Bloom

A three-band upward and downward compressor in the OTT lineage, with its own voice. Bloom pulls quiet detail up toward the loud material and reins the peaks in, so a mix blossoms forward — denser, brighter, more present — without ever sounding like it was simply turned up.

How it works

Bloom splits the stereo signal into LOW, MID, and HIGH bands with steep 24 dB/oct crossovers at 88.3 Hz and 2.5 kHz. Each band runs its own fast peak follower into a single compression curve that works both ways at once: anything below roughly -24 dBFS gets boosted, anything above gets attenuated, and per-band makeup gain brings it all back up. The bands are then summed. The three followers detect from whichever channel is louder and apply the same gain to both, so the stereo image stays locked and phase-coherent even under heavy compression.

Controls

  • Amount — the master intensity. It scales every band's ratio from a gentle 1:1 up to a crushing 1:30 and drives the makeup that fills the level back in. Low settings add sheen and glue; high settings deliver the full upward-compression roar.
  • Low — adds up to +18 dB of extra makeup to the low band only, on top of whatever Amount is doing. Use it to put weight and body back under a sound that Bloom has thinned out.
  • Mix — wet/dry blend. Fully wet is the classic sound; pull it back for parallel compression that keeps the original transients intact.
  • Speed — the engine's time multiplier, from 0.25x (slow) up to 4x (fast), centered at 1x. Faster shortens every band's attack and release so the comp grabs transients and pumps with grit and movement; slower smooths it into a glued, gentle squeeze with less distortion.
  • Threshold — the pivot where boosting turns into cutting, sweepable from -36 dB to -12 dB around its -24 dB center. Raise it and more of the signal gets lifted, for a louder, more blossoming wash; lower it and Bloom turns cut-dominant and tame, reining peaks in without lifting the quiet parts as hard.

Inputs & outputs

  • In L / In R — the stereo signal to process; feed it a full mix, a drum bus, or a single voice.
  • Amount / Low / Mix / Speed / Threshold CV — voltage control over each knob of the same name, summed in and clamped; patch an envelope, LFO, or sequencer to sweep the intensity, pump the lows, crossfade the blend, swing the timing, or shift the pivot.
  • Out L / Out R — the processed stereo output.

Tips

  • For a transparent loudness lift, keep Mix around 50–70% so the dry transients stay snappy under the wet sustain.
  • Modulate Amount CV with a slow LFO for a breathing, swelling texture, or with an envelope follower from the kick for rhythmic pumping.
  • Bloom raises the noise floor along with everything else — start clean, since hiss and rumble bloom forward too.