NowDSP reference

12-string

Makes a six-string sound like a 12-string guitar: every note gets a partner string an octave up, slightly out of tune and struck a moment later, for that big, jangly, chiming sound of 60s folk rock. quality fast (the default) uses half the CPU; clean gives the clearest octave string.

octave 0–1 · detune 0–20 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency

Acoustic body

Makes an acoustic guitar on a piezo pickup sound like a microphone in front of it: the boom of the body back, the nasal quack out, and the air of the strings on top. Use it with Signal set to Piezo pickup.

body 0–1 · quack 0–12 · air -6–9

Amp tone stack

Bass, middle and treble knobs like on a guitar amp, to shape the overall tone. Middle down with bass and treble up gives the scooped metal sound; middle up pushes a guitar forward in a band. 5 is flat.

bass 0–10 · mid 0–10 · treble 0–10 · midfreq 250–2500 · level -12–12

Auto-tune

Pulls your singing or playing onto the nearest correct note while keeping your voice sounding like you. A gentle speed fixes wobbly pitch without being noticed; speed 0 gives the robotic, stepped "Cher" sound. Works on one voice or single notes, not chords.

key C/C♯/D/D♯/E/F/F♯/G/G♯/A/A♯/B · scale chromatic/major/minor · speed 0–200 · amount 0–1 · mix 0–1

adds 27 ms latency

Auto-wah

A wah pedal that works by itself: the harder you play, the more it opens from dark to bright and quacky. Great on funk rhythm guitar and bass.

sens 0.5–40 · base 80–1200 · top 400–6000 · res 0–0.97 · attack 0.001–0.1 · release 0.01–1

Bass boost

Adds weight and warmth to the low end without making it muddy or boomy. For thin-sounding guitars, basses and voices.

boost 0–15 · freq 40–400 · curve 0.5–1.4 · subsonic 15–90 · level -15–6

Bass synth

Your bass (or the low strings of a guitar) plays a fat analog synth bass that follows every note you play: saw or square, a sub an octave down, and a filter that opens the harder you hit. Single notes only.

wave saw/square · sub 0–1 · cutoff 60–4000 · res 0–0.95 · sens 0–8 · glide 0–300 · mix 0–1

Bitcrusher

Makes the sound grainy, gritty and lo-fi, like an old video game or a cheap sampler. Mild at high settings, harsh and broken at extreme ones.

bits 1–16 · rate 400–24000

Body resonance

Gives a violin, viola or cello on a bridge pickup back the warm, woody body it loses: the resonances of the wooden box and the brilliance of the bridge. Use it with Signal set to Piezo pickup.

instrument violin/viola/cello · body 0–1 · air -6–9

Bow noise tamer

Calms the scratchy, hissy edge of a bow on the strings, only at the moments it gets harsh, so the tone itself stays open. For violin, viola and cello, and for a harsh piezo pickup.

freq 1500–6000 · threshold 0.003–0.3 · range 0–18

Cab simulator

Makes a distorted guitar sound as if it comes through a real guitar speaker instead of fizzy and harsh. Put it after Overdrive or Distortion, especially on headphones.

low 40–200 · thump 0–10 · presence -6–8 · high 2000–9000 · level -12–12

Chorus

Makes one instrument sound like several playing together: wider, thicker and gently shimmering. Classic on 80s clean guitar and electric piano.

rate 0.05–6 · depth 0–0.015 · mix 0–1

Compressor

Evens out loud and soft playing so everything sits at a steadier level. Gives a guitar more sustain and a voice a more even, upfront sound.

threshold 0.01–0.8 · ratio 1–20 · attack 0.0005–0.1 · release 0.01–1 · makeup 0.5–8

Crystalline abyss

A vast reverb whose tail splits two ways: one part climbs an octave into a glassy, crystal halo, the other sinks an octave into a dark drone underneath. Play a chord and let it ring into a huge, choir-and-cave soundscape. For ambient, post-rock and cinematic pads. shine is the crystal, deep the abyss; either one alone works too.

size 0.5–2 · decay 0.5–0.95 · shine 0–0.8 · deep 0–0.8 · tone 1500–12000 · mix 0–1

adds 85 ms latency

De-esser

Softens harsh, hissy "s" and "t" sounds in singing and speech without dulling the rest of the voice.

freq 3000–10000 · threshold 0.003–0.3 · range 0–24

Distortion

Aggressive, buzzy distortion that stays distorted even when you play softly, for rock and metal. Edgier than Overdrive, with its own tone control.

drive 1–80 · bias -0.6–0.6 · tone 400–12000 · level 0–1.5 · mix 0–1

Doubler

Makes one voice or instrument sound double-tracked, as if you recorded the part twice: a second take a moment later, never quite in time or in tune with the first. Thicker and fuller than one take, without sounding like an effect.

time 0.01–0.06 · depth 0–1 · mix 0–1

Echo

Clean repeats of what you play, each one quieter than the last. Short times thicken the sound; longer ones give rhythmic echoes.

time 0.02–1.8 · feedback 0–0.92 · mix 0–1

Expander

Makes quiet parts quieter, so hiss and hum fade away between notes while the notes themselves ring out naturally. Gentler than a noise gate.

threshold 0.001–0.2 · ratio 1–8 · attack 0.0005–0.05 · release 0.01–1

Flanger

A dramatic whooshing "jet plane" sweep, more metallic and intense than a phaser. Classic on 70s rock guitar and drums.

rate 0.02–4 · depth 0.0002–0.008 · feedback -0.9–0.9 · mix 0–1

Formant shift

Changes the character of a voice without changing the note: bigger, deeper and darker, or smaller, younger and brighter. Turn it a little for a different singer, a lot for a giant or a cartoon. One voice at a time.

shift -12–12 · mix 0–1

adds 38 ms latency

Freeze

Catches the note you are playing and keeps it sounding, like a drone you can play over. Switch hold on during a steady note.

