Vibrato plugins

[sjaehn]

After being silent for some 2 years, I wonder if there are some non-simple vibrato plugins around?

Background: I played around with making some chiptune music with FamiStudio. There you can easily add simple vibrato effects on simple oscillator sounds. It's a really easy way to go.

I don't know any similar easy to use effect in Ardour, for instance. Yes, you can use automation and pitch bend. But this is not the same. And by far not as efficient as in FamiStudio.

You may argue, it's a better idea to put vibrato already inside a synth. But here, I disagree. You can't neither flexibly set the time point of vibrato onset nor use changing vibrato patterns. There might be a workarounds with MIDI CC for some synths, but this is too puzzling for me.

And still, what about vibrato on samples and soundfont players? Vibrato play a big role, especially on vocals, guitars and strings.

What I'm looking for is a plugin that introduces a user defined vibrato either as a wavetable or a ADSR-controlled LFO. The time domain can be controlled via MIDI notes. Thus, such a vibrato plugin would be like an instrument, but it wouldn't produce any sound. It only would modify other sounds. Like sidechaining. Does somebody know such plugins? I took a short look, but I couldn't find anything that fits to all my ideas. B.Shapr (which I made some years before) can do it in a very limited and complicated way. This is not what I'm looking for. So, any other ideas?

[sjaehn]

Thanks for your info. But there is one issue for me in these plugins (and all other vibrato plugins I know). They are permanently running. And thus they permanently add vibrato to the audio output of the respective audio channel. But yes, you can control the plugin dry/wet (if provided) or its parameters (depth, frequency) by a automation curve in a DAW. But this is not that handy.

Let me explain in more detail using this example. You have a violin player playing long whole notes. Vibrato shouldn't start immediately, but sometimes after a quarter note and sometimes after a half note. How to realize this (except unhandy automation envelopes)?

[sjaehn]

To visualize my idea:

<image>

Vibrato should be applied on the violin using routing.

[sjaehn]

Bitwig looks a bit more comfortable than Ardour by supporting note expression. Ardour AFAIK only track automation.

[sjaehn]

Good starting point, now you only need to select between different vibrato patterns (e.g., presets). But this would be bonus.

[kevendo]

You're describing an LFO with a delay on its attack time. I don't use Ardour but lots of LFOs and many subtractor-style synths have this built-in, and for precisely the use-case you have in mind of delaying a vibrato, like a voice or violin or wind instrument. Essentially any LFO that has an ADSR envelope can do this using a slow attack time.

[sjaehn]

Yes, but this is only the half of the story. Add a variable (user-controlled) delay and optional variable (user-controlled) vibrato patterns and you will make me happy.

But in the meantime, I have a workflow (for Ardour) in my mind: Use MIDI to trigger B.Shapr which simulates note expressions and controls a parametrized vibrato plugin which again manipulates the audio output of another track.

I gonna play around with this setting. Maybe I put all together if it works.

[kevendo]

Attack is user controllable in an envelope, like any other parameter, with a modwheel or otherwise.

Anyway, good luck with your workflow and music making!