u-He Uhbik

Uhbik-A: Ambience and reverb

Good reverb is seldom conspicuous, but when it is not there you notice something is missing.

Uhbik-A combines plate reverb and early reflections, with full control over each part to build the style of reverb you need. Sometimes you want a subtle touch of ambience, other times you want to float in space.

Uhbik-A has three operation modes designed for different reverb styles. All three share common controls that determine the spaciousness and feel. Bass and Treble shape the reflections, mimicking the absorptive properties of natural environments.

Add subtle space and texture or blend sounds together into warm clouds. Uhbik-A is a master of understatement.

Uhbik-D: Delay and echo

Inspired by classic tape echo units, Uhbik-D is a creative tool for vintage-style delays with digital enhancements.

Borrowing from the world of analogue tape echo, Uhbik-D has five taps (playback heads), time (tape speed), and feedback. Two filters and modulation controls add subtle to dramatic colour and motion to your delays, similar to those older tape machines.

Freed from the limitations of the real world, however, Uhbik-D can perform other tricks: Adjust each tap for extremely short delay times, feedback patterns, or create surround sound delays.

Uhbik-D is a big playground for creative delays packed into an easy interface. (If you want even more delay power, check out our more-feedback-machine MFM2)

Uhbik-F: Flanger and chorus

The flanging effect comes in two traditional flavours: the twin tape machine method and the bucket brigade stomp box type. With Uhbik-F you get both—even at the same time if you want.

In through-zero mode (tape machine method), the audio is duplicated and the playback speed of one signal is slowed or sped up to create a dramatic “whooshing” effect. The LFO and the built-in delay determine the intensity and character of the flanging effect. The guitar pedal type delivers more subtle, chorus-like sounds by feeding back very short delays and modulating their delay times. In Uhbik-F you can choose either type or a mixture of the two.

Uhbik-F comes with a few extras to enhance your final effect: Drive, a highpass filter to manage bass frequencies, and a feedback control (positive or negative) for intensifying the resonance in one of two different flavours.

Uhbik-G: Granular pitch shifter

Granular pitch shifters break incoming audio into small pieces (grains) of adjustable length (grain size), then play them back at variable rates.

By manipulating grains, Uhbik-G is capable of producing a wide range of effects from simple doubling to dramatic alien soundscapes. Transpose the pitch of each grain in semitones or scale the grain playback speed—which can be negative for unusual reverse effects. Surround sound capability lets you send differently scaled grains to each available channel.

Uhbik-G has a second mode capable of a very different effect: phase vocoding. The phase vocoder mode uses time-stretching / compressing for pitch shifting. Try it on your vocals for curious results.

Uhbik-P: Phaser

Another studio staple, phasers adds movement and colour. With 42 allpass filters, Uhbik-P delivers some of the deepest, warmest phasing available. But a little nudge turns it into a metal monster.

Uhbik-P is capable of many distinct sonic flavours by adjusting the filter frequency and feedback. Frequency adjustments move the filter ’comb‘ (peaks and troughs) around the spectrum, and feedback (positive or negative) widens the distance between peaks. You can control these manually, use automation or let the built-in LFO handle it.

With its built-in LFO and the other options common to all Uhbiks, Uhbik-P is a dramatic modulation device in a simple, sleek UI. Angelic shimmers and metallic textures await.

Uhbik-Q: Semi-parametric equalizer

From simple bass and treble knobs to massive 31 band graphic EQs, equalization is an essential part the recording process. Much can be (and has been) said about which features and qualities make the best EQs.

Uhbik-Q takes a streamlined approach to EQ. Maximum flexibility with an absolute minimum of controls. Maximum audio quality with low CPU usage. Tweakable but with smart automatic behaviour.

Uhbik-Q has two semi-parametric bands with switchable shelf and bell curves; adjust the frequency and the Q-factor is automatically adjusted for you. There are two additional filters for high and low cuts, and a dedicated low-shelf filter for handling bass frequencies.

Uhbik-Q does all an EQ should without affecting your workflow. Chock full of creative options, but uncluttered and simple to use.

Runciter: Distorting filter

Filters are popular sound-shaping tools—cutting and boosting frequencies, adding resonance. Perfect for performing dramatic sweeps, as we all know.

But Runciter is more than a high quality state-variable filter. It also contains some serious distortion circuitry.

Modulate the cutoff frequency manually, with the built-in envelope or via MIDI (breath, velocity, modwheel etc.). Attach a MIDI foot pedal and make your own wah/fuzz box.

The distortion options are capable of anything from mild grit to total sonic destruction. Dial in a little Fuzz, adjust the tone and you have some delicious tube distortion textures. Crank the Drive to push the distortion circuits even harder. Have fun… but watch your speakers.

Uhbik-S: Frequency shifter

Uhbik-S is a frequency shifter. There are similarities to chorus and phasing, but the movement in Uhbik-S is continuous, not back and forth via LFO.

The frequency range and shift is where you control that movement. Shift adjusts the amount of frequency shift (up and down) from the value set by the range option. Dial in some frequency offset to create psychedelic spatial effects.

Uhbik-S never compromises audio quality and minimizes certain side-effects commonly associated with frequency shifters.

Uhbik-T: Tremolo and panning

Tremolo in its simplest form is variation in volume, an LFO modulating amplitude. Uhbik-T goes beyond basic ‘volume wobbling’ into multi-purpose rhythm creation. Uhbik-T’s LFO affects three parameters at the same time: volume, filter cutoff and stereo (or surround) position.

You can play with the regular LFO settings for some interesting synchronized effects, but to push Uhbik-T even further we added user-definable patterns with up to 16 steps. These replace the LFO and open up many more possibilities, turning the definition of a tremolo effect on its head.