hold off/on · length 0.05–1 · level 0–1.5 · dry 0–1

Fuzz

A thick, creamy wall of fuzz with long sustain, like the classic fuzz pedals of 90s grunge: chords turn into a dense roar and single notes sing on and on. For grunge, stoner rock, doom and shoegaze. tone goes from dark and smooth to bright and cutting, with the middle scooped out in between.

sustain 1–100 · tone 0–1 · level 0–1.5 · mix 0–1

Gain

Makes the sound louder or quieter, nothing else. 1 is unchanged.

gain 0–4

Harmonizer

Sings or plays along with you: a second voice a third, fourth, fifth, sixth or octave away that stays in the key, so it always sounds right. The voice keeps its own character instead of going chipmunk. One voice or single notes, not chords.

key C/C♯/D/D♯/E/F/F♯/G/G♯/A/A♯/B · scale major/minor · harmony octave down/5th down/3rd down/3rd up/4th up/5th up/6th up/octave up · level 0–1

adds 27 ms latency

High-pass

Gently removes low end, making the sound thinner and lighter. For cutting boom and rumble.

cutoff 20–8000

Hum remover

Removes the buzz of mains electricity, the hum from single-coil pickups, cables and ground loops, while leaving the notes alone.

mains 50 Hz/60 Hz · width 0.3–5 · depth 0–1

Looper

Records what you play into a loop and plays it back under you, so you can play along with yourself. Set the length in bars and the tempo, switch record on, and it starts at the next bar line; every pass you play is added on top of the last until you switch record off. A metronome ticks the beat (you hear it, it is never recorded); erase wipes the loop to start again. Loops up to 60 seconds. It allows for the delay of your setup by itself, so what you play in time with the click or the loop stays on the beat, however many layers you add.

bars 1–16 · bpm 40–240 · beats 2–7 · record off/on · erase off/on · metronome off/on · loop 0–1.5 · click 0–1

Low-pass

Gently removes high end, making the sound darker, warmer and softer. For taming harshness or hiss.

cutoff 30–18000

Multiband expander

Removes background hiss more cleverly than a gate: it only quietens the frequency ranges where nothing is being played, so the notes stay natural.

threshold 0.0005–0.2 · ratio 1–8 · release 0.01–0.5

Noise gate

Silences hiss and hum between notes: it opens as soon as you play and closes once a note has died well away, fading out instead of chopping it off. Often used with high-gain distortion.

threshold 0.001–0.2 · release 0.005–1

Nu-metal

Tight, heavy, scooped high-gain distortion in the style of late-90s nu-metal: chugging low strings, a hollow mid-range and a gate that cuts the noise the moment you stop. Turn tuning down to play lower, as on a down-tuned guitar: every string moves, so −2 is D standard and −7 puts the low string on A, as on Korn's seven-strings. At 0 the tuning is off and adds no delay. With tuning below 0, quality chooses a fast or a clean (slightly later) pitch shift.

tuning -12–1 · gain 1–100 · tight 40–300 · scoop 0–15 · chunk 0–10 · presence -6–8 · gate 0–0.1 · level -24–12 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency (none at its start settings)

Octave fuzz

A wild, nasal fuzz with a ringing note an octave higher on top, like Hendrix's lead tone. Best on single notes high up the neck.

drive 1–40 · tone 300–10000 · mix 0–1

Old microphone

Sounds as if it comes through an old microphone, telephone or 78 record: thin, nasal and slightly gritty, with optional hiss and crackle.

low 60–1000 · high 1500–8000 · honk 0–12 · drive 1–10 · hiss 0–0.03 · crackle 0–40 · level -6–18

Organ

Turns your guitar into a drawbar organ: the note you play plus pipes an octave below, an octave above and an octave-and-a-fifth above, held at an even volume like an organ key. Chords work too. Put Rotary speaker after it for the classic rock-organ sound. quality fast (the default) uses less than half the CPU; clean gives the clearest pipes, where the device keeps up.

sub 0–1.5 · dry 0–1.5 · octave 0–1.5 · twelfth 0–1.5 · sustain 0–1 · tone 1000–12000 · level -12–12 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency

Overdrive

A warm, amp-like crunch that stays fairly clean when you play softly and breaks up when you dig in. For blues and classic rock.

drive 1–40 · mix 0–1

Parallel compression

Brings out the quiet details, the room and the sustain while the hits keep their full punch: a hard-squashed copy of the sound blended in under the untouched original. The studio's "New York" trick for drums, also great on bass and vocals.

threshold 0.005–0.3 · release 0.02–0.6 · amount 0–1

Phaser

A slow, swirling swoosh that sweeps up and down through the sound, as on 70s funk guitar and electric piano. Subtle at low depth, watery at high.

rate 0.02–5 · depth 0–1 · feedback 0–0.9 · mix 0–1

Pitch shifter

Moves your sound up or down in pitch, from slight detuning to whole octaves. With mix below 1 you hear the shifted voice as a harmony next to your own. At 0 semitones and 0 cents it steps aside completely: no delay, no processing. quality switches between fast (as quick as possible) and clean (much less stray sound, about 10 ms later).

semitones -24–24 · cents -100–100 · mix 0–1 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency

Poly octaver

Adds a deep octave below, and optionally one above, that works even on chords: a guitar starts to sound like guitar plus bass, or like an organ. quality fast (the default) follows quickest and uses half the CPU; clean gives the clearest octaves.

down 0–1.5 · up 0–1.5 · dry 0–1.5 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency

Resonant filter

Darkens the sound like a low-pass, with a whistling peak at the cutoff you can turn up: the classic synthesizer filter.

cutoff 40–14000 · res 0–0.97

Resonator

Makes whatever you play ring on at a chosen note, like a sympathetic string: metallic, droning and a little sitar-like.

note 40–800 · decay 0.9–0.998 · damp 500–12000 · mix 0–1

Reverb

Puts the sound in a room or hall by adding a tail of reflections behind it.

