all the tracks in the group. HOW IS LINK GROUP MODE DIFFERENT FROM USING HIGHPASS AND LOWPASS FILTERS IN AN ORDINARY EQ TO SEPARATE THE BANDS? Whenever you play two copies of the same track simultaneously you must pay attention to phase alignment. For example, if you copy a track and invert the phase on one copy then the two copies will cancel each other out and you'll get no sound at all. Similarly, if you duplicate a track and process filters separately on each copy, when you combine the two copies back together you will usually get phase interaction at certain frequencies, causing some frequency ranges to be boosted and others attenuated. To avoid this, you would need to use crossover filters that are designed to preserve the phase relationships between each of the bands. The UI of this plugin makes it look like each band is created with a single lowpass and highpass filter pair but that is not the case. In addition to the lowpass and highpass filters we also need several phase compensation filters. Although that could be done with an ordinary EQ plugin it would be quite complicated to configure and test to ensure that no unwanted phase cancellation occurs. WHAT FILTERS DOES THIS APP USE? They are second-order Linkwitz-Riley IIR crossover filters. We use IIR filters to so that when you use many of our plugins in series for real-time performance you don't add audible latency to the signal. ABOUT THE BEAT COMMUNITY We designed this app in collaboration with mr. Ali Ahmet who manages the Beat Community group on facebook. The beat community is a forum for discussion of topics related to mobile music production. It often features special promotions and app give-aways and it's curated so that the forum stays on topic and doesn't get spammed with advertisements. Beat community facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1504577553125121/

Screenshots

Exciter4 screens
Multiband4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Multiband at none against Exciter's 1. Exciter's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 12.0). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Exciter sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Multiband asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Exciter holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 32 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 80% of Exciter's written reviews are positive against 73% of Multiband's.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Exciter versus Multiband: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExciterMultiband
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (21 ratings) — better4.6 (32 ratings)
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews — better72.7% of reviews
Number of ratings2132 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRRS, OOOBlue Mangoo Consulting Company Limited

Customer experience

Exciter

All ratings21 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

Multiband

All ratings32 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral6.3%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive72.7%
Neutral18.2%
Negative9.1%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Exciter

One-time1
  • RRS Exciter Unlimited$4.99
None

Multiband

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Exciter free?
Exciter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Multiband free?
Multiband is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Exciter or Multiband?
Exciter is rated higher. Exciter averages 4.9 out of 5 from 21 ratings, while Multiband averages 4.6 from 32 ratings.
Do Exciter or Multiband have ads?
Neither Exciter nor Multiband shows ads.

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