Antares AVOX 2 user manual

							Owner’s Manual
v1.1 11 March 2008
AVOX 2
Antares Vocal Toolkit 
						

							©2008 Antares Audio Technologies.  
All rights reserved. Certified Isinglass-free.™  
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.  
Antares Audio Technologies  
231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA  
www.antarestech.co m   
Printed in USA Rev 1.0 PN P35035 - 0308 -M01 
						

							The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo 
The Antares AVOX 2 software and this User’s 
Manual are protected by copyright law. Making 
copies, adaptations, or derivative works without 
the prior written authorization of Antares 
Audio Technologies, is prohibited by law and 
constitutes a punishable violation of the law.
Antares Audio Technologies retains all 
ownership rights to the AVOX 2 software and 
its documentation. Use of AVOX 2 is limited by 
the following license agreement.
Please carefully read all the terms and 
conditions of this license agreement. At the 
time of installation of the AVOX 2 software you 
will be presented with a copy of the agreement 
and asked whether or not you agree to it. 
Continuing with the installation process beyond 
that point constitutes such agreement.AVOX 2 License Agreement
Antares Audio Technologies grants you a 
non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use 
AVOX 2 under the terms and conditions stated 
in this agreement. Use of AVOX 2 indicates 
your agreement to the following terms and 
conditions.
License
You may:
  1.    Use AVOX 2 on only one computer at a 
time.  Authorization requires an USB iLok 
Smart Key which must be purchased 
separately.
You may not:
  1.    Make copies of AVOX 2 or of the user  manual in whole or in part except as 
expressly provided for in this agreement. 
Your right to copy AVOX 2 and the user 
manual is limited by copyright law. Making 
copies, verbal or media translations, 
adaptations, derivative works, or 
telecommunication data transmission of 
AVOX 2 without prior written authorization 
of Antares, is prohibited by law and 
constitutes a punishable violation of the 
law.
  2.    Make alteration or modifications to AVOX  2 (or any copy) or disassemble or de-
compile AVOX 2 (or any copy), or attempt 
to discover the source code of AVOX 2.
  3.    Sub-license, lease, lend, rent, or grant other  rights in all or any portion of AVOX 2 (or any 
copy) to others. 
						

							Term of the Agreement
This agreement is effective until terminated 
by you or Antares. You may terminate the 
agreement at any time by notifying Antares and 
destroying all copies of the manual, and erasing 
AVOX 2 from all machine-readable media, 
whether on-line or on archival copies.
In the event of breach of any of the terms of 
this agreement, you shall pay the attorney’s 
fees of Antares that are reasonably necessary 
to enforce the agreement plus resulting 
damages.
Product Installation and Required Activation
There are technological measures in the AVOX 
2 that are designed to prevent unlicensed 
or illegal use of the Software.  You agree 
that Antares Audio Technologies may use 
these measures to protect Antares Audio 
Technologies against software piracy.
Limited Warranty And Disclaimer
AVOX 2 AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS 
ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT 
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER 
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, 
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED 
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND 
FITNESS FOR A PARTICUL AR PURPOSE.
Antares Audio Technologies does not warrant 
that the functions contained in the program will 
meet your requirements. The entire risk as to 
the use, quality, and performance of AVOX 2 is 
with you.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW 
LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED 
WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE 
LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS 
WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL 
RIGHTS. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER 
RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION 
TO JURISDICTION.Limitation of LiabilityIN NO EVENT WILL ANTARES BE LIABLE 
FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF 
DATA, LOST PROFITS OR OTHER SPECIAL, 
INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INDIRECT 
DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF 
AVOX 
2 
OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS. THIS 
LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANTARES OR 
ITS AUTHORIZED AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED 
OF THE POSSIBILIT Y OF SUCH DAMAGE. 
YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LICENSE 
FEE REFLECTS THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK. 
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW 
LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILIT Y FOR 
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, 
SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY 
TO YOU.
Whew! Now that that’s over, let’s get on to the 
good stuff.  
						

