Waves Audio UltraPitch User Guide

UltraPitch

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 More About Pitch

Chapter 3 Quick Start

Pitch detection

Setting shift degree

Shifting pitch

Changing formant

Chapter 4 One-voice processing

Altering the pitch of a vocal track

Altering the pitch of an instrumental track

Time stretching (formant-corrected)

Twisting the gender by using formants

Monitoring the notes of a tune

5 6

7 8

9 9

10 11 11

Chapter 5 Three and six-voice processing

3 and 6-voice features

Delay

Live mode

Mix and Pan

Mix graph

Animate

Simple octave effect

Choral effects and voice animation

Automatic chord harmonization

Chorus

Other chorus effects

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13 13

14 13 14 14 16

17 18 19 19

Chapter 6 Controls & displays

UltraPitch Common Controls

Pitch detector graph

Monitor scrolling speed

Min-pitch limiter

Max-pitch limiter

To adjust the min and max-pitches

Mode

Keyboard display

Voice character graph

Pitch

Link

Formant

Direct Level

UltraPitch 3 & 6-Voice Harmonization Controls

Mix-level

Pan

20 20

21 21 21 21

22 21 22 23

23 24 24 24

24 24

UltraPitch Manual

Delay

Animate

Chapter 7 FAQs

Chapter 8 Factory presets

25 25

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Thank you for buying Waves processors. This software guide explain how to use UltraPitch for pitch shifting, adding voices for harmonies and creating special effects.

UltraPitch consists of the following formant-corrected components:

1. Shift - for pitch shifting (mono and stereo).

2. 3-Voice harmony maker - for harmonization with three added voices (mono and stereo).

3. 6-Voice harmony maker - for harmonization with six added voices (mono and stereo).

UltraPitch is a processor that can be applied to mono, stereo, and mono to stereo sound tracks. For stereo inputs, UltraPitch will refer to the left channel for pitch detection and shifting, as the process is essentially a monophonic process (only one input pitch can be tracked).

UltraPitch Manual

Chapter 2 - More about pitch

What is pitch?

Pitch is the subjective property of a simple or c omplex tone enabling the ear to allocate its position on a frequency scale. The pitch of a trumpet playing the note ‘A 4’(la) is 440Hz, even though the sound produced contains many other frequencies (harmonics).

What is pitch shifting/scaling?

Pitch shifting or scaling involves raising or lowering the frequency of a sound through octaves (twelve notes). UltraPitch has a range of between one octave up, to one octave down from the original tone.

What do the terms ‘voiced’ and ‘unvoiced’ sound mean?

‘Voiced’ sound is a sound with a consistent pitch detectable by the human ear. ‘Unvoiced’ sound is a sound that has no recognizable pitch, such as a collision, a “shhh” sound, or a gun shot.

What is a harmony maker?

A harmony maker detects the pitch of a note/tone and adds a tone to it that can be octaves, or some interval, above or below the original tone.

What is a formant?

Resonance frequencies, such as those from an oral delivery, are called formant-frequencies or simply formants. Formants depend upon the shape, construction and dimensions of the sound-producing source (speaker, singer, guitar, trumpet etc.).

What is formant correction?

Formant correction alters the timbre (character) of a sound. To demonstrate formant-correction, pinch your nose and sing a note. Then release your nose (keep singing!) and notice the new sound. The new sound is a result of the formant-correction you applied when you altered the dimension and shape of your nasal tract. It’s OK for your kids to try this at home!

What is monotonic pitch shifting?

A monotonic sound source has one pitch at a time and no others, such as a note produced by a trumpet, flute, or (“monophonic”) synthesizer. UltraPitch can shift the pitch of a monotonic sound source.

What is polyphonic pitch shifting?

A polyphonic sound source has two or more simultaneous tones.A monophonic sound source may become polyphonic during heavy reverb. UltraPitch is a formant-corrected pitch shifter, and does not support polyphonic pitch shifting because in order to correct the formant, the pitch must be determined, which requires a monotonic (one-note) input.

UltraPitch Manual

Chapter 3 - Quick start

Please refer to the WaveSystem manual for a full explanation regarding standard generic Waves controls. You can find out more details about each individual control in the Controls & Displays chapter.

The pitch detection process described below is the first stage for every UltraPitch application such as pitch shifting, harmonization and so on.

It’s important to remember that the input sound must be monophonic, i.e. a single voice or single-tone solo instrument track. A polyphonic input’s numerous pitches, for example like those produced by open-string guitar chords, cannot be detected by UltraPitch.

Pitch detection

Very briefly: Look at the ‘Pitch detector’ area on the right hand side of UltraPitch. Choose a Mode using the Mode control located under the display. Preview the audio and drag the Max and Min-pitch markers in the display so that they are just above and below the dynamic blue pitch-tracking line respectively. Try different detection Modes until you get the best result. The Mode control is located below the Pitch detector graph.

If the message ‘Incompatible input or settings’ appears, make sure either:

* the input track is monophonic * the Min and Max-pitch markers are correctly set to ‘capture’ the pitch, i.e. Min-pitch

marker is below the lowest pitch, and the Max-pitch marker is above the highest pitch in the source

* you are using an appropriate Mode,see below...

