In this article Julian Rodgers test drives the new AVA Bass Flow, an all in one plugin designed for processing bass with two approaches to EQ, multiband compression and chorus. Hear the results in this free video.
AVA Bass Flow
Taking a similar approach to AVA Vocal Flow, Bass Flow combines the four processing sections in the familiar “Flow” format, the usefulness of this is something you only become aware of as you use the plugins as the attention to detail when it comes to the ability to audition at different points in the processing chain, to solo individual sections and importantly to be able to adjust levels in and out of the whole plugins and the individual sections isn’t exciting or attention-grabbing but does make it easy to make good, objective decisions without just going with the louder option.
EQ Section
The four sections of Bass Flow can be re-ordered to your liking. There is a fully featured EQ section with bell, shelf and notch filters available, a useful Search filter which is a band pass filter useful for identifying the wanted area and a pair of additional filter bands which I’m pleased to see offer 6dB/oct slopes. I prefer using a 1 pole low pass filter on bass to using a high shelf when I want to tame the top end.
There is an excellent RTA which can be disabled but this is only half the story when it comes to EQ in Bass Flow. As well as this traditional static EQ there is the Bass Character section which is a pitch tracking EQ similar to the kind which have been available for some years. These are particularly useful on bass as at the bottom end it is more common for moving bass lines to change in timbre significantly when static EQ is applied.
Bass Character
Bass Character offers two bands of pitch tracking EQ but it is displayed in a different way and one which makes perfect sense when you understand what you are looking at. Instead of watching bands of EQ move up and down the fixed frequency spectrum instead we see fixed harmonics and can watch the energy level at each harmonic. Like any pitch tracking EQ it is only suitable for monophonic, pitched sounds.
I understand AVA stands for AAX, VST, AU. An acronym of acronyms. This is an indication that these plugins are suitable for use in pretty much all DAWs. This is as opposed to Harrison’s XT plugins for Mixbus.
Multiband Compressor
The compressor is a very effective Multiband design which has fixed attack and crossover frequencies but the sensitivity and gain reduction depth of each band can be set individually and while I rarely use multiband compression on bass, full band compression does work extremely well after all, when I do I’m always impressed. I have a TC Electronic RH450 bass amp and the one-knob compression on that is multiband and has always amazed me at just how good it sounds. In the same way this compressor, if set up with care can sound great.
Bass Chorus?
The addition of Chorus is a moot point for me as I’m not a fan of modulation on bass. That being said, this is a good chorus and it sounds much better than a stock DAW chorus would, thankfully it is very controllable and even I, a reluctant user of chorus on bass, was able to find a setting I’d be happy using (no, it wasn’t bypassed).
Conclusion
If you like the concept then Bass Flow does what it sets out to extremely well. I was able to shape the sound with control and I was able to track the changes and compare meaningfully because of the previously mentioned gain controls, solo and audition buttons. Something I’d add is some distortion or saturation as while I never use chorus on bass, I almost invariably put some amount of distortion on bass, even if it’s gentle enough not to be heard as distortion in the mix it adds useful “fur” to the sound allowing it to be more audible without necessarily being louder. I’ll often apply low pass filtering post distortion and if it were possible to insert the high and low pass filters independently of the static EQ it would be even better.
That being said this is a well thought out plug-in which gives the tools you need to shape and control bass. If I had to choose a stand out feature it would be the compressor which exceeded my expectations and is going to prompt me to experiment with the compressor in my bass amp…
Pricing and Availability
Bass Flow is availble now and there is an introductory discount of 50% availble making the GBP price £81 instead of £164.