Voice Modulator Tutorial

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Installing All Necessary Components
  • Asio4all
  • VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device
  • VSTHost
• Initial Setup: Hooking Everything Together
  • Configuring VSTHost
  • Connecting Asio4all & VSTHost
  • Configuring & Testing With Discord
  • Saving Your Voice Without Effects
  • Downloading/Installing Effects
  • Creating Your First Modulated Voice
  • Setting Up Remote Control (Optional)
• Using The Modulator After Initial Setup
• Important Considerations To Keep In Mind

Preface

The steps below will teach you how to setup a professional-grade voice modulator with 100% free technologies that you can use with Discord, Skype or any other voice chat software (including games) on your Windows computer.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will assume that Discord will be used as the voice chat software.

Installing All Necessary Components

Asio4all

Asio4all will capture the input from your microphone so that we can process it with effects later on.

• Access the Asio4all website.
• Download and run the latest installer. At the time of writing this article, it is ASIO4ALL 2.14 - English.

VB-CABLE Virtual Audio Device

VB-CABLE allows us to take the output from one program (which will apply effects to your voice) and route that signal as the microphone input for another software. In our case, we will redirect the modulated voice to Discord.

• Access the VB-CABLE website.
• Download the VB-CABLE Driver (Donationware) package. At the time of writing this article, it is VBCABLE_Driver_Pack43.zip.
• As per the instructions on the website: Extract all files from the ZIP and run Setup Program in Administrator Mode (Reboot after installation or de-installation).

VSTHost

VSTHost is the program which will allow you to setup and apply various effects to your voice before its audio is forwarded to your voice chat software (i.e. Discord).

• Access the VSTHost website.
• Scroll down a bit to the Downloads section and download vsthostx64.zip. It is not the first item in the list, you’ll have to scroll a bit.
• The downloaded package is not an installer – you just need to extract the files where you want the program to be on your drive. For instance, you could extract it to C:\VSTHost\.

Initial Setup: Hooking Everything Together

The procedure below only needs to be done one time to setup everything. Once it’s done, the settings are saved and you won’t have to do this again, even if you reboot.

Configuring VSTHost

Launch VSTHost (execute vsthost.exe in the folder where you extracted the VSTHost package). Then:

• In the top menu, access File and make sure that PlugIn Auto-Connect is disabled (not checked).

• In the top menu, access Performance and enable Autosave PlugIn Banks (make sure it’s checked). Otherwise, your effects may not be saved correctly!

• In the top menu, access Engine and enable Soft Clipping (make sure it’s checked).

Connecting Asio4all & VSTHost

We will now configure Asio4all to capture the sound from your microphone and feed it to VSTHost.

• In the top menu, access Devices then Wave….
  • For Output Port (ignore the Input dropdown), select ASIO: ASIO4ALL v2.
    • You may notice that Input Port becomes disabled. This is normal.
  • Set Buffer to 512 samples.
  • Press OK to close the dialog.

• In the top menu, access Devices then Asio Control Panel...
  • In the Asio4all dialog, ensure that you have enabled Advanced Options by checking if the wrench in the bottom right corner has a red “X” over it. If there is no red “X”, please click on the wrench to make it appear.
  • In the left-side WDM Device List section. Expand all root-level devices which have a “+” to their left until you see all devices and sub-devices in the tree.
  • Disable all devices (remove the blue power glow). Then, find the following specific devices:
    • A) Your actual microphone device as well as its sub-item “In”. The name will depend on your actual microphone/headset.
    • B) “VB-Audio Virtual Cable” as well as its sub-item “Out: 8x 8-192kHz, 24Bits”.
      • For these items, perform the following:
        • Make sure they are enabled (have the blue power glow) – both the main root-level device and the sub-item.
        • With the root-level device selected, make sure Hardware Buffer is disabled (not checked).
        • With the root-level device selected, set Kernel Buffers to the highest value.

Configuring & Testing With Discord

Let’s test to make sure that your voice is correctly routed from your microphone to VSTHost and then to Discord. We will do this by creating a voice with no effects applied at all.

In VSTHost, you should see two (2) boxes with some space between them: {In}, which represents your microphone input, and {Out}, which represents the final audio output that we will route to Discord.

• In the {Out} box, click the top-left Chain button – or right-click the box itself and select Chain After….

• In the dialog, check the Engine Input option, which will turn green . This will route the {In} (microphone signal) directly to the output.

Notice that a line has been drawn between the {In} and {Out} boxes. Later on, we will add effects in-between these boxes to create modulated voices.

