Antares AVOX 2 user manual

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NOTE : Audio Signal Pan 
only functions in Stereo or 
Mono->Stereo versions of 
ARTICULATOR.  If you have instantiated a 
Mono version, the slider will be disabled.
Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click 
the control to reset it to its default 
value of 0 (absolute center).
CONTROL 
SIGNAL LE VEL
This control applies 
gain or attenuation 
to the Control 
Signal. The range 
is from -inf (i.e., off) 
to 12 dBs of gain.
To adjust Control 
Signal Level, click on the knob and move 
the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, 
or down to turn it counterclockwise. 
The numeric display will indicate the 
amount of attenuation or gain in dBs.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the knob 
will reset it to its default value of -inf (off).
CONTROL SIGNAL 
PA N
This slider allows 
you to set the 
Control Signal’s 
location in the 
stereo spectrum. 
NOTE : Control Signal Pan 
only functions in Stereo or 
Mono->Stereo versions of 
ARTICULATOR.  If you have instantiated a 
Mono version, the slider will be disabled.
Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click 
the control to reset it to its default 
value of 0 (absolute center).
Usage Tips
Although we’ve already mentioned this 
a few times, it bears repeating that to 
obtain the most interesting results from 
ARTICUL ATOR, it’s most important to select 
appropriate Control and Audio Signals.
Control Signals•  First and foremost, the Control Signal 
should be dynamic, both in formant 
information and volume (as would be 
case with speaking or singing).
• Since the actual pitch of the output is 
provided by the Audio Signal, if you 
are singing the lyrics to a song, it’s not 
necessary to sing the actual notes of 
the melody for the Control Signal. It’s 
only necessary to enunciate the words 
clearly and distinctly, with whatever 
expressive gestures are appropriate for 
the track. Even a monotone will work.
• Don’t limit yourself just to words. All 
manner of vocalizations and vocal effects 
can be used to provide a dynamic 
Control Signal. Try vocal beat box 
sounds or the kinds of vocal wah wahs 
that simulate a resonant synth filter. 
• Interesting effects can result from using 
the amplitude envelope of an intricately 
rhythmic Control Signal like congas, 
tablas, or even an entire drum track. 
Audio Signals• The most important characteristic of a good 
Audio Signal is that it has rich harmonic 
content. The formant information from 
the Control Signal essentially accentuates 
certain frequencies while attenuating 
others. But you can only hear this effect if 
the Audio Signal actually contains harmonic 
information at those frequencies. 
  Using a  sine wave, for instance, which 
contains only a fundamental frequency 
with no harmonics, would provide 
almost no raw material for the Control 
Signal to act on. Most solo instruments 
(e.g., trumpet, flute, violin, etc.), as well 
as solo voice, are not much better.  
						

							36
 Again, better candidates are rich synth pads, 
distortion-rich guitar sounds, thick chords 
(from any combination of instruments), and 
even whole mixes. 
• An exception to the point above is that if 
you are only interested in using the Control 
Signal to provide amplitude modulation, the 
harmonic content of the Audio Signal will not 
be an issue.
• If you do want the Control Signal to provide 
the rhythmic articulation, the Envelope 
Amount control should be set at 100 and the 
Audio Signal should be sustained in nature.
• If the Audio Signal itself is rhythmic and 
you want to preserve that rhythm, set the 
Envelope Amount control to 0, in which 
case the Control Signal will affect only the 
harmonic articulation. 
						

							37
Chapter 10: 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,  a pitch-tracking 
ring modulator for “mutation,” and a 
mind-bending Alienization function, 
MUTATOR is the perfect tool for 
unique vocal effects and post-
production sound design.
Controls
Vocal 
Range
Use this 
control to 
select the 
range of the 
track you will be processing. Choices include 
soprano voice, alto/tenor voice, baritone/bass 
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 pitch shifting and 
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.
Voice Design Section
The following three controls allow you to create 
the basic vocal characteristics of your voice.
SHIF T PITCH
As its name 
suggests, this 
control is used 
to shift the 
pitch of the 
input voice 
either up or 
down.  
						