size 0.3–2 · decay 0–0.94 · mix 0–1

Reverse delay

Echoes that play backwards, swelling in instead of fading out: dreamy and psychedelic.

time 0.1–0.95 · feedback 0–0.8 · mix 0–1

Ring modulator

Clanging, bell-like, robotic tones that are deliberately out of tune with what you play. At a very low freq it becomes a choppy tremolo instead.

freq 1–2000 · mix 0–1

Rotary speaker

The swirling sound of a Leslie speaker, as on a Hammond organ: a lush slow swirl or a fast warble, with a real speed-up between them.

speed slow/fast · depth 0–1 · balance 0–1

Shimmer reverb

A huge, ethereal reverb whose tail rises into higher octaves, like a choir or a synth pad. For ambient music.

size 0.5–2 · decay 0.5–0.95 · shimmer 0–0.8 · tone 1500–10000 · mix 0–1

Slapback

A single quick echo that thickens the sound: the classic 1950s rock'n'roll vocal and guitar sound.

time 0.04–0.2 · level 0–1 · tone 1000–10000 · feedback 0–0.5

Slicer

Chops the sound on and off in a rhythm, a stutter or trance-gate effect, in time with the bpm.

bpm 40–240 · steps 1–8 · duty 0.1–0.9 · depth 0–1 · smooth 0.5–20

Split drive

Grit and growl for bass without losing the low end: the deep part stays clean and tight while only the part above is distorted, then both are put back together. The classic modern bass-drive trick.

split 80–800 · drive 1–40 · tone 800–8000 · level 0–2

String section

Turns one violin, viola or cello into a string section: four more players, each slightly late and slightly out of tune in their own slow way, so they never line up. Lush on sustained notes and pads.

depth 0–1 · rate 0.05–2 · mix 0–1

Sub octave

Adds a smooth synth-like tone an octave below the note, for a fat bass line from a guitar. Works on single notes only.

sub 0–1.5 · tone 80–2000 · mix 0–1

Tape echo

Warm, vintage echoes that come back darker, grittier and slightly wobbly each time, like an old tape machine. They sit behind the playing instead of cluttering it.

time 0.05–1.5 · feedback 0–0.9 · tone 800–8000 · drive 1–6 · wow 0–1 · mix 0–1

Tilt EQ

One knob that makes the whole sound darker or brighter. A quick way to warm up a harsh sound or open up a dull one.

tilt -12–12 · pivot 200–3000

Transient shaper

Makes the pick attack punchier or softer, and the ring-out longer or shorter, however loud you play. Adds snap, or smooths a performance out.

attack -1–1 · sustain -1–1 · level -12–12

Treble boost

Adds brightness, sparkle and clarity to a dull sound. It raises hiss too, so go easy.

boost 0–15 · freq 800–10000 · curve 0.5–1.4 · level -15–6

Tremolo

The volume pulses up and down, like the tremolo on a 60s surf or country amp. Slow is a gentle throb, fast a stutter.

rate 0.1–20 · depth 0–1

Uni-vibe

A thick, throbbing, watery swirl between a phaser and a chorus, as Hendrix used. mix 0.5 is the chorus sound, 1 the vibrato sound.

rate 0.2–10 · depth 0–1 · mix 0–1

Vibrato

Makes the pitch waver up and down, like a singer's vibrato or a gently wiggled whammy bar.

rate 0.5–12 · depth 0–100

Vocoder

Turns your voice into a talking synthesizer: the robot voices of old sci-fi, or talking synth chords as in Daft Punk. Speak or sing clearly, and use headphones.

mode note/major/minor/follow · key C/C♯/D/D♯/E/F/F♯/G/G♯/A/A♯/B · octave 1–4 · interval -12–12 · sib 0–1 · mix 0–1

Vowel filter

Makes your instrument sound as if it says "a-e-i-o-u", like a talk box. Let your playing move the vowel for a talking wah.

vowel 0–4 · sens 0–4 · res 2–20 · level 0–30 · mix 0–1

Wavefolder

Bright, complex, synth-like tones: the harder you push it, the more buzzy and metallic it gets. A different character from distortion.

fold 1–12 · sym -1–1 · mix 0–1

Whammy

Bends the pitch up or down like a pitch pedal, from slow bends to octave jumps. Move position like the pedal, or let your playing or the lfo move it. quality switches between fast and clean (much less stray sound, a little later).

interval -24–24 · position 0–1 · follow 0–3 · lfo 0–8 · mix 0–1 · quality fast/clean

adds up to 25 ms latency

Wind synth

Your saxophone, trumpet, flute or voice plays a synth, like a wind controller: the note follows what you play, and how hard you blow sets its volume and brightness. Single notes only.

wave saw/square/soft · cutoff 100–6000 · res 0–0.95 · sens 0–8 · breath 0–1 · glide 0–300 · mix 0–1

WOW Expander

Makes your sound bigger than the speakers: wider than the two boxes, with a fuller low end and a clearer top. Great on a whole mix, keys, a clean guitar or a synth, and for headphones. Left and right together stay your own sound, so it doesn't fall apart in mono, and the bass stays in the middle. Turn width down if it starts to sound hollow.

width 0–12 · focus 0–12 · bass 0–10 · mix 0–1

New effect

An empty template for writing your own effect.

amount 0–2

air

Brilliance, in dB (0 unchanged). In Body resonance it is the bridge hill around 2.5 kHz (lower on a cello) that makes a violin sing; in Acoustic body the sparkle of the strings above 6 kHz. Negative makes it darker.

slider in Acoustic body, Body resonance

amount

How strongly the effect applies. In Auto-tune, 1 pulls you fully onto the note, lower keeps some of your natural pitch, and 0.5 goes halfway. In Parallel compression, how much of the squashed copy goes in under your sound: 0 is your sound alone, 0.5 a good start, 1 dense and full.

