Waves Audio Morphoder User Guide

Waves – Morphoder

Software Audio Processor

User’s Guide

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Chapter 1 – Introduction and Overview

The Waves Morphoder is a digital audio processor of the Vocoder type. The
vocoding engine allows two audio signals to be combined using one source
as a modulator and another source as the carrier. For example, using voice
as the modulator input and a synthesizer as the carrier, the result would be
that the synthesizer will “talk” and actually say the words spoken by the voice.
In the same way you can use a drum track as your modulator and the result
will be a rhythmic keyboard track in perfect sync with the drum tracks events.

Waves developed the Morphoder to offer outstanding sound quality featuring
great intelligibility and punctuation that is very easy to achieve. The Waves
Morphoder offers a built-in eight-voice polyphonic synthesizer that can provide
the carrier signal, and also the possibility to route other sources and designate
them as the modulator or carrier signal according to your needs.

By default the Morphoder will launch with the Internal synthesizer selected as
the Carrier signal and the track input as the Modulator signal. So if you insert
this plug-in over any vocal track, all you have to do is press play and play the
morphoder’s musical keyboard and it talks!

Classic vocoding is just one of the tricks this pony has to offer. The creative
possibilities with this plug-in are vast. There are many interesting sounds
possible. For example, you can use the Morphoder as an emulator for the
classic Electric Guitar TalkBox effect. Also radical pseudo-reverberation
effects can be achieved by modulating the internal noise generator.
Percussive keyboard tracks can be achieved literally by combining a keyboard
carrier sound with a percussive modulator. Rhythm guitar will also work
wonderfully.

More than just an audio processor or virtual instrument, this plug-in is actually
both, allowing you to “morph” any two signals into one with sonic clarity that is
beyond what we have heard in reference vocoders in software or hardware.

The Morphoder is indeed a high quality audio processor, but it’s also just a lot
of fun. Many of the people who heard the Morphoder immediately related to
its sound and a common reaction was simply a smile. We certainly hope the
Morphoder will make you smile too, and will provide you with a lot of useful
processing.

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Chapter 2 – Using the Morphoder

ROUTING YOUR SOURCES

To properly use the Morphoder within your favorite host application, the first
step is to identify your Modulator signal. This is important because the
Morphoder does not have means to generate an internal Modulator, although
it does have a built-in synthesizer to provide an internal carrier signal. When
you instantiate Morphoder on any track, that track’s signal will be routed as
the plug-in’s modulator signal. The modulator signal can be any signal such
as speech, drums, guitar or even rapid noise or bursts. This signal will provide
the Morphoder with means to construct a filter, which will then be applied to
the carrier. This will make the carrier sound a little bit like the modulator in its
dynamic spectral properties. In simpler words, the Carrier will adopt the
Modulator’s EQ.

Using the Morphoder within your favorite host application is quite simple.
When the Morphoder is instantiated it will load with its Internal Synth as the
selected carrier source and the track signal as the modulator. This is a
convenient starting point and once you begin playing, you should hear some
low-level modulated noise. If you don’t hear anything, that’s probably because
there is no signal present at the modulator input, or the signal is very weak. If
you have any meaningful signal in the track you should hear it modulating the
noise generator and clicking on any of the keyboard’s buttons should
introduce the modulated internal carrier sound.

The Morphoder allows you to route the modulator and carrier in other ways
such as using one of the track’s channels as the carrier and the other as the
modulator. In some host applications, one path or the other can be routed
through an external sidechain key (see the readme file to know which host
applications support external sidechain with your version of Waves
Morphoder).

ADJUSTING THE SOUND

Auditioning

The foremost condition for adjusting the sound is being able to audition it
properly. For this we recommend choosing a section that has signal in both
the Modulator and Carrier paths and playing it looped. Also, you can select a
portion that has a modulator signal and set the Carrier to the Internal
synthesizer, engage the sustain control, and press a note or a few notes on
the keyboard at the bottom of the plug-In.

Following any of the examples above, you should be hearing the Morphoder
output as set in the output section.

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Adjusting Character and Color

The first control to set is the Pressure control. This control will add gain to low
level signals until their energy nears the top bit and then begin to apply
compression. You can’t go wrong, just listen and set the amount of pressure
that sounds good to you.

The Formant ratio control initiates at 1.00 which is the natural Formant, in
which case the filter will be the same as “Learned” from the dynamic spectral
properties of the modulator. Higher values will make the whole filter slide up
the frequency range and the result will be a squeakier sound. For example,
“Aaaah” will become more “Eeeeh”. Lower values will have the opposite effect
and make the sound more boomy: “Aaaah” will sound more like “Ooooh”.

The Smoothing and Release controls both affect the time that it takes the filter
to adjust dynamically. The Smoothing is apparent when the modulator is
continued and the Release works when the modulator pauses. For speech
signals you can say that Smoothing is responsible for the filter decay
response within words while the Release is responsible for the filter decay
between words. The Smoothing value has a critical effect on the intelligibility
of speech where lower values provide higher intelligibility. The release control
resembles a reverb tail decay and can reach a value of infinity, in which case
the last filter shape will hold infinitely or as long as there is a carrier signal
present. Many times it makes sonic sense that both will have similar values,
but creative and special sounds can be achieved by having opposite settings
etc. It is recommended that you play around a little bit in order to get to know
these controls.

The Morphoder offers a 5 band paragraphic EQ to adjust the color of your
Morphoded sound. The adjustment can be carried out by dragging the grab
marker on the graph or by adjusting each numeric value box beneath the
graph.

In the Output mixer controls, jack up the gain in the modulator fader and
confirm that you are hearing the signal that you designated as the modulator.
Now apply gain to the Carrier fader and check that you are hearing the
incoming carrier signal.

Using the Internal Synthesizer and Keyboard Control.

Morphoder includes an eight-voice polyphonic synthesizer. It is designed to
be controlled via the mouse and the GUI keyboard, or by a MIDI Keyboard
controller. This functionality is not always available. It depends on the specific
plug-in version and host.

Click the GUI keyboard with the mouse to play notes. To the right of the
keyboard there is a sustain control that switches between normal mode and
sustain mode. In normal mode = Sustain Off, notes will start playing at mouse
click and stop at mouse release. In sustain mode = Sustain On, notes will start

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