							Contents
Chapter 1 Getting Started   3
Chapter 2  Introducing AVOX 2  5
Chapter 3  Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator  9
Chapter 4  THROAT Physical Modeling Vocal Designer  11
Chapter 5  DUO Vocal Modeling Auto-Doubler  19
Chapter 6  CHOIR Vocal Multiplier  21
Chapter 7  PUNCH Vocal Impact Enhancer   23
Chapter 8  SYBIL Variable Frequency De-Esser  25
Chapter 9  ARTICULATOR Vocal Formant and Amplitude Modeler  27
Chapter 10  MUTATOR Extreme Voice Designer  37
Chapter 11  WARM Tube Saturation Generator  43
Chapter 12  ASPIRE Aspiration Noise Processor  47
  Index   51 
						

							vi 
						

							1
Welcome!
On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to offer both our 
thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase the AVOX 2 Antares 
Vocal Toolkit, a suite of uniquely powerful DSP tools for creating spectacular 
vocal tracks. As an AVOX 2 owner, you are entitled to receive notification of 
any software updates, technical support, and advance announcements of upcoming products. 
But we can’t send you stuff unless we know who and where you are. So please, register.
At Antares, we are committed to excellence in quality, customer service, and technological 
innovation. With your purchase of AVOX 2, you have created a relationship with Antares which 
we hope will be long and gratifying. Let us know what you think. You can count on us to listen.
Again, thanks.
The Whole Antares Crew 
						

							2 
						

							3
Chapter 1: Getting Started
How To Use This Manual
The plug-ins that make up the AVOX 2 suite have been designed with clear, 
consistent, friendly user-interfaces. If you come to AVOX 2 with previous 
vocal processing experience, you will find that most of their functions are self-evident and are 
extraordinarily easy to use. However, since some of the AVOX 2 tools do things that have never 
been done before (or do them in new ways), a few aspects of their user-interfaces may not be 
immediately obvious.
Consequently, we encourage you to at least scan each of the individual plug-in’s chapters for 
descriptions of their various parameters. In particular, Harmony Engine offers new (and extremely 
intuitive) ways to specify vocal harmony, while THROAT, ARTICULATOR and ASPIRE offer entirely 
new approaches to vocal processing, providing capabilities that have simply never before existed 
in a DSP plug-in. We strongly suggest that you read their chapters in their entirety to gain an 
understanding of what they can do.
If you just can’t wait to get some sound going, feel free to load up some vocal tracks and play 
around with the various AVOX 2 plug-ins. (Be sure to check out Harmony Engine’s and THROAT’s 
collection of factory presets. They’ll give you a good idea of what they’re capable of as well as 
providing inspiration for your own creations.) Then come back and dig into the details.
The Contents of This Manual 
Chapter 1: Getting Started 
The chapter you are reading. Provides informa -
tion on installing and authorizing AVOX 2.
Chapter 2: Introducing AVOX 2
This chapter provides an overview of the tools 
that make up the AVOX 2 plug-in suite.
Chapter 3: Harmony Engine Vocal Modeling 
Harmony Generator
Barely a chapter, here’s where we explain why 
there’s a separate manual for Harmony Engine.
Chapters 4 –12
These chapters are reference information for all 
of the controls used in each of the other AVOX 
2 plug-in interfaces.
Installing AVOX 2
AVOX 2 plug-ins are designed to 
function in a wide variety of digital audio 
applications. Please refer to your specific 
host application’s user manual for more 
information on installing and using plug-ins. 
Authorizing AVOX 2 
Authorization is the process by which 
AVOX 2 is allowed to run on your computer. 
Detailed instructions covering the available 
authorization options will be found in the 
the file “Authorization Read Me” which 
is included on the installation CD ROM 
or with your software download. 
N OTE: When initially installed, 
this software will run for ten 
days without authorization. 
So even if you can’t authorize it right away you 
can still use your software in the meantime. 
(During this period, click the “Continue”  
						

							4
button whenever you are presented with 
the Trial Period screen at launch.) But don’t 
procrastinate too long. After those ten days are 
up you will no longer be able to launch AVOX 2 
until it’s authorized. 
Technical Support  
In the unlikely event that you experience a 
problem using AVOX 2, try the following: 
 1.  Make sure you have the latest version of 
the software. You can download and install 
the latest version of the software from the 
following web page:
    http://www.antarestech.com/download/
update.shtml
  2.  If you are having problems authorizing 
your software, be sure that you have the 
latest version of the PACE Interlok drivers. 
You can download and install the latest 
version for your operating system from the 
following web page:
    http://portal.knowledgebase.net/article.
asp?article=174703&p=5764
If your problem is not resolved after taking the 
above actions, try the following:
  1.  Make another quick scan through this 
manual. Who knows? You may have 
stumbled onto some feature that you didn’t 
notice the first time through.
  2.  Check our web page for tips, techniques, or 
any late-breaking information:
    http://www.antarestech.com
  3.  Consult our searchable knowledgebase at:
    http://www.antarestech.com/support/
index.html
  4.  Call your local Antares dealer.