Audio Plugin Deals is running an 80% OFF deal on the Lector vocoder/synth by Waldorf, offering the plugin for $34.99 (regular price $175) until September 21st.
One of the few things I can’t live without is a vocoder. While it would usually be anyone’s first pick for emulating Daft Punk or the intro to Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic, I feel that it’s also a very underrated sound design tool.
See also: FBVC Free Vocoder VST Plugin Released By Full Bucket MusicWhen I feel that a particular sound is missing that “special something”, the vocoder is the first sound design tools I fire up in the DAW. It’s such an easy way to add movement and harmonics to any sound. If you’re using the vocoder sparingly, people won’t even recognize that it’s there (the mix knob is your friend here).
If sound design were cooking, then vocoders would be the ingredient that provides that umami flavor.
Also, it can make anything sound sci-fi.
Nowadays, there’s a ton of great vocoders, but one that I distinctly remember gave great results was Waldorf’s Lector. You can throw Lector on anything – vocals, drums, pads, strings, your mortgage. They will all benefit from it.
Robot voices, whispering strings, talking drum loops, rhythmic pads, the resonant ringing of bells, dripping water – the possibilities are all but infinite. With a quick tweak here and there, the Lector turns any incoming signal into novel sounds and effects.
It offers anything from 3 to 100 bands, an analysis filter bank (a group of band-pass filters) with tons of options, a 3-band EQ, individual compressors for both the speech and carrier signals, Voiced/Unvoiced Detection. You also get an excellent FX section, including three overdrive types (Tube, Diode, and Clip).
Are you not convinced? Lector is a fully-fledged synthesizer, too, and a pretty robust one at that. The synth engine offers sixteen voices, two oscillators, frequency and ring modulation, and a whole 1 LFO.
Waldorf Lector won’t win any innovation awards, but if you’ve been on the market for a new synth, this one practically comes free. It might just be the user interface, but to my ears, it sounds very close to Waldorf’s flagship Largo. Although in Lector’s case, it’s actually usable.
One thing that needs mentioning, though, is the GUI design. It’s not very pretty, it doesn’t look modern, and there’s too much contrast. But it’s not that terrible, either.
So, in summation, Lector is a vocoder, a synthesizer, an FX Unit, and even a sidechain compressor if you try hard enough, all for $35 until September 21st. If you don’t mind an interface that looks like an extraterrestrial IKEA catalog for stovetops, this is an excellent bang for your buck.
More info: Waldorf Lector (80% OFF @ Audio Plugin Deals)
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Last Updated on September 18, 2020 by Tomislav Zlatic.