slider in Auto-tune, Parallel compression

ASIO

In the NowDSP app on Windows: the driver that pro audio interfaces (Focusrite, Behringer, RME, Steinberg and others) ship for the lowest delay. Installed ASIO drivers appear in the Input and Output menus, marked (ASIO); choosing one uses it for both.

attack

How quickly the effect reacts when a note starts or you play louder, in seconds. In Compressor and Expander, short grabs the very first pick hit; longer lets the hit through first, which sounds punchier. In Auto-wah, how fast the wah opens on each note: short is a quick, quacky "wow", longer a slower sweep. In Transient shaper it is the punch itself, from −1 to 1: up is snappier, down softer, 0 unchanged.

slider in Auto-wah, Compressor, Expander, Transient shaper

balance

In Rotary speaker: 0 is only the deep, slowly swirling drum, 1 only the bright, fast-whirling horn.

slider in Rotary speaker

bars

In Looper, how long the loop is, in bars of the tempo (bpm) and beats per bar you set: 2 bars of 4 beats at 100 bpm is 4.8 seconds. Loops can be up to 60 seconds; a longer setting is shortened to the bars that fit. Set it before you record: changing it later moves where the loop starts.

slider in Looper

base

Where the auto-wah rests when you play softly, in Hz. Lower sounds darker and more closed, higher brighter.

slider in Auto-wah

bass

In Amp tone stack: the amp-style low-end knob, 0 to 10, 5 flat. Up for more weight and boom, down for a leaner, tighter sound. In WOW Expander: how much fuller the low end gets, 0 to 10 dB around 80 Hz; 5 is a good start, 0 leaves the bass as it is.

slider in Amp tone stack, WOW Expander

beats

In Looper, beats per bar: 4 for most songs, 3 for a waltz, 6 for a slow 6/8. The metronome ticks higher on the first beat of each bar.

slider in Looper

bias

Makes the distortion lopsided. Near 0 it sounds buzzy and hollow; further from 0 it gets thicker, more like a fuzz or tube amp.

slider in Distortion

bits

How much detail the sound keeps. 16 sounds normal, around 8 gritty and hissy, 4 or less harsh, broken and robotic.

slider in Bitcrusher

body

How much of the wooden body's sound is put back, 0 to 1. Low is close to the bare pickup; high is warm, woody and boomy. In Body resonance it is the air and wood resonances of a violin, viola or cello; in Acoustic body the boom of a guitar's body. 0.5 is a good start.

slider in Acoustic body, Body resonance

boost

How much is added, in dB. A few dB adds a touch of warmth (Bass boost) or sparkle (Treble boost); 10 or more is dramatic.

slider in Bass boost, Treble boost

bpm

Tempo in beats per minute: set it to your song. In Slicer the speed of the chopping; in Looper the tempo of the metronome and of the loop, whose length is whole bars of it.

slider in Looper, Slicer

breath

In Wind synth, how much air noise is mixed into the tone: 0 is a clean synth, 0.1 to 0.2 sounds natural for a flute or sax, high is whispery.

slider in Wind synth

Buffer

In the NowDSP app: the audio device’s buffer. Smallest has the least latency; go one step up if you hear clicks or dropouts. With an ASIO driver the sizes it offers are set in its own control panel.

Bypass

Sends the signal around the effect or the whole chain without processing it.

cents

Fine tuning; 100 cents is one semitone. A few cents with mix below 1 gives a thick, chorus-like doubling.

slider in Pitch shifter

Chain

The effects in order, top to bottom. Each one processes the output of the one above.

Chain response

The spectrum view that shows what the chain does to each frequency: above 0 dB it boosts, below it cuts. It is measured from what you play. The input level and the type of signal are left out, so it shows the effects only.

Channels

Which input channels feed the chain. Auto uses the live one when the other is silent, as with a guitar in a mono microphone input, and stereo when both carry sound.

chunk

In Nu-metal, the low thump around 90 Hz added after the distortion, in dB. More makes palm-muted chugs hit harder in the chest.

slider in Nu-metal

click

In Looper, how loud the metronome ticks, 0 to 1. 0.3 is a good start.

slider in Looper

Clipping

Flattening the peaks of a wave that goes past a limit. Soft clipping rounds them (warm); hard clipping cuts them flat (buzzy).

crackle

How many pops and clicks per second, like dust on a 78 record. A few is subtle, 20 or more sounds very worn. 0 is none.

slider in Old microphone

curve

How the boost rises towards its frequency, in Bass boost and Treble boost. 0.707 is a smooth, even rise that sounds most natural. Higher adds a small hump just before the boost frequency and a dip just past it, which sounds punchier and more focused; lower gives a gentler, wider slope.

slider in Bass boost, Treble boost

cutoff

Where the filter starts cutting, in Hz. Low-pass and Resonant filter keep what is below it: lower is darker and more muffled. High-pass keeps what is above it: higher is thinner and lighter. In Bass synth and Wind synth it is where the synth’s filter sits when you play softly; playing harder opens it from there (see sens).

slider in Bass synth, High-pass, Low-pass, Resonant filter, Wind synth

damp

How quickly the ringing loses its brightness, in Hz: the ringing keeps the sound below this. Low sounds darker, like a nylon string; high brighter and more metallic.

slider in Resonator

dB

Decibel, a ratio of levels. +6 dB is twice the amplitude, −6 dB half, −20 dB a tenth. 0 dB is unchanged, or full scale on a meter.

DC block

Removes a constant offset and subsonic rumble from the input, and again from the chain's output (effects that clip one side harder than the other, such as Distortion, Nu-metal and Octave fuzz, make an offset of their own). Offsets eat headroom and push the speaker. Leave it on.

