New Software Review: Envy by The Cargo Cult
Create one-of-a-kind sounds by cross-pollinating your source material with Envy by The Cargo Cult.
What would a waveform be if it could be anything it wanted to be? Another waveform, of course!
The Cargo Cult, makers of audio solutions in post-production and sound design realms, have introduced a plugin called Envy. Envy is an envelope-based modulator plus pitch shifter that imposes characteristics of one sound onto another, among other things. It’s a tool that can be useful for everyone from sound designers to mixers, musicians to producers—really, anyone who works creatively with sound. Let’s see what Envy has to offer.
Features and Use
I gave Envy a test ride in Pro Tools 2018, running native on a MacBook Pro. I downloaded, installed, and authorized the plugin to an iLok with no hang-ups.
Envy is currently available as Audio Suite only, though The Cargo Cult notes that a real-time version is in the works, with the Windows build being close to complete. The plugin is a bit unusual in how it functions, so my standard poking around at the controls didn’t deliver instant gratification. I found no manual, but there are several short videos on the company website that explain how it works very clearly. I took a few moments to watch all of them and felt empowered to make some new sounds.
Pick a mono or stereo sound clip you’d like to imitate and click the Analyze button. A waveform is loaded into Envy’s memory where it is displayed appropriately in green. With sections for adjusting Amplitude Envelope, Spectral Envelope, and Pitch Envelope (all of which can be enabled independently), you get a good deal of control over the clip. You can see the effect that the plugin has graphically as you make adjustments too—nice information to have. There also is a global high pass and low pass filter, as well as output gain control. There are no presets and there is no automation, as again Envy is Audio Suite only.
Thus far, the user experience has been quite nice; the pitch shifter is excellent and would be great as a standalone tool. But the other big idea is that once you’ve modified the first clip to taste, you can then apply the envelope and pitch to any other stereo or mono file simply by selecting and rendering on the timeline. Because the source audio has been loaded into memory, applying that envelope elsewhere goes pretty quickly once the sound has been analyzed and tweaked. It bears mentioning that this software operates most efficiently with shorter source clips.
I loaded up some sounds to play with: a couple of drum patterns, dialogue, musical instruments, and natural sounds… time to make a green Envy salad.
I started with a rhythm loop, selecting it and clicking Analyze; the waveform pops up in the big middle window. My first stop was the Amplitude Envelope, dialing in something fatter than the original by giving it some additional release time. The Amplitude section is simple and effective; it behaves like a keyed gate, but it can follow the source sound more closely. The familiar Attack and Release controls function as expected, while the Smoothing parameter removes detail. When the processed signal is very low, the Ceiling control allows you to increase it to whatever level you like with impressive fidelity via a single slider; I ran this on the high side most of the time.
The Spectral Envelope section offers four envelope followers, each with a dedicated slider for lows, low mids, high mids, and highs; these provide quick control of frequency balance.
The Pitch Envelope is newly designed from the ground up to favor dialogue and other isolated elements. Shifted sounds maintain much of their integrity, even at extremes. You can shift the pitch as far as two octaves in either direction as a fixed amount, or you can draw a varying pitch (up to eight octaves in either direction) onto the waveform with your mouse as you please.
I applied modified envelopes from the rhythm loop to various pads and synths, and got a heap of useful variations in just a few moments. These could be synced with the original loop or used on their own. It works just as well (but with differing outcomes) to analyze the other file first and process the loop. It’s a simple way to generate a bunch of trial-and-error sounds to harvest.
As the instructional videos show, it’s very easy to load up a file, do a bit of adjustment, and apply that to any number of other sounds or sound beds. For example, if you analyze a two second loop, it can be applied to any length of sound to modulate. It can be used like a cookie cutter to make a bunch of similar-but-not-the-same things. Sometimes plugins with an unusual workflow are glitchy, but not here; Envy runs so smoothly that I could just leave it in preview and click around on various files to hear the results right away before rendering.
Inspired by one of the video demos, I applied the sound of footsteps to a crunching glass bed to make a very persuasive sound of someone walking on glass—like adding an audio drop shadow to each step. This won’t eliminate working individual steps as needed, but it got me very close very fast, and in many cases, this would be all I’d need. You could also use the plugin to generate a track with a number of steps, then go pick out the winners.
I tried another serving suggestion from The Cargo Cult, which is to use the Pitch section to shift inflection on individual syllables of natural-sounding dialogue by drawing in little micro pitch shifts. Uh, yeah, it works great—as long as you don’t go too crazy with it. Simply sample in the dialogue a little bit at a time and start drawing.
Five pitch algorithms are provided, so there should be enough variation to get your sound just right. Two of the algorithms are labeled “Bad” and “Worse” for the inquisitive sound designer. The hi-fi versions sound great, but it will still sound shifted if you hit things hard enough.
I sometimes work with directors who want the end result to resemble nothing of the original sound—as if to transform the source voice into an entirely different person or being. So if you’re looking for monsters, aliens, or any sort of otherworldly creatures, you’ll find a lot to work with here.
To Be Critical
Envy is a wildly unique tool, yet it is so simple to operate; it’s hard to find much to critique. I do wish I could save presets that include the analyzed waveform, and there are also no presets provided by the manufacturer to use as a starting point. The addition of adjustable frequency and Q controls to the bands in the Spectral section would also be quite delicious.
Throughout my testing, the plugin functioned smoothly, so no complaints with regard to user experience. It handles files loaded for analysis with ease, freeing your DAW to address various other tasks unburdened.
Summing it Up
Envy is a high-quality plugin that excels at its unique ability of applying characteristics of a captured waveform onto others. If you work in dialogue, Foley, or sound effects, Envy provides solutions for a number of problems you are likely to encounter. The pitch shifter is straight up fantastic, and sound designers can generate lots of new material from cross-pollinating related or unrelated sounds. At $359, price of admission is not small, but Envy would be useful—arguably even essential—in a variety of settings.
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