Vowel Blender Manual

1. Welcome & Overview

Vowel Blender turns any sound into a voice. Drag a single cursor across a 2D phonetic pad and the source starts to speak, sing, or whisper the vowels you point at. From a barely-there formant tint that adds character to a vocal, to a full talkbox effect on a synth lead, to slow morphing motion paths that breathe between EE, AH, and OH, this is a focused, deeply playable formant filter.

Most vowel filters give you a few presets and a morph slider. Vowel Blender gives you 10 vowels from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) (i, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ʌ, ɔ, o, ʊ, u) on a 2D pad (front/back on X, close/open on Y), 7 voice models built from real-world voice data (Peterson & Barney 1952, Hillenbrand 1995), a motion recorder that loops your gestures in sync with the host, and a full modulation system with nine modulator types (LFO, MSEG, Step Seq, Audio Osc, Env Gen, Env Follower, Macro, MIDI, XY). A pre-formant pitch shifter sits in front of the filter for higher highs, lower lows, and unison effects. A phase-matched LOWS crossover in the bottom bar lets the bass band bypass the formant chain entirely, so heavy resonance on a bass track or a full mix never costs you the foundation.

It runs at low latency, and every control links to perception first. Joy to use, joy to hear.

Available formats: AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX
Platforms: macOS (10.13+; versions before macOS 11 are not tested), Windows (64-bit), Linux (64-bit)

2. Quick Start, First Great Sound in 60 Seconds

3. Typical Use Cases

4. Interface Overview

The interface is organised into five zones:

Preset Bar (top)

The top bar gives you full undo history, A/B comparison, and the categorised preset browser with previous/next arrows. Click the preset name to open the menu organised by category (Init/Basics, Vocals, Synth/Keys, Bass, Creative, Sound Design). The ? button toggles Help mode (hover any control for a contextual bubble). The About button opens the version and settings dialog.

The 41 factory presets are also exposed to your DAW's own preset browser through CLAP preset discovery. In Bitwig, REAPER, or any CLAP host with native browsing, you can audition Vowel Blender presets from the host's interface without opening the plugin window. The internal browser remains the most direct path and is what the previous / next arrows and category menu drive. A preset you load from the host's browser shows its name in the preset bar, and the arrows step on from it.

The XY Pad (centre-left)

This is the playable surface. Drag the cursor anywhere inside the pad and the four-formant filter morphs to the corresponding vowel. The 10 IPA phonemes are laid out exactly as they appear on a vowel chart: EE (i) top-left (close-front), UU (u) top-right (close-back), AE (æ) bottom-left (near-open-front), AH (ɑ) bottom-right (open-back). Modulation halos around the cursor show active modulation routes.

The 10 vowels available, with their IPA glyphs and approximate English equivalents:

Vowel Row (under the pad)

Each button snaps the XY pad to the corresponding vowel. Use it for precise vowel choices, A/B testing between phonemes, or as a starting point before drag-tweaking.

Voice Model Selector

Choose between seven head-size and gender presets. Each model uses different formant frequencies measured from real speakers (Peterson & Barney 1952 for the Man series, Hillenbrand 1995 for the Woman series and Kids). Switching models changes the timbral character of every vowel without changing the pad position.

Main Knobs (right)

The four knobs that shape the filter response. Shift transposes all formants up or down (-12 to +12 semitones). Q sets the resonance width. Drive pushes the source through a soft saturator before the filter. Mix controls the dry/wet balance.

Response Curve

A live frequency response display showing how the filter is shaping your signal right now. The four peaks are the four formants. Their position changes when you drag the XY pad, when modulation moves the Shift parameter, when the motion recorder plays back a path.

The curve is also interactive: drag anywhere to set Shift (horizontal) and Q (vertical, drag down for more resonance). Double-click resets both to neutral. When LOWS is on, a vertical blue handle appears on the curve: drag it left or right to tune the crossover cutoff between 20 and 500 Hz. The shaded zone to its left marks the bass band that bypasses the formant chain.

Motion Transport Bar (below the pad)

The Motion Transport Bar drives the motion recorder. You can record a drag on the pad, replay it in sync with the host, or pick one of thirteen procedural shapes (smooth curves, geometric loops, and the signature Heart). See section 6.

