KVR Audio

Caine123 · Post by **Caine123** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:14 pm

it would be great to have a pitch shifter like that one

http://co.native-instruments.com/index. ... chid=12453

to get some nice vocals like here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGImDyb19z4

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Thu Apr 04, 2013 4:45 pm

Caine123 wrote:it would be great to have a pitch shifter like that one

http://co.native-instruments.com/index. ... chid=12453

to get some nice vocals like here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGImDyb19z4

Have you tried ÜberMod for this application?

<ValhallaUberMod pluginVersion="1.0.2" presetName="OoohSpoooky" Mix="1" Depth="0.5" StereoWidth="0" Delay="0.00999999978" Feedback="0" Spread="0.5" Slope="0.5" Skew="0.5" Random="0" TapGain="0.5" Diffusion="0.5" DiffSize="0.0204081628" DiffModRate="0.0490490496" DiffModDepth="0.5" LowCut="0" HighCut="1" SpatialXover="0.145728648" DetuneRate="0.37637639" DetuneDepth="0.5" VibratoRate="0.298245579" VibratoDepth="0" OverMod="0.0717171729" DriveInGain="0.375" DriveOutGain="0.75" DriveNoiseGain="0.333333343" FeedbackRotate="0.5" SmoothingTime="0.0990990996" ColorMode="0" DelaySync="0" type="0.25" DiffEnable="0" Drive="0" DrivePrePost="1" Speed="0" InputPan="0.125"/>

The MOD OverMod control in ÜberMod was designed to get this sort of sound, in conjunction with the MOD SlowRate control (you'll want to turn the SlowRate up in order to get into the pitch shifting range). No control over the actual pitches, but if you are building up a dissonant sound, the specific dissonances may not matter. Use the DEPTH control to adjust the amount of detuning.

I've set the WIDTH control to 0%, which helps mask the up/down nature of the modulation, and makes it sound more like "conventional" pitch shifting. If you want to expand the stereo image, you can always follow it with a second instance ÜberMod, in the default preset that ÜberMod opens up with.

In general, ÜberMod covers a lot of the doubling duties that are often the domain of micro shifters. The sound is somewhat different if you listen to things in isolation, but the stereo spread and detuning is VERY similar in the mix. This is one of the reasons why I have put the pitch shifter on hold for now. I need to figure out some unique things to add to the equation, other than "sounds like X, but is cheaper and dongle-free."

One last thing: If the sounds you like are traditionally produced by a Boss SE-50, you may want to look into getting a Boss SE-50. The price of these units in the US is roughly comparable to my plugins (around $50). I haven't turned mine on in a long time, but there is no denying that they have a particular sound. The Boss SE70 has a similar sound, with a lot more power. One of the things I've figured out over time is that there is no point trying to emulate hardware that is cheaper than my plugins. I was going to put some Alesis algorithms in Vee3, but the hardware boxes can be found for $39 to $50 locally, so I figured I'd concentrate on those hardware units that cost 10X to 100X more expensive than my plugins.

Sean Costello

wald · Post by **wald** » Thu Apr 18, 2013 11:10 pm

Fair point, Sean, but there is also:
- convenience
- multiple instances

Daniel

Krakatau · Post by **Krakatau** » Mon Jul 06, 2015 5:23 pm

Caine123 wrote:
to get some nice vocals like here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGImDyb19z4

As far as i can judge, it sounds more like an analyse/resynthesize process in where the only the noisy component have been kept ?

...Currently, Ircam Lab TS as well as Zynaptic Unfilter can do that job !

meloco_go · Post by **meloco_go** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 7:31 am

To me every plugin vocal doubler/widener (slight pitch detune and delay) incl. Waves Doubler, Soundtoys LittleMicroshift and even Micropitch algo in Eventide channelstrip seem to sound "cheesy" and artificial. I have to push level of effect all the way down to hide this and then it doesn't widen much. Whereas what I hear on records where real 949/H3000 was used is just this full wide sound.
The closes I came was using REAPER's Reapitch on Simple setting.
So if anyone goes into depth and really gets that algo right, I'd be a happy customer.

Andy Gone · Post by **Andy Gone** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 7:56 am

meloco_go wrote:To me every plugin vocal doubler/widener (slight pitch detune and delay) incl. Waves Doubler, Soundtoys LittleMicroshift and even Micropitch algo in Eventide channelstrip seem to sound "cheesy" and artificial. ....

Try Waves Reel ADT. This is my to-go doubler as soon as I got it. It can be tweaked that the effect is very clean. I like the '2 guitars are better than 1' preset to start with.

LX_Nen · Post by **LX_Nen** » Tue Jul 28, 2015 8:28 pm

If we're talking about pitch shifters, I suppose it's worth mentioning this news from the latest Eventide newsletter: "We're working with legendary producer, Tony Visconti, to design a plug-in that re-recreates some of the iconic sounds of the original H910 Harmonizer®."

Andy Gone · Post by **Andy Gone** » Fri Jul 31, 2015 8:20 am

LX_Nen wrote:If we're talking about pitch shifters, I suppose it's worth mentioning this news from the latest Eventide newsletter: "We're working with legendary producer, Tony Visconti, to design a plug-in that re-recreates some of the iconic sounds of the original H910 Harmonizer®."

