Antares AVOX 2 user manual
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5 Chapter 2: Introducing AVOX 2 The heart of any great song is a great vocal sound. With the AVOX 2 Antares Vocal Toolkit, we’ve combined ten state- of-the-art vocal processing modules that open up an entirely new world of vocal processing capabilities. AVOX 2 gives you the power you need to create stunning vocal tracks in any musical style as well as design unique vocal effects for audio post-production applications. In the following chapters we’ll deal with each AVOX tool in turn, but first let’s take a brief look at what’s in AVOX 2 and how you might use the tools in combination. AVOX 2 Overview The AVOX 2 Antares Vocal Toolkit includes: Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator Harmony Engine is a real-time harmony generating plug-in that puts professional- quality vocal harmony arrangements within reach of any songwriter, producer, musician or engineer. With four independent harmony voices, a variety of powerful harmony generating modes, humanization features for natural sounding performances, and a flexible real-time preset system for harmony and vocal type, Harmony Engine provides incredibly easy-to-use tools to quickly and easily produce virtually any vocal arrangement you can imagine. Whether you’re an experienced vocal arranger, a songwriter looking for that perfect backup vocal, or a composer experimenting with unique vocal effects, Harmony Engine gives you entirely new ways to create the harmony parts you hear in your head. In fact, experimenting with different harmonies is so easy (and, dare we suggest, fun), you may find yourself using Harmony Engine to explore harmonic alternatives you may have never otherwise considered. T HROAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer THROAT is a revolutionary new vocal tool that lets you process a vocal through a meticulously crafted physical model of the human vocal tract. THROAT begins by neutralizing the effect of the original singer’s vocal tract and then gives you the ability to specify the characteristics of the modeled vocal tract. THROAT’s controls allow you to modify the voice’s glottal waveform as well as globally stretch, shorten, widen or constrict the modeled vocal tract. For even more detailed control, THROAT’s graphical Throat Shaping display allows you to individually adjust the position and width of five points in the vocal tract model, from the vocal chords, through the throat, mouth and out to the lips. Finally, THROAT’s Breathiness controls let you add variable frequency noise to the model, resulting in a range of vocal effects from subtle breathiness, to raspiness, to a full whisper. While THROAT has been designed to allow subtle modifications to a voice’s vocal quality, the range of the controls also allows the creation of vocal tract models well beyond the limits of physical human anatomy, offering the possibility of vocal characteristics that are simply unattainable by any other means.
6 DUO Vocal Modeling Auto-Doubler DUO automatically generates a doubled vocal part from an existing vocal. In addition to allowing programmable variation in pitch, timing and vibrato depth, for even more realism, DUO also includes a simplified version of THROAT’s vocal modeling to provide timbral variation for the doubled part. DUO’s output section gives you independent control of the level and stereo position of the original and doubled voices. CHOIR Vocal Multiplier Neither a harmonizer nor a conventional chorus effect, CHOIR is a unique processor that actually turns a single voice into 4, 8, 16, or 32 distinct individual unison voices, each with its own pitch, timing and vibrato variations. The voices can, if desired, be spread across the stereo spectrum. Assign an instance of CHOIR to each of four voices singing four-part harmony (or voices from Harmony Engine) and voilà, instant choir. PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer PUNCH is a unique processor that, as its name implies, lets you give your vocal more dynamic impact, allowing it to cut through a dense mix with clarity and power. SYBIL Variable Frequency De-Esser SYBIL tames vocal sibilance with threshold, ratio, attack and decay controls as well as a variable sidechain high pass frequency to match any vocal performance. A R T ICUL AT OR Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeler The alien offspring of a vocoder and a modern- day version of the venerable talk box, ARTICULATOR lets you extract the formant and amplitude information from a vocal (or other dynamic source) and apply it to any other audio track or to a built-in broadband noise generator. MUTATOR Extreme Voice Designer MUTATOR provides a combination of tools for creating unusual, weird, or downright wacky voices. With high-quality pitch shifting, throat modeling, pitch-tracking ring modulator-based “mutation,” and a mind-bending Alienization function, MUTATOR is the perfect tool for unique special vocal effects and post- production sound design. WARM Tube Saturation Generator Based on Antares’ legendary (at least among those of us who work here and, based on the volume of emails we’ve gotten since we discontinued it, a fair number of others as well) Tube plug-in, WARM, warms up your vocals with Antares’ world-renown tube modeling technology, while being so processing-efficient, you can put an instance on pretty much every track in your project and still barely see your CPU meter twitch. (And yes, that’s probably the longest single sentence in this manual.) ASPIRE Aspiration Noise Processor ASPIRE is the world’s first tool for modifying a voice’s breathiness independently of its harmonic content. Whether reducing a bit of vocal rasp or adding a bit of smokiness, ASPIRE lets you modify the amount and quality of a voice’s aspiration noise (the component of every voice that’s the result of air passing over the vocal chords) without otherwise affecting the vocal’s harmonic characteristics.