Bottom Bar

The bottom bar holds global processing toggles (left cluster) and the output stage (right cluster). BYPASS mutes processing with a smooth crossfade, and it is the one your host's own bypass button works. LOUDNESS MATCH auto-compensates the output level so an honest A/B against the dry signal does not get fooled by saturation-induced loudness. LOWS activates a low-frequency crossover so the bass stays intact even with extreme formant settings. BOOST/NOTCH flips the formant filter between imposing the vowel (Boost) and carving it out (Notch). See the Controls Reference for both. The right side hosts the stereo mode selector and the output gain.

5. Controls Reference

Knob and Pad Interaction

Every knob and the XY pad share the same gesture vocabulary, so once you learn it you can dial in values precisely without leaving the mouse.

• Drag a knob (vertically or in a circle) to change its value. Drag the XY pad to set position and openness together.
• Hold Shift while dragging for about 10× finer precision. Use this when you need a specific semitone, a tight Q tweak, or a careful XY placement near a vowel target.
• Scroll wheel over a knob nudges it by one fine step. Useful while you keep the cursor near the value display, no need to grab the knob.
• Double-click a knob to reset it to its default value.
• Right-click the XY pad to reset the cursor to the centre.

The XY Pad

Voice Model

Main Knobs

The Pad Knobs (under the XY pad)

POSITION and OPEN are the two coordinates of the XY pad cursor, exposed as separate knobs. They are useful when you want to set a precise vowel by typing a value, or when a host wants to automate them via standard parameter automation rather than a 2D control. Modulating either of them moves the pad cursor in real time.

The Character Popup

Click the Character button in the top bar to open this popup. The controls let you push the vowel sound away from neutral towards specific characters: softer or sharper in focus, alive, breathy, big-headed, alien, transposed.

The Pre-Formant Pitch Shifter

Mono, Stereo, and Mono → Stereo

Vowel Blender supports three input/output configurations. Your DAW exposes them as separate plugin variants:

• Stereo → Stereo: the default. Use on stereo tracks. All controls active.
• Mono → Mono: automatic on mono tracks. The plugin still runs internally as dual mono so the formant filter and modulators behave identically, but the output stays mono. The L/R, M/S, and Width controls are greyed out on this configuration, since stereo width has no audible effect on a single output channel.
• Mono → Stereo: the variant you want when you have a mono source (a vocal take, a mono synth) and you want stereo width as an output. The plugin duplicates the mono input across both internal channels, then the L/R or M/S mode does its formant detune to produce real stereo divergence.

Stereo Mode

LOWS Crossover

Formant Mode: Boost / Notch

Preset Bar Controls

6. The Motion Recorder

The Motion Recorder lets you capture a movement on the XY pad and play it back in sync with your host. Record a hand-drawn diphthong, pick one of thirteen procedural shapes (Heart, Spiral, Star, Square Spiral, …), and have it loop forever in time with the music.

Modes

Loop Modes

Three loop options: Forward (loops from start to end), Backward (loops end to start), PingPong (alternates direction each pass). PingPong is the most musical for diphthongs and breathing motion.

Sync

The path can loop in free Hz (any rate independent from the host) or tempo-synced divisions: 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1/1, 2 bars, 4 bars, 8 bars. Tempo-synced motion locks to your host's bar grid, so the vowel sweep arrives on the downbeat every time.

Shape Generator

Thirteen built-in shapes generate ready-made motion paths. The dropdown lists them in the order below — the same order they appear in the menu, grouped roughly from smooth curves to geometric loops to the signature one:

Head

Note on Snap: The SNAP knob (covered in the Pad Knobs section of the Controls Reference) is a pad-wide control, not a motion-recorder-only one. It pulls the cursor toward the nearest IPA vowel regardless of how the cursor got there: a hand drag, a motion-recorder path, or a modulator. With Snap above 0.6, motion loops hit crisp vowel landings rather than melting between them.

7. The Modulation System

Vowel Blender ships with a deep modulation engine: nine modulator types, multi-instance, intermodulation supported. Click the MOD button in the top bar to open the panel.

The Nine Modulator Types

Routing a Modulator to a Parameter

1. Click + ADD MODULATOR at the end of the panel. Choose its type from the menu.
2. Tweak the modulator's parameters in its card.
3. Click ARM in the card header. The button lights up. Macro, MIDI and XY Pad have no header ARM: each of their outputs has its own button on the card.
4. Click a control on the plugin (Vowel X, Vowel Y, Shift, Q, Mix, Snap, Drive). The route is created at 50%. To set the amount directly, drag up or down on the control instead: up for positive, down for negative. A ring around the knob shows the amount while the modulator is armed.
5. Click ARM again to finish. Fine-tune any amount later in the Mod Routes popup, which also reaches the destinations that have no knob on the main panel.