In Discord, access User Settings (gear icon) then Voice & Video.

• Scroll down and make sure that Echo Cancellation is disabled. This feature is known to cause issues when modulating your voice with this method.

• Scroll back up. Under Input Device, select CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable).
• If you intend to use Push to Talk, I strongly recommend that you set the Push to Talk Release Delay to some value between 500-600ms since the modulator may introduce a tiny delay/lag, and you don’t want your voice to be cut short.

• Click Let’s Check to initiate the microphone test.
• Talk – you should be able to hear yourself. This will confirm that your microphone was successfully routed through VSTHost before reaching Discord.

At this stage, we have confirmed that Asio4all and VSTHost can successfully capture your microphone input and forward it to Discord.

Saving Your Voice Without Effects

We will save your voice without any effect applied as your default voice which we will use when you do not wish to activate modulation.

• In VSTHost’s top menu, access Performance then click Save as ….
• Select slot 001 (not 000 which might be selected by default!) and write a name such as “No Effect Applied” or something similar.
• Click OK to save your voice.

After you’ve saved that voice, you should see the name you wrote selected in the Performance dropdown on the left side under the top menu. This is the dropdown that lets you switch between different voices which you will create later, i.e. toggle between your normal voice and your modulated voice(s).

Downloading/Installing Effects

VSTHost allows you to load modules called VST plugins. These are audio effects that can modulate sound in real-time – which will be your microphone input in this case. Luckily for us, there are a lot of 100% free VST plugins online. They will appear as their own boxes within VSTHost, similar to the {In} and {Out} boxes.

When you download those plugins, they will usually be either:

• .DLL files.
• .ZIP files which contain .DLL files.
• .EXE installers which will ultimately produce/extract .DLL files.

It is strongly recommended that you try to extract all VST plugin .DLL files in one (1) common location because you will need to load them using VSTHost – so you must remember where you put them. You should put them all in C:\VST\ or somewhere similar.

I propose two (2) sets of plugins below.

• The first set represents the essentials which should be installed by all users.
• The second set is optional and geared towards users experienced with audio production for more intricate effects.

Essentials (in alphabetical order)

Plugin	Description
Dead Duck Effects Bundle	A bunch of excellent yet simple modulation effects. The most interesting ones are: BitCrusher: To voluntarily reduce sound quality, e.g. radio effect. Chorus: To "multiply" your voice in interesting ways. Flanger and Phaser: Add trippy effects to your voice. Reverb: Add a bit of echo as if you were in a big room.
La Petite Excite	Simple bass/treble booster (exciter) to make your voice bassier/brighter.
RoVee	To adjust the pitch of your voice. Select RoVee ver 1.21 Download from their page.

Advanced (in alphabetical order)

Plugin	Description
Adam Monroe's Tremolo	Use this if you want to vibrate the volume of your voice very quickly (e.g. helicopter effect).
CamelCrusher	A distortion plugin with additional effects to make your voice "phatter".
Doppler Dome	Effect which can "vibrate" the pitch and/or volume up and down.
KeroVee	Similar to RoVee, it is a pitch shifter which can also "snap"/auto-tune your voice to specific frequencies for robot-like effects. Select KeroVee ver 1.61 Download from their page.
Lizard Morph	Morphing plugin which can truly "alienize" your voice.
Manda Audio 7Q	To easily adjust the volume of specific frequencies.
MeldaProduction MFreeFxBundle	A bunch of excellent modulation effects. The most interesting ones are: MConvolutionEZ: Special reverb-based effects, some of which significantly alter the sound. MEqualizer: Extremely flexible equalizer to boost/reduce specific frequencies.
PiF Vocoder	A powerful Vocoder which can modulate your voice by blending it with another sound. Use in conjunction with DD SigGen and DD Utility to pan the voice to the left channel and the sound/noise to the right channel.

Creating Your First Modulated Voice

Once you have installed the desired VST plugins (e.g. .DLL files in C:\VST\), we will use them to create our first effect. Specifically, we will learn how to:

• Load a VST plugin (effect) into VSTHost so that it appears as a box in the main area, similar to {In} and {Out}.
• Route the signal from the {In} box (microphone input) through the effect(s) before reaching the {Out} box.

Open Discord and activate the Let’s Check feature again so that you can hear your voice as we are applying the effects.

Then, open VSTHost and perform the following:

• In the Performance dropdown, switch from your “No Effect Applied” voice to the empty **Init** slot below it.

