Sound morphing VSTs

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try discoDSP's Vertigo, to my mind it's got one of the most useable sounding morphs of of the 'mid' priced resynthesis synths.

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While it might not be exactly what would be described as "morphing", softsamplers can do a pretty great job.
Of course, very often it might not be anything else but "fading" (just as rob said), but then, if you spend some time tweaking the individually loaded patches (like adding further modulations), even that can become quite interesting.
I find such things rather easy to accomplish in Kontakt. Load two patches, have one fade out once you turn, say, your mod wheel up, while the other is fading in. Then add a bit of different modulation to each of the two patches and there you go.

Another "morphing for dummies like me" tool might be Energy XT as you could basically morph between whichever patches of whichever VSTis.
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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Several instruments come to mind that I'm very familiar with: Cameleon, Soup (better IMHO), Rhino, and a few others.

Cameleon and Soup are both additive vsti's where the harmonic content of one sound morphs into the harmonic content of another. Yes, sometimes it sound a lot like crossfading. Cameleon allows for 4 sounds to fade between and Soup allows for as many as you CPU can support. Soup has the advantage of being able to detune a sound against itself so a detuned bass synth sounds like a detuned bass synth.

Rhino is a different beast that allows morphing by using assignable sliders. Up to 16 different parameters can be user assigned to each of the 6 available sliders with assignable ranges and both positive and negative polarity! After careful programming you can really mangle a sound or do a gentle variation.

For example: moving one slide could open a LP filter, close the other filter set to BP, add delay, increase FM feedback to Osc2 by 30, decrease the FM of ocs2 to osc3 from 99 to 25, fade in osc 6 which is playing a sequence with the pitch envelopes, change the interval of the trill modulating osc 5 from an octave to a 5th, and so on... Here are some audio examples of this in action taken from a bank I programmed called Morpheous: http://bigtick.pastnotecut.org/djsmaure ... pheus.html

There are other instruments out there, as well, each handling what you want in a different way. Download the demos of each and try them for a few weeks.

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Maybe I should add that I simply want to morph 2 recorded sounds and
not use a synth, but thanks for all the detailed infos.

What kind of filter you would recommend to get rid of the metallic
artefacts btw?

Thanks, RS

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Those of you interested in trying to Soup demo (mentioned by other posters above) you can get it HERE

There's screenshots, demo mp3's and the free demo available on that page.

Thanks,
Alex

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rs_ml wrote:Maybe I should add that I simply want to morph 2 recorded sounds and
not use a synth, but thanks for all the detailed infos.
So, x-fading is your friend then. Should be possible in any sequencer.
Alternatively you may want to automate the different tracks' volume.
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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but really, x-fading is so not morphing. as a last resort, yeah, it'll do, but if you're really after a morph, it's just not a morph.
Kick, punch, it's all in the mind.

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You can do morphing in Bidule.

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haydxn wrote:but really, x-fading is so not morphing. as a last resort, yeah, it'll do, but if you're really after a morph, it's just not a morph.
So, what *is* a morph?
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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Sascha Franck wrote:
haydxn wrote:but really, x-fading is so not morphing. as a last resort, yeah, it'll do, but if you're really after a morph, it's just not a morph.
So, what *is* a morph?
Morphing is transformation of one sound to another by the gradual distortion of corresponding points...
:wink:
(reworded google def)

edit...but I agree Sascha, I think it can be done as you say as well...gradual being the key word. A gradual x-fade should be able to achieve similar results.
Last edited by Hink on Mon Sep 19, 2005 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Errm... "distortion of corresponding points"???
Please elaborate.
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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a morph is a proper spectral blend between two sounds, which doesn't just make one fade into the other- one BECOMES the other thru transition. for instance, consider a sound with a pitched component, and another sound with a prominent element pitched at a different frequency. x-fading between the two would sound just like a crossfade; one note gets quieter while the other gets louder. if the first sound were to morph into the other, then the 'blending of spectral properties' would include the pitched component sliding to its new position in the spectrum. the sounds don't just overlap, they transform. a crossfade just isn't capable of achieving this, thus they are two different processes
Kick, punch, it's all in the mind.

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Sascha Franck wrote:Errm... "distortion of corresponding points"???
Please elaborate.
what haydxn said...;)
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.

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Well... of course I allready *knew* what "morphing" meant, I've just been curious.
IMO there's no proper description. In a way, x-fading from one sound to another would defenitely qualify as morphing (and it seems the original poster doesn't want anything but that).
Of course, you could allways say that "true" morphing is quite something else, but when it comes to audiofiles, there's not much of another solution but using x-fades (or volume automation, for the matter). Ok, maybe there's a plugin analysing one audio signal, then recreating it using whatever synthesis, then analysing another sound with an option to "blend" or "morph" between the two. Is there any such a plugin?

Apart from that, almost all synths with some proper modulation matrix should allow to morph between all sorts of sounds - at least as long as there's no things such as OSC waveform switches involved. Btw, that'd just be nice, having smooth transitions between different OSC and filter types (FWIW, FM7 allows for the latter, it just can't be modulated easily).
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.

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rs_ml wrote:Maybe I should add that I simply want to morph 2 recorded sounds and
not use a synth, but thanks for all the detailed infos.

What kind of filter you would recommend to get rid of the metallic
artefacts btw?

Thanks, RS
some plugs:

Prosoniq morph
Izotope Spectron
Delaydots SpectrumWorks and spectrum morpher.

I know theres some PC only stuff out there but I dont know those.

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