7 AVOX 2 Processing Guidelines While it might seem to be convenient to consolidate all of the AVOX 2 functions in one huge integrated plug-in, some of the AVOX 2 functions use quite a bit of processing power. By organizing them as separate plug-ins, you can choose to instantiate only those you need for each particular vocal track, thereby using only as much of your computer’s DSP power as you absolutely need. While it’s not likely that you’ll be using all ten plug-ins on every track, it is likely that you’ll often be using more than one. When that’s the case, keep the following in mind: General Guidelines• In general, you should progress from the cleanest possible source vocal through successive stages of processing. Harmony Engine, THROAT, ARTICUL ATOR, MUTATOR, ASPIRE, DUO and CHOIR in particular are designed to process pitched monophonic voices and will function much more effectively with clean input signals. • If a track requires de-essing, use SYBIL as the first of the AVOX 2 plug-ins. • Next in line would be either of the “Voice Creation/Modification” plug-ins, i.e., THROAT, MUTATOR and/or ASPIRE. • Once you’ve tweaked the voice exactly as you want it, you can double, multiply, or harmonize it with DUO, CHOIR or Harmony Engine. • Finally, WARM and PUNCH work well with pretty much any input, so they would typically be the last of the AVOX 2 plug-ins in the chain. • Effects like reverb and conventional chorus or flanging should typically be applied after processing by the desired AVOX 2 plug-ins. Special Cases:• While you will usually choose between DUO or CHOIR, you can use them together for a really huge vocal section. Assign DUO to your track and pan the original and doubled voices to opposite tracks. Then assign separate instances of CHOIR to each of the two tracks. Humongous! • If you will be using Harmony Engine to generate harmonies from a single vocal line, start with SYBIL (if necessary) and then THROAT and then feed its output to Harmony Engine. If your host supports it, assign or export each of Harmony Engine’s outputs to individual tracks and use DUO or CHOIR on each track to create a vocal group of the size of your choice. If desired, PUNCH can be used on THROAT’s output or on the individual Harmony Engine outputs prior to DUO or CHOIR. • If you have a vocal with problematic vibrato (either too much or too little), you can use DUO for vibrato modification. Assign DUO to the track and use only the doubled output. Set all parameters to their minimum effect and use the Vibrato function to adjust the performance’s vibrato depth. See Chapter 5 for more details. • For maximum control of the timbre of doubled voices (at the cost of increased CPU requirements), assign DUO to your vocal and pan the original and doubled voices to opposite tracks. Then assign an independent instance of THROAT to each part and create a unique timbre for each voice. But all that being said, always feel free to ignore any of the above suggestions. The AVOX 2 tools offer entirely new realms of creative possibilities. There is no wrong way. Now on to the details.
