MULTIWAY MANUAL

Installation

Download the file for your system from the Multiway page.

macOS

Requires macOS 11 or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

1. Open Multiway-v1.1-macOS.pkg and follow the installer. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.
2. Choose which formats to install. They go to:
   • VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
   • AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
   • Standalone: /Applications
3. Restart your DAW or rescan plug-ins. Multiway is listed under BopsAudio.

To uninstall, delete Multiway.vst3, Multiway.component and Multiway.app from those folders.

Windows

Requires Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. Windows gets the VST3 and the standalone app; there is no AU on Windows.

1. Run Multiway-v1.1-Windows-Setup.exe. If SmartScreen warns you, click More info → Run anyway.
2. The VST3 plugin is always installed; the standalone app is optional. They go to:
   • VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\Multiway.vst3
   • Standalone: C:\Program Files\BopsAudio\Multiway, with a Start menu shortcut
3. Restart your DAW or rescan plug-ins.

To uninstall, use Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Apps & features) and remove Multiway.

Linux

Requires 64-bit x86 Linux with glibc 2.35 or later, such as Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12 or newer. Linux gets the VST3 and the standalone app; there is no AU on Linux.

1. Extract the archive: tar -xzf Multiway-v1.1-Linux-x64.tar.gz
2. In the extracted folder, copy the VST3 plugin to your VST3 folder: mkdir -p ~/.vst3 && cp -r Multiway.vst3 ~/.vst3/
3. Restart your DAW or rescan plug-ins. Multiway is listed under BopsAudio.
4. To use the standalone app, run ./Multiway from the same folder.

To uninstall, delete ~/.vst3/Multiway.vst3 and the extracted folder.

Quick start

1. Put Multiway on a track or bus and play some audio. The spectrum at the bottom of the window starts moving.
2. Drag the bars under the spectrum up and down. Each bar is one band’s delay: up is later. Giving neighbouring bands different times makes the sound smear and scatter across the spectrum.
3. Press RANDOM for an instant starting point. Press the undo arrow if you don’t like it.
4. Click a band, then raise Feedback so that band keeps repeating.
5. Bring Mix down to blend the delay with your original sound.

Mix starts at 100 %, so at first you hear only the delayed signal, 150 ms late on every band.

The window

From top to bottom:

• Time panel: L Delay, R Delay, Feedback, Mix, Low Cut and High Cut. The label at its top right shows what the knobs are editing, for example BAND 500 Hz or ALL BANDS. The LINK button sits between L Delay and R Delay.
• Shaper panel: the LFO of the knob you last clicked, with its five controls below it.
• Settings row: Bands, Resolution, Random, Reset and undo.
• Spectrum: a live view of the incoming audio with one delay bar per band, and the ALL column on the left.

Double-click a knob to return it to its default. You can resize the window by dragging its bottom-right corner, from 720 to 1500 pixels wide; it keeps its proportions, and the size is saved with your session.

Bands and delay bars

Band centres are spaced evenly on a log-frequency scale from 31 Hz to 16 kHz. With 10 bands they sit at 31, 63, 125, 250, 500 Hz and 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 kHz; with 4 bands at 31, 250 Hz, 2 and 16 kHz; with 2 bands at 31 Hz and 16 kHz. Frequencies between two centres blend the settings of both, so there are no hard steps at band edges.

• Select a band: click its column. The delay, feedback and rate knobs now edit that band.
• Change a delay: drag anywhere in the column. Up is later, and the height of the panel covers the whole 0–2000 ms range.
• Reset a band: double-click its column.
• Edit every band: click ALL. The knobs show the average of the bands and change all of them at once.
• Solo: click the S beside a band’s label. You can solo several bands at the same time.

Link

With LINK on, left and right move together, as long as both channels are in the same mode (both ms or both RATE). With it off, the left half of a column drags the left delay and the right half drags the right delay. Offsetting left from right is the quickest way to spread a band across the stereo field.

Random, Reset and undo

RANDOM rolls a new delay (up to 800 ms) and feedback (up to 60 %) for every active band. Mix and the cuts are left alone, and with LINK on left and right get the same value. RESET returns every parameter to its default. The undo arrow takes back the last Random or Reset; it is a single step.

Tempo sync

L Delay and R Delay each have their own ms | RATE switch. In RATE mode every band of that channel picks a note division: 1/64, 1/32, 1/16T, 1/16, 1/16D, 1/8T, 1/8, 1/8D, 1/4T, 1/4, 1/4D, 1/2 or 1/1.

The tempo comes from your DAW, or is 120 BPM if the host doesn’t provide one. Delays can’t go past 2000 ms, so a division longer than that at the current tempo is clamped, and a small warning sign appears next to the value.

Shaper and LFOs

L Delay, R Delay, Feedback, Mix, Low Cut and High Cut each have their own LFO. Click one of those knobs to show its LFO in the Shaper panel; the title of the panel tells you which one you are looking at. An LFO does nothing until you move its Amount away from 0 %. A thin ring around a modulated knob shows the current modulation.

