Published on February 20th, 2009.
Author: Richard.Hunter
Category: Virtual Effects.

Comment

(7 votes, average: 4.43 out of 5)  Loading ...

Octav8r is a deceptively simple tool that produces up to six independently pitch-shifted outputs from any sound input to it.  It does what it does very, very well for a very low price.

Each pitch-shifted tone produced by Octav8r may be shifted up, or down, up to three octaves, as well as fine-tuned (in cents, or hundredths of a semitone) up to 12 semitones up or down within each octave. Further, each tone may be independently leveled, panned, and effected with delay, reverb, chorus, and vibrato, as well as enveloped with attack, decay, sustain, and release, and filtered with any of four resonant filter types.  Finally, the same effects may be applied to the overall output, and envelopes can be tempo-synced. In other words, this single plugin can make very simple monophonic sounds into big, moving, layered ones, all by itself.

Play a demo:

The user interface is clearly laid out, and pretty easy to understand given how much is packed in there.

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The plugin can be instantiated with a single stereo output, or with individual outs for each of the generated voices.  The plugin ships with a handful of presets that do a good job of demonstrating some of Octav8r’s capabilities, both subtle and extreme.

The sound of this plugin is on a par with the functionality–a whole lot better than you’d expect for the price. The pitch shifting is smooth, with little or no graininess–for example, it tracks pitch-bending sounds with no fuss–and the resulting tones have great depth and clarity.  Listen to the sample, and keep in mind that the solo instrument in the foreground started life as a harmonica (run through Line 6 Amp Farm to add a touch of Fender Bassman amp distortion, to be sure–but still!) before it met Octav8r.

Octav8r is a low-cost and highly effective way to dress up lots of sounds. The nearest equivalent in hardware, the Electro-Harmonix Polyphonic Octave Generator, does much less than Octav8r for a retail price in the neighborhood of $400. Producers and artists working in electronic genres in particular will find the $24 this plugin costs to be money very well spent. De La Mancha’s other low-cost pitch manipulators, Unstable and Pitchfork, are also worth a look for those who just can’t get enough pitch-shifting into their tracks. De La Mancha’s freeware offerings (including the very enjoyable Dynamite Cowbell) are also likely to be of interest to many producers.

All can be found at delamancha.co.uk.

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