any free vst similar to piwarp/wormhole?

[nameyeeaaaaah]

hi, for a while now i've been trying to find an alternative to piwarp/wormhole, if you don't know what it is, basically, it's kinda like a ring modulator, a pitch shifter and a reverb. but the thing is, it warps the frequency in a way that distorts the melody into negative harmony, and honestly, you can 100% do that with a ring modulator, but i wish there was a vst that was more similar to it. i know grainstorm does that and i really like how clean it sounds, but it is mobile only and isn't live, you need to record beforehand. thanks

[a5632645]

Hello, I am an amateur audio plugin developer, and I have also been looking for DSP resources to create that kind of distorted frequency. Recently, I successfully achieved an effect similar to Piwarp/Wormhole using a method similar to multi-band spectral inversion. For now, it is just a demo repository. If you are interested, please check out https://github.com/ManasWolrd/WarpCore.

[aMUSEd]

DFX Transverse is an old but brilliant effect that does something similar ish but better for me in that it doesn't have so much latency so can be used as a realtime effect

https://destroyfx.org/docs/transverb.html

[aMUSEd]

Hello, I am an amateur audio plugin developer, and I have also been looking for DSP resources to create that kind of distorted frequency. Recently, I successfully achieved an effect similar to Piwarp/Wormhole using a method similar to multi-band spectral inversion. For now, it is just a demo repository. If you are interested, please check out https://github.com/ManasWolrd/WarpCore.

Thanks but I can't see where to download it

[TotcProductions]

Wow...forgot all about PiWarp and ProSoniq! Used to use PiWarp all the time, too. Thanks for the memories!

[a5632645]

Thanks but I can't see where to download it

Now I have the motivation to finish it, I just released a beta version. This version only works on windows x86 cpu with SSE2/SSE4.1/AVX/AVX2(Any instruction set can be used).
Please report any issue on that github page. Thanks.

[a5632645]

Hey guys, if anyone still wants to learn about this plugin, my tests show that it sounds really similar to Piwarp on sine wave sweeps, but on complex audio it's not as clear as Piwarp's algorithm, always with a kind of bit distortion taste. Here are two demo videos([This one only have voice] and https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1UVAkzsEvP[This one have voice/chirp/music]). And you can get the download link here(https://github.com/ManasWolrd/WarpCore/releases), supporting VST3/AU/LV2 and Windows/Linux/MacOS.

[eLawnMust]

Memories?... I still use PiWarp>>>

[CinningBao]

Yeah, I've got Wormhole here and A/Bing it now.

You're not too far off! There's definitely an upside-downness to the output of yours. Assuming you're using some kind of FFT to perform the frequency shift, Zynaptiq do have a tonne of patents relating to spectral manipulation in the time domain, so they don't suffer from transient blurring (due to the FFT size) so they are using 'more advanced technology' to perform the operations in PiWarp/Wormhole.

Having said that, I was a early user of the now long-lost SpectrumWorx plugin which also had some features similar to your target sound; 'spectral inversion' I think the module was called. They were using a DFT instead of FFT which had it's limitations particularly in sound quality (this was the mid 2000's and CPU cycles were a fraction of what they are) so it had an embedded 'graininess' regardless of the block size. You've exposed far more parameters than either SpectrumWorx or Wormhole/PiWarp, so you've got the lead on that!

I've noticed that you aren't reporting the plugin latency to the host; I think you probably should since the FFT will be delaying the signal by at least the block size. I'm assuming the WARP knob is somehow related to the number of bins created during the FFT, which would mean the block size is 256 samples. This may also contribute to the quality of your plugin compared to PiWarp/Wormhole. If you can increase this, as well reaching a bit nearer the Zynaptiq plugins in terms of sound quality, and your having a few more features their plugin doesn't, you've already built something with a "voice of its own", and I really like it! And besides, since not many folks end up using plugins like this to make nice sweet orderly noises, expanding the available deconstruction algorithm with more filters (up to 1024/20248?) makes WarpCore sits proudly on the "more sound mangling than you can imagine" shelf.

