Vowel Blender 1.0 — 2D vowel-pad formant filter, 4 formants, 7 voice models (CLAP/VST3/AU/AAX | macOS/Win/Linux)

[Ben UBDSP]

Hi all,

I've just released Vowel Blender, a formant filter built around a 2D vowel pad instead of a 1D morph or a list of vowel presets. X axis is front/back (tongue position), Y axis is close/open (jaw), so dragging anywhere on the pad lands on a real point in the vowel space.

Each point is rendered by a 4-formant cascade (ZDF SVF bandpass, 24 dB/oct, two stages per formant) with log-interpolated frequencies between the 10 cardinal vowels of the phonetic vowel space. Resonance peaks are tamed with a Q^0.7 gain compensation and a soft clipper at the output.

The 7 voice models (Woman 1/2/3, Man 1/2/3, Kids) aren't tuned by ear. The formant data comes from Peterson & Barney (1952) for the male model and Hillenbrand et al. (1995) for the female and child models.

Closest reference is probably The Orb (3 formants, circular UI, preset vowels). Vowel Blender takes a different route: continuous 2D vowel space, 4 formants, voice data from peer-reviewed phonetic literature, and a full modulation system on top.

Key features:
- 2D vowel pad with live formant readout (10 vowels, continuous space)
- 7 voice models from peer-reviewed phonetic datasets
- 4 formants × ZDF SVF BP 24 dB/oct, log-interpolated transitions
- Character controls: Drive, Humanize, Size, Alien (vocal-tract scaling + inharmonic shift)
- Motion Recorder : record and loop XY-pad gestures
- Modulation system : 9 modulator types (LFO, MSEG, Step Seq, Audio Osc, Env Gen/Follower, Macro, MIDI, XY), multi-instance, full intermodulation
- Live animated frequency-response curve

Technical:
- DSP core written in Rust (4 crates)
- macOS 10.13+ Universal (Intel + Apple Silicon), Windows 10+ 64-bit, Linux (Ubuntu 22.04+)
- Formats: CLAP, VST3, AU, AAX
- Offline file-based license (.ubkeyfile). No iLok, no online activation, no subscription.

Trial is full-featured. It mutes ~2 seconds every 40 seconds (5 ms fade) until you drop a license file. No time limit, no nag screen.

Intro price $39 / €39 / £39 (regular $69 / €69 / £69). One license, all formats, all platforms, lifetime updates on the 1.x line.

Product page + demo: https://ubdsp.com/vowel-blender
Studio: https://ubdsp.com

Happy to answer questions.

— Ben (UB DSP)

[Ben UBDSP]