Here’s a more detailed explanation for performing pitch detection:

1 Choose a detection-mode. The Mode control has a pull-down menu offering the following modes:

a) Default: for general-purpose applications. b) Voice Steady: for voices without fast pitch changes. c) Voice Jumpy: for voices with fast pitch changes. d) Voice Opera: for very clear voices. e) Music Steady: for instruments with distinct t ones (e.g. flute, piano). f) Clear tones: for very clear tones (e.g. vibraphone, synthesizer). g) Bass: for bass guitar, contrabass etc.

Pull down the menu and select an appropriate setting according to the type of audio you wish to process. Alternatively, click on the Mode control to scroll through the selection of settings.

UltraPitch Manual

2 Preview the monophonic source making sure the input level is set correctly (usually 0dB). The pitch-

detector’s monitor will start scrolling. A blue line displays the detected current pitch’s graph. The same pitch is simultaneously ‘played’ on the Keyboard display. When the monitor is completely black, it means there is silence. When the monitor is gray, it means ‘unvoiced’ audio is detected. Unvoiced audio has no recognizable pitch, and therefore cannot be t racked! When there is too much unvoiced audio, the message ‘Incompatible input or setting s’ will appear.

3 You can adjust the monitor scrolling speed to suit your computer using the Speed control. We have

included this control as scrolling-speed varies from computer to computer. Simply find the speed that allows you to witness the pitch-detection monitor clearly for fine tuning the detection.

4 To fine tune the pitch detection, adjust the Min-pitch and Max-pitch settings by clicking and dragging

on their arrows in the Pitch Detection monitor, by typing in numerical values in their corresponding controls, or by dragging your mouse on their corresponding controls.

5 Max-pitch should be set a little above the highest sung/spoken pitch. Min-pitch should be set a little

below the lowest sung/spoken pitch. If you do not know the musical range, set Min-pitch to 50Hz and Max-pitch to 1000Hz. For spoken voice, set it to 50-800Hz.

Setting shift degree

1 Set the Link button to ‘Free’. 2 Click and drag the marker inside the Voice character graph up or down to raise or lower

the pitch and side-to-side to adjust formant.

UltraPitch Manual

Setting the Shift Degree

Shifting pitch

1 Click on the Pitch control and drag your mouse up and down. You’ll notice the band-marker moves up

and down correspondingly in the Voice character graph. The Voice character graph’s pitch axis is divided into half steps (the chromatic scale).

2 Select the Pitch control and type in a numerical value in half steps. You’ll notice the pitch control dis-

plays a double-digit number as well as the musical shift in pitch. In the example below, a value of -2.3 is typed in. The display shows -2nd M,-30, indicating the pitch will be lowered to the 2nd Major note and plus an additional 30 cents towards the next pitch-level, which is 3rd Minor. (A Cent is 1/100th of a halfstep, or semitone, therefore the octave has 1200 cents).

Pitch Control, Set to: -2nd Major, -30

3 Select an interval directly from the Pitch pull-down menu. The original pitch (and default pitch on

opening UltraPitch Shift) is called ‘Unison’, as shown below:

Pitch Pull Down Menu

Finally, to adjust Pitch and not the Formant while dragging the marker, press the Control key and drag the marker up or down. This operation constrains the marker to moving in the first direction only.

UltraPitch Manual

Changing formant

1 Click on the Formant control and drag your mouse from side-to-side. You’ll notice the Pitch/Formant

marker moves from side-to-side accordingly.

2 Select the Formant control and type in a numerical value (the range is from -12.0 to +12.0, calibrated in

the equivalent half steps).

3 Finally, to only adjust the Formant while dragging the marker, press the Control key and drag the

marker from side-to-side. Pressing the Control key and dragging your mouse in this manner locks the Pitch parameter.

UltraPitch Manual

Chapter 4 - One-voice processing

Refer to the WaveSystem Manual for a full explanation regarding standard generic Waves controls. The following sections assume you are able to perform pitch detection and shifting as described in the Quick Start.

Altering the pitch of a vocal track

UltraPitch can shift (scale) the pitch of a given monophonic voice track, sung or spoken by a given transposition degree upwards or downwards. The voice will conserve the original character of the speaker/singer.

1 Detect the pitch of the original track using the Pitch Detection process (see the beginning of this Quick

Start).

2 Set the Link button to Free and set the shift degree (i.e. raise or lower the pitch). If you want the for-

mant correction to be automatic, you could set the Link button to ‘Voice’ for this example.

3 If you are shifting by mo re than the interval of a fourth (such as C upwards to F or downwards to G) ,

listen to the sound to see if more Formant-correction is required. If it is, select the Formant-control and make minor adjustments to the Formant value using the keyboard arrows.

4 If you have selected the Min-pitch and Max-pitch incorrectly, some notes or word-ends may escape the

detection process, resulting in glitches. To fix this, watch the pitch detector’s graph at the point of the glitches while readjusting the Min and Max-pitches.A high Max-pitch setting may also result in glitches.

Altering the pitch of an instrumental track

1 Set the Mode button to the appropriate setting according to the audio track.

2 Adjust pitch detection (see the beginning of the Quick Start Chapter).

3 Click on the Link button’s pull-down menu to match the instrument you’re playing or an instrument

with a similar acoustics. The options include (apart from Free - which is unlinked): Voice, Song, Brass, Woods, Strings, Linear and Inverted. The following diagram shows the Formant menu:

Formant Menu

UltraPitch Manual

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