OK, so here’s my attempt at making an Aural Exciter type effect.
This is not attempting to emulate the Aphex Systems effect. It is just a simple effect that adds musically related high frequency harmonics to the processed audio. There is no “reverse dynamic tracking” or “Big Bottom” effect, however I think it may still be useful for some.
It will, for example, brighten up vocals, which may be useful for anyone that is recording vocals with a dynamic microphone (which typically have limited high frequency response).
Another possible use could be for increasing the frequency band width of music that has been recorded at a relatively low sample rate. If you have a recording that has been recorded at say 22kHz, then it will probably sound a little dull. However, mixing that track at a sample rate of 44.1 or 48kHz and then applying a little of the “Exciter” (a setting of around 0.1 should be sufficient) will brighten it up.
Limitations:
This plug-in has been tested on Audacity 1.3 only so there are no guarantees that it will work on Audacity 1.2
It has so far only been briefly tested, so it may still need some tweaking.
As with other Nyquist plug-ins, it is most suitable for use with fairly short selections of audio. I have used it successfully on a 3min 30s track, but I would not advise trying to run it on an entire album.
To install - download the zip file and unzip it into your Audacity plug-ins folder. When you restart Audacity it will appear in the Effects menu. It will be called “Vocal Exciter”.
Please let me know what you think of this effect, and feel free to modify it in any way you like.
vocal-exciter.ny.zip (679 Bytes)