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                         VOWEL BLENDER PRODUCT SHEET
                              by UB DSP
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OVERVIEW
--------
Vowel Blender is a formant filter built around a 2D phonetic pad. Drag a single
cursor through ten vowels from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA),
mapped from real speech recordings, pick between seven research-grade voice
models, and let the motion recorder loop your gestures in tempo with the host.
Synths grow into choirs, basses start to talk, drum loops chant, all from
one cursor and a few knobs.

Tagline: "10 vowels. 7 voice models. One 2D phonetic pad."


NEW IN 1.4.1
------------
- Plays from a controller: four remote-control pages in Bitwig (Vowel,
  Character, Output, Perform), the first one led by the two coordinates of
  the pad. Prev Preset, Next Preset, Prev Vowel, Next Vowel and Motion Play
  are parameters a controller button can press, window closed included.
- The preset browser names a preset loaded from the host's browser or from a
  controller, and steps on from it.
- The VST3 and AAX versions have one Bypass instead of two, and Crossover
  Freq reads in Hz in the host.
- Fixes: a crash when a preset loaded with the window closed, a crash during
  a host scan, and a session restore that now reads back exactly what the
  host saved.


KEY FEATURES
------------
- 2D Phonetic XY Pad
  Ten IPA-defined vowels (i, e, ɛ, æ, a, ɑ, ɔ, o, u, ʊ) arranged on a phonetic
  quadrilateral. X axis = front/back tongue position, Y axis = close/open jaw.
  Drag a single cursor across vowel space and the formant filter retunes
  smoothly in real time.

- 7 Voice Models (Research-Grade)
  Woman 1/2/3, Man 1/2/3 and Kids, sourced from the Peterson & Barney 1952 and
  Hillenbrand 1995 datasets, the two canonical formant references in speech
  research. Each model produces a distinctly different timbral character.

- 4 Formant Cascade
  Each vowel uses four formants modeled as zero-delay-feedback state-variable
  band-pass filters. SLOPE (Soft, Classic, Sharp) sets how hard they carve,
  logarithmic interpolation keeps the morph perceptually smooth, and Q^0.7
  gain compensation prevents resonance blowouts. A soft-clip DRIVE sits
  before the filter.

- BOOST and NOTCH Modes
  BOOST imposes the vowel you point at. NOTCH carves it out of the sound:
  point at a boxy or nasal resonance and it gets scooped from the signal, with
  Q setting the width of the cut and MIX its depth. Three factory presets are
  built for it: De-Nasal, Anti-Honk and Carve Vowel.

- Motion Recorder
  Live/Record/Replay modes. Capture a gesture on the pad, then loop it
  forward, backward, or ping-pong, locked to free-running Hz or to the host
  tempo (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1/1, 2/4/8 bars). Shape generator with 13 ready-made
  paths: smooth curves (Sweep, Circular, Spiral, Figure-8), geometric loops
  (Triangle, Square, Diamond, Star, Inv. Triangle, Square Spiral), vocal
  paths (Diphthong, All Vowels), and a signature Heart. SNAP makes every pass
  land on a real vowel.

- 9 Modulator Types with Intermodulation
  LFO, MSEG, Step Sequencer, Audio Oscillator, Envelope Generator, Envelope
  Follower, Macro, MIDI, XY Pad. Multi-instance: stack as many as you need.
  Modulators can modulate each other's internal parameters. Macro exposes
  four sub-outputs (Knob 1, Knob 2, Btn 1, Btn 2) for independent routing.

- Pre-Formant Pitch Shifter
  Built-in phase vocoder (FFT 512, hop 128, oversample 4). Shift ±12 semitones
  with delay-aligned dry path so Mix = 0 stays transparent. Off by default,
  and a session that never transposes reports no latency. Switched on, it adds
  about 12 ms, reported to the host and held until the plugin reloads, so the
  DAW never has to rebuild its audio graph when a preset turns it off again.

- LOWS Crossover
  Phase-matched Linkwitz-Riley 4th-order low-frequency split (24 dB/octave,
  20–500 Hz). Preserve sub-bass intact while the formant chain colours
  everything above the cutoff. Click-free smoothed on/off.

- Stereo Modes
  Off, L/R detune (symmetric per-channel formant offset), M/S detune (adaptive
  mid-keeps-reference / side-gets-shifted formants, with auto blend toward
  synthetic-side on mono input).

- Live Frequency Response Curve
  Animated visualization of the formant cascade. Drag directly on the curve to
  set Shift and Q. Watch modulation move in real time.

- Character Controls
  Humanize (a slow formant drift), Breath (a whispered layer shaped by the
  same vowel), Size (reshapes the voice without moving its register: F1 stays
  put while the formants above it pack in or spread apart), Alien (bends the
  formants into vowels no mouth can make). Four controls to push the result
  from "voice" to "creature".

- A/B Compare and 29 Steps of Undo
  Two-slot A/B compare with one click. Undo / redo snapshots every 0.5 s,
  up to 29 steps back. Save and recall user presets directly from the top bar.

- FabFilter-Style Help Mode
  Click the "?" button and every control reveals a contextual help bubble on
  hover, in plain language with audio-first descriptions.


PRESETS
-------
41 factory presets across 6 categories: Init/Basics, Vocals, Synth/Keys, Bass,
Creative, and Sound Design. Saving your own presets takes a single click from
the top bar, with live "name taken" preview and overwrite confirmation.


SPECIFICATIONS
--------------
Product:      Vowel Blender
Developer:    UB DSP
Version:      1.4.1
Price:        $68
Formats:      CLAP, VST3, AU, AAX
Platforms:    macOS 10.13+ (Universal Binary; versions before macOS 11 are not tested), Windows 10+ (64-bit),
              Linux (64-bit)
Category:     Formant Filter / Talkbox / Sound Design
Trial:        Free unlimited trial available (periodic silence)


ABOUT UB DSP
-------------
UB DSP is an independent audio plugin company building tools that are a joy to
use and a joy to hear. Founded by a musician and engineer, UB DSP focuses on
innovative interfaces and production-ready sound quality, with broad support
across all major plugin formats.


LINKS
-----
Product page:     https://ubdsp.com/vowel-blender
Downloads:        https://ubdsp.com/downloads?p=vowel-blender
Online manual:    https://ubdsp.com/vowel-blender-manual
Demo video:       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBovgcctpbc
Website:          https://ubdsp.com


CONTACT
-------
Ben, UB DSP
Email: ben@ubdsp.com
Web:   https://ubdsp.com/contact
