ANTARES AVOX 2 Owner’s Manual

AVOX 2

Antares Vocal Toolkit

Owner’s Manual

v1.1 11 March 2008

™

All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA www.antarestech.com Printed in USA Rev 1.0 PN P35035-0308-M01

The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

The Antares AVOX 2 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 2 software and its documentation. Use of AVOX 2 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 2 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 2 License Agreement

Antares Audio Technologies grants you a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use AVOX 2 under the terms and conditions stated in this agreement. Use of AVOX 2 indicates your agreement to the following terms and conditions.

License

You may:

1. Use AVOX 2 on only one computer at a time. Authorization requires an USB iLok Smart Key which must be purchased separately.

You may not:

1. Make copies of AVOX 2 or of the user manual in whole or in part except as expressly provided for in this agreement. Your right to copy AVOX 2 and the user manual is limited by copyright law. Making copies, verbal or media translations, adaptations, derivative works, or telecommunication data transmission of AVOX 2 without prior written authorization of Antares, is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law.

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

3. Sub-license, lease, lend, rent, or grant other rights in all or any portion of AVOX 2 (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 AVOX 2 from all machine-readable 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.

Product Installation and Required Activation

There are technological measures in the AVOX 2 that are designed to prevent unlicensed or illegal use of the Software. You agree that Antares Audio Technologies may use these measures to protect Antares Audio Technologies against software piracy.

Limited Warranty And Disclaimer

AVOX 2 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 2 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

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 LIABILIT Y FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

AVOX

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

Chapter 1 Getting Started 3

Chapter 2 Introducing AVOX 2 5

Chapter 3 Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator 9

Chapter 4 THROAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer 11

Chapter 5 DUO Vocal Modeling Auto-Doubler 19

Chapter 6 CHOIR Vocal Multiplier 21

Chapter 7 PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer 23

Chapter 8 SYBIL Variable Frequency De-Esser 25

Chapter 9 ARTICULATOR Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeler 27

Chapter 10 MUTATOR Extreme Voice Designer 37

Chapter 11 WARM Tube Saturation Generator 43

Chapter 12 ASPIRE Aspiration Noise Processor 47

Index 51

Welcome!

On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase the AVOX 2 Antares Vocal Toolkit, a suite of uniquely powerful DSP tools for creating spectacular

vocal tracks. As an AVOX 2 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 2, 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

Chapter 1: Getting Started

How To Use This Manual

The plug-ins that make up the AVOX 2 suite have been designed with clear,

consistent, friendly user-interfaces. If you come to AVOX 2 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 2 tools do things that have never been done before (or do them in new ways), 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, Harmony Engine offers new (and extremely intuitive) ways to specify vocal harmony, while THROAT, ARTICULATOR and ASPIRE offer entirely new approaches to vocal processing, providing capabilities that have simply never before existed in a DSP plug-in. We strongly suggest that you read their chapters in their entirety to gain an understanding of what they 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 2 plug-ins. (Be sure to check out Harmony Engine’s and THROAT’s collection of factory presets. They’ll give you a good idea of what they’re capable of as well as providing inspiration for your own creations.) Then come back and dig into the details.

The Contents of This Manual

Chapter 1: Getting Started

The chapter you are reading. Provides information on installing and authorizing AVOX 2.

Chapter 2: Introducing AVOX 2

This chapter provides an overview of the tools that make up the AVOX 2 plug-in suite.

Chapter 3: Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator

Barely a chapter, here’s where we explain why there’s a separate manual for Harmony Engine.

Chapters 4 –12

These chapters are reference information for all of the controls used in each of the other AVOX 2 plug-in interfaces.

Installing AVOX 2

AVOX 2 plug-ins are designed to function in a wide variety of digital audio applications. Please refer to your speciﬁc host application’s user manual for more information on installing and using plug-ins.

Authorizing AVOX 2

Authorization is the process by which AVOX 2 is allowed to run on your computer. Detailed instructions covering the available authorization options will be found in the 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 AVOX 2 until it’s authorized.

Technical Support

In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using AVOX 2, try the following:

1. Make sure you have the latest version of

the software. You can download and install the latest version of the software from the following web page:

http://www.antarestech.com/download/

update.shtml

2. If you are having problems authorizing

your software, be sure that you have the latest version of the PACE Interlok drivers. You can download and install the latest version for your operating system from the following web page:

http://portal.knowledgebase.net/article.

asp?article=174703&p=5764

If your problem is not resolved after taking the above actions, 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:

http://www.antarestech.com

3. Consult our searchable knowledgebase at:

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

index.html

4. Call your local Antares dealer.

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.

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 (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.

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 postproduction 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.

ARTICUL ATOR 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.

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, ARTICULATOR, 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.

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.

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.

Chapter 4: 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.

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

SET 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.

NOTE: Choosing the wrong Vocal

Range (or just forgetting to set it at all) can result in compromised performance. Pay attention.

Source Glottal 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:

BREATHINESS

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

+ 40 hidden pages

ANTARES AVOX 2 Owner’s Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Welcome!

Technical Support

Controls