DC offset

The waveform sitting above or below zero instead of centred. You cannot hear it, but it wastes headroom and can build up in feedback loops.

decay

How long the sound keeps ringing. Low is short and tight, high a long, lingering tail; near the top it rings for a very long time.

slider in Crystalline abyss, Resonator, Reverb, Shimmer reverb

deep

In Crystalline abyss, how much of the tail sinks an octave every pass: low is a soft shadow under the reverb, high a dark drone that fills the bottom. Start at 0.3; together with shine it is kept from running away.

slider in Crystalline abyss

depth

How strong the wobble, sweep or pulse is: low is subtle, high dramatic and seasick. In Vibrato it is the pitch swing in cents; in Slicer how far the closed slices go down (1 is silence); in Hum remover how much of the hum filter is applied. In String section and Doubler, how far the extra players or the second take drift out of time and tune: 0 is perfectly together (and sounds like one louder player), 0.5 natural.

slider in Chorus, Doubler, Flanger, Hum remover, Phaser, Rotary speaker, Slicer, String section, Tremolo, Uni-vibe, Vibrato

detune

In 12-string, how far out of tune the partner strings are, in cents (a hundredth of a semitone). 0 is perfectly in tune and sounds more like an organ; 5 to 8 like a real 12-string; more becomes a chorus.

slider in 12-string

down

Level of the octave-below voice. Up for more bass and weight.

slider in Poly octaver

drive

How hard the sound is pushed into distortion. Low is a light crunch; high thick, saturated and squashed. In Tape echo and Old microphone it adds grit.

slider in Distortion, Octave fuzz, Old microphone, Overdrive, Split drive, Tape echo

dry

Level of your original sound next to the effect: 1 is as loud as it came in, 0 leaves only the effect. In Organ it is the 8' drawbar: the pipe at the pitch you play.

slider in Freeze, Organ, Poly octaver

duty

How much of each slice is open. Low gives short, staccato blips; high long notes with brief gaps.

slider in Slicer

Effect meter

The thin bar down the right edge of each effect: how loud that effect's output is, lit from the bottom, amber above −12 dB and red above −3 dB, with a tick that holds the recent peak for a second. It shows the output only; an effect's input is the output of the effect above it (the first one's is the in meter at the top). An effect that is switched off shows nothing.

Envelope

How the loudness of a note develops over time: the attack, then the decay or ring-out. Effects that "follow" your playing track it.

erase

In Looper, switching it on wipes the loop: the loop goes quiet and is cleared over one pass. Switch it off again before you erase the next time.

slider in Looper

feedback

How much of the effect is fed back into itself. On echoes (Echo, Slapback, Tape echo, Reverse delay) it means more repeats, a long trail near the top. On Phaser and Flanger it makes the sweep more intense, resonant and whistling. Flanger also goes negative, which sounds hollower.

slider in Echo, Flanger, Phaser, Reverse delay, Slapback, Tape echo

Feedback (acoustic)

Howling when speakers are picked up by the microphone and amplified again. Use headphones.

focus

How much clearer and more present the top gets, 0 to 12 dB above 2 kHz. A little (3) lifts the sound out of the speakers; a lot gets bright and sharp.

slider in WOW Expander

fold

How hard the waveform is folded. Low is warm and slightly buzzy, high bright, glassy and metallic.

slider in Wavefolder

follow

In Whammy, how much your playing moves the pedal for you: play harder and the pitch goes further towards the interval, then comes back as the note fades. 0 is off; 2 reaches the full interval on a firm note.

slider in Whammy

Formant

A resonance of the mouth that gives a vowel its sound, independent of the note being sung.

freq

A frequency in Hz. In Bass and Treble boost, where the boost starts. In De-esser, where the harsh "s" sits (5 to 8 kHz for most voices). In Bow noise tamer, where the scratch sits: 3.2 kHz is a good start for a violin, lower for a cello. In Ring modulator, the tone it mixes in: very low gives a choppy tremolo, higher gives clanging, bell-like tones.

slider in Bass boost, Bow noise tamer, De-esser, Ring modulator, Treble boost

gain

Volume. 1 is unchanged, 2 is +6 dB, 0.5 is −6 dB, 0 is silent. In Nu-metal it is the amp's gain instead: how hard the guitar is driven into distortion; 30 is heavy, 60 and up very saturated.

slider in Gain, Nu-metal

gate

In Nu-metal, the level below which the sound is cut, so the hiss stops the moment you stop playing. Raise it if you hear hiss between chugs; 0 turns the gate off.

slider in Nu-metal

glide

How long the synth slides from one note to the next, in milliseconds. 0 jumps straight to the new note, 10 to 20 sounds natural, 100 or more is a deliberate slide.

slider in Bass synth, Wind synth

Harmonics

The higher overtones above a note that give it its character. More of them sounds brighter and richer. Odd ones sound hollow and reedy, like a clarinet; even ones thick and warm.

harmony

In Harmonizer, which second voice it sings: a third, fourth, fifth or sixth above, a third or fifth below, or an octave either way. Counted in the scale of the key, so it stays in key. A third up is the classic sweet harmony; a fifth sounds powerful and open.

slider in Harmonizer

Headroom

How far the signal is below the point where it clips. Too little and loud notes start to distort.

high

Where the top end is cut, in Hz. Lower sounds darker and more muffled: about 3400 is a telephone, 5000 a guitar speaker.

slider in Cab simulator, Old microphone

hiss

Steady background noise, like tape or an old valve amplifier. 0.003 is faint, 0.03 obvious.

slider in Old microphone

hold

off lets the sound through normally; on catches what is playing and keeps it sounding.

slider in Freeze

honk

The nasal, boxy quality of an old microphone or gramophone horn, in dB. Higher is more honky; 0 is none.

slider in Old microphone

Hz, kHz

Hertz: cycles per second, the unit of frequency. 1 kHz is 1000 Hz. A guitar’s low E is 82 Hz; hearing tops out near 16–20 kHz.

