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Audiophiles

Polyverse Manipulator Review 2023

Polyverse Manipulator vocal processing plugin was created by the musical legends Infected Mushroom and Polyverse. A wide variety of combinations can be made by automating, modulating, and controlling the majority of these differently. The unique granular algorithms behind Manipulator are built on five basic effects: moving Pitch, Formant, and Harmonics; alternating Frequency Modulation and Grains; and finally, shifting Grains. Listen to it; it’s obviously essential for psychedelic auditory exploration.

The MIDI capabilities with midi signal and midi controls, which is ideal for real-time performance whether you play keyboards or not, might not be immediately apparent. You’ve never seen a creative vocal processor like the Polyverse Manipulator plug-in as a performing vocalist or an electronic music producer.

Three speech manipulation algorithms are available in Manipulator and can be used singly or collectively. With a pitch shifter, you have control over the pitch and formants, which divides audio into grains that may be drastically changed for anything from subtle to dramatic effects. The sound’s timbre is altered by a harmonic Shifter, which does not affect pitch. The effect is quite strong, swiftly transforming voices into robotic rasps and the like. The Grain Alternator, which separates individual cycles into grains and alters the pitch of these grains up and down, is the last option. It drastically alters a vocal’s nature while keeping its pitch.

As well as a MIDI mode that can be set to Off (MIDI has no effect), Mono for playing only one note at a time, or Poly for up to 4-voice polyphony, which is great for creating live harmonies based on MIDI notes that you apply to a monophonic audio signal via the plug-in, there is a handy pitch setting that tells the plug-in whether to expect low, mid, or high vocal. Smear, Stereo, and Detune, three specific effects, of which Smear is the strangest, further increase the extremeness of the situation.

The four modulation slots at the bottom of the device can each hold one of five different types of modulators: the Meta Knob, MIDI CC, Follower, and ADSR. The Meta Knob is particularly intriguing because it can regulate multiple parameters at once, but the colour coding system in this place makes it simple to assign modulators to each other. Once you start utilizing more than one modulator, things get quite complicated pretty quickly, especially if you’re also using live MIDI input to change pitch and other settings in real time.

The fact that all of the knobs are capable of very intense sound manipulation tool makes for a moderate learning curve at initially, despite the controls being properly designed and laid out. It can be overwhelming to use many of them at once, so it could be a good idea to start with one algorithm, figure out how it works, and expand from there. However, Manipulator is surprisingly potent and ideal for all types of EDM for everything from harmonisation to futuristic vocal mangling and severe effects.

Polyverse Manipulator is a great, potent, and adaptable tool for manipulating vocals (and other sources). The options are endless, and you can find yourself wasting a few hours simply having fun with it! It is slightly more expensive than you may pay impulsively, but if you produce any kind of music where severely processed voices are used, you will find this to be of great value. For MIDI pitch control and harmonization, it’s also really cool.