Unfiltered Audio BattleFX is a new free multi-FX plugin for macOS and Windows based on Battalion’s send effects section.
If you’re looking for plugins with an experimental edge, you’ll find it hard to ignore the products from Unfiltered Audio. One of the most popular is the Battalion drum machine, which is packed with creative features.
Users particularly like the send effects of the Battalion plugin. Unfiltered Audio has listened to the feedback and has turned the send FX into a free plugin named BattleFX.
Unfiltered Audio BattleFX
BattleFX is a new free multi-FX plugin for macOS and Windows. According to the developers of Unfiltered Audio, BattleFX was created to address the common request for a dedicated plugin for send effects in Battalion.
The plugin consists of three sections: shatter delay, headspace reverb, and a master section.
The shatter delay is a creative delay FX that combines granular stretching, sample crushing, and feedback. It uses a granular buffer to prevent pitch artifacts from occurring when the DELAY TIME is changed. It has three main controls: time (BPM sync or Hertz), feedback with a dedicated tilt filter, and choke.
Things get a bit more unusual in the second row of knobs. Glitch determines how much smooth, random Brownian motion is applied to the delay time, transforming the delay into an unstable, more experimental delay.
With the active stereo button, the glitch parameter will be determined separately for the left and right channels. In stereo, it creates widely spread glitch delays, while in mono, the glitchy tones will appear in the center channel.
The S.RATE control affects the sample rate of the entire effect, including modifying the processing by the DSP. At lower rates, you get crunchier delays, and everything in the buffer will become lower in pitch.
There is also a ducking function, and Pong creates wide stereo effects.
The Reverb
The second FX is the Headspace Reverb, an updated version of the reverb from the SILO granulator plugin. To perfectly match the reverb to your track levels, there are input and output tilt functions.
They are on the input and output and can have a dramatic effect on the reverb tone. Then you have 10 distinct reverb modes, including dark, glitter, flutter, bokeh, and more. These will keep you busy for a long time, as they cover a wide range of applications.
You also have your classic controls, like a syncable pre-delay and decay. Also onboard is the sample-rate function, which has a major impact on the reverb’s sonic character. At lower rates, the reverb will become more heavily artifacted.
New in both effects in Unfiltered Audio BattleFX is the choke parameter, which automatically chokes the delay and reverb buffers at repeating intervals, including a Euclidean pattern knob. You can free-run, sync, and even be slightly off the beat.
You can use this to create complex, organic ducking patterns, especially in conjunction with a noisy input and the Maximize knob set to its maximum.
In the third and last section, you can find a master section with a three-band EQ, multimode distortion, maximizer, and more. There are also dedicated mute and solo functions. Like the other Unfiltered Audio plugins, you can also customize the color skin of the plugin.
First Impression
Battalion is one of the most powerful, if not the best, drum machine plugins currently available. The arsenal of creative tools built into it is impressive. These two effects are part of that as well.
I’m pleased to see that these unique and great-sounding effects can now be used with other sounds as well. Thanks, Unfiltered Audio! I hope this will also be released as an AUv3 plugin for iOS in the future.
Unfiltered Audio BattleFX is available now as a free download. It runs as a VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows. It’s a simple registration with a login and license number.
More information here: Unfiltered Audio
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