Input level

Turns what comes in up or down before the chain, from −20 to +40 dB. Start at 0 dB and turn it up only as far as you need; double-click it to go back to 0 dB.

instrument

In Body resonance, which instrument you play: violin, viola or cello. It moves the body's resonances to where they sit on that instrument.

slider in Body resonance

interval

A distance in semitones: 12 is an octave up, −12 an octave down, 7 a fifth up. In Whammy it is where the pitch lands with the pedal fully down; in Vocoder, in follow mode, how far the synth sits from the note you sing, for a harmony.

slider in Vocoder, Whammy

key

The key, C to B. In Auto-tune it sets, with scale, which notes are allowed (in chromatic it does nothing). In Harmonizer it sets, with scale, which notes the harmony uses, so it stays in key: set it to the key of the song. In Vocoder it is the note the synth plays.

slider in Auto-tune, Harmonizer, Vocoder

Latency

The delay between playing and hearing. The readout adds up the audio system and every effect that needs a window of audio before it can work; hover it for the breakdown. The NowDSP app has far less of it than a browser.

length

How long the piece of sound that is held and looped is, in seconds. Short loops can pulse audibly; longer ones sound smoother.

slider in Freeze

level

Output volume of the effect; use it to make the effect as loud as it is when switched off. In dB (0 is unchanged) in Bass boost, Treble boost, Amp tone stack, Cab simulator, Transient shaper, Vowel filter, Old microphone, Organ and Nu-metal. A multiplier (1 is unchanged, 0.5 is −6 dB) in Distortion, Fuzz and Freeze; in Freeze it is the volume of the held sound only. In Slapback it is the volume of the echo, 0 to 1; in Harmonizer the volume of the harmony voice, 0 to 1, with your own voice always there; in Split drive the volume of the distorted part, where 0 leaves only the clean lows.

slider in Amp tone stack, Bass boost, Cab simulator, Distortion, Freeze, Fuzz, Harmonizer, Nu-metal, Old microphone, Organ, Slapback, Split drive, Transient shaper, Treble boost, Vowel filter

lfo

Moves the pedal up and down by itself, this many times per second. 0 is off; a few Hz gives a wobbling, siren-like pitch.

slider in Whammy

Limiter

Loudness: Limit (the default). Rounds off peaks above about −3 dB at the end of the chain, so a runaway effect cannot blast you. It does not change how loud the chain is otherwise.

loop

In Looper, how loud the recorded loop plays back under you, 0 to 1.5. 1 is as loud as you played it.

slider in Looper

Loudness

How loud the result comes out, the last stage before the speakers: Normalize (even loudness, peaks stopped at −1 dB), Limit (peaks rounded off above −3 dB, level otherwise unchanged) or Off.

low

Where the bottom end is cut, in Hz. Higher sounds thinner and tighter: about 80 is a guitar speaker, 400 a telephone.

slider in Cab simulator, Old microphone

mains

The hum’s frequency: 50 Hz in Europe, 60 Hz in North America. Pick the one where you are.

slider in Hum remover

makeup

Volume added after compression to win back the level it took, as a multiplier: 1 adds nothing, 2 is +6 dB, 4 is +12 dB. Raise it until the compressor sounds as loud on as off.

slider in Compressor

metronome

In Looper, a tick on every beat, higher on the first beat of a bar, to play in time with. You hear it, but it is never recorded into the loop.

slider in Looper

mid

Amp-style middle knob, 0 to 10, 5 flat. Down for a scooped, hollow sound; up to push the guitar forward in a mix.

slider in Amp tone stack

midfreq

Where the mid knob acts, in Hz. Around 400 sounds boxy or woody, 800 honky, 1500 to 2500 gives bite.

slider in Amp tone stack

mix

Balance between your original sound (0) and the effect (1). In between blends both. In Doubler it is the volume of the second take; your own sound always stays.

slider in Auto-tune, Bass synth, Chorus, Crystalline abyss, Distortion, Doubler, Echo, Flanger, Formant shift, Fuzz, Octave fuzz, Overdrive, Phaser, Pitch shifter, Resonator, Reverb, Reverse delay, Ring modulator, Shimmer reverb, String section, Sub octave, Tape echo, Uni-vibe, Vocoder, Vowel filter, Wavefolder, Whammy, Wind synth, WOW Expander

mode

Which synth your voice shapes: one steady note, a major or minor chord on that note, or follow, which plays whatever note you sing.

slider in Vocoder

Mute

Silences the output at once. The button is red while the sound is muted.

Noise filter

Master hiss reduction. When you turn it on, stay quiet for a second: it listens first so it knows what to remove.

Normalize

Loudness: Normalize. Brings whatever chain you build to about the same loudness, so a quiet vocoder and three stacked overdrives come out equally loud: it turns up to 24 dB up or down, gliding over a second or so, and stops peaks at −1 dB. It only listens while you play: when little or nothing comes in (hiss, hum, a pause), it learns nothing and turns nothing up, so the noise between notes stays where it was. The input level still matters: it decides how the effects themselves react.

note

The note it rings at, in Hz: 110 is an A, 82 a low E, 147 a D.

slider in Resonator

octave

In Vocoder, which octave the synth note is in: 1 is very low, 2 a low male voice (A is 110 Hz), 3 and 4 higher. In Organ, the 4' drawbar: the level of the pipe an octave above your note. In 12-string, the level of the octave strings: 0 leaves only the slightly detuned unison strings, 1 is a very bright, jangly 12-string.

slider in 12-string, Organ, Vocoder

Octave

The same note higher or lower: an octave up is double the frequency, an octave down half. Twelve semitones.

