Waves

It’s hard to know exactly where the trend for
overtly pitch-shifted, processed vocals in
modern pop irst began. While vocoding had
been commonplace in more outré ields for
decades, and intermittently used in a somewhat
gimmicky fashion on various big hits,
particularly those concerned with technology
(here’s looking at you, Trevor Horn) it arguably
wasn’t until Cher’s 1998 danceloor-iller Believe
that on-the-nose auto-tune became the viable
ingredient in the stew of modern pop
production it is now.
Since then, processed vocals have become
commonplace across many genres, with the rise
of EDM and its often cartoonish musical
landscapes bleeding across the spectrum of
pop. Vocals that – to varying degrees – modify
in pitch and intensity, distort, stutter and loop
can be found almost anywhere. It’s a state of
afairs that plugin heavyweights Waves are
keenly aware of. Their solid form in this ield is
demonstrated by products such as the recent
voice-controlled processing synth OVox and
their classic (but still mightily useful) Tune.
Waves now ofer up speedy, real-time pitch
shifting and instant access to some of the
modern vocal producer’s tricks, all controlled
via an intuitive UI.
Haven’t we met before?
The basic simplicity of the UI invites immediate
experimentation, and reminds us in no small
way of SoundToys’ excellent Little AlterBoy, with
which it shares an identical dual-knobbed
design. That being said, there is a signiicant
amount of complex, and utterly unique,
programming potential here. These two knobs,
labelled Pitch and Formant, can be scaled up or
down by 12 semitones (or, if selecting the ‘Fine’
view, by 1200 cents). Pitch in this context is
W a v e s
Vocal Bender £110
This appealing vocal mangler lets you give music’s most essential
instrument the colour and dexterity modern pop production demands
PITCH SHIFTER
Change the
fundamental
frequency of your
input vocal signal
FORMANT SHIFTER
Adjust the tone/characteristics of the
input vocal signal without affecting notes
AMPLITUDE AND PITCH
Use these to trigger plugin modulation
based on input signal pitch or amplitude
FLAT TEN
Forces the entire
vocal signal to a
pitch, specified from
a drop down
L FO/S EQU EN CER
Alter the behaviour
of a modulator by
switching between
LFO or Sequencer
ORGANIC
MODULATORS
Click to open up the
Organic modulator
windows where you
can edit Amplitude
or Pitch
MIX KNOB
Defines the wetness
or dryness of the
plugin’s effect on
the vocal signal
FINE
Allows cent-based
tuning of Pitch and
Formant Shifters
PRESETS
Choose from a range of
varied and colourful presets
MODULATION CONTROLS
Increase Rate, Warp, Phase and Smooth-
ness of the selected modulator
MODULATORS
Click to bring up the
modulation windows
where you can edit
the LFO or Sequencer
referring to the central tone of the human vocal,
whereas Formant covers the resonant
frequencies that shape the overall timbre of the
vocal. If you’re a tad confused as to this subtle
diference, a quick dabble on a pre-existing
vocal track sonically illustrates that diference
– and also how dramatically this simple tool
allows us to totally transform our vocal sound.
To the left of the Pitch control, the Flatten
button allows us to force the input signal to snap
to a predetermined note from C2 to B3 – and
makes it afect an eerie monotone. Our tests
prove that this is a really handy, speedy tool for
building up augmented choruses and
harmonies across multiple tracks. The resulting
efect of building several carefully tuned,
lattened vocals can easily conjure that slightly
robotic Bon Iver-esque texture.
There’s a simple Wet/Dry mix knob to the
right of Formant too, while between both our
74 / COMPUTER MUSIC / July 2021
> reviews / waves vocal bender
CMU296.rev_waves_vocalbender.indd 74CMU296.rev_waves_vocalbender.indd 74 29/04/2021 11:3129/04/2021 11:31