Natural sounding pitch shift device for vocals?

[unhallowed]

Is there any good natural sounding pitch shift device that can change the pitch of the vocals without adding any extra harmonies into it, or that doesn't leave the original voice to be heard with the shifted, like the multieffect devices that I have seem to do.

[nmiller]

The short answer is no. The longer answer is that it depends on how much you want to shift the pitch; the further you go from the original recording, the more unnatural any algorithm will sound.

[Clumsy Fingers]

Do you want to do this live, or in a studio?

If you're talking about studio work, I'd think there are lots of hardware and software tools that sound very good, if not perfect. The latest version of Melodyne Editor is an incredible tool, though I'm not sure if you could change the pitch so drastically as to not hear strange artifacts.

Nonetheless, here it is, if you'd like to have a listen:


http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.ph...itor_betavideo

[loudboy]

If you understand how the programs work and have a singer who can get close to the desired pitch, any of the plugs can be used transparently.

[Gretschman]

Melodyne is what most studio's use .

Waves has vocal plugins as well .

They work very well .

[teleharmonium]

Are you talking about pitch correction, where every note is scrutinized by the software, or pitch shifting, where you apply a simple + or - of pitch to a track or part of a track, in a way that does not parse and relate to the content ?

Pitch shifting is easy to use in a way that doesn't leave audible artifacts. Pitch correction is more prone to leaving artifacts, but if done carefully you can avoid them. Usually when you hear a lot of the artifacts in a finished track, it's being done intentionally as an effect.

[guitarplayer]

Originally Posted by teleharmonium

Are you talking about pitch correction, where every note is scrutinized by the software, or pitch shifting, where you apply a simple + or - of pitch to a track or part of a track, in a way that does not parse and relate to the content ?

Pitch shifting is easy to use in a way that doesn't leave audible artifacts. Pitch correction is more prone to leaving artifacts, but if done carefully you can avoid them. Usually when you hear a lot of the artifacts in a finished track, it's being done intentionally as an effect.

Does anyone know where there are example audio of a vocal that has been pitch corrected using the Melodyne software? Their web site seems to only have examples of guitar and piano.

[kludge]

Originally Posted by guitarplayer

Does anyone know where there are example audio of a vocal that has been pitch corrected using the Melodyne software? Their web site seems to only have examples of guitar and piano.

Just turn on your local pop country radio station for a bit, and listen until you start to throw up in your mouth a bit. Note how every note that every singer hits is perfectly in tune.

[Bix]

Being a country fan and a country-esque writer, I still find the throw up in your mouth phrase to be EXTREMELY funny!!!!!

I guess it's just best not to take yourself to seriously! LOL!

Bix

PS, You folks have certainly peaked my interest about Melodyne... been looking for a good pitch correction plugin... The ones I have used sounded dreadful!

[Steve_2020]

Originally Posted by Bix

Being a country fan and a country-esque writer, I still find the throw up in your mouth phrase to be EXTREMELY funny!!!!!

I guess it's just best not to take yourself to seriously! LOL!

Bix

PS, You folks have certainly peaked my interest about Melodyne... been looking for a good pitch correction plugin... The ones I have used sounded dreadful!

It reminds me of the old joke, "I never knew he drank until I saw him sober one time."

I'm a country fan too, but I never knew so much pitch correction was going on till I watched some country awards shows over the past couple years and heard some pretty big names sound a little or a lot 'pitchy" singing live. I'm talking established artists, not just the 'latest thing(s).'

I used to tell people who criticised country artists a few years ago, "well at least they are real singers..."

not anymore.

[JCM 800]

Used sparingly and with some discretion, Melodyne is an excellent program. I have used it for minor fixes and touch ups and there are no artifacts. ANY pitch correction software can be misused and abused as we all know by turning on pop radio today.

[unhallowed]

Still wandering is it really not possible to get the kind of pitch shift one can achieve with some of the analog tape recorders, the ones that had a +/-10% pitch control knob, from today's equipment. All the units (not many but...) that I have tried which have the pitch shift effect always keep the original signal and then only add the shifted voice along with it, sounds like there's a chorus effect on, even with mild settings.
Yeah, I know there are some computer programs that can probably do it, but other than that is there no company that has achieved to build such a unit, especially for live use? Perhaps some of the pedals can pull it off (Eventide PitchFactor, Digitech Vocal 300)? Or is there a multieffect unit that can do it that I haven't heard of? In my search I came across Behringer FX2000, "- PITCH SHIFTER (changes the pitch of the original signal) - can be used to create harmonies with the original signal or replace it entirely with the altered pitch. Choices include stereo, two and three vocal pitch shifter". Could this unit be the answer?
Anyway, any help would be much appreciated!

[buddaman71]

Um...AutoTune abuse is NOT limited to Top40 Country; it's across all pop-music genres...

[Julia343]

The thing about Melodyne is that you CAN do pitch shifting. If you shift up it has an algorithm that compensates for that formant shift that typically happens if you were to say pitch shift using elastic audio. If you just do the pitch shift like that on the old analog tape you need to do a formant correction -- if you go up in pitch you can sound like the helium kid; down in pitch like the Terminator -- so you need to correct for that to get the voice tone back to where it should be. With Melodyne you can do that without any pitch correction. You can just shift the entire track up a major third or whatever if you want, then go in and adjust certain notes so they fit on the diatonics.

I've done a session where the engineer had me on Antares Auto Tune -- I only need the occasional flub -- but AT is really invasive and I could hear it in the final track on notes where I didn't want it. If you're doing note slides AT wants to snap and you can hear it trying to do that even when set not to be sensitive. I didn't like it and re-mixed the raw track with Melodyne, fixed my two flubs and it was tranparent and I didn't have to worry about it snapping everything to a grid.

I've also used it to pitch shift for a harmony and it was transparent on that. Melodyne Editor is IMO a superior product.

[chrisgraff]

The "standard" trick in the studio has been +/- 5-10% (flat/sharp) on either side, blended underneath the unaffected signal.

H3000 was called upon for this back in the day. Several plugins will do the same these days.