MusicRadar

Mutator lets you produce other-worldly sounds.

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• Review
• Manufacturer's Description

Antares' original Avox bundle comprised five radical vocal processing plug-ins. These are all included in Avox 2, as are five new ones.

Throat

The most notable of the original suite was probably Throat, which uses physical modelling to replicate the sound of the source vocal tract, so that its character can be tweaked and adjusted, just like a virtual instrument. You can add more breathiness, alter the perceived throat size, and tinker with the glottal waveform.

Although it's a powerful creative tool, we found it tricky to get realistic results from. You can't push it too far or the voice will sound false, but sometimes that might be appropriate.

Duo and Choir

Duo and Choir are also retained from the original set. Duo creates a copy of the input vocal and uses variations in timbre, vibrato, pitch, timing and panning to create the impression of a double-tracked recording. This sounds quite natural, and is very useful. If you want to thicken a vocal part but can't record a second take, Duo beats a standard chorus effect.

Choir works in a similar manner, generating four, eight, 16 or 32 additional virtual voices, providing the same variations as Duo. The clincher is that Choir sounds better on sources that already have multiple vocal tracks, and it works to increase the perceived number of vocalists. Again, the results are pretty good when used in moderation.

Punch and Sybil

Punch is a lot like a limiter in operation, but the results sound similar to gentle compression. If you're uncomfortable with compressors, it's a great solution for evening out the dynamics while adding – you guessed it – punch.

Sybil is very much a typical de-esser - ie, a configurable, frequency-specific compressor - and it works well enough.

Harmony Engine

Avox 2 also includes Harmony Engine, Mutator, Articulator, Aspire and Warm. The most substantial of these new additions is Harmony Engine - this retails separately for £189, so to get it in the box represents great value for money.

It works a little like Duo or Choir, except this time there's more control over tuning. You can use Harmony Engine to build complex harmonic arrangements, employing up to four virtual voices on top of the original source. If you don't supply a MIDI signal, Harmony Engine enables you to select from a plethora of static presets.

This works well if you only need a very basic arrangement, but the real magic begins when you hook up a MIDI device and play in the specific harmonies you'd like the voices to follow. In fact, it's as easy as dragging and dropping chords from another MIDI part in your project onto the track that controls Harmony Engine – this way, you can create appropriate harmonies in no time at all. We'd certainly describe it as a pleasing sound, if not quite the same as recording separate takes.