							38
MUTATOR’s pitch shifting automatically 
includes formant correction (i.e., it preserves 
the resonant characteristics of the original 
voice), however you can further modify the 
vocal characteristics using the Throat Length 
and Throat Width controls described below.
The range of the control is four octaves — two 
octaves up and two octaves down. The control 
is calibrated in 48 discrete steps of a semitone 
each.
Since an octave is equal to twelve semitones, 
the values of this control are equivalent to the 
following musical intervals:
 1 = minor 2nd 
 2 = major 2nd 
 3 = minor 3rd 
 4 = major 3rd 
 5 = perfect 4th 
 6 = aug 4th/dim 5th 
 7 = perfect 5th 
 8 = aug 5th/min 6th 
 9 = major 6th 
 10 = minor 7th 
 11 = major 7th 
 12 = octave 
 13 = minor 9th 
 14 = major 9th 
 15 = minor 10th 
 16 = major 10th 
 17 = perfect 11th 
 18 = aug 11th 
 19 = perfect 12th 
 20 = minor 13th 
 21 = major 13th 
 22 = minor 14th (rarely used) 
 23 = major 14th (rarely used) 
 24 = 2 octaves 
To adjust pitch shift, click on the knob and 
move the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, 
or down to turn it counterclockwise. The 
numeric display will indicate the number of 
semitones shifted.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the knob 
will reset it to its default value of 0.THROAT LENGTH 
This control uses the vocal tract modeling 
technology from THROAT to modify the vocal 
characteristics of the input voice by actually 
varying the length of the voice’s model vocal 
tract. It can be used in combination with the 
Shift Pitch control to modify gender and/or 
vocal quality.
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.
In addition to simply changing vocal timbre, 
increasing throat length is useful when the 
original input is female and you are shifting it 
down and want it to sound male. Conversely, 
decreasing throat length is useful when the 
original input is male and you want to shift it up 
to sound female or childlike.
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 20% in either 
direction. If you are looking for a “realistic” 
vocal characteristic, start with modest settings 
of this control. More extreme settings can 
produce dramatic results, but probably 
not what anyone would call “realistic.”
To adjust Throat Length, click on the knob and 
move the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, 
or down to turn it counterclockwise. The 
numeric display will indicate the percentage of 
change. 
						

							39
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the knob 
will reset it to its default value of 1.00.
THROAT WIDTH 
As you might imagine, this control is similar 
the the Throat Length control described above, 
but instead modifies the width of 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.
NOTE : As with the Throat Length 
control above, if you are going 
for “realism,” limit yourself to 
modifications of about +/- 20%. For special 
effects, anything goes.
To adjust Throat Width, click on the knob and 
move the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, 
or down to turn it counterclockwise. The 
numeric display will indicate the percentage  
of change.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the knob 
will reset it to its default value of 1.00.
Mutate Section
Having created your basic vocal characteristic 
with the Voice Design controls, the Mutate 
section let’s you turn that voice into a variety 
of, how shall we put it, alternative entities (i.e., 
weird creatures). MU TAT ION
The Mutation 
control allows 
you to select 
among 24 
different varieties 
of mutation, as 
well as being 
able to select “0,” which, not surprisingly, will 
result in no mutation effect.
Although the sound of each mutation setting 
depends to a great extent on the characteristics 
of the specific voice being processed, as 
a general rule, odd-numbered settings will 
typically result in more enharmonic overtones 
being added to the voice (i.e., weird growly 
or grunginess) than even-numbered settings. 
When first experimenting, try starting with “8” 
and then work out from there.
Beyond that, there are really no rules for 
predicting how a particular setting will affect a 
particular voice. Trial and error is the method of 
the day.
N OTE : For the technically curious, 
what’s going on here is a unique 
variation of the technique called 
ring modulation, a staple of early analog 
synthesizers. What makes MUTATOR’s 
mutation process special is that MUTATOR 
is constantly detecting the pitch of the input 
voice and shifting the relative pitch of the 
modulating signal to match, thereby preserving 
the basic mutation quality regardless of pitch 
changes in the input. A setting of “8” sets 
the modulation signal to the same frequency 
as the input voice. “4” sets it an octave lower 
and “16” an octave higher. Intermediate 
settings result in more complex ratios and 
more complex harmonic structures.
To select a Mutation variety, click on the knob 
and move the cursor up to turn the knob 
clockwise, or down to turn it counterclockwise. 
The numeric display will indicate the mutation 
number.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the 
knob will reset it to its default value of 0 (no 
mutation). 
						

