Softube has announced the launch of its new audio plugin Vocoder, a fun-to-use MIDI-controlled effect with an inspiring workflow and Softube-quality sound.

Great for vintage vocoder sounds as well as creative experimentation, the plugin features a 6-voice polyphonic carrier synth with 4 selectable waveforms.

Developed by Bell Labs and used by the military to obscure voiced messages during World War II, the vocoder has had a clandestine foothold in music culture since the 1970s. With subtlety, or not, the vocoder appears on a parade of favorites from Electric Light Orchestra, Imogen Heap, Daft Punk, Herbie Hancock, Kraftwerk, Beastie Boys, Laurie Anderson, Kanye West, Mogwai, and more.

Softube Vocoder delivers the sensations of vintage machines with Softube sound quality and workflow. A built-in six-voice carrier synth with MIDI capability and an easy-to-use Attack Hold Decay Envelope, plus a visionary Freeze section, mean that you’re in for an array of sonic spectacle and revelry. Which is to say, you’re gonna have a real good time.

Softube Vocoder features

  • The look and feel of vintage vocoding with Softube innovations.
  • High-quality Softube sound, excellent shaping tools, and an inspiring workflow.
  • A superb six-voice polyphonic carrier synth with four selectable waveforms and MIDI capability.
  • An easy-to-use Attack Hold Decay Envelope.
  • Transpose Chord Mode lets you create a chord with the on-screen keyboard and then transpose it via MIDI Notes.
  • Control of plosive and high-frequency consonant sound reproduction via the Unvoiced section.
  • Stereo widening that adjusts the amount of spread between even and odd bands.
  • Spectral Tilt to swiftly set the spectral weight of the vocoder output.
  • Variable band selection between 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 bands.
  • Unique Freeze section that allows rhythmic hold of certain formants manually and via MIDI Notes or a DAW Sync.
  • Shape section that controls slop of resynthesis and Emphasis section to manage the response of each band.
  • Add subtle vibrato to dramatic wobble effects with the Pitch Modulation section.

The plugin is on sale at the Softube store and from Plugin Boutique for the introductory price of 79 USD/EUR (regular 99 USD/EUR). It comes in VST/VST3, AU and AAX formats for Windows and Mac.

The offer expires April 8th, 2022.