The LFO Card

The LFO is the workhorse modulator. Seven waveforms: Sine, Triangle, Saw Up, Saw Down, Square, S&H and Noise. Rate runs from 0.01 to 20 Hz, or switch to tempo sync and pick a division from 8 bars down to 1/64, with dotted and triplet modes. Curve bends the shape: on Square it sets the pulse width, and it is greyed out on S&H and Noise. The ± switch chooses symmetrical modulation around the current value or one-sided motion.

The MSEG Card

The MSEG is a draw-anything envelope. Up to 128 points, five curve types per segment (Linear, Smooth, S-Curve, Step, Hold), three play directions (forward, backward, ping-pong), snap grid. Click the ADV button on the card to open the full editor.

The editor offers seven drawing tools (Pointer, Pencil, Square, Pulse, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Triangle). Stamp tools let you drop pre-made shapes. With the Pointer, click an empty spot to add a point, double-click a point to delete it, and right-click a segment to choose its curve type. The dice button generates a random shape, as dense as the horizontal snap grid (great for inspiration). SAVE stores your shape for reuse, PRESETS opens the shape browser.

The Step Sequencer Card

1 to 64 steps. Each step has a value (0 to 1), a shape (Flat, Ramp Up, Ramp Down, Triangle, Sine), and a curve (-1 to +1: 0 = linear, >0 = exponential, <0 = logarithmic). Drag vertically on a step to set its value. Right-click a step to choose its shape, or apply one shape to all steps. On a shaped step, drag its small handle up or down to bend the curve. The dice randomises values, shapes and curves at once.

The Audio Oscillator Card

Unlike the LFO (sub-audio rate), the Audio Oscillator runs at audible frequencies: Rate goes from 20 Hz to 20 kHz (default 220 Hz). Route it to a parameter for FM-style modulation, audible artifacts, or pure sound design effects. Five waveforms: Sine, Triangle, Saw, Square and S&H. The Shape field changes job with the waveform, and its label follows: Drive, Symmetry, Bright, Duty (the pulse width of the Square) and Smooth. Anti-aliasing is always on.

The Envelope Generator Card

An AHDSR envelope with two ways to fire it, chosen with the AUDIO / MIDI button in the card's header:

• AUDIO (the default): your audio plays it. Each time the input rises above the threshold, the envelope runs its Attack, Hold and Decay, stays at Sustain while the sound stays loud, and falls through Release when it drops away. No MIDI needed: a drum hit, a plucked note or a sung phrase each fire it. Set the threshold by dragging on the meter at the left of the card (-60 to 0 dB, default -20 dB).
• MIDI: your keyboard plays it. Every note-on restarts the attack, even with the previous key still down, and the envelope stays at Sustain until the last key comes up. Use it on a legato line, where the audio never drops far enough between notes to fire the envelope again. The meter becomes a light that shows the gate open.

Hold keeps the envelope at its peak before the decay starts, for percussive shapes.

The Envelope Follower Card

The Envelope Follower turns your audio's loudness into modulation. Fast attack catches transients, slow release smooths the decay. Sensitivity (-12 to +24 dB) sets how much level it takes to reach full modulation: raise it for quiet sources. Detection mode chooses how it listens:

• Peak follows the literal level.
• RMS follows the averaged loudness, smoother and slower.
• Hybrid (the default) grabs the attack like Peak and releases smoothly like RMS.
• Transient ignores the sustained level and fires on each attack: a hit out of silence gives full modulation, a softer re-attack less, and a held note nothing after its onset. Turning the source down does not change it, since it measures how sharp the attack is, not how loud.

Route it to Vowel X and Vowel Y at different amounts and the pad cursor will trace a 2D pattern driven by the source dynamics. This is the heart of the talkbox effect.

The Macro Card

The Macro is your performance hub. One Macro modulator gives you four routable outputs: Knob 1, Knob 2, Button 1, Button 2. Each can drive a different parameter at a different depth. Use it to build "single knob morphs" that change three or four things at once when you turn a single control.

