Automation & MIDI control
Voicemax shows 73 of its controls to your DAW. These are called automation parameters. You can use them in two ways:
- Automation: your DAW moves a control for you, at the right moment in the song. For example, bring in the harmonies only in the chorus, push Tune Amount harder on one line, or open up the Brigade on the last hook.
- MIDI control: you move a control with a knob or fader on your MIDI controller, hands on, while you record or mix.
The names in the tables below are exactly what your DAW shows.
Automation in your DAW
Section titled “Automation in your DAW”The quickest way in every DAW: move the control in Voicemax. Most DAWs remember the last control you touched and offer it for automation straight away.
Ableton Live
- Show the automation of the track (press A in the Arrangement view).
- In the automation lane, pick Voicemax in the first menu and the parameter in the second one.
- Draw the curve, or record it: arm Automation Arm and move the control while the song plays.
Logic Pro
- Press A to show the automation lanes.
- In the lane’s menu, choose Voicemax and then the parameter.
- Draw the curve, or set the track to Latch or Touch and move the control while the song plays.
Other DAWs (Cubase, Studio One, Pro Tools, FL Studio, Reaper, Bitwig…) work the same way: open the track’s automation, choose Voicemax, pick the parameter. Parameters are grouped (Master, Lead Tuning, Harmony…) so you find them faster.
MIDI control
Section titled “MIDI control”Ableton Live
- Click the small triangle in the Voicemax device title bar to show its parameters. If a control is missing there, click Configure and move it in the plugin window.
- Press ⌘ + M (Mac) or Ctrl + M (Windows) to enter MIDI Map mode.
- Click the parameter, then move the knob or fader on your controller.
- Press ⌘ + M / Ctrl + M again to leave MIDI Map mode.
Logic Pro
- Move the control in the Voicemax window.
- Press ⌘ + L (Learn Assignment).
- Move the knob or fader on your controller.
- Press ⌘ + L again to finish.
Other DAWs usually call this MIDI Learn: right-click the parameter or use the DAW’s learn button, then move your controller.
Every parameter
Section titled “Every parameter”All automation parameters of Voicemax 1.0.12, grouped the way your DAW lists them.
Master
Section titled “Master”Input and output level, the master EQ with Tilt, and Glue. They sit at the bottom of the plugin.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input | How hot your voice goes into the plugin. | -24 dB to 24 dB | 0 dB |
| Output | The final level coming out of the plugin. | -24 dB to 24 dB | 0 dB |
| Glue | A bus compressor that holds the lead and the harmonies together: denser and wider, while the ceiling never overshoots. | 0 % to 100 % | 0 % |
| Tilt | Tips the whole tonal balance. Right is brighter, left is darker. | -6 to 6 | 0 |
| EQ Preset | Ready-made master EQ curves. Click › to step through them. Moving a dot by hand turns it into Custom. | Custom, Air, Warm, Present, Silky, Big, Intimate, Tight, Radio | Custom |
| EQ Off | Takes the master EQ out. | Active, Bypass | Bypass |
| Bypass | Bypasses the whole plugin. Same as clicking the VOICEMAX logo: your voice passes through untouched. | Active, Bypass | Active |
Lead Tuning
Section titled “Lead Tuning”Everything about tuning your lead vocal. Left card in the Advanced view.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tune Amount | How hard the lead is tuned. Below 50 % it gently corrects off-pitch notes. Above 50 % it pulls every note to the right pitch more and more firmly. At 0 % the harmonies follow the lead freely; from 1 % up they lock to the key. | 0 % to 100 % | 50 % |
| Key | The key of your song. | A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G# | F |
| Scale | The scale of your song. Every note lands on a note of this scale. | Chromatic, Major, Minor, Harmonic minor, Melodic minor, Major pentatonic, Minor pentatonic, Blues, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Locrian | Chromatic |
| Retune Speed | How fast a note snaps to pitch. Below 30 ms you get the stepped, robot-like hard tune. | 0 ms to 30 ms | 30 ms |
| Re-Pitch | Shifts the whole lead up or down by up to 12 semitones. A creative effect, great for FX, narration or spoken voice. | -12 st to 12 st | 0 st |
Lead EQ
Section titled “Lead EQ”A small EQ on the tuned lead. The same EQ sits on the harmonies.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low Cut | Low cut: removes unwanted lows from the lead. | 20 Hz to 20000 Hz | 20 Hz |
