Creative Effects

FXWEAVE

An octaver, a chorus and a phaser in one chain, each with its own character built into how it works rather than a knob that changes what the knobs mean.

£47 £59Launch price

See the measurements

FXWEAVE is not in the collection installer yet. Version 1.0.2 was built before it, and the next version will include it. Its free 10-day trial starts from inside the plug-in, as every one does, never from a download.

Formats: VST3 · AU
Operating system: macOS · Universal
Version: v1.0.0

What it does

Octave, chorus and phaser, woven into one.

FXWEAVE runs three modulation effects in a fixed chain — octaver, then chorus, then phaser — and each one can be switched in or out on its own. The order is the useful one: pitch first, so the chorus and phaser move the octave as well as the dry, and the phaser last, so its sweep reads across everything before it.

Each effect's modes are different designs rather than one design with a character knob. The octaver has CLEAN for natural formants and intact attacks, VINTAGE for the shimmer of an early sampler or harmonizer, and ROBOT for a monotone that keeps the voice. The chorus's three modes are three topologies: side-only pairs, quadrature bucket-brigade voices and a three-phase ensemble.

The phaser exposes its stage count — 4, 6, 8 or 12 — because that is its identity, and it keeps its notches under feedback where a classic phaser fills them in. Its sweep can lock to the song position. A DRIVE stage at the end is the one place anything is oversampled; everything before it is band-limited or anti-aliased instead.

Key features

An octave that sounds like the source

CLEAN shifts up to an octave either way with pitch-synchronous grains, so formants stay natural at FORMANT 0 and attacks arrive intact. FORMANT moves them independently by up to 12 semitones, and SPREAD widens the shifted voice across the stereo field.

Three octavers, not one with a knob

VINTAGE uses fixed splices whose loose alignment leaves the shimmer of an early sampler, with formants that travel with the pitch as they did on one. ROBOT holds a fixed note from C2 to C4 and keeps the voice's formants, while unvoiced sounds pass through so words stay intelligible.

A softer attack, when you want one

ATTACK sets how quickly the octave voice may rise, from FAST — the octaver untouched — to 200 ms. A few milliseconds rounds a pick's edge; longer settings swell the octave in behind the note.

Three choruses by design

Mode I keeps its anti-phase pairs in the side channel only, so a phone or a mono speaker keeps the doubling without the movement cancelling out. Mode II uses quadrature bucket-brigade voices; Mode III is a three-phase ensemble for strings and pads.

Notches that survive feedback

In a classic phaser, feedback fills the notches in. FXWEAVE taps the dry after the feedback junction, so they stay below −67 dB at every setting and the resonance sits between them. The stage count is exposed — 4, 6, 8 or 12 — and MIX at 100 % is the classic full-depth phaser.

In time with the song

The phaser's sweep can sync to the host's tempo and lock to the song position, so a locate or a loop lands on the same point in the sweep every time rather than wherever the LFO happened to be.

The interface

FXWEAVE on its Sub Octave preset: only the octaver is lit, in CLEAN mode at −12 semitones, with ATTACK at FAST on its screen and the chorus and phaser switched off. — FXWEAVE · 1 of 2

FXWEAVE on its Jet Twelve preset: only the phaser is lit, at 12 stages, its screen showing the comb of notches it sweeps, with the octaver and chorus switched off. — FXWEAVE · 2 of 2

How it works

The signal path, as the plugin’s own documentation states it.

input ──► INPUT
      ──► OCTAVER  (clean · vintage · robot)   pitch · formant · spread · attack
      ──► CHORUS   (I · II · III)              rate · depth · width · tone
      ──► PHASER   (4 · 6 · 8 · 12 stages)     rate / sync · depth · centre · feedback
      ──► DRIVE    (2× oversampled, the only oversampling)
      ──► GLOBAL MIX · OUTPUT · bypass (delay-compensated)

Audio

Audio demos for FXWEAVE are not published yet.

We would rather show you nothing than show you a demo that was not recorded through this plugin.

Measured

FXWeave engine and plug-in tests · Apple M4 · 48 kHz

CPU, every module at its most expensive: 2.82 % of one Apple M4 core
Phaser notch depth under feedback: below −67 dB at every setting
Latency: about 28 ms, constant · 0 with ZERO LATENCY
Mono input: bit-exact against the stereo left channel
Sample rates tested: 44.1–192 kHz
Test cases: 204 engine · 34 plug-in
auval: AU VALIDATION SUCCEEDED
pluginval: SUCCESS at strictness level 10

Figures are produced by this plugin’s own test suite and benchmark, on the hardware and sample rate named above. They are not estimates.

Controls

OCTAVER

MODE: CLEAN, VINTAGE or ROBOT.
PITCH: −12 to +12 semitones. In ROBOT it chooses the note, from C2 to C4, and reads as a note name.
FORMANT: −12 to +12 semitones, independent of the pitch.
SPREAD: 0–100 %. Widens the shifted voice across the stereo field.
ATTACK: FAST to 200 ms. How quickly the octave voice may rise.
MIX: 0–100 %.

CHORUS

MODE: I, II or III — three topologies, not three settings of one.
RATE: 0.05–8 Hz.
DEPTH: 0–100 %.
WIDTH: 0–150 %.
TONE: Darker or brighter, ±100 %.
MIX: 0–100 %.

PHASER

STAGES: 4, 6, 8 or 12.
RATE · SYNC: 0.02–12 Hz free, or a note division locked to the song position.
DEPTH: 0–100 %.
CENTER: 80 Hz–6 kHz, where the sweep sits.
FEEDBACK: 0–100 %. Adds resonance between the notches without filling them in.
SPREAD: 0–180°. How far apart the left and right sweeps run.
MIX: 0–100 %. 100 % is the classic full-depth phaser.

OUTPUT

INPUT · OUTPUT: Level in and out.
DRIVE: 0–100 %. A soft saturation stage, the only one oversampled.
GLOBAL MIX: 0–100 %. The whole chain against the dry.
ZERO LATENCY: In the header menu. Switches the octaver off and reports no latency, for tracking and live monitoring through the chorus and phaser.

Technical details

Formats: VST3 · AU
Operating system: macOS 10.13 or later
Architecture: Universal: Apple Silicon and Intel
Plugin code: Fxwv
Version: 1.0.0
Sample rates: 44.1–192 kHz
Latency: About 28 ms, constant whatever the mode, bypass or setting, and reported exactly. ZERO LATENCY in the header menu switches the octaver off and reports 0.
CPU: 2.82 % of one Apple M4 core at 48 kHz with every module at its most expensive
Factory presets: 40

Ten each for the chorus, the phaser, the octaver and the three combined — from Subtle Width and Ensemble Strings to Jet Twelve and Quarter Pulse, Sub Octave and Robot C3, and The Weave. Save your own as .fxweave files, compare two settings with A/B, and undo any change.

Worth knowing

The octaver needs about 28 ms to see a pitch before it can shift it, so FXWEAVE reports that latency all the time, whichever modules are on — hosts compensate a constant perfectly, and many handle a changing one badly. For tracking, ZERO LATENCY switches the octaver off and reports none.
The octaver is built for one note at a time: a voice, a bass line, a single guitar part. Chords and dense pads are the material it handles least well.
FXWEAVE is not part of S.A RACK. It is sold on its own and in the bundles.