The MIDI Card

The MIDI modulator carries four sources at once, each routable to its own destination at its own amount:

• Keytrack: where you play on the keyboard. Set a Root note and a Spread in semitones, and the note position maps across the response curve. Play higher to open a vowel, lower to close it.
• Velocity: how hard you strike a key, captured at note-on. Good for adding bite on accents.
• Aftertouch: channel pressure. Lean into a held key and the vowel shifts under your finger.
• Mod Wheel: CC1, the classic expression wheel. Slide your physical wheel between close and open vowels in real time.

To route a source, arm it on the card, then click a destination. Keytrack and Velocity each have their own ARM button, Aftertouch arms from AT and Mod Wheel from MW. Each source has its own smoothing, so you can keep velocity instant while letting aftertouch glide.

The ADV Panel

Click ADV on the MIDI card to open the per-source editor, one cell per source. Velocity, Aftertouch and Mod Wheel each get a Sensitivity amount, a Tension that bends the response curve (drag the handle on the curve itself), a Smooth time, and a ± bipolar toggle. Keytrack works on notes rather than levels, so its cell has Root, Spread, Tension and Glide instead, and shows the incoming note. Every curve animates in real time with a trace of the live signal, so you can see exactly how your playing maps to modulation. You can ARM a source from here too, and the panel closes so you can click the destination.

The XY Pad Card

A second XY pad, this time used as a modulation source rather than the formant filter's main control. The pad has two outputs (X and Y), each with its own ARM button, so each can drive a different parameter. Drag the cursor while the track plays for two-parameter moves. Smooth takes the jitter out of your hand. Different from the main vowel pad: this one only generates modulation, it does not select a vowel.

The Mod Routes Panel

Click ☰ on any modulator card to open Mod Routes. Each modulator gets a column listing every route that leaves it: destination and amount (-100% to +100%). Drag an amount to fine-tune it, click × to remove the route. + Route adds a route from a list of every destination, including the ones with no knob on the main panel (Breath and Humanize from the Character popup, and the fields of the other modulators). The Macro column has a separate + under Knob 1, Knob 2, Button 1 and Button 2. You do not have to open this popup to unmap something: right-click a modulated knob on the main panel and its routes are listed for removal. When a knob carries more than one, the menu also offers Remove all modulations.

Intermodulation

Modulators can modulate other modulators' parameters. Examples:

• An LFO modulating an MSEG's Amount: the MSEG breathes in and out over time.
• An Envelope Follower modulating a Step Sequencer's Smooth: the steps glide when the source plays loud and snap back into place when it goes quiet.
• A Macro knob driving the Rate of two LFOs at once (both in Hz mode): you control the global modulation speed with one knob.

Arm a modulator, then drag up or down on a field inside another modulator's card. A click without a drag creates nothing. The fields that take modulation are the LFO's Rate (in Hz mode), Amount, Phase and Curve, the Envelope Follower's Attack, Release, Sensitivity and Amount, the Envelope Generator's times, Sustain and Amount, the Step Sequencer's Smooth and Amount, the MSEG's Rate and Amount, the Audio Oscillator's Rate, Shape and Amount, the XY Pad's X, Y, Smooth and Amount, and the Macro's Knob 1 and Knob 2. The Audio Oscillator cannot drive an LFO or MSEG Rate: at audio rate that modulation averages out to nothing.

8. Advanced Tips & Workflows

Vocoder-Style Effects

Combine three things: source pitched up by Pitch +12, a low Q (around 0.7) for smooth formants, and an Envelope Follower routed to Vowel X with a high amount. The result is a classic vocoder texture: pitched-up source dynamically shaping vowels in time with its own envelope. Add a slight Breath (0.10) for the consonant feel.

Talkbox Effects

The opposite of vocoder. Use the Envelope Follower routed to both Vowel X and Vowel Y at different amounts. Now the pad cursor traces a 2D pattern driven by the input level. Push Drive to 0.5 and Q above 1.5 for a tight, robotic talkbox quality. Try the "Talkbox" preset as a starting point.

Diphthong Glides

Record a slow drag from one vowel to another (EH to IH works beautifully, sounds like "ay") using the Motion Recorder. Set Sync to 2 bars, Loop to PingPong. The result is a continuous, breathing diphthong. Combine with a slow LFO on Shift for melodic glides on top.

Single-Knob Morphs with Macro

Add a Macro modulator. Route Knob 1 to Vowel X at 80%, to Q at 40%, to Drive at 30%. Now turning Knob 1 morphs three things at once: pad position, resonance, and saturation. Turn it while the track plays for a live performance move.

