Using Drop in Duality Without Eating the Vocal

Drop on Paraflex Duality cuts random gaps into the signal. Higher is longer and more often. It is a performance control, which is a polite way of saying it will delete the lyric if you leave it up.

Duality adds no latency, so you can ride Drop while tracking or while the chorus is playing. The guide puts Drop next to Crush and Distort on Ma'afinator. This note is only the gaps.

Hear it before you automate it

Start on Ma'afinator. Leave Crush and Distort down so Drop is the only damage in the circuit. A knob at zero is out of the path.

1. Put it on a closed-hat loop.
2. Raise Drop a little and raise Mix until the gaps are obvious and the dry hat is still there.
3. That small setting is a stutter. The loop is still a loop.
4. Move the same setting to a vocal. Words disappear. That is the same knob, doing the same thing, on a signal that cannot spare the holes.

Mix is a crossfade with the dry signal for this engine. At full wet, every gap is a hole in the only sound you have. At a low Mix, the dry vocal continues and the gaps are a layer. For anything with intelligibility, Mix stays low unless the gap is the arrangement.

Automate the moment, not the section

A bar of Drop on a fill is a gesture. A whole verse of Drop is a broken vocal. Write the automation for the hit, the turnaround, or the last word, then let the knob sit at zero.

The factory direction Lo-Fi Stutter is Ma'afinator with more Crush, Drop open, and Mix quite wet. Use it as a picture of the extreme, then back Mix off until the part still reads.

Delta solos the change. On a high Drop setting, Delta is mostly the holes and the edges of the holes. Useful for a second, easy to forget. Turn it off before you bounce.

With the other engine

Dual runs both engines in series. A new Dual starts as Benzonizer, then Ma'afinator. Drop then chews on a signal that Saturate, Inflate, and Compress have already made larger. Flip the arrow if you want the gaps first and the weight after. Inflate's widening follows the Benzonizer Mix. Gaps plus a lot of width is a messy stereo image. Keep Inflate down when Drop is the point.

Crush and Drop together is the broken-machine setting: stepped grit and holes. Distort and Drop is clipped hits with pieces missing. Learn Drop alone, then add one of those.

This release is VST3 and CLAP on Windows and macOS, plus AAX on Windows and Audio Unit on macOS. Price and installer status are on the Duality page.

Guide