The Antares Systems Mutator plug-in is one that comes in the latest version of the Avox Vocal Toolkit. It's a unique effect, as it's sole purpose is to change the sound of the human voice, and it does this job well. As far as getting it up and running, it's really simple as you'll do so with the entire Avox Vocal Toolkit bundle. Learning how to use the plug-in is also not too hard, although it definitely will take some use to learn how to get all the different sounds out of it that are possible, as I'm still getting new sounds from it with different voices. The parameters that you've got to work with include a pitch shifter, throat length and width, vocal range, and for mutating and 'alienizing' the voice. You'll also see a graph that shows both the original and the new mutated waveform and you can also set your new output level. I have never had a need to look at the manual for this plug-in...

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm running the Antares Systems Mutator plug-in in Pro Tools LE 8 on my home system. I run it on a Mac Book Pro computer that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, and this has been enough to run the plug-in quite comfortably, as I only ever need to run one of these at a time if I'm going to use it. It's certainly not the kind of plug-in that I'm using on an everyday basis...

OVERALL OPINION

The Antares Systems Mutator plug-in is an interesting one to say the least! There aren't too many plug-ins out there where you can do these sorts of things with it, so it's definitely nice to have. It's good for pitch shifting a voice up or down, but can do so much more than this with sounds that can't even really be explained. I'm not sure that I personally have too many practical applications of the Mutator, but it's certainly fun to mess around with!