							40
MUTANT MIX 
This control allows you to set a mix between 
the original unprocessed voice and the voice 
after being processed by the Mutation control. 
This mix is then sent on to the Alienize section.
When this control is set to the extreme 
“Original” end of its range, only the original 
unprocessed voice will be sent. At the extreme 
“Mutated” end, only the processed voice will 
be sent. In the middle of the range, a selectable 
mix of the two will be sent.
To set the Mutant Mix, click on the knob and 
move the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, 
or down to turn it counterclockwise. The 
numeric display will indicate the percentage of 
the Mutated signal in the mix.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the 
knob will reset it to its default value of 100 (all 
mutated signal).
Alienize Section
The Alienize section lets you give your speech 
the quality of an alien language by chopping 
it up into small segments and playing each 
segment in reverse. (The effect is kind of hard 
to describe in words, so just try it. You’ll see.)ALIENIZE
The Alienize switch 
lets you activate 
and deactivate the 
Alienization process. 
Click anywhere on the 
switch to toggle its state 
between On and Off. 
It turns blue when Alienization is On and gray 
when it is Off. DIALECT
This control 
sets the length 
(in time) of 
the speech 
segments that 
are reversed. 
Low numbers 
result in short 
segments, while progressively higher numbers 
result in progressively longer segments. At 
very low numbers, the segments are so small 
that you can still easily understand the original 
spoken or sung words. At higher numbers 
intelligibility becomes progressively worse, 
until at very high numbers, each segment can 
include one or more entire words.
N OTE : It should be noted that 
Alienize is a real-time function, 
I.e., it doesn’t simply analyze and 
reverse sections of a pre-recorded track. 
You could, in fact, connect a microphone 
and have MUTATOR Alienize your voice 
as you speak or sing. Try it. It’s fun. 
aN OT hEr N OTE : Because the 
Alienize function needs to store up 
a small bit of your speech before 
it can start Alienizing it, there will be a short 
delay between the beginning of the audio 
and when the alienized voice begins to sound 
(the exact delay depends on the selected 
Dialect setting). Conversely, depending on 
exactly when your audio ends, the alienized 
voice may continue for a very brief time after 
you stop while the last alienized segment is 
completed. (Think of it as Alien Time-shift.)
To set the Dialect, click on the knob and move 
the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise, or 
down to turn it counterclockwise. The numeric 
display will indicate the relative segment length 
(in arbitrary units).
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking on the knob 
will reset it to its default value of 10. 
						

							41
Input/Output Section
Here’s where you can adjust the output level, 
bypass the entire plug-in, and get a visual 
representation of the before and after versions 
of your audio.OUTPUT VOLUME 
This control applies 
gain or attenuation 
to the output signal. 
Since MUTATOR’s 
various functions can 
substantially increase or 
decrease the level of the 
input, you can use this 
control, in combination 
with the output level 
meter, to insure that 
your output is at an 
appropriate level without 
clipping. 
To adjust output volume, 
click on and move the 
fader to the desired 
position. The numeric 
display will indicate in 
dBs the exact amount 
of gain or attenuation 
applied.
Command (Mac)/Alt 
(PC) clicking anywhere 
in the fader track will 
reset the control to its 
default value of 0dB.
OUTPUT LE VEL ME TER
Use this meter in 
combination with the 
output level control to 
set the optimum output 
level. Ideally, the meter 
should peak in the upper 
area of its range without 
repeatedly pegging at 
0 dB. BYPASS
The Bypass control lets you 
completely bypass the plug-in. 
When the Bypass button is 
blue, the plug-in is processing 
normally. When it is red, it is bypassed. Click 
the button to toggle its state.
AUDIO DISPL AY
The Audio Display gives you a visual indication 
of the original and processed versions of your 
audio (and is just kind of cool to watch). The 
blue plot is the waveform of the original audio, 
The red plot is the processed audio. For hours 
of fun, try changing the various controls while 
watching their effect on the red plot.
Usage Tips
The effects of the various MUTATOR functions 
are so dependent on the nature of each 
individual voice, it’s hard to give useful general 
guidelines. If there was ever a plug-in that 
rewarded just messing around, this is it.
With that caveat:
•  If you’re looking to create the voice of a  demon, try shifting pretty much any voice 
down 8-12 semitones (depending on how 
low the voice is to begin with), set Throat 
Length to 1.10, and set Mutation to “2”. 
Then tweak as desired.
•  To turn a woman into a child, shift the voice up  5 semitones, set Throat Length to 1.30, and set 
Throat Width to 0.60. Then tweak as desired.
•  The effect of Alienization Dialect settings are entirely dependent on the specific speech it’s 
applied to. However, for an interesting musical 
effect, use a long cycle period and try matching 
the period to the tempo of your song. 
						