• Shape: a sine, or your own. Turn on the pencil and draw in the panel. The drawn shape is saved with your project.
• Hz | RATE: free-running in Hz, or a note division. In RATE mode the phase locks to your DAW’s position while it plays.
• Delay and feedback LFOs add the same offset to every band, so the differences between bands stay as you set them. Cut LFOs move the cutoff in octaves.
• With LINK on, R Delay shares the L Delay LFO.

Resolution and latency

Resolution is the FFT size: how many samples Multiway looks at to split the sound into frequencies. Larger sizes separate frequencies more finely but blur transients more in time; smaller sizes keep attacks tighter but separate frequencies more coarsely. 2048 is a good place to start.

The latency equals the resolution in samples: at 2048 samples and 44.1 kHz that is 46 ms. Multiway reports it to your DAW, so plugin delay compensation lines everything up automatically.

Controls reference

All of these can be automated from your DAW. “Per band” controls have a separate parameter for each band.

Control	Applies to	Range	Default	What it does
L Delay / R Delay	Per band	0–2000 ms, or a note division	150 ms (1/8 in RATE)	How late the band arrives on the left and right. Fractional delays are exact, not rounded to whole FFT frames.
ms | RATE	L and R separately	ms / RATE	ms	Sets whether that channel’s delays are in milliseconds or note divisions.
Feedback	Per band	0–95 %	0 %	How much of the band’s delay is fed back, so it repeats.
Mix	Whole plugin	0–100 %	100 %	Dry/wet. The dry signal is aligned with the latency, so blending stays in time.
Low Cut	Whole plugin	20 Hz–2 kHz	Off (20 Hz)	Fades the delay and feedback out below the cutoff, over 1/3 octave.
High Cut	Whole plugin	200 Hz–20 kHz	Off (20 kHz)	Fades the delay and feedback out above the cutoff, over 1/3 octave.
Bands	Whole plugin	10, 4, 2	10	How many bands you edit. See Bands and delay bars.
Resolution	Whole plugin	512, 1024, 2048, 4096	2048	FFT size. It also sets the latency. See Resolution and latency.
S (Solo)	Per band	On / off	Off	Plays only the soloed band or bands.
LFO Rate	Per LFO	0.05–20 Hz, or 1/16T–4/1	1 Hz (1/4 in RATE)	How fast the LFO runs.
LFO Offset	Per LFO	0–100 %	0 %	Shifts the phase of the shape.
LFO Jitter	Per LFO	0–100 %	0 %	Blends the shape towards a random value that changes every cycle. At 100 % it is a random step per cycle.
LFO Smooth	Per LFO	0–100 %	0 %	Softens sudden changes in the LFO output.
LFO Amount	Per LFO	−100 to +100 %	0 % (off)	Depth and direction of the modulation.

Tips

• Spectral smear: at short times, set a slope across the bars, from low bands to high or the other way round. The sound sweeps through its own frequencies.
• Delay only the top: keep the low bands at a short delay and push the high bands later, or use Low Cut to keep the lows out of the delay altogether.
• Width: turn LINK off and offset left from right on a few bands.
• Rhythmic scatter: switch both channels to RATE and give each band a different division, then add feedback on one or two of them.
• Moving delays: a small Amount on the L Delay LFO adds a slow wobble. Add Jitter for something less predictable.
• Find what a band is doing: solo it, adjust it, and solo off.

Technical details

• Processing: short-time Fourier transform with a hop of a quarter of the FFT size and a square-root Hann window. Each frequency bin is delayed on its own, and fractional delays are applied as a phase rotation.
• Latency: equal to the selected resolution, and reported to your DAW.
• Analyzer: shows the input to the plugin.
• Formats: macOS: VST3, AU, Standalone. Windows and Linux: VST3, Standalone.
• Source code: Multiway is open source under the AGPLv3, on GitHub.

Troubleshooting

Multiway doesn’t show up in my DAW

• Rescan plug-ins, or restart the DAW. Look under the vendor BopsAudio.
• Ableton Live (macOS): in Settings → Plug-Ins, turn on “Use VST3 Plug-In System Folders” or “Use Audio Units v2”, then click Rescan.
• Logic Pro: open Logic Pro → Settings → Plug-in Manager, find Multiway and click “Reset & Rescan Selection”.
• FL Studio (Windows): Options → Manage plugins → Find plugins.
• Linux: most DAWs scan ~/.vst3 and /usr/lib/vst3. If yours doesn’t, add ~/.vst3 to its VST3 folders.
• Check the plugin is where the installer put it (see Installation). Most DAWs need the VST3 in the system VST3 folder.

It sounds metallic

That colouration is part of delaying neighbouring frequencies by different amounts. Smaller differences between neighbouring bands, a different Resolution, or a lower Mix all reduce it.

The repeats won’t die away

Feedback goes up to 95 %, which rings for a long time at long delays. Lower Feedback on the band, or press Reset. Click ALL first if you want to lower it on every band.

A division shows a warning sign

That division is longer than 2000 ms at the current tempo, so it has been clamped. Pick a shorter one.

I don’t hear my original sound

Mix is at 100 %, so you hear only the delayed signal. Bring it down to blend the dry sound back in.

Something else

Please send feedback with your OS, DAW and what happened. Bug reports with steps to reproduce get fixed fastest.