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@maru shared this effect so you can build on it and use it in your DAW.

AvailableEffect

Vibrato

Pitch modulation from a modulated delay line.

About

A true pitch vibrato: the sound is bent up and down in pitch, not just pulsed in volume. Three knobs, Rate, Depth and Mix, cover everything from a singer's gentle waver to a seasick tape warble.

The idea

Vibrato runs the signal through a very short delay line and keeps changing its length. While the delay grows, the audio plays back slightly slower and the pitch drops; while it shrinks, the audio plays faster and the pitch rises. The delay rests at 2.5 milliseconds, far too short to hear as an echo, and swings evenly either side of that point.

Because the pitch change comes from how fast the delay is moving, Rate and Depth work together. Doubling the speed widens the wobble just as doubling the depth does. At the default settings the pitch swings by about 13 cents either way, five times a second.

Controls

  • Rate (0.1 to 20 Hz) is the speed of the wobble. Around 5 to 6 Hz sounds like a sung or played vibrato; much faster stops reading as pitch and turns into a shimmer.
  • Depth sets how far the delay swings, and so how wide the pitch moves.
  • Mix blends the vibrato with the dry signal. Fully wet is pure vibrato. Pulled back, a moving copy sits against a steady one, and that is a chorus.

The panel shows the resulting pitch curve in cents and the delay range for the current settings. It is an idealised picture of the movement, not a measurement of the audio.

Getting started

Vibrato is a mono audio effect. Use something that holds a pitch long enough to hear it move: a sustained guitar note, a voice, a pad. Presets to try:

  • Singer: six a second and barely there, the expressive vibrato of a played note.
  • Chorus Blend: half wet, so the moving copy beats against the steady one.
  • Tape Wobble: slow and deep, like a machine that needs servicing.
  • Seasick: maximum excursion at a walking pace.
  • Shimmer: fast and shallow, partly blended, more sheen than pitch.

Even at zero Depth the wet path keeps its small 2.5 ms delay, so it is not a perfect bypass. There are no waveform, tempo-sync or stereo controls.

How it works.

A delay line whose length changes while audio is running through it is a resampler. While the line is lengthening the output plays back slower and the pitch falls; while it shortens the output plays faster and the pitch rises. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why this is genuine pitch modulation rather than an amplitude effect wearing the name.

The line spans 5 ms and rests at its midpoint, with the LFO swinging symmetrically about that centre. Resting at the middle rather than at zero is what lets full depth use the entire range without the delay time ever going negative, and 5 ms is short enough that the delay itself is never heard as an echo.

Depth scales the LFO's excursion in seconds, so the pitch deviation it produces is the product of depth and rate, the rate of change of the delay length is what sets the interval, not the length. Doubling the rate at a fixed depth widens the wobble as much as doubling the depth does, which is worth knowing before reaching for the depth knob twice.

This is the browser preview: a DelayNode and an oscillator, structured after the reference vibrato rather than compiled from the same kernel, and making no parity claim against it. Nothing dry is summed inside the effect, unlike a phaser it is audible on its own, so the module's Mix is the only blend in the path. The line is mono, so there is no stereo spread here to speak of.

What would you make with Vibrato?

Describe what you want to make. Build it with the Studio agent.

Goes well with.

Prototype

Motion

Phaser and vibrato with independent LFOs.

Building block

Phaser

An all-pass phase effect with moving notches.

Prototype

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Convolution reverb: eight synthesized spaces, twenty-five real cabinets.