• Notice that {In} and {Out} are not connected by default. For now, you will no longer be able to hear yourself in Discord.
• Right-click the empty gray space, any point between {In} and {Out}. Access File → New PlugIn….

• Select the RoVee (RoVee.dll) plugin. A box will be added to the main area.
• Right-click again (File → New PlugIn…) to add the DD Reverb (DD Reverb.dll) plugin. Another box is added.

At this stage, you should see the following boxes:

• Click the RoVee box’s chain icon (or right-click it → Chain After…), and check the Engine Input signal. This will feed your microphone audio to the RoVee effect.

You will notice that the {In} box and the RoVee box are now linked (yellow line).

• Using the same method, click the DD Reverb box’s chain icon, and select the RoVee effect from the list, so that the voice modulated by RoVee is then forwarded through the DD Reverb effect.

You will notice that the RoVee box and the DD Reverb box are now linked (yellow line).

• Using the same method, click the {Out} box’s chain icon, and select the DD Reverb effect from the list, so that the voice modulated by DD Reverb is then forwarded to the {Out} output signal (which is sent to Discord).

You will notice that the DD Reverb box and the {Out} box are now linked (yellow line).

At this stage, there is a continuous/uninterrupted connection between {In} and {Out} which goes through the effects you’ve loaded.

And if you speak now, you should hear your modulated voice (assuming you have activated the Let’s Check microphone check in Discord)! It will sound very high-pitched and echoey. We will learn how to tweak/configure the effects next.

• Back to VSTHost, click the RoVee box’s gauge icon to access its parameters.

• In the RoVee panel that appears, you will see the different knobs and buttons you can tweak, including:
  • Formant knob: Changes the “vocal tract sound”. Try shifting it to -20 to see how that sounds like.
  • Pitch knob: Changes the overall pitch of your voice. Try shifting it to -5 to see how that sounds like.
  • Robotic button: Activate this if you want to sound like a robot that never switches tone.
  • Mix (Dry/Effect) knob: Change this if you want to mix your original voice with the affected voice. Leave it at 100% effect unless you want to hear two (2) voices at the same time, one of which has no pitch change applied.
  • Try different combinations until you find something fun! You can keep talking and hearing yourself from Discord’s Let’s Check feature as you change the settings.
• Close the panel (upper-right “X”) when you are done, and now click the DD Reverb box’s gauge icon instead.

• In the DD Reverb panel that appears, you will see the different knobs and buttons you can tweak, including:
  • Room Size knob: Defines how echoey the effect will sound.
  • Damping knob: Affects how long the echo effect lasts.
  • Mix knob: Affects how much of the echo effect is heard vs. the original signal.
  • Try setting the Room Size a bit low, setting Damping a bit high, and setting Mix a bit low for a subtle effect.
• Close the panel (upper-right “X”) when you are done.

As you create other voices in the future, note the additional VSTHost functions below:

• The bottom-left speaker icon disables the effect itself, and the unmodified input sound is forwarded through.
• The bottom-right speaker icon mutes the effect. No sound comes out at all.
• The top-right “X” icon deletes the effect from the canvas.

At this point, your new voice is completed. We will save it so that you can use it at a later time. A voice like this is referred to as a Performance in VSTHost, so we will save your current “Performance”.

• In VSTHost’s top menu, access Performance then click Save as ….
• Select slot 002 (below your “No Effect Applied” voice) and write a name for this modulated voice you just created.
• Click OK to save your voice.

After that, while you have this voice selected, if you make any more changes, you can access Performance then click Save (or press CTRL+S) to ensure your changes are saved.

Now let’s try switching between your regular voice and your modulated voice:

• Expand the top-left dropdown and switch back to your “No Effects Applied” voice, then talk. You should hear your normal voice.
• Expand the top-left dropdown again and switch to your modulated voice that you just saved, then talk. You should hear your modulated voice.

You could stop the initial set-up tutorial here if this is good enough for you as the method for switching between voices. However, if you’d prefer to have another way to switch without having to bring up the VSTHost window every time and activating the dropdown, see the instructions right below to setup remote control.

Setting Up Remote Control (Optional)

This method will allow you to switch between Performances (voices) while using another window. Reminder: The steps below only need to be done once as part of the initial set-up.

We will be using two (2) applications to make this happen:

• Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard will be used to show a small window with buttons we can press to switch between voices.
• loopMIDI will forward the signals from Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard to VSTHost to effectively perform the switch.

