BLEASS Peaks is an innovative, MIDI-playable, multi-peak polyphonic filter plugin for macOS, Windows, and iOS.
Everyone has one or two filter plugins in their arsenal for quickly dampening or shaping a sound. With certain filters, you can even add a lot of character to a sound.
The French developers at BLEASS didn’t want another standard filter plugin; they came up with something special: a playable filter.
BLEASS Peaks
Peaks is a new original filter plugin for macOS, Windows, and iOS. BLEASS Peaks is built around an advanced multi-peak polyphonic filter design. The exciting part is two selectable modes.
In the internal control mode, you get a single bell-filter curve containing up to 32 resonant peaks/notches. Shaping is done on a parametric level. You can adjust the filter curve using parameters such as quantity, root frequency, and peak/notes spread.
Unique, however, is the MIDI operating mode. In this setting, the filter’s root frequency is controlled via MIDI. You can input live notes or via a recorded track from your track.
And it’s not just a single filter, but it can generate up to eight filters simultaneously, turning it into a polyphonic filter. This MIDI capability opens up new ways to work with a filter. BLEASS says:
Drum loops can be tuned to follow chord progressions, rhythmic harmonic pulses can be added to pads, arpeggios can be brought to life with complex frequency-shifting chorus effects… the creative possibilities are endless.
Take The Poly Filter Further
BLEASS didn’t leave it at that. Thanks to a built-in multi-FX section with five assignable effects slots, you can take the poly filter even further. You can apply distortion, dynamic processing, delay, or additional filters, including classic low- and high-pass filters.
There is more to explore. BLEASS Peaks also features a powerful modulation engine that lets you bring the filters to life. You can work with three LFOs, three envelopes with follower functionality, and four macro controls.
Each modulator can map to up to 4 destination parameters, giving you plenty of ways to animate your polyphonic filtering. Alongside these internal modulators, the plugin also recognises various real-time MIDI CC and MPE sources.
Peaks also ships with many factory presets you can use directly. In summary, BLEASS Peaks can be a more or less traditional filter or an “avant-garde” MIDI-controllable performance filter. The MIDI mode is certainly the exciting part here.
Beardyman demonstrates how far this can be taken in his video demo. You can transform a simple noise source into a melodic instrument.
First Impression
Peaks nicely demonstrates that not everything in the filter realm has yet been crammed into a music production tool. The ability to play a filter like an instrument is particularly noteworthy here.
While I don’t think you always need it, anyone with an affinity for sound design will appreciate this tool. And the built-in modulation and effects further elevate it beyond classic filtering. A very exciting, innovative tool, and the iOS version is a definite plus.
BLEASS Peaks is available now for an introductory price of 39€ instead of 49€ (20% OFF) for a limited time. It runs as a VST3, AU, AAX, and CLAP plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
Peaks is also available for iOS (iPhone/iPad) for $12,99 on the Apple App Store and runs as an AUv3 plugin.
More information here: BLEASS / App Store
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