Purpose

Spectral is one STFT machine with three modes. vocoder imposes the modulator input’s band envelope on the carrier at in, the classic talking-synth effect. morph cross-synthesizes the two inputs into a hybrid. freeze latches a spectral moment and sustains it indefinitely. Formant shift, spectral smear, and phase shimmer work across all three.

Use

Insert it on the carrier signal and, for vocoder or morph, wire the second source into modulator. Pick a Mode, set Bands for vocoder resolution or Morph for the blend, and use Attack and Release to shape how fast the spectral envelope follows. In freeze mode, toggle Freeze to grab the current frame.

Inputs and outputs

• Input 0: in is the carrier signal. It is required.
• Input 1: modulator is the second source for vocoder and morph modes. Optional.
• Output 0: out emits the processed audio.

Controls

• Mode: vocoder, morph, or freeze.
• Size: FFT size. 1024, 2048, or 4096. Larger sizes give finer frequency detail and more latency.
• Morph: blend position between the two inputs in morph mode.
• Bands: number of vocoder bands, 4 to 256. Fewer bands is more robotic, more bands more intelligible.
• Formant: spectral envelope shift in semitones, -12 to +12, for character changes without pitch change.
• Attack and Release: how fast the spectral envelope follows the modulator, in milliseconds.
• Smear: blurs energy across time for a washed, diffuse texture.
• Shimmer: randomizes phases for a glassy, breathy quality.
• Freeze: latches the current spectral frame and holds it.
• Mix: dry/wet blend.

Notes

• For a classic vocoder, speech into modulator and a bright sustained synth into in works best; the carrier needs energy where the voice has it.
• Freeze plus Smear and Shimmer turns a single held frame into an evolving pad.
• Formant shifts the envelope, not the pitch; combine with a pitch shifter upstream for full voice character changes.

Ports

Inputs

• in row required
  audio_pcm_f32_mono_v1audio_pcm_f32_stereo_v1
• modulator row
  audio_pcm_f32_mono_v1audio_pcm_f32_stereo_v1

Outputs

• out row
  mirror_input

Parameters

Mode (Mode) Menu op('spectral').par.Mode

Default:

freeze

Options:

vocoder, morph, freeze

Size (Size) Menu op('spectral').par.Size

Default:

2048

Options:

1024, 2048, 4096

Morph (Morph) Float op('spectral').par.Morph

Default:

0.5

Range:

0 to 1

Bands (Bands) Float op('spectral').par.Bands

Default:

32

Range:

4 to 256

Formant (Formant) Float op('spectral').par.Formant

Default:

0

Range:

-12 to 12

Attack (Attack) Float op('spectral').par.Attack

Default:

5

Range:

0.1 to 200

Release (Release) Float op('spectral').par.Release

Default:

60

Range:

1 to 1000

Smear (Smear) Float op('spectral').par.Smear

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 1

Shimmer (Shimmer) Float op('spectral').par.Shimmer

Default:

0

Range:

0 to 1

Freeze (Freeze) Toggle op('spectral').par.Freeze

Default:

Off

Options:

Off, On

Mix (Mix) Float op('spectral').par.Mix

Default:

1

Range:

0 to 1