9 Chapter 3: Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator If you’ve purchased a boxed copy of AVOX 2, you will have noticed that it includes a separate manual for Harmony Engine. And if you’ve downloaded AVOX 2, you’ll find the Harmony Engine PDF manual included with the plug-in. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Harmony Engine is by far the deepest plug-in in the AVOX 2 bundle, so there is a lot to say about getting the most out of it. And, from a more practical perspective, since Harmony Engine is also sold as a stand-alone product, we’ve already done the work of formatting the manual and then printing a whole bunch of them, so it’s just a lot more efficient to include one of them here. Bottom line, read the Harmony Engine manual, try out the factory presets, and play with the included tutorial sessions.
10 THROAT’s controls allow you to modify the voice’s glottal waveform as well as globally stretch, shorten, widen or constrict the modeled vocal tract.
11 Chapter 4: T H R OAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer THR OAT is a revolutionary new vocal tool that lets you process a vocal through a meticulously crafted physical model of the human vocal tract. THROAT begins by neutralizing the effect of the original singer’s vocal tract and then gives you the ability to specify the characteristics of the modeled vocal tract. THROAT’s controls allow you to modify the voice’s glottal waveform as well as globally stretch, shorten, widen or constrict the modeled vocal tract. For even more detailed control, THROAT’s graphical Throat Shaping display allows you to individually adjust the position and width of five points in the vocal tract model, from the vocal chords, through the throat, mouth and out to the lips. Finally, THROAT’s Breathiness controls let you add variable frequency noise to the model, resulting in a range of vocal effects from subtle breathiness, to raspiness, to a full whisper. While THROAT has been designed to allow subtle modifications to a voice’s vocal quality, the range of the controls also allows the creation of vocal tract models well beyond the limits of physical human anatomy, offering the possibility of vocal characteristics that are simply unattainable by any other means. In order to understand what THROAT is doing and how you can use it to process your vocal tracks, it helps to know how our throats actually work to create what we perceive as unique vocal qualities. Vocal production starts with the vocal chords. Air from our lungs is forced through the vocal chords, causing them to vibrate. The contour of this vibration is the glottal waveform. The actual shape of the waveform is affected by each individual’s anatomy as well as the pressure applied to the vocal chords. From there, the voice is propagated through the throat, the mouth and out through the lips. It is the shape of these structures, both their length and width, that create the resonant characteristics that combine with the glottal waveform to define a unique vocal identity. With THROAT, for the first time, you have individual control over each of the elements that go into creating a distinct vocal character. Whether you are a producer or engineer looking to subtly enhance a singer’s performance, or a sound designer in pursuit of a totally new vocal effect, THROAT will give you creative capabilities that have simply never before existed. Controls S ET UP In order for THROAT to do the best possible job of modeling, it needs to know some basic things about the source audio. The following three controls are used to characterize the vocal that you will be processing: Vocal Range Use this control to select the range of the track you will be processing. Choices include Soprano Voice, Alto/ Tenor Voice, Bass/Baritone Voice and Instrument (a general setting for anything that isn’t actually a vocal). Matching the appropriate algorithm to the input results in faster and more accurate pitch detection and more accurate modeling. To select vocal range, click on the Vocal Range pop-up and then select the desired range from the pop-up list. N OTE: Choosing the wrong Vocal Range (or just forgetting to set it at all) can result in compromised performance. Pay attention.