Step-Sequenced Vowel Patterns

Add a Step Sequencer at 16 steps, sync 1/16. Route to Vowel X. Set each step to a different value. Each 16th note now jumps to a different vowel. Add curves to soften the jumps, or push curves negative for snappy gates. Try the "Step Sequencer Vowels" preset for an immediate example.

MSEG Risers and Drops

Open an MSEG, draw a slow exponential rise from 0 to 1 over 4 bars. Route to Shift at a 100% amount. The formants rise an octave smoothly across the bar count. For a drop, draw the inverse. For a riser-then-drop, do both. The "Pitched Riser" preset combines this with the pre-formant pitch shifter for a full sweep effect.

Live Performance with the XY Pad and MIDI

Add a MIDI modulator. Route the mod wheel to Vowel Y. Now your mod wheel slides the vowel between close (top) and open (bottom) in real time. Map an aftertouch or velocity layer for additional expressiveness. Combine with a slow LFO on Shift for vibrato that always speaks the right vowel.

Stereo Width Without Phase Issues

Set Stereo Mode to M/S. The mid channel keeps your chosen XY position. The side channel goes to a different vowel based on the Stereo Amount (30 to 50% works well). The result is wider stereo without affecting the centre. Compare to running two instances on a duplicated track: M/S mode gives you a similar effect with a single instance and no phase risk.

Building Evolving Pads

Stack three modulators on the same destination at different rates. For example, on Shift: an LFO at 1/4 (fast wobble), an LFO at 4 bars (slow drift), an MSEG at 8 bars (long evolution). They sum together. The result is motion that never repeats audibly.

9. Factory Presets

Vowel Blender ships with 41 factory presets across six categories. Click the preset name in the top bar to open the menu: each category (Init / Basics, Vocals, Synth / Keys, Bass, Creative, Sound Design) opens its own sub-menu, and User lists everything you have saved.

Key Presets

All Categories

• Init/Basics (3 presets): Init, Subtle Vowel, Drive Open. Start here.
• Vocals (10 presets): Vocoder Lead, Talkbox, Vowel Emphasis, Narrow Whisper, Breathy Harmonizer, Ad-Lib Color, Wide Stereo Vocal, Octave Doubler, 5th Harmony, Diphthong Lead.
• Synth/Keys (6 presets): Talking Synth, Vowel Pad, Formant Lead, Robot Keys, Choir, Vintage Vowel.
• Bass (5 presets): Talking Bass, Vowel Sub, Formant Bass, Growl, Sub Voice.
• Creative (7 presets): Alien, Monster Size, Chipmunk, Step Sequencer Vowels, Dual-LFO Chaos, Vowel Heart, Spiral Vowel.
• Sound Design (10 presets): Riser Vowel, Percussion Vowelize, Intermod Granular, Vowel Sweep, Mono Spread, Pitched Riser, All Vowels Chant, and three Notch-mode presets: De-Nasal, Anti-Honk, Carve Vowel.

Saving Your Own Presets

Click SAVE in the preset bar to save your current settings as a user preset. The dialog shows a live preview: if your typed name collides with an existing preset, the line below the field reads "Will be saved as 'X 2' (name taken)" in amber italic. If you save over an existing user preset, a confirmation dialog asks before overwriting. User presets are stored at:

• macOS: ~/Library/UB DSP/Vowel Blender/presets/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\UB DSP\Vowel Blender\presets\
• Linux: ~/.config/UB DSP/Vowel Blender/presets/

User presets capture the full state, including the modulation graph, the motion recorder path, and all parameters. Factory presets cannot be overwritten or deleted.

10. Controllers & Automation

Every knob of Vowel Blender is a parameter your DAW can automate and a controller can play. The host shows each value with its unit or its name: Crossover Freq reads “100 Hz”, Shift a value in semitones, Voice Model “Man 2”. Type a value into the host and it lands where it says.

Remote Control Pages (Bitwig Studio)

In Bitwig Studio (CLAP), Vowel Blender puts itself on the eight knobs of any controller, in four pages:

The Vowel page starts with POSITION and OPEN, the two coordinates of the XY pad: on a controller, two knobs walk the vowel space. Live and Push do not read these pages (see Other Hosts below).

