User Manual

Pitch Shifter (White) 172
Pitch Shifter (White)
A pitch shifter is an array of alternating delays that first cuts the signal into slices, and then plays them back at a
different speed. Any pitch shifter will always introduce a little latency to the signal, simply down to the fact that it uses
delays. This latency will become most noticeable when you play chords, since long slices are needed for chords to
sound natural.
 Smooth Chords
Several pitch shifter types have a “Smooth Chords” option on a soft button. When activated, you will find many
chords sound smoother, depending on your playing style. You will also notice an increase in latency, making
“Smooth Chords” less appropriate for rhythmical chord playing. Single notes, however, are mostly unaffected by this
setting; small pitch offsets of up to +/- 3 (a minor 3rd) should be fine, too.
 Formant Shift
Some of the pitch shifter effects described here have the option for treating the formants of the signal in a special
way. In addition, you will find a dedicated Wah Formant Shifter in the list of Wah Effects.
Formant shift and formant correction are often seen in DAWs and some voice processors. However, they haven’t
been presented to the guitar world as yet.
When you shift your instrument up or down with a pitch shifter, you will shift the characteristic formants of your
instrument by the same amount, just as you would if you sped up a recording or slowed it down. The well-known
chipmunk effect also applies to your guitar, transforming it to a bass sound when pitched down by an octave (often
desired) or a thin mandolin sound when shifted up (less desirable). The onset transient, or pick, is altered the most
by pitch shifting.
Formant shifting, and formant correction can prevent the chipmunk effect on pitch-shifted sounds. Alternatively, it
can be used to change the character of the instrument while the pitch is kept the same.
The downside of the formant shifting is that it only works with single notes. Chords will sound odd in most cases.