Antares AVOX User Manual

©2005 Antares Audio Technologies. All rights reserved. Certified Isinglass-free™
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA
web: www.antarestech.com
Printed in USA Rev 1.0 08/ 05 PN 35030-0805-M01

The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

The AVOX software and this User’s Manual
are protected by copyright law. Making copies,
adaptations, or derivative works without
the prior written authorization of Antares
Audio Technologies, is prohibited by law and
constitutes a punishable violation of the law.

Antares Audio Technologies retains all
ownership rights to the AVOX software and
its documentation. Use of AVOX software is
limited by the following license agreement.

Please carefully read all the terms and
conditions of this license agreement. At the
time of installation of the AVOX software
you will be presented with a copy of the
agreement and asked whether or not you
agree to it. Continuing with the installation
process beyond that point constitutes such
agreement.

AVOX License Agreement

Antares Audio Technologies grants you a
non-transferable, non-exclusive license to
use AVOX software under the terms and
conditions stated in this agreement. Use
of AVOX indicates your agreement to the
following terms and conditions.

License

You may:

1. Use AVOX software on only one computer
at a time. (Moving your AVOX license from
computer to computer requires authorization
via an iLok smart key.)

expressly provided for in this agreement.
Your right to copy AVOX software and
the user manual is limited by copyright
law. Making copies, verbal or media
translations, adaptations, derivative works,
or telecommunication data transmission
of AVOX software without prior written
authorization of Antares, is prohibited by law
and constitutes a punishable violation of the
law.

2. Make alterations or modifications to AVOX
software (or any copy) or disassemble or
decompile AVOX software (or any copy),
or attempt to discover the source code of
AVOX software.

3. Sub-license, lease, lend, rent, or grant other
rights in all or any portion of AVOX software
(or any copy) to others.

Term of the Agreement

This agreement is effective until terminated
by you or Antares. You may terminate the
agreement at any time by notifying Antares
and destroying all copies of the manual, and
erasing all AVOX software from all machine­readable media, whether on-line or on archival
copies.

In the event of breach of any of the terms of
this agreement, you shall pay the attorney’s
fees of Antares that are reasonably necessary
to enforce the agreement plus resulting
damages.

You may not:

1. Make copies of AVOX software or of the
user manual in whole or in part except as

Limited Warranty and Disclaimer

AVOX SOFTWARE AND ACCOMPANYING
MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”

WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Antares Audio Technologies does not warrant
that the functions contained in the program
will meet your requirements. The entire risk as
to the use, quality, and performance of AVOX
software is with you.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW
LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED
WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE
LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS
WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL
RIGHTS. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER
RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION
TO JURISDICTION.

Limitation of Liability

IN NO EVENT WILL ANTARES BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS
OF DATA, LOST PROFITS OR OTHER
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL
OR INDIRECT DAMAGES ARISING
FROM THE USE OF AVOX SOFTWARE
OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS. THIS
LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANTARES
OR ITS AUTHORIZED AGENT HAS BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE
LICENSE FEE REFLECTS THIS ALLOCATION
OF RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT
ALLOW LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION
OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE
ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO
YOU.

Whew! Now that that’s over, let’s get on to
the good stuff.

Contents

Welcome 1

Chapter 1 Getting Started 3

Chapter 2 Introducing AVOX 5

Chapter 3 THROAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer 7

Chapter 4 DUO Vocal Modeling Auto-Doubler 17

Chapter 5 CHOIR Vocal Multiplier 21

Chapter 6 PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer 23

Chapter 7 SYBIL Variable Frequency De-Esser 25

Index 27

vi

Welcome!

1

n behalf of everyone at Antares Audio
Technologies, we’d like to offer both
our thanks and congratulations on your
decision to purchase the AVOX Antares

O

Vocal Toolkit, a suite of uniquely powerful DSP
tools for creating spectacular vocal tracks.

