Let’s shed some light on what makes MagicPitch so magic and different from other pitch and frequency shifting effects. The overall effect is much more noticeable with tonal inputs like a singing voice but you can go really wild with percussive inputs like a drum beat. To best understand MagicPitch and what it can do for you, we suggest you prepare a diverse set of inputs sounds. You should follow this Quickstart Guide with the plugin open and fed with some sample input so you can hear it in action yourself.
Start by opening the preset QuickGuide / 01 Basic Pitch Shifting.
The curve (or in this case a horizontal line) in the Curve Editor shows the amount of pitch shifting as a function of frequency. Since it is a horizontal line all frequencies are shifted by the same amount. Give it a listen and play a bit with it by moving the line up and down. Try selecting different semitone/octave ranges with the control on the left side of the curve and notice how that affects the amount of pitch shifting. The available ranges are Off, 2 Semitones, 1 Octave and 2 Octaves. In addition to the curve you can use the Pitch Offset to adjust the amount of pitch shifting globally.
For more help with the Curve Editor check out our Quickstart Guide - The Curve Editor .
So far so good, it sounds like a regular pitch shifter. So why bother with the curve if we have a knob to get the same result? Here comes the Magic: Open the preset QuickGuide / 02 Two Bands PitchShifter and you should see that this curve has two horizontal sections. The left horizontal section in the curve defines the amount of pitch shifting for frequencies up to 1 kHz and the right section defines the amount of pitch shifting for frequencies from 1 kHz up to 20 kHz. Play around with different amounts by dragging the sections up and down. You can also drag the vertical section in the centre of the curve horizontally in order to change the crossover frequency between the two bands. Insert more bands by adding more steps. Now the Pitch Offset should really makes sense as it lets you shift all the bands at once without the need to edit the entire curve.
So what about frequency shifting? It works the same way as pitch shifting! Let’s open the preset QuickGuide / 03 Two Bands FrequencyShifter. Notice that the curve’s range for pitch shifting is set to Off and the range for frequency shifting on the right side is set to 1000 Hz. Now the curve changes the amount of frequency shifting in each band. Similar to the pitch shifting part we also have a Frequency Offset knob to shift all the bands at once without the need to edit the entire curve.
Usually you would use either Pitch or Frequency Shifting but we do not want to limit your creativity here. That’s where the Balance control comes into play: In the center position both effects are applied equally. Fully left will only apply pitch shifting. Fully right will only apply frequency shifting. Open the preset QuickGuide / 04 Pitch vs. Frequency and notice how the curve is now applied to both pitch and frequency shifting. Play around with the curve and the balance control. Last but not least you can adjust the overall fx amount using the FX control.
You can insert many many steps/bands, but that’s not everything MagicPitch can do. So far we’ve been using stepped curves, so there are always regions where many frequencies share the same amount of shifting. Load the preset QuickGuide / 05 Steps vs Curves and play around with the XY Pad to morph between steps and curves. Notice that in this preset the editor is not in step mode, so we are able to freely assign any amount of shifting to any frequency. Any slope in the curve will apply different amounts of shifting for each frequency. Any tonal input like a singing voice will end up with de-tuned harmonics so even subtle settings might sound like a space opera! Percussive sounds, on the other hand, can easily deal with much more extreme settings.
Enjoy exploring and creating new sounds with the near endless possibilities MagicPitch has to offer!