Products of Interest

Antares AVOX Vocal Plug-in Suite

The Antares AVOX (Antares Vocal Toolkit) is a suite of five plug-ins for vocal processing for enhancing existing tracks, creating vocal effects, and synthesizing vocal lines. This new package carries on from Antares's influential Auto-Tune software.

THROAT is a physical modeling instrument for voice with detailed control of the vocal tract through a graphical control (see Figure 1). The position and width of five points of the vocal tract can be manipulated from the vocal cords through to the mouth and lips. Variable frequency noise can be added using a Breathiness control to introduce touches of breath into the sound or to produce a complete whisper. The DUO plug-in adds a doubled part to an existing vocal and offers control over pitch, timing, and depth of the new part. A cut-down version of the THROAT model is also included here for timbral control and the user can independently control the level and pan position of each vocal part. The CHOIR plug-in is, as its name suggests, a chorus effect. A single vocal part can be extended to form 4, 8, 16, or 32 voices with control over pitch, timing, and vibrato variations available for each voice. PUNCH is a vocal enhancer that aims to make vocal parts more prevalent in dense mixes, and finally, SYBIL is a de-esser with threshold, ratio, attack, decay controls, and a variable high-pass frequency. AVOX is available in RTAS, VST, and Audio Units formats.

Figure 1.

THROAT physical modeling instrument from Antares AVOX Vocal Plug-in Suite.

AVOX is listed for US$ 599. Contact: Antares Audio Technologies, 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066, USA; telephone (+1) 831-461-7800; fax (+1) 831-461-7801; electronic mail info@antarestech.com; Web www.antarestech.com/.

Applied Acoustics Systems String Studio Modeling Synthesizer

Continuing from the company's previous physical modeling instruments, Lounge Lizard and Tassman, Applied Acoustics Systems has released String Studio, a new string synthesizer. Traditional string instrument sounds (including piano) can be created using the core string, body, and excitator models that simulate a range of picks, bows, plectrums, fingers, frets, and soundboards. These controls, along with a range of further effects, envelope, equalization, distortion, and arpeggiator options, allow the user to create new and unique string and percussion-based timbres. String Studio can be used as a standalone application or as a plug-in and is available in both Macintosh and Windows formats.

The main String Studio interface is made up of six modules: body, string, excitator, damper, termination, and filter (see Figure 2). A piano, guitar, violin, or generic body type is available in a range of sizes from tiny to huge, with controls for decay and partials. The string module includes controls for damping, decay, and detuning partials. The decay time of the string can be separately set for when the key is held down and when it is released. The instrument excitator can be a bow, two types of hammer, or a plectrum. The user can define the mass of hammers, stiffness of plectrums, friction, force of bows, and further interaction with the string. The damper module gives the user control of the vibration of a string after a key has been released. The mass, stiffness, velocity, and damping can be specified and a gating control can be switched on and off. The termination module is used to specify how fingers, frets, and strings interact. Finally, the filter module offers a notch, low-, high-, and band-pass types, along with cut-off and Q controls. The filter cut-off and resonance controls can be modulated by the output of the frequency envelope or the low-frequency oscillator (LFO, both detailed below). The filter, damper, and termination modules can be switched on or off.

Figure 2.

Main instrument modeling interface of Applied Acoustics Systems String Studio modeling synthesizer.

Along with these main modules, further controls are located on the main panel for specifying the location of the action on a string and the pickup position. A distortion...