Zplane has announced the release of a real-time formant-shifting plugin for reshaping the character of vocals, drums, instruments and full mixes.
Powered by an expanded timbre-shifting engine based on zplane’s renowned ÉLASTIQUE technology, TIMBRE provides an immediate and intuitive way to manipulate the sonic qualities of any audio source in any DAW.
Unlike EQs that boost frequencies or pitch shifters that change notes, TIMBRE shifts the formants that define a sound’s identity without affecting its pitch, offering an entirely new approach to mixing, vocal production, and creative sound design. Two independently adjustable frequency bands allow users to shift timbre by up to ±36 semitones, with an adjustable crossover for targeting different areas of the frequency spectrum.
TIMBRE’s Carrier section takes the concept further by allowing the original carrier signal to be replaced while retaining the modulation envelope of the input audio. A built-in white-noise carrier can instantly turn vocals into whisper-like textures or add breath and air to other material. Alternatively, an external DAW sidechain can be used as the carrier, opening up vocoder-style processing and more experimental combinations of different sounds.
“We wanted to create an intuitive tool for sound shaping. With formant shifting, a single knob turn can transform a sound in ways that would take complex EQ processing to achieve, if possible at all. TIMBRE opens up new possibilities for creative sound design.” – Tim Flohrer, Co-Founder and CTO of zplane
TIMBRE features
- Real-time Formant Processing: Reshape the character of vocals, individual instruments and full mixes without affecting their pitch.
- Wide Timbre-shift Range: Go from subtle adjustments to extreme transformations with ±36 semitones of timbre-shifting.
- Flexible Architecture: Use unlinked mode to independently process high and low bands with an adjustable crossover, plus per-band On and Solo controls.
- Linked Processing: Link the high and low bands for simple one-knob timbre shaping across the entire frequency spectrum.
- Dedicated Carrier Section: Create unique textures and formant-vocoder effects using the built-in noise generator or an external sidechain signal.
- Fine-tune the Processing: Use the Resolution control to adjust processing detail, or use the Dry/Wet control to blend in the dry signal.
- Low-latency Operation: Process audio in real-time with 23ms of latency @ 44.1kHz.
Available for Windows and macOS (VST3, AU and AAX), TIMBRE is on sale at an introductory 33% discount until September 30th, 2026 (regular €79 EUR). The offer is available at the zplane store and from distributors such as Plugin Boutique.
