iZotope's VocalSynth is all fun. It is a great tool for instantly transforming any recorded vocal track into what seems like an infinite number of otherworldly sounds. There are four onboard vocal engines: robotic vocals using the Vocoder, programmable harmonies come from Polyvoice, glitchy digital speech is produced by Compuvox and singing synthesized funkiness comes from the Talkbox. You can freely mix all four in any combination and then further process using the five, built-in effect modules: Distort, Filter, Transform, Shred and Delay.
I spent hours exploring VocalSynth running in Pro Tools 12 and was fascinated by the individuality of all four voices—I especially liked the way the Talkbox and Vocoder worked so easily. These effects have always been difficult to set up. This is not like echo, reverb or an EQ effect at all—VocalSynth creates new timbres. Besides being a great little vocal tuner, Polyvoice module adds three additional pitched tracks you can set up to be harmonies, unison or octaves and then mix them with your lead vocal.
With a good solid and useful collection of presets evocatively named, VocalSynth sells for $199.
BARRY RUDOLPH is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com
