Analogue Samples

Phonk lives on attitude: distorted cowbells, Memphis-rap samples, and vocals that sound low, gritty and oversized — half-human, half-monster. Whether it’s a pitched-down demon chant, a robotic hook or a menacing ad-lib buried in reverb, the vocal character is doing a lot of the work. This guide shows how to build that dark phonk vocal…

“Dark formant” vocals are everywhere in modern rap, drill, horror-trap and alternative pop — that heavy, oversized, slightly inhuman voice that sounds bigger and more menacing than the original take. The secret isn’t pitch alone. It’s the formant. This guide explains what formants are, why lowering them creates that dark character, and gives you exact…

You recorded a take, the performance is great — but a couple of notes are wrong, or you want a completely different melody. Instead of re-recording, you can rewrite the notes of a sung vocal by playing new ones on your keyboard and letting PITCH FIEND force the voice to follow. This guide shows how,…

Soundtoys’ Little AlterBoy earned its place on a lot of vocal chains — it made pitch and formant shifting simple, and its “robot” mode became a signature sound on countless records. But it isn’t the only tool for the job, and if you’re shopping for a Little AlterBoy alternative — a different feature set, a…

Formant pitch plugins are the tools that transform a voice rather than just tune it — pitch shifting, formant shifting, robot/hard-tune modes and everything from subtle gender bends to full demon ad-libs. Here are five worth knowing in 2026, what each does best, and who they’re for. (Quick note: prices, versions and features change —…