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Chapter 11 Pitch eects 226
Vocal Transformer
Vocal Transformer overview
Vocal Transformer can be used to transpose the pitch of a vocal line, to augment or diminish the
range of the melody, or even to reduce it to a single note that mirrors the pitches of a melody.
No matter how you change the pitches of the melody, the constituent parts of the signal
(formants) remain the same.
You can shift the formants independently, which means that you can turn a vocal track into a
Mickey Mouse voice, while maintaining the original pitch. Formants are characteristic emphases
of certain frequency ranges. They are static and do not change with pitch. Formants are
responsible for the specic timbre of a given human voice.
Vocal Transformer is well suited to extreme vocal eects. The best results are achieved with
monophonic signals, including monophonic instrument tracks. It is not designed for polyphonic
voices—such as a choir on a single track—or other chordal tracks.
Vocal Transformer parameters
Vocal Transformer includes the following parameters.
Vocal Transformer parameters
•
Pitch knob and eld: Rotate to determine the amount of transposition applied to the input
signal. See Use the Vocal Transformer Pitch and Formant parameters.
•
Robotize button: Turns Robotize mode on or o. This mode is used to augment, diminish, or
mirror the melody. See Use Vocal Transformer’s Robotize mode.
•
Pitch Base slider and eld: Available only in Robotize mode. Drag to transpose the note that the
Tracking parameter is following.
•
Tracking slider, eld, and buttons: Available only in Robotize mode. Drag to control how the
melody is changed.
•
Mix slider and eld: Drag to dene the level ratio between the original (dry) and eect signals.
•
Formant knob and eld: Rotate to shift the formants of the input signal. See Use the Vocal
Transformer Pitch and Formant parameters.
•
Glide slider and eld (Extended Parameters area): Drag to determine the time vocal
transformation takes, allowing sliding transitions to the set Pitch value.
•
Grain Size slider and eld (Extended Parameters area): The Vocal Transformer eect algorithm is
based on granular synthesis. The Grain Size parameter allows you to set the size of the grains
and thus aect the precision of the process. Experiment to nd the best setting. Try Auto rst.