Vox Samples has just released Pitchmunk, a freeware pitch shifter plugin for Windows and Mac (64-bit).
I have to admit that I am not up to date when it comes to pitch shifters. I make fiddly electronic music, so vocals aren’t usually in my wheelhouse.
If I have to keep to a pitch, Melodyne is there just in case. Pitch shifters as effects can lead to some sonic mayhem, which can produce interesting results.
However, Vox Samples has you covered with Pitchmunk, a decidedly simple take on the humble pitch shifter.
You’ve got a few more controls than the usual Vox Samples releases. The pitch and formant controls are the main draw, but there’s also a filter, drive and mix knob.
Pitch allows you to shift from 2 octaves up to 2 octaves down, an astonishing 48 semitones or so. You can’t tune it in cents or hertz, but that’s fine with me.
The formant control has a follow option, which allows your tweaks to stick closer to the assigned pitch. You can also turn it off, which makes for some interesting creative effects.
The filter seems to be a typical low-pass affair. It’s not resonant or anything fancy, although perhaps it should be. Instead, it just does what you would expect a filter to do. It cleans up any annoying highs to make them fit your mix better.
The drive works well and gets a bit harsh at higher values. I always love to see a mix knob, regardless of the intended effect. I love running things in parallel, and it saves me the hassle of setting up sends and returns.
I can’t speak with any real authority on how this works with vocals. I found it worked quite well for random public-domain samples. I could quickly make things sound strange and alien by turning off the formant follow control.
If you often work with vocals, though, I think Pitchmunk is definitely worth a try. It seems to be a useful freeware alternative to plugins like Little AlterBoy and Waves Vocal Bender.
Have you tried any other pitch shifter plugins? Feel free to share your favorites in the comments below.
As with all Vox Samples releases, you can use it on both Windows and Mac computers. Supported plug-in formats are VST3 and AU. The little chipmunk looks pretty trustworthy too, so it’s worth a download.
Download: Pitchmunk (FREE)
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8 Comments
Frits van Zanten
onI read about safety issues in the reviews on their web site, and since you write about vocals, which I don’t really use I pass. In my samples/clips I can use the pitch shifter in my DAW. Besides, I don’t really like the icon, but that’s a matter of taste, age or both.
However, since you asked: I have Pitchproof, Auburn Graillon 2 and kHs Pitch Shifter (all freeware), mainly using them on guitar, occasionally. They can also come in handy as an octaver.
Frits van Zanten
onStrange, when you go to their page (via the link), the page contains the pitch shifter, but the tab says your on the saturation plugin page. Someone did some sloppy cut & paste?
alex
onI’ll add Auburn Sounds Inner Pitch (probably the highest quality sound) and Audio Damage Discord 3 (great sound and features and extremely low CPU usage for a pitch shifter).
Frits van Zanten
onStrange, when you go to their page (via the link), the page contains the pitch shifter, but the tab says your on the saturation plugin page. Someone did some sloppy cut & paste?
Gustaf
onWhen purchasing, it requires that you give the phone number, 111111111 is not valid and does not allow you to leave it blank.
I don’t give him my phone even at gunpoint.
Gustaf
onWhen purchasing, it requires that you give the phone number, 111111111 is not valid and does not allow you to leave it blank.
I don’t give him my phone even at gunpoint.
Michael Jackson
onJust put in a valid area code then put in phony numbers for phone. 111 is not a valid area code.
Florian Mrugalla
onimo pitchshifters have 2 functions. the ones with a clean sound are meant to correct some pitch or to octave things, and the grainy ones are used to add texture to sounds. all of them can enrich the highend of any sound, also synths or guitar