In this video for Production Expert, James Parades takes a look at Zynaptiq PITCHMAP, a plug-in that allows processing the pitch of individual sounds within mixed signals in real-time. Over to James:
What Is Zynaptiq PITCHMAP?
Well, where do I start with this plugin. I must start off by saying that I did initially struggle to “get” this plugin. But after a little playing, it has opened up a new world of sound design for me.
So, what is it? It is a real time polyphonic pitch correction and pitch mapping plugin.
It allows you to pitch-correct either individual instruments or change the key of an entire song and go from minor to major on the fly. It does this via Zynaptiq’s MAP (Mixed-Signal Audio Processing) technology.
PITCHMAP does all that by separating a musical signal into individual elements/sounds, including their associated harmonics and transients. Sounds to be processed are selected by their fundamental pitch, and their tuning can then be corrected, or their pitches arbitrarily mapped individually, using pitch maps the user creates from within the GUI, or real-time MIDI data.
How Does Zynaptiq PITCHMAP Work?
There are a lot of controls in this plugin and if I were to write about every one, it would read like the manual. So to keep it light, I will focus on just the most important controls.
If you had an orchestral sample running through it, you could change the key by using the key transform function. This is a very useful feature to make whatever you are sampling fit in the key of your song. There are 5 main controls.
Threshold allows you to automatically Bypass notes that are detuned less than an amount set within this control. At its lowest setting, everything is processed and with it moved up, notes already somewhat accurately tuned to the key will be bypassed.
Feel allows you to reintroduce microvariations in pitch such as vibrato after the correction has been applied. This yields a more realistic ‘feel’ to the processed sound.
Purify adjusts the amount of noisy artefacts created. The more you turn it up, the more it reduces these noisy components. However, the more you turn it up, the more cpu intensive it becomes. So if you are using this in a busy track with a lot of CPU usage already, it may be wise to freeze or bounce the process sound.
Glide adjusts the length of the polyphonic glide or portamento applied. So how quickly the correction ramps up from the source signal.
There are so many other options as well such as external MIDI input control. With this, you can use your keyboard to change the sound completely into a new key, chord structure and so forth. To do this, simply insert the plugin on a track. Then create a MIDI/instrument track in your DAW. Assign the input to your keyboard and the MIDI output to Pitchmap. Once this is done, the MIDI keyboard takes control of the sound.
As I mentioned, there are so many options in this plugin it is difficult to cover everything. In use, this plugin is a huge amount of fun. I would strongly suggest crate-diggers to check this out as it really can change a source sound dramatically to fit your song.