Find your inner 'Vader' or 'Smeagol' with Sonic Vox

(Credit: Smule)

Every once in a while, usually on a Friday, I get into something incredibly addicting and distracting. Today is one of those days. If you're like me (and gods help you) and you like to manipulate your voice in different ways--you know, to freak your cats or even your wife/girlfriend--Smule has come up with something cool to make your Friday go by faster.

Sonic Vox is an audio engine for the iPhone that alters your voice in real time. While you speak, the program contorts and shifts your voice depending on how you set the pitch and the level of echo effect. Sonic Vox is available at the App Store for 99 cents.

Smule--maker of exploding virtual firecrackers and the lighters that ignite them--claims that you'll be able to use Sonic Vox like a phone, with headphones, through an amplifier, or over Skype or any other IM service with voice. This is somewhat misleading, however, since the app does not work phone to phone, as apparently Apple does not allow it. According to Smule, you can plug your iPhone into a MacBook, basic speaker, or boom box and use it as a mic.

I'm struggling to find the correct pitch for my "Darth Vader" voice, however, finding a "Gollum" voice was easy. I'm going see if I can get this working when I record the next Inside CNET Labs Podcast. If for nothing else than to annoy Dong Ngo.