Which sampler for EDM vocal pitch effects?

[xalama qo]

Looking for suggestions for a sampler vsti for loading vocal phrase/s (mapped to keyboard) to achieve vocal pitch effects, but with consistent playback rate, ie, chipmunk/giant effect allowed but no speeding up or slowing down of the playback rate depending on pitch.

An example of what I'm talking about: it kicks in at 1:36


I realise that SOME of the pitch sliding is tape-stop effect and perhaps glide/portamento for upward pitches, but I'm really more interested in finding a sampler that will map a sample across a key range and play each key back at the same speed as the original sample. (pitch slides I can do with other fx)

Free and commercial (or "genre-standard"?) suggestions welcome.
Will Vember Audio Shortcircuit do this?

Thanks.

[deastman]

I would think that most modern samplers could do this. I mostly use Kontakt, which can do it. Also, Harmor can do interesting sample pitch manipulation effects, despite not being a traditional sampler. What DAW are you using? There might already be something built in.

[DSmolken]

What I've was make shifted versions of the bits I needed for the notes I was going to use, made an SFZ mapping with one syllable in one octave and another syllable above that, and used Sforzando.

Not quick/easy/convenient, but I did it that way because I also wanted to shift formants down on the higher notes, and up on the lower notes, so every note needed to be processed individually. I suspect a lot of people use Harmor or some other spectral synth, rather than a sampler, because samplers would probably use quite a bit of CPU to do a time-preserving pitch shift in real time.

[xalama qo]

Thanks for the replies guys,
I'm using Cubase 6 as my main DAW. I unfortunately don't have Kontakt, which I suppose would be most people's first stop for stuff like this. The sfz approach and processing of individual bits is a bit long-winded unless you know exactly what you want. I'm willing to sacrifice some CPU to be able to play around with various melody ideas and pitch slides and even formants in realtime with automation before settling on something I'm happy with and rendering it out to wav or processing it further.

Just as I'm typing this I wonder if Melodyne would be any good for this. Can't remember now if formants can be ignored. Or maybe Cubase's built-in auto-tune with midi note input? That might actually work quite well, and would avoid the schlep of cutting up phrases for mapping into a sampler. I'll have to give it a try

[DSmolken]

Yeah, if you turn off formant preservation on a pitch correction plugin, you should get much the same result. Might need to use a sampler with pitch tracking turned off, and have the same MIDI notes triggering both the sampler and the pitch correction. Then use tuning speed to create slides? We might be leaving "quick and easy" territory again, though.

Paraphrasis might be another free option - haven't tried it, but it looks like a very simple spectral resynthesizer.

Another free option is Alter/Ego - have it sing repetitive nonsense lyrics, automate the Helium parameter and make an automation curve that roughly follows the contour of your melody. Then occasionally make the automation curve go in the opposite direction, just for fun.

[xalama qo]

Thanks for those suggestions DS, I haven't heard of either of those before. I'll check them out

[Orbit-50]

Just as I'm typing this I wonder if Melodyne would be any good for this.

Melodyne and Auto-Tune are excellent tools for this type of work. They are also essential if you are into serious formant shifting.

[nineofkings]

I would use Harmor for this, because I'm in love with its resynthesis abilities.

I think TAL Sampler can also do it.

[Orbit-50]

I would use Harmor for this, because I'm in love with its resynthesis abilities..

That's an excellent choice also because you don't get the artifacts like you do with samplers.

[m-ac]

Looking for suggestions for a sampler vsti for loading vocal phrase/s (mapped to keyboard) to achieve vocal pitch effects, but with consistent playback rate, ie, chipmunk/giant effect allowed but no speeding up or slowing down of the playback rate depending on pitch.

If you use Ableton, this might help . Even if you don't, the technique can be used on pretty much any sampler.

[pottering]

UVI Workstation is and can play samples pitched up/down without changing speed/length.

edit: It maps and plays a sample chromatically across all keys, by default I think.

[bluedad]

I would try the VariAudio in Cubase before spending money.

[xalama qo]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Much appreciated!

[xalama qo]

@pottering, you genius! UVI Workstation is perfect for this, sketching out an idea before committing to anything more permanent.
So cool, and free too! Thanks!

[xalama qo]

@m-ac, thanks for that ableton live vid. Nice to see it done in context like that. I don't have Live, so it's really interesting to see how easily this effect is achieved!