A gradual change...

Apologies to my readers for no new post last week.  I was finishing up a new instrumental EP and decided to give that priority.  But now I'm back!

This week I'm going to describe my method for morphing one sound into another.  This shouldn't be an earth shattering concept for anyone, but done right it can be just the effect you need.  We are all familiar with fading a sound in and out of a piece.  This trick is similar, but instead of fading out an entire rhythm or melody, we are going to fade in that same line but using a different sound.

Applications are bounded by your imagination.  I've used this many ways, including to morph my voice from vocoded to regular speech/singing (and vice versa), to go from an acoustic to an electronic piano, and to change from one drum-set to another (usually between traditional and 80's electronic).

This effect centers on choosing two sounds that are relatively similar to each other but yet distinct.  If you heard one then the other you would definitely be able to tell the difference.  You will need two tracks with the same MIDI line to do this, or, if you're using a vocal, copy your vocal down into a second line (or sing it again as similarly as possibly).  Choose your two VSTs and begin one silently or very softly (we'll call this A) while the other line (B) should be at the maximum volume you want to use.  In Sonar, this is very easy.  I can't speak as easily to other DAWs so feel free to chime in if you try this in another DAW.  In Sonar, you will gradually increase line A by making a node at the point of time in the track where the volume will be at its maximum (or leveled out) and drag it up to the desired volume.  Do the opposite for B.  By the time you wish to complete your morph, line B will now be silent and A will be at the maximum desired volume.  Listen back and make sure that there is no perceptible difference in overall volume and adjust your nodes accordingly.

You can easily switch this up by switching back and forth from A to B and back again to A.  Or you can throw in additional lines (C, D, etc) and keep it up.  You could also partially morph if you like the blended sound.

I used several morphs in "Hey, Good Morning..." across multiple piano sounds and vocals.  "A Little Longer" is an example of a modified morph: vocoder morphing partially to a regular vocal, plateauing, then morphing more.  The gradual effects span "Hey, Good Morning..." so I'm just including a link to the whole song for that.  There is a short clip for "A Little Longer."