Vocal Transformer
Vocal Transformer can be used to transpose the pitch of a vocal line, to augment or diminish the range of the 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 specific timbre of a given human voice.
Vocal Transformer is well suited to extreme vocal effects. 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 offers the following parameters.
- Pitch slider and field: Determines the amount of transposition applied to the input signal. See Setting Vocal Transformer Pitch and Formant Parameters.
- Formant slider and field: Shifts the formants of the input signal. See Setting Vocal Transformer Pitch and Formant Parameters.
Setting Vocal Transformer Pitch and Formant Parameters
Use Vocal Transformer’s Pitch parameter to transpose the pitch of the signal upward or downward. Adjustments are made in semitone steps. Transpositions of a fifth upward (Pitch = +7), a fourth downward (Pitch = −5), or by an octave (Pitch = ±12) are the most useful, harmonically.
As you alter the Pitch parameter, you might notice that the formants don’t change. Formants are characteristic emphases of certain frequency ranges. They are static and do not change with pitch. Formants are responsible for the specific timbre of a given human voice.
The Pitch parameter is expressly used to change the pitch of a voice, not its character. If you set negative Pitch values for a female soprano voice, you can turn it into an alto voice without changing the specific character of the singer’s voice.
The Formant parameter shifts the formants, while maintaining—or independently altering—the pitch. If you set this parameter to positive values, the singer sounds like Mickey Mouse. By altering the parameter downward, you can achieve vocals reminiscent of Darth Vader.
Tip: If you set Pitch to 0 semitones and Formant to +1 you can effectively place a singer (with a smaller head) next to the original singer. Both will sing with the same voice, in a choir of two.