Baby Audio Humanoid is a new creative vocal tuning plugin on steroids that flips your voice into a wild synthetic one using FFT-based resynthesis.
Kraftwerk was one of the first bands to use vocoders in music production. Today, using vocal manipulation plugins to fine-tune voices or make them sound synthetic is common practice. I am not a singer at all, but I find it amazing what is possible these days to do with these plugins.
Baby Audio, known for the Transit plugin, among other things, introduces Humanoid, a new and exciting voice tuning/vocoder plugin for macOS and Windows.
Baby Audio Humanoid
Humanoid is a new advanced voice-tuning/pitch corrector plugin with many tools to synthesize your voice. Based on FFT-based resynthesis, the core comprises five sections: pitch, utility, synthesis, filter, and effects.
The pitch section sets how Humanoid’s hard-tuning engine corrects incoming audio, an idea familiar from classic vocal tuning plugins.
There are various modes to explore: scale corrects notes in real-time to a selected musical key, notes adjust the pitch manually or with automation, and MIDI allows you to set the pitch via a MIDI track or controller.
The second vocal transformer engine is a wavetable synth that follows the pitch of the incoming signal and re-synthesizes it with selectable waveforms. Choose from 64 factory wavetables or import your own for more sonic variations.
From here, you can use the shape and stretch parameters to alter the loaded wavetable while note shifts and octaves alter the pitch. The big transform knob morphs between robotified hard-tuning and re-synthesized vocals to seamlessly blend between human and machine.
Filtering and Effects
That’s not all that Baby Audio Humanoid has on offer. Next to the “synthesize” part, it also hosts a flexible filter engine that acts on the spectral content from the analysis phase.
It includes high- and low-pass filters, a sweepable mid-band, and a booster. However, I miss a filter bank that also works well on vocals. That would also be a great feature for the filter section.
Baby Audio has expertise in effects, and a little of it can be found here again in the dedicated effects section with three algorithms. Widen makes the voice wider, while Warble offers spectral vibrato. Freeze is a unique stutter effect that can be synced to the BPM or programmed freely.
On the bottom left side, it also includes a utility section with tools for improving the process results: note range limiter, a de-esser, a gate to reduce bleed and noise, and smoothing reduces the harsh harmonics.
Additionally, the “sharpen” functionality enhances the vocal signal to achieve a clearer, sharper balance that cuts through the mix. Lastly, with the dry/wet mix control, you can set the perfect amount of the processed signal.
Baby Audio ships the new Humanoid plugin with 180 ready-to-use presets from recognized sound designers. From classic hard-tuning effects to transformative vocal manipulation, you’ll find expertly built patches that work across a variety of genres.
First Impression
An intriguing vocal processor from the Baby team. How different it is from other vocal plugins (iZotope Vocal Synth 2, Waves Tune Real-Time…) would have to be seen in a more detailed test. I would have been happy about a bit of modulation, but that is currently missing. Hopefully, there will also be an iOS version in the future.
Baby Audio Humanoid is available now for an introductory price of $79 instead of $129. It runs as a 64-bit only VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin on macOS (native Apple Silicon + Intel) and Windows.
More information here: Baby Audio
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