12 Source Glot tal Waveform The glottal waveform is the waveform produced by the vibration of the vocal chords. The range of an individual’s possible waveforms is defined by their particular anatomy. Within that range, the waveform can change pretty dramatically depending on the performer’s singing style. Imagine, for example, the progression from a breathy whisper, to a straight-ahead pop vocal, to hard rock or full- on operatic aria. A lot of subtle factors influence the glottal waveform, but for ease of setting, we have characterized the choices as loudness. Typically, as loudness increases, so does the pressure applied to the vocal chords and with that change in pressure a corresponding change in glottal waveform. When setting this control, select the loudness level (soft, medium, loud, intense) that most closely matches the performance you are processing. If you’re not sure where your performance lies on this scale, don’t worry. There is no need to obsess over subtle distinctions. If in doubt, just pick one. Once you have set up a model, you can always come back and try another setting and see if it makes a (positive) difference. To select vocal type, click on the Vocal Type pop-up and then select the closest stylistic character of the vocal performance from the pop-up list. Source Throat Precision If you’ve already been poking around the THROAT interface, you might be asking yourself, “What the heck is throat precision?” And a good question it is. As it happens, this control works a bit differently than the previous two. Here, you’re not being asked to tell THROAT something about the input, but instead to tell THROAT how precise to be in its attempt to calculate the characteristics of the input based on the type of modeling you intend doing (the choices being subtle, medium, or extreme).So why not always leave it at “subtle”? Another good question. The answer is that THROAT’s most precise analysis results in extremely accurate characterization of the source throat, which works well for models that are within the general range of human anatomy (i.e. subtle modifications). However, for more extreme models, the “subtle” setting can in some cases result in artifacts — most often a sort of “whistling.” In those cases, such artifacts can often be reduced or eliminated by choosing a different setting for this control. As a result, the strategy for this control should be to always start with “subtle” (which is the default) and, if a particular model results in artifacts (and you don’t actually like those artifacts), change the precision one step at a time (i.e. to medium and then extreme) until you get the desired effect. To select source throat precision, click on the Precision pop-up and then select the appropriate model type from the pop-up list. The next two controls allow you to add a variety of breathiness effects to your modeled voice: B REATHINESS Breathiness Mix This control lets you select the amount of breathiness component mixed into your modeled voice. With a setting of 0, there will be no breathiness (apart from what might be in the original vocal). At a setting of 100, the model will be all breathiness, with none of the original vocal characteristic present at all. Intermediate settings will produce mixes of the original vocal and the breathiness component. The sonic character of the breathiness will depend both on the articulation of the original vocal and, more dramatically, the setting of the Frequency control described below. Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control to reset it to its default value of 0. Breathiness Frequency This control lets you set the high pass frequency of the breathiness component (i.e., the frequency above which the breathiness will be
13 present). This frequency determines the audio range and character of the breathiness effect. At high settings, the effect will be rather whispery and ethereal (depending, of course, on the original vocal and the Mix amount). At lower settings, the effect is more of a raspiness (again, depending on the mix). Experimentation is the best way to become familiar with the possibilities. Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control to reset it to its default value of 4000 Hz. The remaining controls are used to define the model vocal tract: THROAT MODELING Model Throat Length The Throat Length control allows you to globally lengthen or shorten the modeled throat. Values above 1.00 represent a lengthening of the throat while values below 1.00 represent a shortening of the throat. The actual values represent the percentage change in the throat length. For example, a value of 1.20 represents a 20% increase in throat length, while a value of 0.80 represents a 20% decrease in throat length. Changes made to this control are reflected on the Graphic Throat Display described below. If you have used that display to create a custom throat contour, this control will preserve the overall contour while scaling it by the selected amount. N OTE : While this control gives you the ability to radically change the throat length, keep in mind that the variation in the length of human vocal tracts is rarely more than about 25% in either direction. If you are looking for a “realistic” vocal characteristic, start with modest settings of this control. (As a visual reference, this range is indicated by color on the control scale.) More extreme settings can produce dramatic results, but probably not what anyone would call “realistic.” Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control to reset it to its default value of 1.00. Model Throat Width The Throat Width control allows you to globally widen or constrict the modeled throat. Values above 1.00 represent a widening of the throat while values below 1.00 represent a narrowing of the throat. The actual values represent the percentage change in the throat width. For example, a value of 1.20 represents a 20% increase in throat width, while a value of 0.80 represents a 20% decrease in throat width. Changes made to this control are reflected on the Graphic Throat Display described below. If you have used that display to create a custom throat contour, this control will preserve the overall contour while scaling it by the selected amount. N OTE : Similar to the Length control above, this control gives you the ability to radically change the throat width. Again, if you are looking for a “realistic” vocal characteristic, start with modest settings of this control. (And again, this range is indicated by color on the control scale.) More extreme settings can produce dramatic results, but probably not what anyone would call “realistic.” Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control to reset it to its default value of 1.00. Model Glot tal Waveform As was explained above in the Source Glottal Waveform section, the glottal waveform is the waveform produced by the vibration of the vocal chords. We used the Source Glottal Waveform control to help THROAT neutralize the effect of the original vocal’s glottal waveform. The Pulse Width and Voice Type controls let you define the glottal waveform you want to model. Glot tal Pulse Width This control allows you to select the pulse width of the modeled glottal waveform. If you are at all familiar with analog synthesizers, you can think of this as being vaguely similar to the variable pulse width control on a square wave oscillator (and if you’re not familiar with analog synthesizers, don’t worry, just move the slider and listen to what happens).
