Rob Jackson has released OttavaBassa, available for $3.99.
Every guitarist eventually hits the same roadblock during home recording or live looping sessions: a track is coming together, but it completely lacks a foundational low end. Carrying an extra bass guitar around—or dealing with heavy, latency-plagued pitch-shifting plugins—isn’t always practical. Indie developer Rob Jackson created OttavaBassa to offer a simple, dedicated solution to this exact problem.
Named after the music theory directive for “octave below” (abbreviated as 8vb), OttavaBassa is a lightweight AUv3 audio plugin designed to transpose a standard electric guitar signal down by one octave, transforming your standard 6-string into an instant bass rig.
Unlike generic pitch-shifters that leave your instrument sounding like a thin, pitched-down guitar, OttavaBassa integrates a complete tone-shaping suite built specifically for bass response:
- Custom Bass EQ: Voiced to control critical low-end frequencies and smooth out harsh highs.
- Onboard Effects: Includes built-in Drive for warm saturation, Compression to tame input dynamics, Stereo Chorus for spatial width, and a Speaker Cabinet filter to simulate a real bass enclosure.
Because it was designed by a musician for live iPad performance, efficiency was a core priority. OttavaBassa uses a stream-lined pitch detection engine that consumes only about 6% CPU on an M1 iPad running in AUM. While the pitch-tracking mechanism introduces roughly ~25ms of inherent processing delay, it remains responsive enough for tracking live loops, laying down quick demos, or adding real-time bass lines on stage.
Features include:
- 1-Octave Pitch Transposition: Transposes incoming guitar signals down by one octave (8vb) directly into bass guitar register.
- Built-In FX & Tone Shaping: Features onboard Drive, Compression, Stereo Chorus, custom-voiced Bass EQ, and a Speaker Cabinet simulation filter.
- Universal AUv3 & Standalone Support: Functions standalone or as an AUv3 plugin across iPhone, iPad, and macOS (Intel & Apple Silicon) via a single purchase.
- Optimized Single-Note Tracking: Calibrated specifically for clean single-note guitar tracking down to low E (82.4Hz).
- Low System Resource Usage: Lightweight DSP ensures minimal CPU drain during live performances or complex DAW projects.
- Creative Flexibility: Designed for guitar, but can also be applied creatively to vocals, synths, or line-level audio sources.
For more information on OttavaBassa, click here:
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