| Low Cut Slope | How steep the low cut is. Right-click the dot on the EQ to change it. | 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 72, 96, Brick | 24 |
| High Cut | High cut: removes unwanted highs from the lead. | 20 Hz to 20000 Hz | 20000 Hz |
| High Cut Slope | How steep the high cut is. Right-click the dot on the EQ to change it. | 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 72, 96, Brick | 24 |
| Mode | CUT sets the low and high cut. BELL dips the mids with the middle dot, which makes the vocal silkier. | Cut, Bell | Cut |
| Bell Depth | How deep the BELL dip goes. | 1 dB to 12 dB | 3 dB |
Harmony
Section titled “Harmony”Everything about the harmony voices. Right card in the Advanced view.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preset | Interval presets to give you ideas. Click › to step through them. You can override any of them by hand. | Custom, Off, Thirds Up, Thirds Down, Octaves Up, Octaves Down, Unison, Deep, Full Stack | Thirds Up |
| Balance | Lead vs. voices. All the way left is lead only, all the way right is harmonies only. Double-click resets it to the middle. | 0 to 1 | 0.5 |
| Spread | Spreads the harmonies across the stereo field. At 0 % they sit in the center, at 100 % wide to the sides while the lead stays in the middle. | 0 % to 100 % | 100 % |
| Stack | Adds a stacked, doubled layer to the harmony voices. | 0 % to 100 % | 0 % |
| Formant | Changes the character of the harmony voices without changing their pitch: a bigger or a smaller singer, or a modern pitch-shifted sound. | -12 st to 12 st | 0 st |
| Engine | The voice type of the harmonies. GRIT is grainy and direct and keeps the bite of the voice. SILK is smoother and softer on breathy or airy vocals. | Grit, Silk | Grit |
| Harmony Mode | Scale: the harmonies stay on the notes of your key. Free: they keep the exact interval you set, wherever the lead goes. | Scale, Free | Scale |
| Voice 1-4 Pitch | The interval of each harmony voice. Drag the voice’s column up or down. Drag it down to Off to switch that voice off. | Off, -24 st … +24 st | -3 st |
| Voice 1-4 Level | The volume of each harmony voice: the level strip at the bottom of its column. | 0 to 1 | 0.89 |
| Voice 1-4 Pan | Where each harmony voice sits left to right: the dot on the strip above its column. | -1 to 1 | -1 |
Harmony EQ
Section titled “Harmony EQ”The same small EQ as on the lead, here on the harmony voices.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low Cut | Low cut: removes unwanted lows from the harmonies. | 20 Hz to 20000 Hz | 100 Hz |
| Low Cut Slope | How steep the low cut is. Right-click the dot on the EQ to change it. | 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 72, 96, Brick | 24 |
| High Cut | High cut: removes unwanted highs from the harmonies. | 20 Hz to 20000 Hz | 18000 Hz |
| High Cut Slope | How steep the high cut is. Right-click the dot on the EQ to change it. | 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 72, 96, Brick | 24 |
| Mode | CUT sets the low and high cut. BELL dips the mids with the middle dot. | Cut, Bell | Cut |
| Bell Depth | How deep the BELL dip goes. | 1 dB to 12 dB | 3 dB |
Brigade
Section titled “Brigade”Turns the harmonies into a group of singers on a stage. Open it with the BRIGADE button next to MONITOR / EDITOR.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mix | How loud the brigade is next to the lead and the harmonies. 0 turns it off. | 0 % to 100 % | 0 % |
| Reverb | How much room the brigade gets. | 0 % to 100 % | 35 % |
| Room Type | The space the brigade stands in: a Room or a Hall. | Room, Hall | Hall |
Lead Notes
Section titled “Lead Notes”The 12 note switches on the piano. They set which notes the lead may be tuned to.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Note C to B | Turn single notes on or off. The lead is only tuned to notes that are on. | Off, On | On |
Master EQ
Section titled “Master EQ”The three bands behind the master EQ presets. Drag a dot on the master EQ to change them by hand.
| Control | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 1-3 Type | The shape of the band: peak, shelf, notch or filter. | peak, lo-shelf, hi-shelf, notch, lowpass, highpass | peak |
| Band 1-3 Freq | The frequency of the band. | 50 Hz to 18000 Hz | 150 Hz |
| Band 1-3 Gain | How much the band boosts or cuts. | -15 dB to 15 dB | 0 dB |
| Band 1-3 Q | How wide or narrow the band is. | 0.3 to 8 | 0.7 |
| Band 1-3 Slope | How steep a filter band is. | 12 dB/oct, 24 dB/oct, 48 dB/oct | 12 dB/oct |
docs v0.0.5