If you add a Frequency Shifter before the Pitch Shifter, you'll be one step closer to Wormhole, but I think you should lean into your own unique interpretation of the spectral inversion function. Already the WARP, FREQUENCY and SCALE knobs do more than just the PiWarp function (and I did buy that 20 odd years ago )

I hope you can find the time to develop it more, there really aren't enough GOOD spectral manipulation plugins (or am I saying there are just too many of the others EQs/comps/saturators/reverbs....).

So I say, great stuff! Don't stop

[aMUSEd]

Wormhole is one of my more disappointing plugins because while I love the sound, the lack of a low latency mode makes it impossible to use in realtime which is how I want to use it, unlike the original PiWarp

[CinningBao]

Memories?... I still use PiWarp>>>

I don't suppose you have the opportunity to look at the reported latency could you?

[a5632645]

Yeah, I've got Wormhole here and A/Bing it now.

You're not too far off! There's definitely an upside-downness to the output of yours. Assuming you're using some kind of FFT to perform the frequency shift, Zynaptiq do have a tonne of patents relating to spectral manipulation in the time domain, so they don't suffer from transient blurring (due to the FFT size) so they are using 'more advanced technology' to perform the operations in PiWarp/Wormhole.

Having said that, I was a early user of the now long-lost SpectrumWorx plugin which also had some features similar to your target sound; 'spectral inversion' I think the module was called. They were using a DFT instead of FFT which had it's limitations particularly in sound quality (this was the mid 2000's and CPU cycles were a fraction of what they are) so it had an embedded 'graininess' regardless of the block size. You've exposed far more parameters than either SpectrumWorx or Wormhole/PiWarp, so you've got the lead on that!

I've noticed that you aren't reporting the plugin latency to the host; I think you probably should since the FFT will be delaying the signal by at least the block size. I'm assuming the WARP knob is somehow related to the number of bins created during the FFT, which would mean the block size is 256 samples. This may also contribute to the quality of your plugin compared to PiWarp/Wormhole. If you can increase this, as well reaching a bit nearer the Zynaptiq plugins in terms of sound quality, and your having a few more features their plugin doesn't, you've already built something with a "voice of its own", and I really like it! And besides, since not many folks end up using plugins like this to make nice sweet orderly noises, expanding the available deconstruction algorithm with more filters (up to 1024/20248?) makes WarpCore sits proudly on the "more sound mangling than you can imagine" shelf.

If you add a Frequency Shifter before the Pitch Shifter, you'll be one step closer to Wormhole, but I think you should lean into your own unique interpretation of the spectral inversion function. Already the WARP, FREQUENCY and SCALE knobs do more than just the PiWarp function (and I did buy that 20 odd years ago )

I hope you can find the time to develop it more, there really aren't enough GOOD spectral manipulation plugins (or am I saying there are just too many of the others EQs/comps/saturators/reverbs....).

So I say, great stuff! Don't stop

[Microsoft Translator]
Thank you for your review. I can provide more information. I did not use DFT or FFT to perform the operation; this plugin uses a filter bank-like approach to split the entire spectrum, so it does not produce any delay similar to standard spectral processing. Furthermore, it actually uses multiple time-domain spectral inversion devices, each of which inverts the region from f_low to f_high around the center, controlled by the WARP knob. Since each sample needs to be processed in parallel by these devices, it also results in fairly high CPU usage.
Recently, I also discovered that frequency distribution issues in the old version of the algorithm caused quality problems when used in music; coincidentally, the old version of the algorithm produced quite interesting effects on vocals . I have already released a new version that includes both the old and new algorithms, and the new music algorithm can better create negative harmony effects.
By the way, the pitch shifter in WarpCore isn't an ordinary pitch shifter; it's a bit like a multi-band frequency shifter, which results in huge artifact effects (if you like that) . I just released a new update that fixes the aliasing issues in pitch/formant, so hurry up and update .
Finally, I also don't know exactly what kind of magic Prosoniq/Zynaptiq use , but I already have my own unique ideas. I plan to release an EX version in the future, which will allow frequency splitting to be changed from equal spacing to non-equal spacing, such as Mel scale or logarithmic. I have never seen any other plugin capable of doing this (if there is, please give me a link, I’d like to check it out too). This might produce some interesting effects and will also lead to higher CPU usage .