Buttons You Can Reach

Prev Preset, Next Preset, Prev Vowel, Next Vowel and Motion Play are parameters, so a controller button can press them. Prev Vowel and Next Vowel put the cursor on the vowel before or after the nearest one, in the order of the vowel row under the pad, like a click on that row. Motion Play starts and stops the motion recorder, and the transport bar shows PLAY when a controller started it.

They are on the Perform page in Bitwig. In Ableton Live with Push (VST3), they come at the end of the parameter list: use Configure in Live to bring them forward. They work with the plugin window closed, and every press fires, whether the controller button toggles or springs back. Nothing records them: not the session, not undo, not presets.

Other Hosts

Hosts that do not read the remote pages, Live and Push among them, list the parameters in banks of eight, in the plugin's own order. The buttons above, added in 1.4.1, come last.

11. About & Settings

Click the ABOUT button in the preset bar to open the About dialog. This panel shows plugin version, license status, website and support links, and a Settings section with preferences you can toggle.

Settings Toggles

First Launch: Telemetry Consent

The very first time you open Vowel Blender, a small popup asks "Help me improve Vowel Blender". It explains that anonymous usage data can be sent to help the solo developer improve the plugin. Two options:

• "Sure, happy to help": enables anonymous telemetry.
• "No thanks": declines. No data is sent.

You can also click outside the popup to dismiss it (same as declining). Your choice is remembered. You can change your mind later in the Settings section.

Help Mode

Click the ? button in the preset bar to activate Help mode. Hover over any control (knob, button, panel) to see a contextual description bubble appear next to your cursor. Click ? again to deactivate.

Diagnostic Link

At the bottom of the About dialog, you will see a link: "Plugin not working? Run diagnostic". Clicking it opens the UB DSP Diagnostic Tool page, where you can download a standalone application that checks your system, scans for installed UB DSP plugins, and sends a diagnostic report directly to UB DSP support. This is the fastest way to get help if you encounter a technical issue.

12. Installation

macOS

Download the .pkg installer from ubdsp.com/downloads. Double-click to open the installer, then follow the steps. You can choose what to install (AU, VST3, CLAP, AAX and this manual as a PDF, all selected by default).

• AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
• VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/
• CLAP: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/CLAP/
• AAX: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins/
• Manual (PDF): /Library/Application Support/UB DSP/

The installer is signed and notarised by Apple.

Windows

Download the .exe installer and run it. The installer guides you through component selection (VST3, CLAP, AAX and this manual as a PDF, all included in the full installation). Administrator privileges are required.

• VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\
• CLAP: C:\Program Files\Common Files\CLAP\
• AAX: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins\
• Manual (PDF): C:\ProgramData\UB DSP\

To uninstall, use the Windows "Add or Remove Programs" panel.

Linux

Download the .tar.gz archive, extract it, and run ./install.sh. The script prompts you to choose which formats to install.

• User install (default): ~/.vst3/ and ~/.clap/
• System-wide: sudo ./install.sh --system installs to /usr/lib/vst3/ and /usr/lib/clap/

After installing on any platform, restart your DAW and rescan plugins if needed.

13. Licensing & Activation

Trial Mode

Vowel Blender runs in trial mode until activated. All features are fully functional, but 2 seconds of silence are inserted every 40 seconds (with smooth fade-ins and fade-outs to avoid clicks). A "TRIAL" watermark is displayed on the interface.

This lets you evaluate the plugin's sound quality in your own sessions before purchasing.

Activating Your License

1. Purchase a license at ubdsp.com.
2. Download your .ubkeyfile license file from your account.
3. In Vowel Blender, click the ACTIVATE button (visible in trial mode) or go to About → Activate License....
4. Select your .ubkeyfile. The plugin validates it instantly (offline, no internet required).
5. Done. The trial silences and watermark are removed. The About dialog shows "Licensed to: [Your Name]".

License Storage

Your license is cached locally so you don't need to re-activate after updates:

• macOS: ~/Library/UB DSP/Vowel Blender/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\UB DSP\Vowel Blender\
• Linux: ~/.config/UB DSP/Vowel Blender/

14. Troubleshooting & FAQ

The plugin doesn't appear in my DAW

Make sure the correct format is installed for your DAW. Rescan plugins in your DAW's preferences. On macOS, some DAWs require an AU validation: check the DAW's plugin manager. If using CLAP, make sure your DAW supports the CLAP format.

I hear silence every 40 seconds

This is the trial mode protection. Activate your license to remove it. See Licensing & Activation. If it started right after updating to 1.4.0 from an earlier version, your license file has most likely moved since you activated: the note under License Storage explains why, and how to fix it.