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WARM is an easy-to-use plug-in that 
accurately models the sonic effects of 
recording audio through a high quality 
analog tube preamplifier.  
						

							43
Chapter 11: 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. 
So what exactly is WARM? 
WARM is an easy-to-use plug-in that accurately 
models the sonic effects of recording audio 
through a high quality analog tube preamplifier. 
It offers the choice of two different tube 
models as well as a unique OmniTube function 
that allows the application of the tube effect 
to the entire signal (as opposed to only the 
transients, as is typically the case with a tube 
preamp). 
WARM’s extended parameter ranges have 
been designed to allow the creation of a wide 
variety of sonic effects beyond the classic 
subtle tube “warmth.” Additionally, WARM has 
been designed to be extremely DSP efficient, 
so that even a relatively modest native system 
will be capable of running WARM on an almost 
unlimited number of tracks simultaneously. 
What’s the big deal with tubes 
anyway? 
For most of us in audio recording, distortion 
is a bad word. We typically want the cleanest 
possible recordings, free of any audible 
distortion. But for certain types of audio there 
is an exception: the distortion that comes 
from transient clipping in a high quality tube 
preamplifier. 
When high quality tube pre-amps are operated 
in their linear range, there is virtually no 
signal distortion and their audio qualities are 
essentially identical to that of high quality 
solid state pre-amps. However, it is common 
for transients to exceed the preamp’s linear 
voltage range, resulting in distortion. And here’s 
where things get interesting. The distortion 
characteristics of a vacuum tube pre-amp 
are vastly different than those of solid state 
amplifiers. Specifically, the overtones produced 
by tube distortion are generally harmonically 
related to the fundamental input pitch, whereas 
solid state overdrive distortion generally 
produces non-harmonic overtones. This tube 
distortion is often described as adding a certain 
“warmth” to a sound. This is in contrast to 
what is often described as the “brittleness” of 
the solid state sound.
As a result, many people pay large sums of 
money for tube preamps designed to provide 
this desirable but elusive quality. It was the best 
sonic qualities of a number of these preamps 
that served as the sources for WARM’s digital 
models. 
						

							44
Controls
Input Level 
This control applies gain 
to the input signal before 
it’s passed to the tube 
model. It is typically used 
to ensure that the level of 
the input is high enough 
to exceed the clipping 
level in the tube model. 
As a starting point, adjust 
the gain such that the 
input level meter needle 
spends most of its time 
in the top two (gray and 
purple) meter segments.  
Further adjustments can 
be made in combination 
with the Drive setting 
(see below).
To adjust gain, click on 
and move the fader to 
the desired position. 
The numeric display will 
indicate in dBs the exact 
amount of gain applied.
Command (Mac)/Alt (PC) clicking anywhere 
in the fader track will reset the control to its 
default value of 0dB.
N OTE: Since the Drive control is 
capable of a maximum of 12dB 
of gain, the input signal transients 
must be at least above -12dB to produce any 
tube effect. If the input meter never enters 
the top segments of the meter, no tube effect 
will be audible with even maximum Drive.
a N OT hEr  N OTE: Unless you are 
going for some special effect, 
you do not want to have clipping 
at the input stage. This is not the “good” 
clipping that happens in the tube model. 
Input clipping is that nasty digital kind.
Tube Selector 
WARM includes two different tube models. 
The Velvet (blue) tube models the subtle 
effects of a classic high-quality tube preamp. 
While this model is perfect for adding warmth 
to vocals, it’s just as useful for acoustic guitar, 
horns, strings, synth pads, in fact pretty much 
anything.
The Crunch (red) tube models the deep, warm 
distortion of an overdriven tube amplifier. Use 
it in moderation to impart a subtle (or not-so -
subtle) effect to almost any track. Or crank it up 
for that “industrial” vocal sound, electric guitar, 
bass, or synths.
To select a tube, simply click the appropriate 
button.