Soundtoys Pitch Doctor

SoundToys' Pitch Doctor is a vocal tuning plug-in for Pro Tools. It's only available as TDM plug-in for Pro Tools HD systems, and not in VST, RTAS, or any other format outside of this. I'm not sure the reason for this exactly, but it's also included in Soundtoys' TDM bundle as well as being available as an individual plug-in. I don't own it so I wasn't involved at all with the installation process. I've only used it a handful of times but have found it to have an easy to use interface that isn't as in depth as some of the other tuning software out there. It gives you control over the pitches you'd like in the key, scale, tuning to the cents, manual correction, mode, and a quantizing section. It's definitely user friendly and takes one of the simplest approaches to tuning since it's specifically designed for vocals. It should be easy enough to use where you don't need a manual.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

The studio I work at has the SoundToys Pitch Doctor plug-in running on our Pro Tools HD systems. We have most of the SoundToys plug-ins including the TDM bundle that this comes in. Our main system runs on a Mac Pro desktop with dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors and 10 GB of RAM. I usually use this plug-in for printing single notes here and there rather than keeping it up on the audio track, so I've never come close to having an issue using it. Since it's a TDM plug-in, I highly doubt anyone will have a problem running it.

OVERALL OPINION

The SoundToys Pitch Doctor is an effective vocal tuning plug-in, although it lacks the depth and versatility of AutoTune or Melodyne. Overall, I don't prefer this plug-in to those I just mentioned, but there are some pluses to using it. For one, the interface is super simple and perfect for tuning stray single notes, which is the capacity that I usually use it in. You can get the 'Auto-Tune' effective with it, but it's not worth it just to use it for this since AutoTune does it better and is more versatile in what it can do. The price of this isn't the cheapest since it's a TDM plug-in and I don't know if it's worth getting it if you already have Melodyne or Auto Tune. If you're someone who only uses this every now and again, it's certainly worth checking out, but if it were me I'd go with Melodyne or AutoTune due to their flexibility.