Question on pitch shifting

[J-Xile]

I want to use pitch shifting in some tracks so my voice get real low and dark which is an effect used in a lot of rap but I cannot find a way to do this in Pro Tools... any suggestions?

[Steven mc.]

Protools users anyone?
there has to be a pitchshifter bundled with protools...

[Weasel9992]

I'm sure there is, but the problem with cheap pitch shifting is the formants it introduces. The more you shift, the worse it tends to sound. Even the better ones take a lot of tweaking before they sound smooth under the top vocal.

Weez

[Hammy]

+1 for Weez, and I think that the best advice that anyone can give you in this area would be to find a plugin like autotune or melodyne and just play, play, play until you get it right.

[mcramer]

I want to use pitch shifting in some tracks so my voice get real low and dark which is an effect used in a lot of rap but I cannot find a way to do this in Pro Tools... any suggestions?

Are you sure you aren't thinking of "the proximity effect"? It's the same effect you heard from people like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and anyone trying to get that deep dark sound to vocals. It's just a case of getting right up close to the microphone which enhances the bass frequencies in the sound.

[Swami Digital]

I want to use pitch shifting in some tracks so my voice get real low and dark which is an effect used in a lot of rap but I cannot find a way to do this in Pro Tools... any suggestions?

Are you sure you aren't thinking of "the proximity effect"? It's the same effect you heard from people like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and anyone trying to get that deep dark sound to vocals. It's just a case of getting right up close to the microphone which enhances the bass frequencies in the sound.

Yeah that would be my guess, proximity effect, some EQ and maybe other effects rather than pitch shifting.

Most cheap pitchshifting is delay based. This means as you increase the pitch, the formants already in the voice get spread out in frequency, and as you decrease the pitch, they compress in frequency. This expansion/compression on the frequency axis is what makes the voice sound irregular and unrealistic. Where your formants are placed in the frequency spectrum determines the timbre of your voice, so unfortunately it changes not just your pitch but your timbre. This isn't comically noticeable until you go more than a half octave, but someone with good ears can pick it out unless it's generally very slight to get someone slightly off key back on. (It's hard to notice slight shifts because our formants aren't always fixed in frequency. It has to do with airflow through the throat and the shape your mouth takes.)

-D

[Steven mc.]

Great explanation swami

[drewvis]

how do you pitch shift a piece of audio, but keep the correct timing? (if that makes sense?!)

[mcramer]

Makes perfect sense, and thats one of the main jobs of a pitch shifter, to shift the audio without changing the time like speeding it up or slowing it down. Most pitch shifters in sample editors will do this for you, some you can specify to change both pitch and tempo at the same time.