Waves UltraPitch

Harmonized lines have long since been a staple in music, especially in melodic death metal. Ideally, you want to use two different takes (one root and one harmony) to do a proper harmony, but there are times when you want a different flavor. This plugin can not only do pitch shifting and harmonies, but it can also create all kinds of cool effects. We're talking anything from Rage Against the Machine's whammy effect to Steve Vai's crazy detune effects and beyond. The plugin has lots of different parameters to adjust such as input gain, animation, voice section, gain, pan, delay, pitch, formant, voice marking, scrolling speed, detection, min/max limiter, various modes and tons more. To use this, simply enable it on whatever buss you want to have the pitch shifter on. I've never read the manual, so I can't comment on that aspect. There are a few things going on here, so if you've never used a pitch shifter before, it might help to take a quick peek.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I've been using the Mercury bundle for half a year or so now, and it's been awesome. I've never experienced a single crash or issue with any of these plugins, including this one. No matter how many plugins I tend to load, my machine still keeps chugging along. The plugin itself is cross platform compatible, so nearly anybody can use this on his or her favorite machine. Personally, I'm a Mac user, so I'm using OS X on a Mac Pro with Logic Pro. There is one issue that I've been having, however. For the OS X users out there, this plugin is a 32 bit plugin. That means that your DAW will need to utilize a special bridge application for this to work inside your 64 bit DAW. It's not a huge deal, but it can be a bit of a pain, depending on how your particular DAW handles the 32 bit conversion.

OVERALL OPINION

Most of the time, if I'm going to do a harmony, I just play the thing myself twice. One track will be the root, and the other will be something like the harmonized 3rd. I'm able to replicate something similar with this, but I actually prefer using this for a really cool detune effect on leads. It can create a really cool alternative to chorusing, and you get a very 80s feel without getting totally washed out. Detune is actually my go-to effect for leads at the moment, so I tend to use this plugin quite a bit.

The Waves Ltd. Ultra Pitch is a pitch shifter and harmonizing plug-in available in all formats. It comes with a variety of plug-in bundles, including most of the main packs of plug-ins put together by Waves. It's also available as an individual plug-in for either TDM or Native purposes. It's a pretty easy to plug-in to get started with, although there's a lot you can do with it that you should be aware about. There are six harmony bands, as well as control over the original track in terms of shifting, character, and even the ability to detect pitches. Each of the harmony bands has parameters for gain, delay, pan, and pitch in terms of harmony interval. It's mostly easy to use, but within these parameters is possible to use the plug-in for doubling, harmonies, effects, and more. I don't think you'll need the manual, however.

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

I'm running the Waves Ltd. Ultra Pitch plug-in currently on my home system. I'm running Pro Tools 9 on a Mac Book Pro computer that has 4 GB of RAM and a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. It's definitely been enough for me to be able to run this plug-in without any issues on this system, using only minimal instances due to the nature of the plug-in. I think it would work well on any system where you're currently able to run other high quality plug-ins smoothly.

OVERALL OPINION

The Waves Ltd. Ultra Pitch is definitely one of the best tools out there for harmonizing and pitch shifting in the box. This is a tool for tuning vocals, really just for basic shifting. It's pretty simple to use and definitely has enough to keep you busy for a while. Between the six harmony bands, you should be able to layer on some pretty thick digital harmonies, or simply double up a lead vocal if need be. It's a nice plug-in to have but isn't one I would have bought as an individual. It's the kind of great plug-in that beefs up the value or any bundle as it's a great tool to have for anyone since you never know what is going to come up. If you have any Waves bundle, you probably have Ultra Pitch - check it out if you haven't already.