Reckless Vocoder

What it does

Only the voice's shape reaches the output, never the voice itself. A detector listens for pitch in the voice: on an s, sh, f or a breath it fades noise into the instrument's place, so consonants come through as consonants. The screen shows the voice's level in each band, low on the left to high on the right; if the right-hand bars never move while you speak, check the microphone and the send.

Routing the voice

• No routing at all (the defaults): put the plugin on the vocal track with the voice on its right input. Carrier on Saw C2 plays a built-in sawtooth stack at low C as the instrument.
• Play it from a keyboard: Carrier on Synth and the vocal on the right input as above, then route a MIDI track or keyboard to the plugin (in the standalone app, tick the keyboard under Audio/MIDI Settings). Each note held - up to eight - is that sawtooth stack at the note's pitch; the sustain pedal works. Nothing sounds without a note, and how hard you play makes no difference: your voice sets the level.
• A mono rig: Carrier on Input, the instrument on one channel of a stereo track and the microphone on the other, Modulator set to the microphone's side. The standalone app works the same way with two interface inputs.
• Sidechain: the plugin on the instrument's track, the vocal routed to its Sidechain input, Modulator on Sidechain, Carrier on Input. With nothing connected the instrument shapes itself.
• On the Pedalboard: right-click the pedal and choose Key from to give it the board's sidechain, the board's IN or another pedal's output.

Controls

Close-up	Control	Range	Default	What it does
	Attack	0.5 to 50 ms	5 ms	How fast each band rises: short snaps, long blurs.
	Release	5 to 500 ms	50 ms	How fast each band falls: short stutters, long glues syllables.
	Sensitivity	0 to 100 %	50 %	How readily the voice counts as unvoiced, bringing in noise.
	Noise	0 to 100 %	50 %	How far the instrument gives way to noise on consonants.
	Presence	100 Hz to 7 kHz	2 kHz	Treble boost on the instrument, so consonants have something to shape.
	Output	-24 to +24 dB	0 dB	Output level, which follows the voice's level too.
	Formant (plate)	-3 to +3 bands	0	Moves the voice's shape up (smaller) or down (larger), pitch unchanged.
	Detector (plate)	Off / On	On	Off: no noise on consonants; Sensitivity and Noise do nothing.
	Presence (plate)	Off / On	On	Switches the instrument's treble boost in and out.
	Modulator	Sidechain / Right input / Left input	Right input	Where the voice comes from.
	Carrier	Input / Saw C2 / Synth	Saw C2	The main input, the built-in oscillator, or the built-in synth played from MIDI.

Tips

• Keep the carrier playing. Between notes there is nothing to shape and the voice goes silent: hold chords or use a drone.
• Bright carriers speak best. Sawtooths, a distorted guitar or noise work; a sine mumbles. For clearer words, turn Presence up (4 to 7 kHz on a guitar or a warm pad) and leave Noise up.
• Vowels turning to hiss? Lower Sensitivity; raise it if s's stay pitched.
• The old-school robot. Detector Off, Attack and Release short, one held synth note.
• Vocal chords. Carrier on Synth, sing one line and play the chords: every word comes out in harmony.