Bjango has released Robot Vowels, a formant filter plugin with built-in distortion for macOS and Windows. We are taking a closer look at the plugin and giving away five FREE copies to BPB readers.
Formant filters, sometimes called vowel filters, shape the frequency response of a sound to resemble vocal sounds like “ah,” “ee,” or “oo.” They are a fun way to make synths, drones, pads, drums, and other sources feel a bit more alive.
Robot Vowels takes that idea a step further by using real recordings of multiple human singers. Those recorded vowel responses are available in the large morphing area, so you can move between different vowel sounds smoothly instead of switching between fixed filter settings.
The plugin uses linear predictive coding (LPC) for the filtering. Bjango also uses LPC in its Robot Rocket vocoder, and it gives Robot Vowels a more organic character compared to what you get from a typical vowel-filter effect.
The main control area gives you access to the morph pad at the top of the interface. Moving the dot around blends between vowel positions and octave-up or octave-down versions of those vowels. Holding the Option key while clicking or dragging snaps the movement to exact vowel positions.
You can also switch between different recorded voices, which changes the source frequency responses used by the formant filter. These give you different filtering flavors to choose from.
There are three analog-modeled distortion types onboard. The first is more subtle, the second is heavier, and the third goes into full-on aggressive distortion territory. If you only want the formant filter, you can turn distortion off completely.
I also like that you can flip the processing order. By default, the formant filter feeds the distortion, but you can put the distortion before the formant filter instead. That can make a big difference when you’re processing drums and basses, especially on the transients.
The remaining controls are Input, Mix, and Output. Input and Output affect the processed path rather than the dry signal, so turning Mix fully dry is the same as bypassing the plugin.
Bjango has been around as a software company for more than 20 years, but it only recently started releasing music plugins. Robot Vowels is its fourth audio plugin, and the developer says more are in progress.
Launch Offer
Robot Vowels is on sale for $29 plus tax during the launch offer. The regular price is $39, and a 30-day free trial is available.
Robot Vowels is available as an AUv3 and VST3 plugin. The Audio Unit version requires macOS 14 or higher, while the VST version requires macOS 13 or higher or Windows 10 or higher. All 1.x updates are included with purchase, and Bjango says the plugin has no ads, analytics, or tracking.
Get the deal: Bjango Robot Vowels ($29 launch sale)
The Giveaway
Bjango is also giving away five Robot Vowels licenses to BPB readers. To enter the giveaway, leave a comment below, and we will randomly pick the winners and announce them here on June 4th.
Last Updated on May 29, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