As an AVOX owner, you are entitled to receive
notification of any software updates, technical
support, and advance announcements of
upcoming products. But we can’t send you
stuff unless we know who and where you are.
So please, register.

At Antares, we are committed to excellence
in quality, customer service, and technological
innovation. With your purchase of AVOX, you
have created a relationship with Antares which
we hope will be long and gratifying. Let us know
what you think. You can count on us to listen.

Again, thanks.

The Whole Antares Crew

Technical Support

In the unlikely event that you experience a
problem using AVOX, try the following:

1. Make another quick scan through this
manual. Who knows? You may have
stumbled onto some feature that you didn’t
notice the first time through.

2. Check our web page for tips, techniques, or
any late-breaking information:

www.antarestech.com

3. Consult our searchable knowledgebase at:

http://www.antarestech.com/support/

index.html

4. Call your local Antares dealer.

2

Chapter 1: Getting Started

3

How To Use This
Manual

The plug-ins that make

up the AVOX suite
have been designed with clear, consistent,
friendly user-interfaces. If you come to AVOX
with previous vocal processing experience,
you will find that most of their functions are
self-evident and are extraordinarily easy to
use. However, since some of the AVOX tools
do things that have never been done before,
a few aspects of their user-interfaces may not
be immediately obvious.

Consequently, we encourage you to at least
scan each of the individual plug-in’s chapters
for descriptions of their various parameters.
In particular, THROAT offers an entirely
new approach to vocal processing, offering
capabilities that have simply never before
existed in a DSP plug-in. We strongly suggest
that you read Chapter 3 in its entirety to gain an
understanding of what THROAT can do.

If you just can’t wait to get some sound going,
feel free to load up some vocal tracks and
play around with the various AVOX plug-ins.
(Be sure to check out THROAT’s collection
of factory presets. They’ll give you a good
idea of what THROAT is capable of as well as
providing inspiration for your own creations.)
Then come back and dig into the details.

Chapter 2: Introducing AVOX

This chapter provides an overview of the tools
that make up the AVOX plug-in suite.

Chapter 3: THROAT Physical Modeling Vocal
Designer

This chapter is reference information for all of
the controls used in the THROAT interface.

Chapter 4: DUO Vocal Modeling
Auto-Doubler

This chapter is reference information for all of
the controls used in the DUO interface.

Chapter 5: CHOIR Vocal Multiplier

This chapter is reference information for all of
the controls used in the CHOIR interface.

Chapter 6: PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer

We’re guessing that by this point you can
predict what this chapter is about.

Chapter 7: SYBIL Variable Frequency
De-Esser

Yup.

Installing AVOX

Any unique instructions for installing AVOX for
your specific plug-in format will be located in
the AVOX Read Me file that accompanies the
plug-ins. This file may also contain any last­minute AVOX information that didn’t make it
into this manual.

The Contents Of This Manual

Chapter 1: Getting Started

The chapter you are reading.

AVOX is designed to work with a wide variety
of digital audio applications. Please refer to
your host application’s user manual for more
information on installing and using plug-ins.

4

Authorizing AVOX

Authorization is the process by which the
AVOX software is allowed to run on your
computer. Detailed instructions covering the
available authorization options will be found
in the file “Authorization Read Me” which is
included on the installation CD ROM or with
your software download.

Note: When initially installed, this
software will run for ten days without
authorization.

So even if you can’t authorize it right away you
can still use your software in the meantime.
(During this period, click the “Continue”
button whenever you are presented with
the Trial Period screen at launch.) But don’t
procrastinate too long. After those ten days
are up, you will no longer be able to launch this
software until it’s authorized.

Chapter 2: Introducing AVOX

5

he heart of any great song is a great
vocal sound. With the AVOX Antares
Vocal Toolkit, we’ve combined five
state-of-the-art vocal processing

T

modules that open up an entirely new world of
vocal processing capabilities. AVOX 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 and how you might use
the tools in combination.

AVOX Overview

The AVOX Antares Vocal Toolkit includes:

THROAT 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.

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
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.