Use audio effect patches to distort the sound of audio clips you’ve added to an effect, or the sound detected by the device's microphone.
Each audio effect patch has values that can be changed, to control the distortion of the sound that’s connected to it.
The best way to create your own sound effect is to experiment with these values, until you’re happy with the result. To help you get started, in this guide we’ll show you how edit the values in each audio effect patch to create a range of distortion effects.
Learn about:
Audio effect patches are only available in the Spark AR Studio Beta - our new cross-platfrom version of Spark AR Studio. You can download it here.
In this guide we’ll use audio effect patches to distort the sound detected by the phone’s microphone.
To create a patch representing the microphone, drag the Microphone from the Scene Panel, into the Patch Editor. A purple patch will be created:
You could distort the sound of an audio clip you’ve added to your project instead. To do this, drag the audio clip from the Assets Panel into the Patch Editor to create an orange asset patch.
You’ll also need to add a Speaker to your scene:
Then, create a patch to represent the Audio property of the speaker:
A yellow patch will be created:
To add any audio effect patch to your project:
You can use an audio effect patch called Bit Crusher to add a low-fidelity distortion effect to an audio source.
For this tutorial, we’ll make this crackly sound.To recreate this audio effect:
The Bit Crusher patch has 4 values that can be edited. To create the crackly sound, change:
The Distortion patch can add a gritty sound effect to your audio source.
In this example, we’ll edit the values in the patch to make a slightly fuzzy sound.Start by creating and connecting the patches:
You can edit 4 values in the Distortion patch:
To add a fuzzy sound, change:
You can use the Modulator patch to create an oscillating sound effect with varying pitches. Modulation is often used as an experimental audio effect, and is found in many synthesizers.
The edits we'll make to the Modulator patch will create a weird, alien sound.Start by creating and connecting the patches:
You can edit 3 values in the Modulator patch - you can find out more about what each editing each of these values can do in this guide.
Try changing:
Use the Pitch Shifter patch to change the pitch of an audio source, making it deeper or higher. This can be used to create cartoon-style voice effects.
We’ll edit the values in the Pitch Shifter patch to make a high-pitched sound - like a chipmunk.Start by creating and connecting the patches:
The Pitch Shifter patch has 2 values that can be edited.
For a high-pitched sound effect, try changing:
To add a sense of space or depth to a sound, you can use the Reverb patch. Adding this patch to your project can make an audio source sound like it’s in being played in anything from a tiny box, to a large concert hall.
We’re going to edit the values in the Reverb patch to make an echoey sound.Start by creating and connecting the patches:
You can edit 9 different values in the Reverb patch. For an echoey, reverberating sound, change:
The Parametric Equalizer patch can shape audio, by boosting or cutting areas of frequency.
We’re going to look at what happens when you edit the different values in the Parametric Equalizer.
We’re going to look at what happens when you edit the different values in the Parametric Equalizer.Start by creating and connecting the patches:
The Parametric Equalizer patch has 9 values that can be edited. Let’s look at each section of the Equalizer here. Try changing:
Here's another example you could try setting:
Using the Low Pass in the High Type section gives the same result, but will cut out the higher frequencies above the set frequency - instead of the low frequencies. Try Setting Low Type and Mid Type to Bypass, setting High Type to Low Pass, and setting the High Frequency to 500Hz.
The Audio Delay patch will create a decaying echo sound.
Start by creating and connecting the patches:
You can edit 12 values in this patch. To add a delay to the sound detected by the microphone, change:
Next try changing the Time 1 value to different milliseconds. This will changes the amount of time between the initial sound, and the repeated sound that follows. If you set the delay time to 100, there will be 100ms of time between the first sound and the repeated sound after that. A very short delay time, for example between 50 and 80 will have a slap-back style sound with very quick repeats.
Try setting the feedback to 50. This will make the delay repeats last longer, and take longer to fade away in volume.
Now you’re familiar with using one Delay section, try turning on Active 2, 3, and 4. Adjusting the Time parameter for each. Setting the Time parameters differently for each delay section will create unique rhythmic patterns.
It’s also worth playing with different Feedback settings, to create long, ambient delay tails.
To remove the background noise from audio source, you can use the Denoiser patch.
Start by creating and connecting the patches:
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