Soundtoys Pure Pitch

The SoundToys Pure Pitch is a TDM only plug-in for voice modification. It's a pitch shifter, but you're able to affect the sound more than just that. You can only get the plug-in if you have a Pro Tools HD system, although I'm not sure if it's also only in the Soundtoys TDM bundle or if you can buy it individually as well. Learning to use the plug-in isn't hard, but as is the case with any in depth plug-in, it's going to take some use to learn all in the ins and outs of it. For starters, you can set the pitch to any interval you can think of. You then have control over the mix, dry delay, shift delay, and feedback. Furthermore, there are sections for expression, modulation, and tweaks, each of which provide you with a variety of tone controlling parameters. There are also two main modes to choose from - either conventional or format-preserving. The difference is that conventional mode will be smoother in general, but when doing larger shifting, it's a good idea to use the format-preserving in order to better maintain the original quality of the voice. As always, it really just depends on what you're going for. The manual should have everything you'd need to know about Pure Pitch if you have any questions.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

You can only use the SoundToys Pure Pitch plug-in on TDM (HD) systems. For this reason I've only used it on the systems we have at the studio where I work, which are all Pro Tools HD systems. The main system we have runs this on a MacPro desktop computer that has 10 GB of RAM and dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors. I've never experienced any issues with this plug-in and no one running it should be either...

OVERALL OPINION

I'm an overall big fan of the SoundToys Pure Pitch plug-in for a number of reasons. My first and main reason beyond the effectiveness of the sound, is the interface, as it has a very user friendly make up and couldn't be much easier to use. At the same time, there's a ton of features and parameters to play with, so the possibilities are wide. There are a lot of plug-ins out there like this, but as far as strict pitch shifting plug-ins go (not tuning), this is probably my favorite due to the collection of parameters and smooth sound. Obviously, only those with TDM systems will have access to this, but even if you do have access to a system that has it like me, it's worth using there and printing tracks. Pure Pitch is a great professional pitch shifting plug-in to have in any HD system!