Download and install:

• loopMIDI. At the time of writing this article, loopMIDI 1.0.16.27 is available.
• Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard. At the time of writing this article, vmpk 0.7.2 is available.
• If reboots are required when installing these, go ahead and restart your computer.

Then, follow the instructions below:

• Start loopMIDI. If it is running correctly, its icon will be visible in the taskbar at the bottom. You may have to click the Show hidden icons arrow to see it. Double-click the loopMIDI taskbar icon to access its settings.

• Under the Setup tab (which should already be opened), verify that there is 1 item in My loopback MIDI ports. If not, click the bottom-left ”+” icon to add one. Close the dialog.

• Start Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard.
• In the top menu, access Edit → MIDI Connections and set the following settings:
  • MIDI OUT Driver: Windows MM.
  • Output MIDI Connection: loopMIDI Port.
  • Click OK.

• In the top menu, access Edit → Preferences and set the following settings:
  • Number of keys: Set a low number (e.g. between 1 and 10), since we won’t use the keys.
  • Always On Top: Enabled/checked.
  • Click OK.

• In the top menu, access View and ensure Extra Controls is enabled/checked.
• In the bottom bar below the keys (the Extra Controls section), click Edit.

• In the dialog that apperas, click Add to create a new control with the following parameters:
  • Label: FX (or some other short name that implies voice modulation)
  • MIDI Controller: 0
  • Dropdown: set to Switch.
  • value ON: 1
  • value OFF: 0
  • Key: Leave the blank (press “X” if you have to).
  • Click OK.

You should now see a small button that you can toggle on/off in the bottom bar. This is the button we will use to switch between your unmodulated VSTHost Performance and your VSTHost Performance which includes the special effects.

You should now resize the Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard window to its smallest possible size.

We will now teach VSTHost to react to the Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard button we created.

• If VSTHost is currently running, restart it, i.e. close then re-launch it.
• In the top menu, access Devices → MIDI….
• In the MIDI Input Devices tab, ensure that loopMIDI Port is listed and selected (highlighted).

• Access the Remote Control Port tab and set the Input Port to loopMIDI Port.
• Then, in the table below:
  • Right-click each Type cell and select * None * to clear pre-existing default settings.
  • Right-click the first * None * cell and select * Learn *.
  • In your Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard window, click your “FX” button. VSTHost will automatically detect this.
  • In VSTHost, ensure the following parameters are set in the row where you clicked * Learn *:
    • Chn: Set to * All *
    • Parameter: Performance
    • Mode: Set
    • From (right side): 0.000
    • To (right side): 1.000
    • Click OK.

Time for a test run!

• Ensure Discord’s Let’s Check feature is running so you can hear yourself.
• In VSTHost, use the top-left dropdown to select your “No Effect Applied” Performance.
• Activate your “FX” button in Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard as you are talking. Your voice should become modulated.
• Deactivate your “FX” button in Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard as you are talking. Your voice should return to normal.

If everything worked right, the VSTHost dropdown automatically switched between your no-effect voice and your modulated voice as you pressed the button in Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard. You can now simply use Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard to trigger modulation.

Using The Modulator After Initial Setup

Once the initial setup has been completed, here’s what you need to do whenever you want to use your voice modulator:

• If you completed the remote control setup, launch loopMIDI first, and then Virtual MIDI Keyboard. If VSTHost or Virtual MIDI Keyboard were opened before loopMIDI, close them and re-open them after.
• Launch VSTHost and select your “No Effect Applied” Performance from the top-left dropdown.
• In Discord, ensure your microphone is set to CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable).

That’s it! You can switch between your unmodulated voice and unmodulated voice(s) at any time.

• Keep in mind, when you switch between voices (e.g. from unmodulated to modulated), you may want to give the modulator some time (a bit less than 1 second) to load the effect plug-ins. In fact, if it’s the first time you are activating effect plugins since you started VSTHost, it might even take a few seconds. If you speak immediately, people might not hear the beginning of your sentence.

Important Considerations To Keep In Mind

As long as you have configured Discord to use CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) as the input microphone, people won’t hear you unless you have VSTHost opened and you have selected a Performance that connects the {In} and {Out} boxes. As such, if you are done using the modulator, I suggest you close VSTHost and switch the microphone back to your normal microphone device in Discord.

As long as VSTHost is opened, your actual microphone device will be considered to be “in use” (as it will be managed by Asio4all), so you will not be able to use any voice chat application that is set to use your microphone directly (as opposed to using CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual Cable) as the microphone input). You will have to close VSTHost to free up your microphone.