So this thread reminded me that I wanted to make a plugin that did this rather than pull up Imperial Delay every time I wanted this effect because I find myself using it on pretty much ever vocal track. So I made it last night.
Limitations of this prototype
VST2 64 for windows only
Looks ugly
No Preset Management
No user manual
Controls
Pitch: Two pitch shifters, one positive, one negative, shifting by the amount on the pitch knob. They are panned hard left and right.
Width: Lets you narrow the width of the pitch shifted sound
LPF/HPF: Filters the pitch shifted sound (not the dry)
Wet/Dry controls: Lets you independently adjust the wet and dry levels, or turn them off
itâs stable as far as I can tell, but obviously you should use at your own risk. You are welcome to try it out and give any feedback or feature requests.
I should also add that if you dig through the parameters, there are a couple controls that I hid in the GUI. One is a âsuper wideâ button. All it does is flip the polarity of one of the pitched tracks. 90% of the time it doesnât really do anything interesting, but I left it in there just in case I can find a use for it.
The other is a âdelayâ control that adjusts the size of the pitch shifting buffer. By default, itâs set to 75 ms. Too short and the pitch shifting algorithm doesnât work quite as well, too long and the delay becomes too noticeable. 75ms seemed like a good compromise, but you can adjust it if you want to and your DAW will let you.
I decided against delaying the dry signal to match with the pitch shifted sound because I thought it actually sounded better to keep the timing slightly offset. It prevented phasing when blended in with the dry signal and gave more separation. Also, it meant the plugin doesnât have to deal with delay compensation, which has its own set of issues.
Itâs functioning properly for me, I think itâs cool. One thing Iâd like to see though is the frequencies for the HP and LP as well as the pitch cents adjustments listed around the knobs instead of on a bar at the bottom. At first I didnât see them down there, I think it would be easier if we just had the adjustments listed around the knobs instead of at the bottom so everything is in one place.
A finished plugin would have markers on the knobs. I sort of have mixed feelings on the display of the exact value. Sometimes itâs annoying to look at it and not see the exact values of everything in one glance. But on the other hand, when the GUI gets more knobs (not like this one) putting space for each knobâs value gets really ugly really fast.
If you were to compromise perhaps you could place each knob having its own values in that bottom line. Every value could always be displayed on the bottom line for wet/dry signal and HP/LP and pitch cents, and when you adjust the knob it changes on the bottom line? Am I articulating what Iâm trying to say enough? You list the high pass frequency on the bottom line, then to the right of that the LP frequency, then to the right of that the pitch shift cent unit, etcâŚ
Every time I try to install the download I get this message > "You are attempting to open a file of type âSystem Fileâ (.dll) These files are used by the operating system and by various programs. Editing or modifying them could damage your system.
Keep in mind that this is a prototype/proof of concept, and no thought whatsoever has gone into the look/feel. Itâs just knobs with labels so you can see what they do.
When it comes time to actually turn it into a product, thatâs when I start working on the UX side of it.
I think this is one of those times that holster is crying since weâre both posting in the same topic. I can almost hear the cocking of the gun, heâs had enough.
Hey, Boz. Anything in particular we should be listening for or testing for that could be problematic? Sounds great to me.
