_EFX REFRACT review

Arturia has continued their _Efx group of effects plugins with Refract. This “EFX” line seems to be focussed on modern digital effects that don’t cover the traditional effects categories. Refract seems to be a standalone version of their “super unison” effect that can be found in Motions and Pigments, but with a small twist. Refract can be used to create up to 8 voice unison of the incoming signal with at most a medium level of detuning. 

This effect sounds quite distinct from chorus or ensemble, it sounds like unison and I suspect that is what makes the next section of Refract so interesting. After the “refraction” stage, there is a multimode effect slot that can be used for either bandpass, comb filtering, bitcrushing, distortion, or a harmonizer. From what I can tell, each voice of the refraction stage goes through a parallel instance of the effect, with the effect value spread by the refraction amount. This means you get a unison detuned version of the effect. For example with the comb and bandpass filters, if you bring the resonance up high enough, you can hear the different frequencies spread apart as you increase the “amount” control. As well, this means you get a unison distortion sound, keeping the dimension of the unison effect without crunching everything into a muddy mess

The harmonizer is really cool as well, it’s sort of a pitched granular effect. Each voice from refraction gets a unique pitch for the harmonizer, with either octaves, fifths, or many other intervals. The “spray” control seems to spread out the delay time for each voice and feeds the signal back into its self for a shimmer effect. It’s a simple effect, but gives a few more uses for Refract.

Finally there is a very simple LFO section, you get basic shapes and random, and can route the lfo to refraction amount and the main effect control. This is nice for a little motion, and its nice they kept this effect dead simple. The UI is interesting with various geometric shapes representing each effect and control, there’s also a “prism” effect, reminiscent of the classic Pink Floy logo, which displays how many voices are being “refracted”. It’s pretty cute and fun reminding me of Dawesome’s Love in many ways. Perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think these simpler novelty multi effects will come in handy for some quick magic.

You can pick up _Efx Refract from Arturia’s website: https://www.arturia.com/products/software-effects/efx-refract/overview