Expert Sleepers has released Oomingmak, a new plug-in for Mac OS X (AU/VST) and Windows (VST).

Oomingmak is a pitch- and envelope-tracking (re)synthesis effect. Or, to put it another way, if you feed a sound source (e.g. a guitar) into Oomingmak it will come out sounding like you’re playing an analogue monosynth. Or maybe something else entirely.

It tracks the pitch and level of the incoming audio and uses them to:

• synthesize an entirely original sound, using classic analogue-style waveforms and subtractive synthesis.
• apply pitch modulation to the incoming audio, while syncing to the original waveform (the classic ‘oscillator sync’ effect, except that the ‘oscillator’ here is your audio).

The oscillator can also be synced to the incoming audio, and the tracked envelope can be used to modulate the pitch, ?lter cut-off and oscillator pulse-width. LFOs are also provided for further modulation possibilities.

Two ring modulators are also provided, allowing two different combinations of the above sounds to be modulated against each other.

As with all pitch-tracking devices, Oomingmak tends to work best on monophonic sound sources. It was designed particularly with the guitar in mind, in which case it tends to work well on solo lines rather than chords. However, sending chords, or even non-pitched sounds (e.g. drums) through Oomingmak can also have very interesting results.

If you’ve usd Oomingmak, leave a comment with your thoughts!