Mutator: Extreme Voice Designer Now this is where all the fun really begins. First off, the pitch shifting alone on this thing is great; especially if you are into to pitch shifting. It does a great real-time job without adding the hokeyness that comes in this territory of either pitching up or pitching down. However, when
Aspire: Aspiration Noise Processor It does its job well, and either adds or reduces “breathiness” to vocal tracks. Though it isn't as fun as the other plug-ins, it does have some uses for either making voices more or less sultry. Aspire is good quality for what it does, but sadly, it isn't all that exciting, unless it is used in conjunction with the other plug-ins, where it can become more useful in taming some of the other vocal effects.
Throat: Physical Modeling Vocal Designer
adjusting the throat length and width settings, the originality of the plug-in begins to become apparent. The wonderful thing about this plug-in is that it is intended to mutate your vocals, and your instrument tracks as well. So in reality, this is one of those “can't mess up” kind of plug-ins to use because it is intended to “mess up” in the first place. The Alienize knob is the most fun. Once switched on, you hear pure madness, and then as it gets turned up, it is pure mayhem. It doesn't just reverse, but it chops and reverses sections in real time. The mutate control starts to do weird things, and even in small doses, it can do serious damage to the vocal track. In conjunction with the mix control and all the others for that matter, small doses become more favorable for understandability purposes, and does some really cool things to both vocals and instruments, but if the desired factor is complete destruction, well this thing can handle that too. A very interesting plug-in that may on the surface seem to be a novelty, but can later on become an indispensable tool, especially for those into the whole Glitch scene.
Now that the "slump" is over, it is back to the good stuff. This is one of those plug-ins that can range from tame to wild in its effect. It opens up possibilities to change, from minor to major, the way one's voice sounds. For some people, their voice has a twinge of annoyance, and Throat can, even with the slightest of tweaks, make that annoyance go away. It operates on both the way the voice sounds coming from the throat and can even includes some nice presets that show off the plug-in. The coolest part is the creative ways that this can be used with the other effects in tweaking the vocal tracks. I solidly suggest that it be used in the vocal chain if not only for the practical uses, but especially for the creative ones. This one was a pleasant surprise all around.
Articulator: Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeler Without Pro Tools, this is a turd. Oh well, looked like fun.
www.WusikSoundMagazine.com
June 2009
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