14 You will find that the most dramatic timbral changes are usually found at the extreme ends of this control’s range. If you’re looking for realistic, stay in the middle 80% of the range. ImpOrTa NT N OTE: Keep in mind that this control interacts with the Glottal Voice Type control below. Each Voice Type sets a default Pulse Width that is associated with it. So if you set this control and then select a new Voice Type below, the value of this control will change to the new voice type’s associated pulse width default. For that reason, it is usually best to select the Glottal Voice Type first and then make any desired adjustments to the pulse width. Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control to reset it to its default value of 64. Glot tal Voice Type This control is the converse of the Source Glottal Waveform control described above. We used that control to tell THROAT the characteristic of the original performance. We use this control to tell THROAT what kind of characteristic we would like to model. The choices here are the same as the choices for the Source Glottal Waveform control (i.e., soft, medium, loud, and intense). If you want to preserve the stylistic character of the original vocal, set this control to the same voice type as you set the Source Glottal Waveform (e.g., if you set Source Glottal Waveform to “soft,” set this control to “soft”). As mentioned above, this control interacts with the Glottal Pulse Width control. Each of the Voice Types sets a default Pulse Width that is associated with it. Once a Voice Type is set, the pulse width may then be adjusted separately. N OTE : Despite the value names (soft, loud, etc.), this control does not necessarily change the actual level of the signal (although the “ intense” setting does sometimes result in some level gain). Its purpose is to model the glottal waveform that would result from the various styles of singing. If you want to adjust the level, use the Output Gain control described below. To select vocal type, click on the Vocal Type pop-up and then select the desired stylistic character from the pop -up list. G RAPHIC T HROAT DISPL AY Okay, here’s where the fun really starts. The Graphic Throat Display allows detailed tweaking of the model throat. For the purpose of this control, the model throat is divided into four sections defined by five boundary points. For reference, these sections and boundary points are illustrated on the head graphic to the left of the Throat Shaping display. Point (1) starts at the vocal chords and the sections progress through the throat and the mouth out to the lips, which are at point (5). The Throat Shaping display itself consists of two elements: the original throat plot and the model throat plot. The original throat plot is colored blue and is not user-changeable. It represents the original length and width of the four throat sections and serves as a reference relative to which changes to the model throat are made. The model throat plot is colored red and includes five control points that can be grabbed and moved, effectively adjusting the length and width of individual sections of the throat. Additionally, the background of the display is divided into two sections by color. The lighter blue central area represents the range of adjustments that are consistent with typical human anatomy. As long as all control points and plot lines fall in this area, the results of your model will be more or less “realistic.” The darker blue area represents the range of adjustments that exceed the dimensions of typical human vocal tracts. When any control point or plot line falls in this area, the result may or may not sound like something that you might recognize as a human voice. The more points and/or plot lines fall in this area, the more extreme the effect. When you open a new instance of THROAT, the default state of the Throat Shaping display is with the original and model throat plots exactly superimposed, indicating no difference.