Hello there. I'm after a vst plugin that does the job Prosoniq's 'Morph' does i.e. transitionary blends between two audio sources. I'm sure there must be a few of these about but the search terms "audio morph vst" "audio blending plugin" etc just don't seem to cut it. Suggestions most welcome.

NI with their AET in Kontakt 4 are the only other outfit I know of that has tackled this outside of Prosoniq's Morph (which is a very good plugin BTW). The "morph" term has been applied in bogus fashion to preset crossfades and the like by various developers, but this is not of course what you are looking for. I haven't actually played with AET and am not sure that it is true morphing either (I've got to re-up my online SOS subscription so I can read the latest issue and find out!).

There are several approaches in the academic world, though it's a minefield trying to find and use their software. But if you want to put in the time and work and roll the dice and enjoy a great deal of, uhm - it's out there. Loris, SMStools, SPEAR/Open Music/scripting etc. I'd try the latter first - SPEAR is very good, and I would expect the morphing procedure described in the developer's Ph.D. dissertation to actually work.

Edited by Revson (06/02/10 01:23 AM)

thanks for the pointers. i had no idea this effect was so under developed.

Cheers
Andy

As far as I'm aware Camel Audio's Alchemy offers a morphing feature but despite owning the thing I can't confess to having played with that feature much... I just tend to use to mash up and blend samples together.

Worth checking out, at least.

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www.loadedaudio.com - Audio Mastering and home of the Mix Fix
www.audioslap.com - Audio News, Reviews and Interviews

Shapee
http://www.jezwells.org/Computer_music_tools.html

It's very old by plug in standards, seriously clunky, doesn't actually have a GUI and must be used with care, but it works!

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http://www.jeremycorbett.co.uk

Quote __Andy:

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thanks for the pointers. i had no idea this effect was so under developed

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Hi Andy!

It's not as much under-developed as overly complex to do properly. Many 'so-called' morph features simply cross fade from one sound to another, but true morphing requires analysis of both sounds to break them down into components so that you can gradually change from one harmonic series to another.

Camel Audio's Alchemy does this very well using additive synthesis, breaking each constituent sound down into a series of hundreds of harmonics over time, but I agree, it's not done as well very often.

Prosoniq's Morph was rather ground-breaking - it's a shame it's no longer available for PC


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote Mahoobley:

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Shapee
http://www.jezwells.org/Computer_music_tools.html

It's very old by plug in standards, seriously clunky, doesn't actually have a GUI and must be used with care, but it works!

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Ah yes, the infamous Shapee. I covered this in my feature on 'Exploring PC Spectral Multi-band Plug-ins', but thanks for that new link Mohoobs - the MP3 files of Shapee morphing the choir and orchestral snippets are most impressive!

It only works on mono sources at the moment, but I must dig it out and do some more with it after listening to those snippets


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Thanks for the links. You would think, that with all the convolution technology about, some of it quite esoteric, audio morphing would feature more. That said Shapee is working just fine on the mono sources i'm working on and pretty much how I had imagined - I get the feeling i'll be pulling up this effect a lot. Stereo coming soon too.

Hmmm, now if there was an affordable hardware version of this effect...

I love the idea of morphing audio signals, but in practise it sounds pretty rank to me!

Listening to all the samples at http://www.prosoniq.com/audio-plugins/prosoniq-morph/

It just sounded like a gritty vocoded effect.

I wasn't that impressed with the musicality of the results of the camel audio thing either. It sounds like you're taking away the nice bits from each sound and mixing them together, do you know what I mean?

Happy to be proved wrong, but if that's the best sounds I can get with those plugins, they won't be on my "to buy" list any time soon!

Melodyne is another matter, though.

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Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Don't judge by those 'Drum Loop to Choir' style morphs gregster - it's the instrumental morphs that sound far more effective to me when a single note is transformed from one to the other.


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Fair enough...But you get my point, yeah? So many audio demos for plugins seem to be created by theoretical technicians rather than, you know, musicians! Does anyone have an example of one of these things being used in a convincing, musical way, to get an effect that sounds quite different from any other kind of effect?

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Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Oh yes, I get your point gregster

When I revisited the Jez Wells page linked to by mahoobley above I was impressed by his efforts with shapee:

www.jezwells.org/Computer_music_tools.html

His choral and orchestral experimental crossese are certainly vocoded effects, but not gritty to me:

www.jezwells.org/plugin_files/Resonet.mp3
www.jezwells.org/plugin_files/Oaks.mp3
www.jezwells.org/plugin_files/Combined.mp3


This second one was a particularly effective combination to my ears:

www.jezwells.org/Matlab/choir_in_D.mp3
www.jezwells.org/Matlab/Bach_edit.mp3
www.jezwells.org/Matlab/shapee_example.mp3


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

I agree those samples are bad. But like Martin says, morphing two spectrally similar sounds has a great effect. Try this: record a trumpet track that mimics, as much as it can, a vocal track (rhythm, accent, melody etc). Morph them and no doubt you'll prick your ears like an eager puppy. The cleaner and more unprocessed the sources are, the better in my opinion.

There's something that can do this and much more, but you need loads of cash to buy it, unfortunately.

Symbolic Sounds Kyma.

Even if it is out of the reach of most, it's still a sound designer's wet dream and something I'd love to get my greasy mitts on ..

Check out the Audio Morphing section on this page :

http://www.symbolicsound.com/cgi-bin/bin/view/Products/SoundClips

Ooooooh

What body parts I'd sell to have Kyma coupled with a Continuum Fingerboard ... you have no idea ...

D.

PS. Don't even bother clicking on the "order" button

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www.thirdfloormusic.com

Thanks for that link Darclinc!

Oh my goodness - Woman to Cat, baby to dog...

After listening to those demos I think I need a change of undergarments. Wow!!!!!

I’m sawing off one of my legs at the moment as part-payment


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

Quote Darclinc:

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There's something that can do this and much more, but you need loads of cash to buy it, unfortunately.

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Curse you for reminding me.

Curse me for reminding myself.

D.

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www.thirdfloormusic.com

And I now look like Long John Silver




Martin

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YewTreeMagic