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Chapter 12: Pitch
Pitch is a pitch-shifting plug-in that comes in
TDM and AudioSuite formats.
The Pitch plug-in is designed for a variety of audio production applications ranging from pitch correction of musical material to sound design.
Pitch processing uses the technique of varying sample playback rate to achieve pitch transposition. Because changing audio sample playback rate results in the digital equivalent of varispeeding with tape, this is an unsatisfactory method since it changes the overall duration of the material.
Pitch transposition with the Pitch plug-in involves a much more complex technique: digitally adding or subtracting portions of the audio waveform itself, while using de-glitching crossfades to minimize undesirable artifacts. The result is a processed signal that is transposed in pitch, but still retains the same overall length as the original, unprocessed signal.
The Pitch plug-in was formerly called
DPP-1. It is fully compatible with all settings and presets created for DPP-1.
Pitch Controls
Pitch plug-in
Input Level Attenuates the input level of the
Pitch plug-in to help prevent internal clipping.
Signal Present Indicator LED Indicates the presence of an input signal.
Clip Indicator Indicates whether clipping has occurred on output. It is a clip-hold indicator. If clipping occurs at any time, the clip light will remain on. To clear the Clip indicator, click it.
Long delay times and high feedback times increase the likelihood of clipping.
Chapter 12: Pitch 71
Mix Adjusts the ratio of dry signal to effected signal in the output. In general, this control should be set to 100% wet, unless you are using the
Pitch plug-in in-line on an Insert for an individual track or element in a mix. This control can be adjusted over its entire range with little or no change in output level.
Delay Sets the delay time between the original signal and the pitch-shifted signal. It has a maximum setting of 125 milliseconds. You can use the Delay control in conjunction with the Feedback control to generate a single pitch-shifted echo, or a series of echoes that climb in pitch.
Feedback Controls the amount and type of feedback (positive or negative) applied from the output of the delay portion of the Pitch plug-in back into its input. It also controls the number of repetitions of the delayed signal. You can use it to produce effects that spiral up or down in pitch, with each successive echo shifted in pitch.
Coarse Adjusts the pitch of a signal in semitones over a two octave range. Pitch changes are indicated both in the Semitones field and in the Musical Staff section below this slider. Using the
–8va and +8va buttons in conjunction with the
Coarse slider provides a full 4-octave range of adjustment.
–8va and +8va Buttons Clicking the –8va button adjusts pitch down one octave from the current setting of the coarse and fine pitch controls.
Clicking the +8va button adjusts pitch up one octave from the current setting of the coarse and fine pitch controls.
Relative Pitch Entry (Musical Staff)
Clicking on any note on this musical staff selects a relative pitch transposition value that will be applied to an audio signal. If the C above middle
C is illuminated (the staff is in treble clef), it indicates that no pitch transposition has been selected. If a pitch transposition is selected, the note interval corresponding to the selected transposition value is indicated in yellow. Altclicking (Windows) or Option-clicking (Mac) on the staff will set the coarse pitch change value to zero.
Relative pitch entry
Fine Controls the pitch of a signal in cents (hundredths of a semitone) over a 100 cent range.
The range of this slider is –49 to +50 cents. Precise pitch change values are indicated in the
Fine field. The flat, natural, and sharp signs below this slider indicate deviation from the nearest semitone.
Ratio Indicates the ratio of transposition between the original pitch and the selected transposition value.
Crossfade Adjusts crossfade length in milliseconds to optimize performance of the Pitch plugin according to the type of audio material you are processing. The Pitch plug-in performs pitch transposition by replicating or subtracting portions of audio material and very quickly crossfading between these alterations in the waveform of the audio material.
Crossfade length affects the amount of smoothing performed on audio material to prevent audio artifacts such as clicks from occurring as the audio is looped to generate the pitch shift.
72 Audio Plug-Ins Guide
In general, small, narrow-range pitch shifts require longer crossfades and large shifts require smaller ones. The disadvantage of a long crossfade time is that it will smooth the signal, including any transients. While this is sometimes desirable for audio material such as vocals, it is not appropriate for material with sharp transients such as drums or percussion.
The default setting for this control is Auto. At this setting, crossfade times are set automatically, according to the settings of the Coarse and
Fine pitch controls. The Auto setting is appropriate for most applications. However, you can manually adjust and optimize crossfade times using the Crossfade slider if necessary. For audio material with sharper attack transients, use shorter crossfade times. For audio material with softer attack transients, use longer crossfade times.
Minimum Pitch Sets the minimum fundamental pitch that the Pitch plug-in will recognize when performing pitch transposition. Use this to optimize the Pitch plug-in’s performance by adjusting this control based on the lowest fundamental pitch of the audio material that you want to process.
On audio material with a low fundamental pitch frequency content (such as an electric bass) setting this control to a lower frequency (such as
30 Hz) will improve the Pitch plug-in’s performance. The most important thing to remember when using this control is that the fundamental frequency of audio material you want to process must be above the frequency you set here.
The range of this slider is from 15 Hz to 1000 Hz.
The default setting is 60 Hz. Adjustment is tied to the current setting of the Maximum Pitch control so that the minimum range is never less than one octave, and the maximum range never more than five octaves.
Maximum Pitch Adjusts the maximum fundamental pitch that the Pitch plug-in will recognize when performing pitch transposition. To optimize the Pitch plug-in’s performance, adjust this setting (and the Minimum Pitch setting) based on the highest fundamental pitch of the audio material that you want to process. The range of this slider is from 30 Hz to 4000 Hz. The default setting is 240 Hz.
Chapter 12: Pitch 73
74 Audio Plug-Ins Guide
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