Mottle

A color and texture effect for Ableton Live, built as a VST3 audio effect. Version 0.1.0.

Four modules wired one after another, five effects in each: SHAPE drives and fuzzes, MOVE modulates, SPACE echoes and reverberates, and WEAR filters, squashes and wears the sound down. Drag the modules into any order. Put it on an audio track, a group or a return track.

The Mottle panel: a chain of four modules across the top, each module's effect buttons and knobs below, and the trace and loop sections at the bottom

What it does

Shape: PREAMP, DRIVE, FUZZ, SNARL (fuzz into a resonant filter that opens as you play harder) and BLOOM (volume swells). TONE darkens or brightens and changes how each one breaks up.
Move: DOUBLE, VIBRATO, PHASER (2 to 12 stages), TREMOLO and PITCH, an octave down to an octave up.
Space: BUCKET, a dark echo that runs away near the top; TAPE; ROOM, from a small room to a long wash; SPLICE, a short loop that bends in pitch when you change its length; and REVERSE, at half to double speed.
Wear: FILTER (tilt, low-pass or high-pass), PRESS, a heavy compressor; DECK, a worn cassette; MOTOR, where the pitch sags now and then; and RADIO, crackle, stutters and crushed bits.
Wobble: Each modulation and echo effect has a knob that makes it less stable in its own way: drifting pitch, worn tape, double-speed passes, lo-fi grit.
Input: Four headroom settings set where the drives start to break up, so a quiet bass and a loud synth behave alike. AUTO listens for three seconds and picks one.
Trace: Press TRACE, turn some knobs, press it again, and each knob you turned loops what you did. Playback follows Live's tempo. Recordings are saved with the set.
Loop: Hold to record up to 30 seconds, let go to loop it. A take under about a second holds as a pad instead. Record before or after the effects.

Every knob, effect choice and the module order is a host parameter, and so is the loop's HOLD, so it can go on a MIDI pad. 24 factory presets, and you can save your own.

Video

Walkthrough video — not up yet.

Documentation

Getting started (PDF) — putting Mottle on a track in Live, setting INPUT, the twenty effects, a tour of the panel, and TRACE and LOOP.

Every control is also described in the project README.

Download

Builds are on the releases page. Every archive includes the getting started guide. VST3 only — there is no Audio Unit build, so Mottle will not load in Logic.

Installation notes are on the front page.

Source

github.com/taddeimania/mottle — C++ and JUCE, AGPLv3.