PLUGIN WEEK 2023: Waves OVox is one of the most comprehensive vocal FX suites that money can buy. It's an incredibly powerful toolbox, able to vocode, double, synthesise and re-wire any vocal into a tantalising new musical form.
Not just an effects plugin, OVox is a synth, vocoder, and vocal processor bundled into one massively capable package. It's equipped with an eight-voice synth that tracks the pitch of an incoming audio signal and uses this to control the oscillators.
However, OVox can be used as a MIDI-controlled instrument, a MIDI-controlled audio plugin or an insert effect.
Step 1: At the top left of the UI, you can select which signal to be used as OVox’s modulator. We’re going to choose Track, but you can also use a Sidechain input.
Step 2: On the OVox 1 and 2 controls, we can adjust Tune, Formant and Gain rotaries to taste, while the bottom of the UI features the mixer section. Here we can play with Voice Correction and Sibilance.
Step 3: Clicking the top right expansion icon reveals the hidden depths of OVox’s twin oscillators. Here we can adjust deeper settings such as Note Harmonics, Noise and Formant Speed for each oscillator.
Step 4: It’s simple enough to create a new modulator too. Dragging an LFO or a SEQ to a rotary will allow you to control the levels of the modulator. There are also up to five effect slots to further distort and enhance your vocal.
Step 6: Once you’ve crafted a new sonic flavour for your vocal sound, the central Note Mapper can force your vocal’s pitch to notes, and the harmoniser can expand your single notes into chords – if you want to get ultra-robotic.
- Read more: The beginner's guide to vocal processing
