Synth with extreme pitch shift

[donsolo]

Almost all software synthesizers, whether plugin or virtual-analog hardware have scalable and definable pitch bend ranges.

I recommend Reaktor because you can design anything you could possibly want and it's all 100% customizable with a variety of great pre-installed synths all with their own set of presets.

Downside is that outside of opening a built-in synth and tweaking knobs, which is similar to all new synths (only this has several great options instead of just one) is that it's a complete beast to really, really learn. This is like a dumbed down version of Max so it's a bit easier to learn but still, I think I remember it being the entire platform for Berklee's synthesizer design class, at least the first level.

But in my experience, pitch bend usually tops out at 2 octaves on everything else. This is information you can find in the manual before purchase of anything though.

[dahkter]

Thanks Don

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by donsolo

But in my experience, pitch bend usually tops out at 2 octaves on everything else. This is information you can find in the manual before purchase of anything though.

+1
most hardware synths i've played with are capable of up to 2 octave "bends", this usually requires some menu diving & tweaking. presets tend to be set anywhere from 2 notes to 1 octave. i haven't done much pitch bending on soft synths so i'm not sure if many do more than 2 octaves.

[donsolo]

The other thing I didn't mention is that the larger leap in pitch, the less smooth the pitchbend wheel will sound. I think that's why most cap out at 2 octave.

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by donsolo

The other thing I didn't mention is that the larger leap in pitch, the less smooth the pitchbend wheel will sound. I think that's why most cap out at 2 octave.

you can make some great noise with it though. i used to love dropping sounds as low as they'd go via programming & then pitch bending it another 2 octaves past that in order to get some really bizzare sounds on old PCM synths. i had a warm pad sound on my old Roland D20 that turned into a helicopter when bent down 2 octaves & the ring modulated percussion loops would do all sorts of strange sputtering that sounded a bit the bitcrushed effects of today.


...or if you head the other direction you could irritate your dog.

[donsolo]

Now, what if you Sampled that sound and pitch bent it back up?

I once did a thing with my Kurzweil strings where I reversed the MIDI performance, recorded it and reversed the recording. On strings where there's no hard attack, it doesn't actually sound reversed, just strange.

[Stevil]

Originally Posted by donsolo

Now, what if you Sampled that sound and pitch bent it back up?

i'll have to try that out one of these days. i've been really happy with the results i've gotten from putting effects on reversed tracks & then flipping it back around. guess there's always a step further to take it. thanks for the tip!