Owner's manual

Introduction

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Bitspeek is a real-time pitch-excited linear prediction codec effect. Right now

you are probably thinking, "oh, another one of those"? Or perhaps not. Chances

are that you have never heard about "linear prediction", although most of us

use it daily when we talk on our cell phones. Linear prediction coding is a voice

compression technology that appeared in commercial products in the

seventies and was implemented in some well-known speaking toys of the early

eighties.

We have applied this technology to create a VST / AU effect plug-in that

analyzes audio, extracts a number of parameters (including pitch, volume and

formant data) and then resynthesizes the audio using a simple oscillator,

noise and filter architecture.

Ever heard the robotic voice in µTonic that reminds you to purchase? That is

an example of what Bitspeek can sound like. But there is more to it. We have

added a number of playback parameters that adjusts the pitch and tonal

quality of the sound as well as support for MIDI and a beat-synchronized

"formant freezing effect". Despite having only a few simple controls, this box

can produce a broad range of sounds from cheap speaking toys to high-end

vocoder and talkbox effects.

/ Magnus Lidström