Descant

A vocoder and vocal harmoniser for Ableton Live, built as a VST3 audio effect that takes MIDI. Version 0.1.0.

Put it on the track your microphone comes in on and send it notes from a MIDI track: a keyboard, a clip, or Posy. Sing, and the vocoder puts your words on a synth playing those notes. Four harmony voices and a double, all made from your own voice, can sing along with you.

The Descant panel: input, carrier and mix sections across the top, a keyboard showing the held chord and the sung note, the vocoder's band display and knobs, and the four harmony voices and the double at the bottom

What it does

Vocoder: 8 to 40 bands. FORMANT moves the shape of your voice up or down without changing the notes; WIDTH, REACT and BRIGHT set how the bands ring, follow and sound; CONSONANTS lets S and T sounds through so the words stay clear; SPREAD sends alternate bands left and right. FREEZE holds a vowel so you can stop singing and play it.
Carrier: KEYS plays the MIDI notes it's sent, one at a time or as chords, with MONO, GLIDE, HOLD and the sustain pedal. VOICE plays the note you're singing, snapped to a key and scale, so it works with no keyboard at all. EXTERNAL shapes another track through the sidechain. Four waves: saw, square, a five-saw SUPER and a drifting CHOIR.
Harmony: Four voices made from your voice, so they keep your vowels. In CHORD they land on the notes of the chord you're playing, above or below you, and remember it after you let go. In SCALE they sing fixed steps in a key. In NOTES each one sings a note you hold, so one sung note becomes the whole chord. HUMANIZE makes them drift and gives each its own tone.
Double: Two more takes of you, one each side, from a tight overdub to a loose gang vocal.
With Posy: Put Posy on the MIDI track that feeds Descant and its chords drive both the vocoder and the harmony. Play pads with one finger and sing over them.

Your dry voice and the vocoder have no added latency. Every knob, button and choice is a host parameter. 20 factory presets, and you can save your own.

Video

Walkthrough video — not up yet.

Documentation

Getting started (PDF) — wiring a microphone, a keyboard and Posy to Descant in Live, setting the gate, a tour of the panel, and the three harmony modes.

Every control is also described in the project README.

Download

Builds are on the releases page. Every archive includes the getting started guide. VST3 only — there is no Audio Unit build, so Descant will not load in Logic.

Installation notes are on the front page.

Source

github.com/taddeimania/descant — C++ and JUCE, AGPLv3.