Pickup

The part of an electric or acoustic instrument that turns string vibration into a signal. A magnetic pickup is a coil under steel strings (electric guitar, bass); a piezo pickup senses pressure, under the bridge of an acoustic guitar or violin, or as a contact mic.

pivot

The frequency the tilt turns around, in Hz: above it the sound gets brighter as tilt goes up, below it darker, and the other way round. About 800 suits most sounds.

slider in Tilt EQ

position

The pedal: 0 is heel down (normal pitch), 1 toe down (the full interval). Sweep it for bends.

slider in Whammy

presence

The bite of the guitar speaker around 2.5 kHz (3 kHz in Nu-metal), in dB. Up makes the guitar cut through; down smoother and darker.

slider in Cab simulator, Nu-metal

quack

In Acoustic body, how much of a piezo pickup's nasal, plasticky "quack" around 1.2 kHz is taken out, in dB. 0 leaves it; 6 is a good start; 12 for a very quacky pickup.

slider in Acoustic body

quality

In the pitch effects (Pitch shifter, Whammy, Poly octaver, Organ, 12-string, Nu-metal's tuning): fast or clean. Fast follows your playing as quickly as possible. Clean has far less stray, warbly sound around each note and chord, but follows about 10 ms later (more on very low notes) and uses about twice the CPU. Fast is the default in all of them; switch to clean when the device keeps up and you want the clearest sound.

slider in 12-string, Nu-metal, Organ, Pitch shifter, Poly octaver, Whammy

range

The most De-esser will turn an "s" down, or Bow noise tamer the scratch, in dB.

slider in Bow noise tamer, De-esser

rate

How fast the effect moves, in wobbles per second. Slow is gentle and dreamy, fast shimmering or warbling. In String section, how fast the players drift; slow (0.2 to 0.4) sounds most like real players. In Bitcrusher it is the sample rate it drops to instead: lower is more muffled and metallic.

slider in Bitcrusher, Chorus, Flanger, Phaser, String section, Tremolo, Uni-vibe, Vibrato

Rate

In the NowDSP app: the sample rate, how many times a second the sound is measured. Auto is 48 kHz, which covers everything the ear hears. 88.2 and 96 kHz give a little less delay and cleaner high-gain distortion, at twice the processing. A device that lacks the rate you pick runs at the nearest it has; the readout above the scope shows the real one.

ratio

How hard levels are pushed once past the threshold. In Compressor, 2 is gentle, 4 obvious and 10 or more flattening. In an expander, higher cuts the quiet parts harder.

slider in Compressor, Expander, Multiband expander

record

In Looper, on records what you play into the loop, starting at the next bar line; every pass is added on top of what is already there (overdub). Switch it off and recording stops at the next bar line, and the loop keeps playing.

slider in Looper

release

How quickly the effect lets go when you play softer or stop, in seconds. Short follows every note and can pump; long is smoother and more natural. In Noise gate, how long the closing fade takes.

slider in Auto-wah, Compressor, Expander, Multiband expander, Noise gate, Parallel compression

res

Resonance: a whistling, vocal peak at the filter frequency. In Resonant filter, Auto-wah, Bass synth and Wind synth (0 to about 1), low is smooth, high squelchy and synth-like, very high whistles. In Vowel filter (2 to 20) it is how sharp the vowel is: higher sounds more like a voice, lower softer and vaguer.

slider in Auto-wah, Bass synth, Resonant filter, Vowel filter, Wind synth

Sample rate

How many samples per second the audio runs at, usually 44.1 or 48 kHz. The highest frequency it can carry is half of that.

scale

Which notes Auto-tune may land on: chromatic (all twelve, the subtlest correction), or the seven notes of the major or minor scale in the key, which is more forgiving and makes bigger jumps. In Harmonizer, whether the song is in major or minor: the harmony counts its steps in that scale, so a third is sometimes three semitones and sometimes four, as in real harmony singing.

slider in Auto-tune, Harmonizer

scoop

In Nu-metal, how deep the mid-range cut around 650 Hz is, in dB. More sounds hollower and heavier, the classic scooped metal sound; less puts the guitar forward in a band.

slider in Nu-metal

Semitone

One step on a piano keyboard, one fret on a guitar. 100 cents.

semitones

How far the pitch moves: 12 is an octave, 7 a fifth, 5 a fourth; negative goes down.

slider in Pitch shifter

sens

How strongly your playing level moves the effect. In Auto-wah, higher opens the wah on softer playing. In Vowel filter, how far louder playing moves the vowel along from a towards u; 0 keeps the vowel where you set it. In Bass synth and Wind synth, how far playing or blowing harder opens the filter: 0 keeps the same tone at any level, high gives a "wow" on every hard note.

slider in Auto-wah, Bass synth, Vowel filter, Wind synth

Shelf

An EQ that raises or lowers everything above (high shelf) or below (low shelf) a frequency by the same amount.

shift

In Formant shift, how far the voice's character moves, in semitones, while the note stays where it is. Down is bigger, deeper and darker; up smaller, younger and brighter. 2 or 3 either way sounds like a different singer; 7 or more like a giant or a cartoon.

slider in Formant shift

shimmer

How much of the rising octave goes into the reverb. Low is a hint of sparkle, high a bright, angelic, organ-like swell.

slider in Shimmer reverb

shine

In Crystalline abyss, how much of the tail climbs an octave every pass: low is a faint glassy sparkle, high a bright crystal halo over the reverb. Start at 0.4.

slider in Crystalline abyss

sib

How much hiss is mixed into the synth so "s", "t" and "f" stay understandable. 0 is the purest synth tone but mumbled words; around 0.3 is a good balance.

slider in Vocoder

Signal

The Signal menu: what is plugged in. Microphone or Line needs no correction. A magnetic pickup (electric guitar, bass, electric piano) sounds dull in a microphone input and a piezo pickup (acoustic guitar, violin) sounds thin; NowDSP puts the lost treble or bass back without changing the loudness. Through an audio interface’s instrument input, choose Microphone or Line: the interface already does this.

size

How big the space sounds. Small is a room or booth, large a hall; larger also makes the tail more spacious and less metallic.

slider in Crystalline abyss, Reverb, Shimmer reverb

smooth

How soft the edges of each slice are, in ms. Short is choppy and percussive, long gentler and pulsing.

