Phase vocoders

[Dave2002]

Autotune is used for probably 90% of pop vocals these days.

Guitar effects pedals are aimed at guitarists, yes.

Real-time application of digital pitch shifting to instruments and/or voices is fairly commonplace in contemporary music. There are hundreds of ways of doing it, some of which are as "realistic" as you can imagine (including shifting the formant structure of a vocal so that a woman's voice transposed down takes on the sound quality of a man's voice).

You need to get out more (or for that matter stay in), and hear what people are actually doing!

Seems that guitarists have been doing things with electrics/electronics since the 1930s - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_guitar

Re the pedals/effects units, seems to me that they've been around a while and mostly have analogue inputs and analogue outputs. What are the input levels?

Now so many things are digital, are there not digital effects units, or has everyone moved on to direct into a computer/DAW set up? I can imagine there might have been a time when an effects chain could have been based on electonic, then digital units - or even mechanical effects before the electronic stage.

[Bryn]

Autotune is used for probably 90% of pop vocals these days.

Guitar effects pedals are aimed at guitarists, yes.

Real-time application of digital pitch shifting to instruments and/or voices is fairly commonplace in contemporary music. There are hundreds of ways of doing it, some of which are as "realistic" as you can imagine (including shifting the formant structure of a vocal so that a woman's voice transposed down takes on the sound quality of a man's voice).

You need to get out more (or for that matter stay in), and hear what people are actually doing!

I've been much impressed by N O (Nathan) Moore's modular Moog Guitar exploitation, as I recently experienced here.

[Dave2002]

Here is a demo of a pitch shifter - https://www.pedal-of-the-day.com/201...pitch-shifter/ which shows some of the seemingly curious effects which are possible.

It doesn't have to be only used with an electric guitar. It can be fed from a microphone, and instruments or voice can be modified using this unit - though care has to be taken to avoid feedback. In Detune mode positive feedback is unlikely, but feedback can arise if the unit is switched back into live feed mode. This particular unit only does shifts of 3,4,5,7,9 semitones, plus 1 or 2 octaves. Some other similarly priced units will do 1,2,3,5,7,9 semitones, plus 1 or 2 octaves, while some more expensive ones may do an even greater set of preset shifts. I have no idea at this stage how accurate the shifts are on the respective units, or how the quality of the outputs varies. It's possible that better effects can be had with recordings, then using software pitch shift in an editor or DAW, but that's probably less useful for a live performance, whereas the effects through these guitar units are almost immediate. Some of the subtleties of the playing or singing may be lost though - depending on the units used.

[Dave2002]

Does anyone know of an archive for Sound on Sound articles? I found this - https://www.soundonsound.com/techniq...g-cher-believe and there is mention of an earlier article on vocoders which I'd like to read - "for more on vocoders and the theory behind them, see the 'Power Vocoding' workshop in SOS January 1994".

[MrGongGong]

Does anyone know of an archive for Sound on Sound articles? I found this - https://www.soundonsound.com/techniq...g-cher-believe and there is mention of an earlier article on vocoders which I'd like to read - "for more on vocoders and the theory behind them, see the 'Power Vocoding' workshop in SOS January 1994".

Don't know about that
BUT this is worth a read

https://howtowreckanicebeach.com

[Dave2002]

Don't know about that
BUT this is worth a read

https://howtowreckanicebeach.com

Thanks - sounds interesting. Mixed reviews though - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1612190928

[MrGongGong]

Thanks - sounds interesting. Mixed reviews though - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/1612190928

i wouldn't take any notice of nerdy nit-picking