The Orb

AudioThing's The Orb is a formant filter plugin that applies the spectral characteristics of human vowels to any audio source. The core engine consists of three band pass filters with zero-delay feedback topology, which isolate frequency regions corresponding to the first, second, and third formants of the human voice. This approach differs from simple EQ filtering by preserving harmonic relationships while imposing vocal tract resonances onto processed material.

The interface organizes vowels as sectors on a circular display, where radial distance represents filter resonance and angular position controls frequency drift - a modulation offset applied across all formant frequencies. This dual-parameter visualization allows for intuitive vowel shaping and subtle spectral movement in a single visual space. The plugin includes preset vowel sets for male, female, and child voices, with a custom editor for defining new formant frequencies and labels.

Three independent LFOs with assignable destinations (vowel selection, emphasis, and drift) enable both subtle modulation and dramatic transformation. The modulation architecture is particularly useful for evolving pads or creating rhythmic vocal textures from instrumental sources.

The Orb serves producers seeking vocal characteristics without traditional vocoding artifacts, and sound designers exploring spectral manipulation of synths or samples. Its CPU efficiency and straightforward parameter mapping make it suitable for real-time performance work. Among formant-based tools, The Orb occupies the middle ground between full vocoder systems and simple resonance filters - more flexible than fixed EQ but less complex than granular or spectral processors. The zero-delay filter topology ensures clean operation across frequency ranges without phase distortion typical of older implementations.