WRITTEN BY GREG RUBIN
SOUND EFFECTS EDITOR, BOOM BOX POST
Hi all! Today I’m going to be discussing the DeHumaniser II plugin by Krotos. It’s an excellent plugin for creature vocal sound design that’s really fun to use. There is also the Simple Monsters plugin which is a simpler, less customizable version of the same plugin, but at a more affordable price tag ($99 vs $399 for DeHumaniser II).
To get things started, in DeHumaniser II there are a multitude of predesigned preset creatures to choose from. In the plugin’s workspace window, you can see what modules were used to create these different sounding creatures. These presets range from beasts and trolls to demons, aliens, aquatic creatures like the Kraken, etc. The creatures are further sectioned in a way to help users choose from builds that are best used for growls and roars. Typically these options have a bit more distortion involved, which make them less of a good choice for more detailed vocalizations and efforts. There are even “dialogue” presets specifically designed to use in a chain for vocal treatment of a voiced character. If that’s not enough, you will also find “experimental” presets with selections similar to the design of the aliens in District 9. Lastly, you will find a number of “music” geared presets.
Let’s Jump Right In!
You can either start with a preset or from scratch in an empty workspace. There are 10 customizable modules you can add to the workspace and route accordingly to design your vocals. Aside from the track input and output which are of course at the beginning and end of the workspace routing, there’s Ring Modulator, Pitch Shifter, Noise Generator, Granular modulator, Sample Trigger, Flanger/Chorus, Delay Pitch Shift, Scrubbing Convolution, Spectral Shifting, and Vocoder modules available to add in whatever chain of order required to bring your creature to life.
Understanding Modules
For each module, you can add up to 8 voices to send to another module. You can also add up to 2 of the same modules in one workspace. So, for example, if you want your unprocessed dialogue to go through a pitch shifter, sample trigger, and vocoder in that order, you would start with one voice from your input and connect each module in a row of succession leading to the final output. However, if you want your dry vocal to go through each of those modules separately, but still join together at the output, you would add 2 additional voices (3 in total), then connect individual “cables” from the input to each of those 3 modules. Once you have all 3 of them joined together in the output module, you can select the voice’s volume level for each patch you’ve chosen. Each module also has customizable parameters, making DeHumaniser II an amazingly diverse plugin with endless possibilities for vocal design! In short, it’s just a fun plugin to mess around with.
Customizing Modules
In creating your creature vocal, to further customize any module that you’ve chosen to use, simply click on the top of the module in the workspace window. Adjustable parameters will then appear in the lower bar of the plugin. Additionally, if you click on the bar at the bottom of the module, you will then see a drop down window with a few extra parameters. If you click on the “Track Input” node, a bar of faders will appear that allow you to adjust the balance of incoming dry signal from each module you’ve added into your signal chain. If you click the “Output” node, you will be able to see the amount of latency compensation from the plugin, as well as a Dry/Wet mix control knob and an EQ/Limiter to use at the end of your chain. You can of course also mute, bypass, or solo any of the modules you placed from the “Track Input” node. Once you’ve crafted up a killer module chain, you can save the design as a plugin for future use.
Vocal Samples
Now that we’re done running through the layout and workflow of how to use the different features in DeHumaniser II, our next step is to choose our vocal signal. Personally, whenever I design a creature for a show I’m working on, I will record my own voice. This gives me unlimited access to any type of vocal exertion, as well as the ability to lengthen the type of vocalizations I need. Also, with DeHumaniser II being DAW Plugin as opposed to the original standalone iteration of DeHumaniser, I am able to design my vocalizations to picture….which, let’s be honest, is by far a more fun way to utilize this plugin. However, if you don’t want to use your own voice or confuse the people in earshot by making funny noises in your room or studio, you have two options. (1.) You can of course utilize the “Sample Trigger” node located in the plugin window, or (2.) place the audio clip you’d like to process on an audio track with the DeHumaniser II plugin as an insert.
For creating creature vocals by recording your own voice or by processing a vocal sample, simply add DeHumaniser to an insert on an Aux bus (speaking of use with ProTools here) then route accordingly 2 audio tracks, (1.) for your input source and (2.) for the final processed output recording. Pro-tip: I like to keep a copy of my dry vocal in addition to the processed render. This way I can reuse the same vocal if I end up needing to make adjustments within DeHumaniser. For this reason, I always record down both clips to make it easier for me in the future.
Since DeHumaniser II is a DAW based plugin, it lends itself for use on character dialogue (or vocalist if using for music purposes). Try adding this plugin to your processing chain when designing a vocal treatment in your mix! Below are 2 examples of creature vocals I designed using Dehumaniser II:
And with that, I think I have covered everything I wanted to about this incredible plugin! I highly recommend trying Dehumaniser II or Simple Monsters yourself. I have used this plugin on many occasions and it’s one of my personal favs.
Happy creating!!
If you enjoyed this blog, check out some others we’ve done that could help with designing vocals:
IZOTOPE VOCAL SYNTH REVIEW
CREATING ALIEN VOCALS
CREATING MONSTER VOCALS WITH VOXPAT