Baby Audio is back with another game-changing plugin, Humanoid, designed for vocal manipulation. Humanoid transforms vocals from subtle enhancements to radical, robotic transformations by combining pitch correction, vocoder technology, and wavetable synthesis. Known for innovative plugins like Atoms and Spaced Out, Baby Audio continues to push the boundaries of sound design. In this article, we’ll dive into Humanoid’s features, exploring how it works and how it can elevate your music production.

Baby Audio Humanoid is available now for an introductory price of $79 (regular price $129). It supports all major plugin formats (VST, VST3, AU, AAX) and is compatible with all major DAWs.

Let’s Break It Down!

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Pitch Panel: Control Your Sound

Humanoid’s Pitch Panel is where the magic begins. It offers three modes: Scale, Note, and MID. In Scale mode, you select a key or scale, and Humanoid automatically tunes the vocals. Note mode allows manual play using the keyboard, while MID mode lets you control Humanoid with a MIDI controller or track. The Key Selector, available in Scale mode, includes all 12 musical notes and modes like major, natural minor, and chromatic.

Quantize ensures sustained notes before remapping to the target pitch, with calibration options like Attack, Hold, and Polarity. The Robotify feature increases the robot effect, turning natural voices into mysterious, unnatural sounds. Calibration options like Denoise, Metallic, Flatten, and Emphasis control the effect’s intensity. The Formant option adjusts the resonant frequencies, simulating different vocal tract shapes with a bandwidth adjustment option.

Synthesize Panel: Shape Your Voice

The Synthesize Panel is Humanoid’s main control center. It features a Waveform display showing synthesized waves and pitch-corrected harmonics. You can select stock waveforms or import audio files, though Humanoid only creates wavetables from single-cycle files. Longer files are trimmed automatically.

Shape changes or bends the waveform, with calibrations for odd and even harmonics. Stretch offers a modulating effect by stretching the waveform forward and backward. Transform morphs the pitch-corrected voice into a synth waveform. Additional options like Note Shift and Octave adjust semitones and blend octaves up and down. The mix and crossfade line allows blending between pitch-corrected signals and synthesis, including note shift and octave voices.

Filter Panel: Fine-Tune Your Sound

Humanoid’s Filter Panel is divided into High Pass Filter (HPF), Low Pass Filter (LPF), and Mid Boost sections. The HPF and LPF include frequency and resonance controls, while the Mid band adjusts gain, frequency, and width (Q). This panel fine-tunes the vocal sound, adding depth and clarity.

Utility Panel: Optimize Your Performance

The Utility Panel optimizes the signal for tuning and resynthesis engines. The Range option increases pitch detection accuracy. De-ess reduces vocal sibilance, acting like a compressor for harsh “S” sounds, with calibration options for attack and sensitivity. The Gate function minimizes background noise by adding a threshold, muting signals below a certain volume. Calibration options include Attack, Hold, and Release. Smoothing reduces artifacts from abrupt note transitions, and Sharpen adds a pre-EQ curve for cleaner results.

Effects Panel: Experiment with Sound

The Effects Panel offers Widen, Warble, Buffer, and Freeze options for creative experimentation. Widen provides a chorus effect similar to the one found on BA-1. Warble adds vibrato, with LFO mode for gentle vibrato or FM for growling audio rate modulation. Buffer and Freeze create glitch effects. Each option has a small icon for further exploration.

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Extensive Preset Library

Humanoid has over 180 factory presets and 64 wavetables crafted by renowned sound designers. These presets cover various applications, from drums and instruments to harmonies and experimental sounds.

Humanoid’s flexibility shines through its diverse applications. For extreme vocal tuning, set lower Robotify levels and keep the Transform dial left-aligned, fine-tuning the quantize control for faster pitch remapping. Push the Transform dial fully right to use Humanoid as a voice-controlled synthesizer, replacing the original vocal with pure synthesis.

Harmony generation is easy in MIDI mode, allowing for vocal variations. The range tool opens up possibilities for unconventional sounds, further enhanced with the widen effect for chorus-like textures. Humanoid excels in both subtle vocal enhancement and radical sound design.

FAQs

  1. What formats does Humanoid support? Humanoid supports VST, VST3, AU, and AAX formats.
  2. Is Humanoid compatible with all DAWs? Yes, Humanoid is compatible with all major DAWs.
  3. Can I import my own audio files into Humanoid? Yes, Humanoid accepts any audio file but only creates wavetables from single-cycle files.
  4. What is the introductory price of Humanoid? The introductory price of Humanoid is $79, with a regular price of $129.

Baby Audio Humanoid is a powerful tool for vocal manipulation, offering a range of features from pitch correction to radical voice transformations. Its user-friendly interface and extensive preset library make it a valuable addition to any music producer’s toolkit. Humanoid delivers impressive results whether you’re looking for subtle enhancements or experimental sound design. Don’t miss the chance to add this innovative plugin to your collection at its introductory price.

The post Unlock Your Vocal Creativity with Baby Audio Humanoid appeared first on Magnetic Magazine.