KVR Audio

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:57 pm

Are there any good ones. I tried Choirboy awhile back but didn't really have much material to use it on. I notice Waves makes Ultrapitch, and there are some older ones, the one by Steinberg and Akai. I noticed Choirboy has had some updates but my demo time is up and the demos I played back on this site doing forum searchs didn't sound too great. Now, I'm not sure if it is Choirboy or the singer that is making the VST sound bad.

Anyway, does anybody have any samples I can listen to of there usage with some VST harmonizers, pitch shifters? I am really looking for something along the lines of the Helicon Voiceworks, which I sold awhile back, but not as expensive. Please help.

pannewb · Post by **pannewb** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:15 pm

its not out yet i believe, but

check this out

lawapa · Post by **lawapa** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:35 pm

Rephrase----Go the the Leapfrog support forum right here at KvR.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 11:35 pm

I tried that Trivox, it was and is decent for what they have so far. Still I guess I was spoiled by the Voiceworks. I'll check out Rephrase.

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:12 am

monkeymanx wrote:I noticed Choirboy has had some updates but my demo time is up.

Drop me an email. I may be able to help extending the demo time.

Tony Ostinato · Post by **Tony Ostinato** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:30 am

Even the best harmonizers sound a little weird.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 12:36 am

The voiceworks seemed to sound pretty good to me. The weird sound sometimes makes things sound cool though. Like that fear factory computerized sound.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 3:38 am

Rephrase is cool, but I'm looking for something a bit simpler. I noticed they stopped making the Akai VST, was it no good? Anybody try the ultrapitch program from waves?

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Mon Nov 14, 2005 5:13 am

Transponator is a good little plug. http://devilswhisper.com/ The demo is fully operastional but you can pay a small amount for the full plugin. I like ChoirBoy but it seems out of control on the cpu so I can't really use it when I need to. Chopitch sounds good but only shifts pitch down which sux.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 12:42 am

Now that I've tried a couple VSTs out, it seems like the Voiceworks is unbeatable in terms of quality harmonies. There was just something about it that made it sound better than what I have tried. Time to start saving.

diverdee · Post by **diverdee** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:30 am

http://www.jrrshop.com/default.php?cPath=77_157_75

can still get hold of the akai plugins, although i can't personally testify as to their quality etc.

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 2:05 am

It seems like Akai stopped making their VST Deca buddy, too bad there isn't a demo around.

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:15 am

So I was interested in finding out more about the TC-Helicon VoiceWorks after you mentioned. Listening through the samples on their site, it is also doing formant shifting along with pitch shifting. Inside, it also might be doing all sorts of filtering and dynamics processing to make stuff sound good coming out. I'm not sure if there's any software that sounds as good, maybe some of the expensive stuff, but that stuff is out of my league.

There is one that is close, though. Jackle&Hyde's Omnivox, which is still in alpha. They don't seem particularly happy with software users in general, and have other priorities, so I have no idea if it'll ever be released. I hope so, though, because it is excellent. You could try asking them what the status of it is, I guess.

I took a sample from the VoiceWorks website and tried to get roughly what they got:

Here's the original clip.

The VoiceWorks clip lowered an octave.

A standard pitch shifter without formant shifting lowered an octave, just to give you an idea what the format shift does for the sound.

And the original through OmniVox, with roughly a 60% formant correction. I did a little bit of filtering, and little bit of compression on it. You'll notice there's a slight zippering sound, a bit like there's a delayed version of the sound intermixed. Not quite as clean as the VoiceWorks clip, but pretty good.

So, should you go looking for an alternative, try to find something that can do formant shifting (likely PSOLA-based).

Cheers,
Steve

monkeymanx · Post by **monkeymanx** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 1:49 am

A bunch can do formant shifting. I tried out the Waves Ultrapitch, which is decent and has a decent sound to it, again not as good as the voiceworks though. I think the voiceworks just has some kind of natural sound to it that is more convincing.

Side note, I gave a couple of the Waves plugins a run. I didn't know you could just give them your email, register at their site, and then download all their software and use it up to 14 days. I'm not sure what everybody is raving about with the Waves stuff, I use alot of the Voxengo plugins and I didn't really find a benefit with Waves. I gave their 8 Band EQ a run and the L1 Maximizer. Vs. something like Curve EQ and Elephant, I perfer the sound of the Voxengo stuff.

Is there something I should download while I have the 14 days that would make the Waves stuff worth buying for me? I've read they are the industry standard for VST plugins.

Space Boy · Post by **Space Boy** » Fri Nov 18, 2005 7:32 am

To complete the comparison:

Choir Boy (.wma) Note: No zippering sound.

original clip

VoiceWorks clip

standard pitch shifter without formant shifting

OmniVox, with roughly a 60% formant correction.

A Good VST Pitch Shifter, Harmonizer?