Product Request – Eventide Octavox Chromatic Scale Setting

[jonraduazzo]

I am an Octavox user and would strongly suggest the addition of a Chromatic scale option. While Octavox is a powerful tool,  it is significantly limited by its preset scales, specifically when using MIDI input, and by adding in this feature, it would increase the flexibility, ease of use, and therefore, appeal of the product.

The addition of a Chromatic scale feature would allow users to use MIDI input without having to stop and change the selected scale every time it changes, or run multiple parallel instances of the plugin on different scale settings. In its current state, the scale selected needs to be updated to reflect each unique chord change, which is very cumbersome and clunky. This makes Octavox a limited tool that requires significant patience and labor to get the desired result – a barrier to entry that some are unwilling to pass.

There is interest online among musicians and hobbyists to recreate Bon Iver’s “Messina” — numerous articles, tweets, and Reddit posts asking how they can achieve this sound have been posted over the last 5 years without a satisfying answer and there is still a demand to this day. Bon Iver utilizes the (very expensive) H8000 hardware to create this effect, which is not affordable for the average musician or hobbyist nor practical for those who prefer to mix in-the-box. The appeal of the “Messina” is being able to play real-time harmonies while maintaining the sonic quality of the source sound, as compared to a typical vocoder which adapts the sonic qualities of a second input (guitar, synth, etc). By incorporating the chromatic scale feature, Octavox would become the closest thing to a software plug-in “Messina” which can be played seamlessly via MIDI input without chord preset limitations. I believe that this would significantly increase the appeal of Octavox and drive a lot of hobbyists and audio engineers to purchase and use the plugin. When people are asked, “Wow how did you get that sound?” or “How can I recreate the Messina?”, the answer will be Octavox on Chromatic scale mode.

I have seen users in other forums suggest that Eventide engineers “refuse” to add this feature. I have faith that that is not the case and a compelling argument can be made to add this feature. I realize that certain use cases of the plugin require preset scales and that may not interact with a Chromatic mode. However, a flexible software that can harmonize without limitation in real-time using MIDI input is a much much more appealing product. I’m hopeful others will back this request and we can see it implemented in a future version.

[mcmorrise]

I’d like to add my “yes, and” to this post. Yes, chromatic mode in OctaVox would be sublime. And … some Eventide software to “conform” input to a given pitch without relying on 3rd-party tools would be great too.

Eventide has robust harmonization tools. But its products seem limited to relative shifts. To play OctaVox, H910, H949, and even the H-series racks in a traditional way, using absolute pitches, the input sound must first be conformed to a single pitch. Chris Messina’s setup has an AutoTune rack prior to his H8000 for that purpose.

It seems a shame that Eventide lacks a “pitch conform” solution, considering the artifacts and / or latency of non-Eventide software like AutoTune, LittleAlterBoy, etc. I’d gladly throw more money at Eventide if they developed a standalone, or made “OctaVox Ultra: Finally Playable By Non-Genius Keyboardists,” as the case may be.

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