Speektra

Play it from a MIDI track. Each note takes its two vowels and starts its own morph LFO, which moves the vowel from one toward the other. The formant grains sing that vowel at the pitch of the note, shaped by the envelope. A limiter on each voice then clips it just below full level, and the output is mono.

1. Vowel pair

   VOC 1

   Sets the starting vowel. Turning it up runs through the vowels in the order A, E, I, A, O, U, E, O, I, U, A, O, A, and between those points it blends the two neighbors. It applies from the next note you play.

   VOC 2

   Sets the second vowel, the one MORPH moves toward. It runs through the same order as VOC 1 and also applies from the next note.

   METHOD

   In MAN, each note uses VOC 1 and VOC 2. In RND, each note picks two vowels at random and ignores the VOC knobs, so every note morphs differently.

2. Morph LFO

   MORPH

   Sets how far the LFO moves the vowel from VOC 1 toward VOC 2. All the way up it reaches VOC 2, and at zero the vowel stays on VOC 1.

   SPEED

   Sets the speed of the LFO, synced to your host's tempo, from stopped up to two cycles per beat. Each note starts its LFO from the beginning. At zero the LFO stands still: on the triangle the vowel stays on VOC 1, and on either square it holds as far toward VOC 2 as MORPH says, so you can morph by hand.

   SHAPE

   Picks the LFO shape in three steps. The first is a triangle that glides from VOC 1 toward VOC 2 and then the same distance past VOC 1 the other way. The second is a square that jumps between those two points, and the third is a square that jumps between VOC 1 and the point MORPH sets. It applies from the next note you play.

3. FOF formants

   REGISTER

   Picks the voice in five steps. The first four rise from tenor through countertenor and alto to soprano, and the last step is bass. It changes the formants, not the pitch of the note, and applies from the next note you play.

4. Envelope

   ATTACK

   Sets the attack time, from 1 ms up to 10 seconds.

   DECAY

   Sets how long the note takes to fall to the SUSTAIN level, from 0.01 to 5 seconds.

   SUSTAIN

   Sets the level a held note settles at, from silent up to half its peak. At zero every note dies away after its decay, which is what you want for percussive vocals.

   RELEASE

   Sets how long a note takes to fade after you let go, from 0.01 to 5 seconds.

5. Master

   OUTPUT

   Sets the level of each voice before the limiter, from silent to full. It starts a little under halfway up.

Try thisFor a choral drone, turn ATTACK up to a second or two, raise SUSTAIN and RELEASE, keep MORPH low with a slow SPEED and play wide chords. The default settings have SUSTAIN at zero, so turn it up if your notes seem to vanish.

Formats

Studies: Audio Units, VST2 and VST3 on Mac, VST3 on Windows · Apple silicon native

Systems

Current macOS and Windows 10/11 x64