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Oxford Inflator in Bitwig and how it works

Tutorial | Aug 07, 2024

In this video, I demonstrate how to replicate the Oxford Inflator plugin inside Bitwig Studio. While the Oxford Inflator is essentially just a soft clipper or saturator, I attempted to copy its curve as closely as possible. I provide a free preset for Bitwig Studio users to achieve a similar effect with options like the FX filter plus device, bipolar/unipolar options, or the saturator with a soft knee.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

In this video, I show you how to replicate the functionality of the Oxford Inflator plugin using Bitwig Studio. The Oxford Inflator is a sonic enhancer and exciter plugin that adds clarity and power to mixes. I’ll guide you step-by-step on how to mimic its soft clipper and saturation effects in Bitwig, and I’ve even created a preset called Bitwig Inflator to help you get started.

Key Points:

If you need more details on any aspect, just let me know!

Questions & Answers

Maybe you dont watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

What is the main focus of this video?

The main focus of this video is to replicate the sonic enhancer exciter plug-in called the Oxford Inflator and recreate its curve using Bitwig Studio. The video demonstrates how to achieve a similar effect using Bitwig Studio's tools and presets.

How does the Oxford Inflator work and how did the creator replicate it in Bitwig Studio?

The Oxford Inflator is essentially a soft clipper or saturator with a folding back curve when approaching zero dB, and it can also function as a clipper. The creator replicated this curve as closely as possible using Bitwig Studio by creating a preset called Bitwig Inflator with a similar curve and adjusting various parameters.

What features were not replicated in Bitwig Studio and what alternatives were suggested?

The band split feature of the Oxford Inflator, which involves zero phase crossover, was not replicated in Bitwig Studio. The creator suggests using Bitwig's four-band spectral-based frequency split or the FX3 device with slight phase shifts at the crossover frequency as alternatives to replicate this function.

Who is this video useful for and what are other alternatives mentioned?

This video is useful for people who want to switch from Windows to Linux or those who want to use a similar effect as the Oxford Inflator without using iLok. Other alternatives mentioned include using Bitwig's FX Filter Plus device with the transfer option and bipolar or unipolar settings, or using the saturator with a soft knee to achieve a similar effect of introducing overtones.

Transcription

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back to another video where I put companies into big big trouble and today
[00:00:07] it's about the Oxford Inflator.
[00:00:09] It's a sonic enhancer exciter plug-in, elevate your mix to unparalleled heights, experience
[00:00:15] clarity and power like never before.
[00:00:19] And someone on Patreon sent me a link and asked if I could replicate this inside of
[00:00:23] Bitwig Studio and I said yes.
[00:00:26] And he also sent me a link to this video here called Oxford Inflator and it turns out the
[00:00:32] Oxford Inflator is actually just a soft clipper with a sign that folds back here to zero.
[00:00:38] And if you switch on clip, then it's a clipper.
[00:00:41] So it's more or less like just a soft clipper or a saturator.
[00:00:45] So what I did is I tried to copy or clone this curve as close as possible.
[00:00:52] So I have here this track in the background I want to use as a demonstration.
[00:00:56] So let's listen to this.
[00:01:06] So we have a bass in there, drone sound, a piano here, also some vocals.
[00:01:11] So on the master here I used the Oxford Inflator Native which is just a trial version of this
[00:01:19] plug-in.
[00:01:20] And by the way, there is no resizing in the year 2024 for some reason.
[00:01:26] And we switch off clip.
[00:01:28] We don't want to use this here.
[00:01:29] And then we bring in the effect which is just a mix knob.
[00:01:32] The input is zero, output is zero, curve is zero and then we play around with this.
[00:01:47] Okay, so now that we have this, we can put this here into an FX layer.
[00:02:12] And on the second layer we use my preset called Bitwig Inflator.
[00:02:21] And we also use the curve of +50 and effect is 100%, input is zero, output is zero.
[00:02:28] And we use now a tool here at the end and just flip the polarity.
[00:02:35] And you can see it's almost cancel the original out.
[00:02:51] Okay, we can also go here to a different position.
[00:02:55] Maybe this here, curve 25 and then go here.
[00:03:01] It's also round 25.
[00:03:09] There is a small difference.
[00:03:17] So it's not completely null.
[00:03:19] There's a small difference but you never know what these plug-ins do.
[00:03:22] Maybe there's a small phase shift in there or maybe additional clip out at the end or
[00:03:29] maybe a delay or anti-aliasing or something like this.
[00:03:33] But I try to really nail down here this curve.
[00:03:38] As you can see here it folds back then when it comes closer to zero dB it folds back.
[00:03:45] Also when you switch on clip zero dB, you switch here to the second curve which is then
[00:03:50] clipper at the top.
[00:03:52] So it doesn't fold back.
[00:03:54] That's this feature here.
[00:03:57] Another thing I didn't implement was this band split because I saw this band splitter
[00:04:01] here is actually a three band splitter.
[00:04:03] You can see this here.
[00:04:04] The band split function is offered as an additional mode.
[00:04:07] When band splitting is selected the processing is split into three frequency bands.
[00:04:12] The problem is that this band splitter here is completely zero phase.
[00:04:18] So there is no phase shift at the crossover.
[00:04:24] And that's not possible with the FX3 inside of Bitwig Studio.
[00:04:29] You can use here the frequency split of Bitwig.
[00:04:34] This is completely spectral based and then you have a four band split here and then put
[00:04:39] this inflator into each of these boxes if you want to kind of replicate this natively
[00:04:43] inside of Bitwig Studio.
[00:04:46] You can also use the FX3 if you want to and then put this in these boxes here.
[00:04:52] And then here this FX3 has some phase shifts at the crossover frequency.
[00:04:58] So that's what you need to know.
[00:05:02] So I didn't replicate the band split here, but the rest is more or less 99% the same.
[00:05:09] So like I said, this is interesting for people that want to switch from Windows to Linux
[00:05:14] or maybe just want to use the same effect but without iLok.
[00:05:21] Without these people it's probably useful.
[00:05:24] If you are just after the effect and you don't know how the Oxford inflator works or you
[00:05:31] are not interested in how this device specifically works, you can also just use the FX filter
[00:05:41] plus device.
[00:05:43] Use the transfer here and then use the bipolar option or unipolar option here and then just
[00:05:52] raise this up or raise this down.
[00:05:54] This is curve minus 50, this is curve plus 50 roughly.
[00:05:58] It's not the same but roughly the same.
[00:06:00] It's a soft clipper more or less or you switch it to push or push and then you bring this
[00:06:07] up.
[00:06:08] You can see it's also a nice soft clipper there.
[00:06:12] Maybe switch the anti-alizing off, I don't know.
[00:06:15] Or you can use the good old saturator here with a soft knee.
[00:06:24] Gives you roughly the same thing what the inflator does.
[00:06:28] It's not the same sound of course but it's the same idea to introduce overtones.
[00:06:35] So this is what you can do.
[00:06:37] My preset here is completely free, the link is in the description below so you can download
[00:06:44] it for Bitwig Studio 5.2 and that's about it I think.
[00:06:55] Disable this here, put this here, bam.
[00:06:59] And then we have a nice soft clipper here.
[00:07:24] Okay that's it for this video.
[00:07:26] Thanks for watching.
[00:07:27] Leave a like, leave a subscription.
[00:07:28] See you in the next video.
[00:07:30] And if you have some recommendations what I should replicate next, please let me know.
[00:07:36] Okay thanks for watching and bye.
[00:07:38] [MUSIC]