SpellSynth

What it does

An AUv3 instrument that recreates the 1978 Speak and Spell voice with a 10-pole LPC engine. Type a word from its vocabulary of just over 500, or pick single letters, and play them across C4 to C sharp 6 from a keyboard. Pitch, speed, reverse, bitcrush, filter, stutter and an LFO sit on top, with MIDI learn and aftertouch. The standalone doubles as the toy, with spell and mystery-word games.

In the demo

Jade runs two instances in an AUM project with Scaler and SDS drums, then plays the spelling games in the standalone before opening the AUv3 to sweep the pitch, speed, crush and stutter controls. She sets aftertouch to speed so pressing harder makes the word race.

Worth knowing

It only speaks words on its list, so custom text is out, and there is no double tap to reset dials. It suits hooks and sound design rather than any general vocal work.