Minimal Audio has released Formant, a free formant shifter plugin designed for quick vocal tone shaping on macOS and Windows.
Formant is not your typical formant filter that you’d find in a synthesizer, the type that became super popular for making wobbly dubstep basses.
Instead of emphasizing vowel-like sounds like “ah,” “oh,” or “oo,” it shifts the formants (the resonant frequencies) of your audio. The way Minimal Audio puts it, this lets you change the perceived character of a voice without affecting its pitch.
The idea is that you can basically make a vocal sound deeper or more airy and bright while keeping the original notes intact. And while that’s true, I was actually more excited to try using Formant as a tone control on other types of signals, and the results sounded great.
Formant has a minimal interface with the classic dark Minimal Audio theme and the controls centered around a large XY pad.
The horizontal axis controls the “Shift” amount, which adjusts how high or low the formants are moved. The vertical axis is used for “Tilt,” which acts like a broad spectral balance control, letting you brighten or darken the sound intuitively.
There’s also a Dry/Wet knob, making it easy to blend the effect in parallel with the original signal.
In use, it does a great job of subtly changing the tone of a vocal without introducing artifacts or pushing it into chipmunk/robot territory. But what really stood out to me is how useful it is on non-vocal sources.
I tried it on bass synth arpeggios and even guitar loops, and it worked like a hybrid between a tilt EQ and a very gentle filter.
It can soften harsh midrange or enhance low-end body on guitars without the over-processing you might get from a typical EQ. And since the formant shift leaves the pitch untouched, it keeps the core character of the sound intact.
The same goes for synth bass. It’s great for making sounds “warmer” or “thinner” but without losing the character and focus.
Formant is also super lightweight, and that makes it perfect to drop into a session when you need a quick tonal adjustment. It’s also a great introduction to Minimal Audio’s vocal processing ecosystem, as it borrows some of the core concepts from their more advanced Evoke suite.
Formant is available now as a free download from Minimal Audio’s website, supports VST3, AU, and AAX formats, and is compatible with macOS and Windows operating systems.
Download: Minimal Audio Formant
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Last Updated on September 10, 2025 by Tomislav Zlatic.
