Isotonik Studios have released Bandswitch, a multi-band processor and polyrhythmic delay for Ableton Live users from the Amazing Noises camp, available as a FREE download for a limited time, increasing to £15.00 on June 2nd.
Bandswitch is an audio effect that splits the incoming signal into three bands and processes them independently:
- You can modulate the amplitude (tremolo) or the panning position of each band. You can also modify the shape of the modulation and set the gain and an overdrive process independently. Moreover, you can also add a vibrato (pitch modulation) independent for each band.
- The modulation rate can be modulated in turn by an LFO (there are, of course, three LFOs), and there are also two dedicated LFOs that can modulate the cross frequencies between the bands.
- After the Modulation/Distortion/Pitchshifing stage, each band goes to a dedicated delay line with feedback for further processing. Also the delay time can be dynamically modulated.
Bandswitch Controls – Switcher Panel
The main processor for each band is a Tremolo/Pan/Vibrato effect. Here are the parameters:
- Shape: the tremolo and panning effects can follow a square or triangular shape
- Duty: the width of the shape for each cycle
- TriPeak: sets the vertex of the triangular shape
- Trem/Pan: Tremolo Panning amount. Positive values (0/1) for panning, negative values (-1/0) for tremolo.
- Gain: band volume
- Overdr: band distortion
- Rate: Tremolo/Panning/Vibrato rate in note values Smt: Tremolo/Panning/Vibrato smoothing factor Vibrato: Vibrato (pitch modulation) amount
- Prob: Tremolo/Panning/Vibrato probability
Cross Frequencies and modulators
CrossFr1 and CrossFr2: The two parameters in the purple panels set the cross frequencies between the bands
There are three LFO modulators for the Tremolo/Pan/Vibrato rate of each band, and two for the cross frequencies; here are the parameters:
- Mod: Modulator rate un note values
- Depth: Depth of the modulation in percentage
- Reset: Period in measures for the LFO phase reset, a value of 0 means no periodic reset
- Reset Button: you can also reset the LFO phase by clicking on the Reset Button, or you can automate it
Delay Parameters
There is a modulated feedback delay line for each band, here are the parameters:
- Delay: Delay time in note values
- Scale: rescales the delay time by a percentage. Very useful to create irregular delays and change the rhythmic groove of the sound
- Gain: delay gain
- Fbk: Feedback factor. Positive values produce a regular feedback, negative values send the feedback signal to the next delay line: i.e. delay1 -> delay2, delay2 -> delay3, delay3 ->delay1.
- Variation: a cyclic variation, in percentage, of the delay length. F.i. if the delay time is 1/4 and the variation id 50%, the actual delay length goes from 1/8 to 3/8 (i.e 1/4-1/8 and 1/4+1/8). This generates unique polyrhythmic patterns, impossible to obtain with regular delays. The variation shape can be a square (which switches between two values) or a sinusoid (which continuously warps the delay time, yielding a sort of granulation effect).
Global Parameters
- Bands: you can switch between 1, 2 or 3 bands
- Balance: spreads the bands in the stereo field: positive values move the highest band to the right and the lowest to the left, while the middle band remains centred. Negative values do the opposite.
- WetGain: gain of the processed sound
- DryGain: gain of the un-processed sound
Bandswitch requires Ableton Live 10 / 11 Suite or Ableton Live 10 / 11 Standard with MaxforLive installed.
Watch the demo HERE.
For more information and to download Bandswitch, click here:
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