xfer OTT - Freeware Plugin Reviews #2

Forward/Announcement.

I haven't uploaded a blog in a while for a number of reasons, I don't really expect the frequency of these to increase much but I will try to update it every so often so it doesn't run completely dry. If you want to suggest things for me to review you can do it here or also at my twitter which I have linked in my profile.

OTT

From xfer Records. Get it at https://xferrecords.com/freeware

This isn't sponsored

OTT is a multiband downward/upward compressor. It's unique from most multiband compressor plugins in both it's control scheme and also it's main use cases, although it can be used like a normal multiband compressor with varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the situation.

Pricing

OTT is a free plugin. It does not have any paid tiers that I am aware of, although it does come included as an effect you can use within xfer's flagship VST synth Serum.

OTT is an emulation of a preset for the multiband dynamics plugin included within ableton live, which is somewhat more robust.

Interesting Features

OTT operates on 3 bands for Lo, Mid, and Hi. It's unclear specifically what frequency bands these operate on, but the equivalent Ableton Live preset sets the low band at 88.3 Hz and below, the high band at 2.5kHz and above, and the mid band of course being everything in between. I can't prove this false given a look at a spectrum analyzer, it's at least pretty close. You can't adjust the frequency settings for the bands.

Each band has both an upward compressor and a downward compressor. If the signal goes above the downward threshold, it has it's level reduced, the way compressors typically work. If it goes below the upward threshold, it has it's level boosted, which is a less common alternative way of compressing an audio signal.

Having both of these compressors active at once means the signal is crushed into a very small dynamic range. The plugin is designed to apply extreme compression to a signal with no regard whatsoever given to maintaining any of it's original characteristics.

You can't adjust the threshold of the upward and downward compressors individually, but you can adjust them both at once by dragging in the area with the colored rectangles. You can do this for each band individually. You can think of the black box as the area where the audio will be compressed into, although it doesn't have very precise measuring tools built in. You can also adjust the output gain of each band.

You can control the ratio of the upward and downward compressors individually. At least, I assume it's the same thing as ratio; the knobs are simply labeled "upwd%" and "dnwd%" respectively, and the automation controls are labelled as "strength" rather than "ratio". Either way, it controls how much gain reduction or the opposite of that the compressors do to the signal. This applies to all bands equally and you can't set the strengths per band.

I believe "Time" affects the attack and release times at once. "Depth" is a wet/dry control. You can set the input gain and output gain as well, output being the same as makeup gain, and input controlling how loud the plugin thinks the audio is (basically).

Presets

The OTT I downloaded did not come with any presets. I have spotted a handful of them in the wild if you are really interested. I generally don't think compressor presets are all that useful because they depend so heavily on the level of the input signal, but in the case of OTT it might be fun to play around with or get inspiration since this is a very creative plugin and not a precise tool.

Learning and Support

OTT is pretty simple. Although it isn't clear what the controls do on the surface, a quick google search will fix that. There aren't many use cases for OTT that require precise measurement of things, so learning how to apply it is mostly a creative endeavor and less a matter of figuring out what specific problems to solve.

If you've used another multiband compressor then OTT should not be too difficult to understand given you know what the controls do and how they relate to other compressors.

There are many many many tutorials on how to use OTT. This is partially because there isn't that much to say about it, but also because it's probably one of the most used audio plugins in the world, at least as far as louder music styles are concerned, particularly EDM.

Opinions and Conclusions

OTT is a fantastic plugin for the use case it was designed for, which is crushing the dynamic range out of specific instruments to make them as loud as possible without literally distorting them. Specifically this is useful with heavy electronic sound design like dubstep basses and such which benefit from having an extremely consistent level. The main appeal is that it does this with minimal effort: You basically just put it on the track and it just starts working as intended.

Although it probably sounded like I was complaining about the UI, it actually does it's job quite well. Stuff isn't labeled like a normal compressor because OTT isn't one, and the control labelling describes the resulting sound (kind of), which is neat.

You might consider messing with the strengths of the compressors and the depth/time settings a bit if it initially seems too harsh.

OTT is not really that useful for more traditional compressor tasks, since you can't really adjust the thresholds or ratios individually. I don't think OTT even really works with a ratio system. It's notably designed to be not transparent even slightly, so if you care about preserving the character of a sound while compressing it to smooth out inconsistent volume levels or something, or to use it as a peak catcher, you probably will notice it's effect a whole lot more than you want to.

My preferred way to use this plugin is to put it on a bus with various instruments and turn the depth down to like 50-60%. It gives things like supersaws the kind of fatness you expect to hear in EDM, and it seems to work best when you take a bunch of stuff in a similar frequency range and compress it together.

It doesn't work that great as a typical drum compressor, because the upward unit kind of ruins the effect compressors normally have of making the transient stick out more and squashing the tail. You can turn the upward compressor off by turning it's strength all the way down, but I wasn't able to get it to do the cool drum compression thing because you can't control the attack and release separately. It does sound OK if used after a regular compressor to sort of bring it back together.