The vowel sound is too obvious

Lower Mix to 40 to 60% for parallel processing. Reduce Q below 1.0 for smoother, less synthetic vowels. Drag the XY cursor closer to the centre of the pad. If a Voice Model feels too "characterised", switch to Man 2 (the most neutral).

The bass disappears when I push Q or Drive

High Q narrows the formant peaks, which can suck out the body around 60–200 Hz. Heavy Drive on a full-range source can also push the bass into the saturation. Turn on LOWS in the bottom bar: it splits off the low band so it bypasses the formant chain entirely. Drag the handle on the response curve to set the split (100 Hz for bass tracks, 200–300 Hz for drum buses or full mixes). The transition is click-free and the cutoff is remembered across toggles.

The vowel sound is too subtle

Push Mix to 100% to hear only the wet signal. Increase Q above 1.2 for sharper formants. Add some Drive to push more harmonics into the filter. Make sure the source has enough harmonic content above 1 kHz: a pure sine wave will not produce vowel character.

I added a modulator but nothing is happening

A modulator does nothing until it has a route. Click ARM in its card header (it lights up), then click the parameter you want to modulate: a ring appears around it. Open Mod Routes (the ☰ on the card) to confirm the route exists with a non-zero amount, and check that the card's power button is on. Some modulators need an input to start outputting: the Envelope Follower listens to your audio, the MIDI modulator to incoming notes, and the Envelope Generator to either, depending on its AUDIO / MIDI button. In AUDIO mode, an Envelope Generator whose threshold sits above your signal never fires: drag the threshold down on its meter. In MIDI mode, check that your DAW sends MIDI to the plugin.

My motion recorder path doesn't play back

The mode must be set to Replay, not Live. The host must be playing for tempo-synced playback. Check the loop mode (Forward/Backward/PingPong): if the path is one-shot, it stops after one pass. If you saved a user preset that includes a motion path, loading it should automatically switch to Replay.

High CPU usage

The Pitch toggle adds an FFT-based pitch shifter (~12 ms latency, moderate CPU). Disable it if you don't need pitch shifting: that saves the CPU, while the latency stays until the plugin is reloaded. Reduce the number of active modulators (each one runs in real time). The Stereo Mode L/R or M/S processes two channels independently: switch to Off if you don't need stereo splitting.

My host's bypass automation stopped working after the update

Before 1.4.1, the VST3 and AAX versions showed two Bypass parameters: Vowel Blender's own, and one your host added, which its bypass button worked. There is now only one, Vowel Blender's. Automation written on the old host bypass (or, in Pro Tools, on the plugin's Bypass) has to be written again. A VST3 session saved with the host's bypass on reopens with the plugin active.

The plugin window looks cropped or too small

Resize the window by dragging the bottom-right corner.

The L/R, M/S, and Width controls are greyed out

The plugin output is mono. Stereo width modes have no audible effect on a single output channel, so the controls are disabled to avoid confusion. To get stereo width on a mono source, re-insert Vowel Blender as Mono → Stereo (Logic Pro shows this in the insert sub-menu, Pro Tools lists it as a separate stem). The track will become stereo from the insert point on. See the Mono, Stereo, and Mono → Stereo section above for details.

I dragged a knob with Shift and nothing felt different

Shift activates fine-precision drag, where the knob moves about 10× slower per pixel of mouse movement. Hold Shift first, then drag (or keep dragging while pressing Shift mid-gesture). Useful for setting an exact semitone on Shift, a precise Q value, or aligning the XY cursor on a specific vowel position. The same applies to the XY pad.

Presets sound different from what I expected

Presets are designed for typical input levels. If your source is very quiet or very loud, the formant filter and any envelope-following modulators will respond differently. Try adjusting the level going into the plugin (use a gain plugin before Vowel Blender if needed).

My step sequencer curves were lost when I saved a preset

This was a bug in versions before 1.0.0. Update to the latest build. Step sequencer curves are now correctly saved and restored as part of the modulation state.

Something is wrong and I need help

Open the About dialog and click "Plugin not working? Run diagnostic" at the bottom. This opens the Diagnostic Tool page where you can download a standalone application that automatically checks your system, scans for installed UB DSP plugins (with version and format details), and sends a full report to UB DSP support. It's the fastest way to get personalised help. You can also reach us at support@ubdsp.com.