User Manual

51
12: ASPIRE Evo
ASPIRATION NOISE PROCESSOR
ASPIRE Evo is the world’s first tool for modifying
a voice’s breathiness independent of its harmonic
content. Whether reducing a bit of vocal rasp
or adding a bit of smokiness, ASPIRE Evo lets
you modify the amount and quality of a voice’s
aspiration noise without otherwise affecting the
vocal’s harmonic characteristics.
What’s aspiration noise?
As we mentioned back in the chapter on
THROAT Evo, when you speak or sing, air from
your lungs is forced through your vocal chords,
causing them to vibrate. The contour of this
vibration is the glottal waveform. The actual shape
of the waveform is affected by each individual’s
anatomy as well as the pressure applied to the
vocal chords. From there, the voice is propagated
through the throat, the mouth and out through
the lips. It is the shape of these structures, both
their length and width, that create the resonant
characteristics that combine with the glottal
waveform to define a unique vocal identity.
But going into a bit more detail, we find that the
vocal waveform is actually a combination of two
different components. One, the one we usually
think of as the primary element of vocal timbre, is
the harmonic content generated by the process
described above. However, there is a second
component that is generated by the turbulence
of the air rushing past the vocal chords. This
component, aspiration noise, does not have
harmonic content and can roughly be thought of
as “breathiness.”
Aspiration noise presents itself in a variety of
ways, from a subtle bit of breathiness to a full-
blown rasp. Of course, whether it’s a problem
or not depends on the amount of noise and the
style of a performance. A whole lot of roughness
that would work well for screaming punk or roots
blues might well be a problem for mainstream
pop or a smooth ballad (of course, it also might
not). Up to now, there wasn’t much you could do
about it. Now, with ASPIRE Evo, there is.
What’s ASPIRE Evo do?
Quite simply, ASPIRE Evo analyzes a vocal in
real time and separates the aspiration noise
component from the harmonic content. It then