Oh! This would be really interesting.

esotericmetal · Post by **esotericmetal** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 2:17 pm

Sean, have you tried out the Strymon Deco? Not strictly a pitch shifter per but it uses some to achieve very awesome doubler/chorusing effects. Even though it is supposed to be a emulation of older gear, you can get some very original sounds out of that thing. One of the most inspiring effects i've used as of late.

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:59 pm

esotericmetal wrote:Sean, have you tried out the Strymon Deco? Not strictly a pitch shifter per but it uses some to achieve very awesome doubler/chorusing effects. Even though it is supposed to be a emulation of older gear, you can get some very original sounds out of that thing. One of the most inspiring effects i've used as of late.

I haven't tried the Deco yet. I'm wondering how close the Deco is to one of the effects in the Timeline. Some of the smaller Strymon pedals seem like they might be almost entirely incorporated within the larger Strymon units. Then again, my El Capistan is apparently a different sound than the tape mode in the Timeline.

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 6:37 pm

Afaik for pitch shifters the Eventide is a bit the queen of this effect. I think Übermod was inspired also by Eventide (the microshift algorithm)? The Eventide Channel plug-ins has also a pitch shifter included ("Micro Pitch Shift") with only a few controls so it's very easy to use.

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:16 pm

4damind wrote:Afaik for pitch shifters the Eventide is a bit the queen of this effect. I think Übermod was inspired also by Eventide (the microshift algorithm)? The Eventide Channel plug-ins has also a pitch shifter included ("Micro Pitch Shift") with only a few controls so it's very easy to use.

ÜberMod doesn't have any "true" pitch shifting. I view ÜberMod as a cross between the Eventide Ultrataps algorithm, the Roland Dimension D, the VP330 string ensemble circuit, and a bunch of diffusion concepts of my own design. The pitch shifting in ÜberMod is more of an accidental side effect of the Dimension-D type chorusing, which I discovered when I forgot to convert the 0%-100% depth control to the 0.0-1.0 range required at the algorithm level.

Eventide definitely has the most experience in the pitch shifting realm today, but there are other companies that are worth noting:

- Lexicon had a really cool algorithm in the Varispeech, that was glitchy as hell, but sounded great with feedback. Later Lexicon pitch shifting algorithms were smoother, but less interesting to my ears. Still, the later Lexicon pitch shifting held up well compared to Eventide, as both of them incorporated deglitching.

- The AMS DMX1580S had similar pitch shifting to the Varispeech, but with a better deglitching circuit. Again, the feedback behavior was AWESOME.

- Electro-Harmonix has taken a different approach in the HOG and POG pedals. It sounds like they use FFT-based pitch shifting. Whatever they are using, it sounds fantastic.

- In the plugin space, SoundToys covers a lot of similar ground to the H3000 pitch shifting algorithms.

My current interests in pitch shifting are all about the interesting artifacts. Perfect pitch shifting is a cool academic goal, but if someone really wants this sound, they can play a different note (or use Melodyne, which is mind blowingly good at this sort of thing). The early pitch shifters had glitches galore, which made for great noises. The later "intelligent" time domain pitch shifters occupy a strange neither/nor ground for me, as they have less interesting glitches, but aren't as smooth as the FFT based pitch shifters. I think there are different types of glitchy pitch shifting that can still be explored.

Sean Costello

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Fri Aug 07, 2015 5:47 am

valhallasound wrote:
esotericmetal wrote:Sean, have you tried out the Strymon Deco? Not strictly a pitch shifter per but it uses some to achieve very awesome doubler/chorusing effects. Even though it is supposed to be a emulation of older gear, you can get some very original sounds out of that thing. One of the most inspiring effects i've used as of late.
I haven't tried the Deco yet. I'm wondering how close the Deco is to one of the effects in the Timeline. Some of the smaller Strymon pedals seem like they might be almost entirely incorporated within the larger Strymon units. Then again, my El Capistan is apparently a different sound than the tape mode in the Timeline.

Strymon are no dummies. The smaller units always have at least some functionality not found in the bigger unit. Gotta catch em all.

valhallasound · Post by **valhallasound** » Wed Aug 12, 2015 5:39 pm

deastman wrote:
valhallasound wrote:
esotericmetal wrote:Sean, have you tried out the Strymon Deco? Not strictly a pitch shifter per but it uses some to achieve very awesome doubler/chorusing effects. Even though it is supposed to be a emulation of older gear, you can get some very original sounds out of that thing. One of the most inspiring effects i've used as of late.
I haven't tried the Deco yet. I'm wondering how close the Deco is to one of the effects in the Timeline. Some of the smaller Strymon pedals seem like they might be almost entirely incorporated within the larger Strymon units. Then again, my El Capistan is apparently a different sound than the tape mode in the Timeline.
Strymon are no dummies. The smaller units always have at least some functionality not found in the bigger unit. Gotta catch em all.

I just tried the Deco and Dig. The Deco was pretty cool, especially for double tracking and through-zero flanging. The Dig was less impressive to me.

Denstrow · Post by **Denstrow** » Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:29 am

Nice to see the Lexicon Varispeech mentioned, I was recently looking at some demos and thought it sounded great. Something along those lines would be interesting.

Let's talk about pitch shifters!