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Hatsubai « Crazy good pitch shifter »
Published on 07/30/11 at 17:43Harmonized 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.
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.