Pitch shifting, reverb, and delays

[doug_hti]

Mike,

Curious as to what boxes or plugs you use and prefer for pitch shifting, reverb, and delays, maybe directed at vocals?

thanks

[shipshape]

For pitch shifting I like the new Eventide Harmonizer plugs a lot , For pitch shifting delays I like Pitch blender and sound blender. For delays i lke the pcm 42 , the Telray plug and a whole bunch I cant remember right now , But I like one's where they can have a stereo sread to them or where I can feed one side back into the other. Reverb is a hard one because nothing sounds like a real EMT plate , but Altiverb is good and i dont really use a lot of reverb . Sometimes Ill use a little short plate on a vocal. There are all kinds of plugs that are fun for vocals , Mondomod , Metaflanger,
all kinds of plugs for a bit of stereo spread if you need it.

[fab]

Ah!

I was starting to feel lonely in the 'I don't dig reverb on vocals' world.

The vocal 'space' is what I spend the most time on. On every mix. My problem is that I do not like the sound of reverb AT ALL.
It seems tacky to me. Always. (Short plates excepted, in certain situations)
It's tough to analyze records on this matter because, with some exceptions, it's difficult to make out what's happening.
I love the 'present, yet fareway' sound you get on your lead vocals Mike. It's truly wonderful. I always scrutinize the song for a breakdown or the end of a phrase so that I can make out what's happening, but it's reallly tough. Plus I have a feeling you ride those things to death :-)

I'm very, very curious and eager to know what your starting points are.

(I personally tend to use +-9/11 cent pitch shifting to spread the lead a little, and then very short delays of various lenghts under 100ms to try and give a 'butt' to the track.)
I'm usually happy with the results, but it's still not where I'm at peace with it. Plus singers tend to say that my mixes sound dry.

This is one of the problems I have, that really make me wish I wasn't selftaught. I always think that I could have picked up that stuff by watching other people work while assisting.
(I could never bear the coffee-making phase of assistantship, I had to make music right away)

Any insights welcome,

Ciao,

Fab

[jpaudio]

Just chiming in on verb... and for me, the trick has been to use it in such a way that it enhances the signal but isn't obvious, you'd miss it if it were gone but can't put your finger on it when it's there. Using this approach, it really opens the door for which verbs can be fit into a mix.

FWIW, i've been digging the vocal multipitch preset in the TC M2000 lately... 6 voices, all within cents of the original, spread L-R at varying degrees and delayed varying amounts per voice, and then fed through a smooth stereo delay via the M2000's dual engine architecture. Will get you into H3000/DMX land for a fraction of the loot

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by jpaudio
Will get you into H3000/DMX land for a fraction of the loot

Not even close.

Part of the charm of the 3000 and 4000 is the sound of the converters.

They are much warmer sounding than the brittle like TC M2000.

Also they deal with hot levels differently.

[jpaudio]

Originally posted by thethrillfactor
Not even close.

Part of the charm of the 3000 and 4000 is the sound of the converters.

They are much warmer sounding than the brittle like TC M2000.

Also they deal with hot levels differently.

I'm staying digital via AES/EBU and never noticed any brittleness from the M2000... the converters could suck brutally but the quality of the effect is quite nice for a box in it's price range.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally posted by jpaudio
I'm staying digital via AES/EBU and never noticed any brittleness from the M2000... the converters could suck brutally but the quality of the effect is quite nice for a box in it's price range.

The new TC reverbs and effects still sound brittle, even just with AES.

I think this works fine for special effect boxes like the Fireworx, but when you need depth and richness the TC stuff just doen't cut it.

On the contrary the 2290 and the 1210 i love and these are the older units with the older converters.

For vocals i still like the older effect units(PCM42,2016,480L,DRP20,QRS,R880,RMX16) or a combo of the new and old.