slider in Slicer

Spectrum

How much of each frequency is in the sound right now: low on the left, high on the right. The in and out readouts show the detected pitch. At the top right, ♩ shows the tempo of what goes in, in beats per minute, once it has heard a steady beat for a few seconds (drums work best); it stays empty when it isn’t sure. A half-time groove reads at its counted tempo, so below 90 it shows double.

speed

In Rotary speaker, slow (a lush swirl) or fast (a warble). In Auto-tune, how many ms a correction takes: 0 snaps instantly for the robotic sound, 20 to 50 sounds like natural, corrected singing.

slider in Auto-tune, Rotary speaker

split

In Split drive, the frequency in Hz below which the sound stays clean. 250 keeps a bass's fundamentals clean and tight; higher keeps more of the sound clean, lower drives more of it.

slider in Split drive

steps

How many slices per beat: 1 is quarter notes, 2 eighths, 4 sixteenths.

slider in Slicer

sub

Level of the tone an octave below. In Organ, the 16' drawbar: the pipe an octave under the note you play. In Bass synth, a pure, deep tone under the synth, for weight on a small speaker or a big one.

slider in Bass synth, Organ, Sub octave

subsonic

Cuts the deep rumble below this frequency, so the boost adds warmth instead of mud or flapping speakers. Around 25 to 40 Hz.

slider in Bass boost

sustain

How long notes ring out: up for longer, fuller sustain, down for shorter, tighter notes. In Organ, how evenly a note is held: 1 keeps it at full volume like an organ key, 0 lets it die away like the guitar; start at 0.7. In Fuzz, how hard the fuzz is driven: higher is a thicker, longer-singing wall that also brings up more hiss, lower lets your picking dynamics through; 20 to 40 is the classic sound.

slider in Fuzz, Organ, Transient shaper

sym

Changes the character of the folding. At 0 it sounds hollow; away from 0 it gets thicker, with more overtones.

slider in Wavefolder

threshold

The level where the effect starts to act, as a fraction of full scale (0.1 is about −20 dB, 0.01 about −40 dB). In Compressor and Parallel compression, lower squashes more of your playing (in Parallel compression that brings up more of the quiet detail). In Noise gate, the level that opens it: set it just above the hiss you hear when you're not playing; it closes only 15 dB lower, so notes ring out. In the expanders, higher cuts more, eventually soft notes too. In De-esser and Bow noise tamer, lower also catches softer "s" sounds or bow scratch.

slider in Bow noise tamer, Compressor, De-esser, Expander, Multiband expander, Noise gate, Parallel compression

thump

The low, chesty resonance of a guitar cabinet around 110 Hz, in dB. More gives a fuller, heavier chug.

slider in Cab simulator

tight

In Nu-metal, how much low end is cut before the distortion, in Hz. Higher keeps fast chugs on the low strings tight and clear; lower is looser and boomier. Start at 120. It moves down with tuning, so a lowered guitar keeps its low end.

slider in Nu-metal

tilt

Positive makes it brighter, negative darker, 0 is flat. The number is the dB difference between the lowest and highest frequencies.

slider in Tilt EQ

time

How long until the echo comes back, in seconds. Under 0.1 thickens the sound; 0.3 to 0.5 is a classic echo. In Reverse delay it is the length of each backwards slice. In Doubler, how far behind you the second take is: 0.02 to 0.03 sounds like two takes, much longer like a short echo.

slider in Doubler, Echo, Reverse delay, Slapback, Tape echo

tone

Brightness of the effect’s sound, in Hz. Lower is darker and warmer, higher brighter. In Split drive it is only the distorted part’s brightness. In Fuzz it runs 0 to 1, like the tone knob on a fuzz pedal: 0 is dark and smooth, 1 bright and cutting, and in between the middle is scooped out for the classic hollow roar; start at 0.5.

slider in Crystalline abyss, Distortion, Fuzz, Octave fuzz, Organ, Shimmer reverb, Slapback, Split drive, Sub octave, Tape echo

top

The highest frequency Auto-wah opens to when you play hard, in Hz. Lower is a darker, vocal wah; higher a brighter, quackier one. Start around 2500.

slider in Auto-wah

treble

Amp-style high knob, 0 to 10, 5 flat. Up for more sparkle and bite, down for a warmer, darker sound.

slider in Amp tone stack

tuning

In Nu-metal, plays everything lower, in semitones, as if the guitar were tuned down. Every string moves by the same amount: −2 is D standard, −5 B standard, −7 puts the low string on A, as on a down-tuned seven-string (a drop tuning, which lowers only the low string, can't be made this way). Simple power chords stay the cleanest. At 0 it is off and adds no delay; below 0 the notes come about 10 ms late (up to ~26 ms on the lowest ones).

slider in Nu-metal

twelfth

In Organ, the 2 2/3' drawbar: the level of a pipe an octave and a fifth above your note. Adds the bright, whistling shine of a rock organ.

slider in Organ

up

Level of the octave-above voice: adds a bright, organ-like ring.

slider in Poly octaver

vowel

Which vowel: a, e, i, o, u from 0 to 4, blending smoothly in between. Sweeping it gives a wah-like "yoy".

slider in Vowel filter

wave

The synth's sound before its filter. Saw is bright and buzzy: brass, and the classic synth bass. Square is hollower, like a clarinet. Soft (in Wind synth) is nearly a pure tone, for a flute.

slider in Bass synth, Wind synth

width

In Hum remover: how wide each notch is, in Hz. Narrow removes only the hum; wider removes more buzz but can dull notes close to the hum’s frequencies. In WOW Expander: how far the sound spreads beyond the speakers, 0 to 12 dB; 6 is wide, 0 is as it came, the top end can sound hollow.

slider in Hum remover, WOW Expander

Window

A slice of recent audio that an effect analyses at once. Pitch effects need one, and the window length is also the latency they add.

wow

How much the tape wobbles. A little adds vintage warmth; a lot makes the repeats warble and go seasick.

slider in Tape echo