Software for continuously-variable pitch sounds?

April 8, 2007 1:18 PM

Compu musicians: what's the best software (if there is any) to use to make continuously variable swoopy-pitch sounds using a soundcard? I'd like to control and edit the actual roller-coaster profile of the pitch changes pretty closely.

I'm thinking the kind of stuff the old analog synths did by cranking a rheostat wheel, or what you might do with a slide trombone (or a plunger birdwhistle, for that matter.) I'm aware of MIDI pitch wheels that do it by pumping out an avalanche of pitch change messages but I have no keyboard with a pitch wheel and if I did I'm unlikely ever to master it well enough to realize what I have in mind. I'd really rather do this in some kind of editor. Does such a beast exist? Is there something more appropriate than MIDI for the purpose?

posted by jfuller to media & arts (10 comments total)

Max/MSP
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:40 PM on April 8, 2007

Most decent sequencers (eg Logic, Cubase) let you draw/edit controller data in a window, or enter it manually in a table, as well as inputting it from a controller (eg pitch wheel). You have us much control as you like.
posted by unSane at 1:52 PM on April 8, 2007

I don't see what your request has to do with soundcards as this doesn't seem to be a hardware question. The (excellent) free program Buzz has a host of generator plugins which allow such precise editing. I have been a long-time user and champion of Image-Line's FL Studio, which also allows such precise, microtonal editing. FWIW I use an M-Audio Delta 2496 card ($99) and reference on KRK V4 Series 2 active nearfield monitors.
posted by inoculatedcities at 1:54 PM on April 8, 2007

Seconding Max/MSP. You could also try its free cousin Pd (excellent tutorial here, not just for Pd but for digital sound in general).
posted by aparrish at 2:29 PM on April 8, 2007

Audiomulch.

Download the fully-functional free trial and have fun.

The interface is stark, but clear and fairly straightforward.

You can start with a TestGen sine wave generator and either modulate the pitch in real time with your mouse, or set up an automation track to modulate it over time. The help files should tell you how to get started linking modules and assigning automation tracks.
posted by univac at 2:29 PM on April 8, 2007

I mean, Audiomulch.
posted by univac at 2:38 PM on April 8, 2007

> I don't see what your request has to do with soundcards as this doesn't seem to be a hardware question.

Just mentioned soundcards to anticipate the "use your pitch wheel, silly rabbit" answer.


> Most decent sequencers (eg Logic, Cubase) let you draw/edit controller data in a window, or enter it manually in a table,

The last time I got this particular itch I was using what is now Sonar (then called Cakewalk Pro Audio.) It did have an editing windows that showed all the successive pitches bargraph-style but the window was only about an inch high at the bottom of the screen, and I never found any way to expand it to full screen. And creating smooth curves was hard. As for entering or editing table data, smooth microtonal pitch changes at the MIDI-maximum data rate make for a LOT of data points.

All the software mentioned so far looks fascinating but nontrivial. Lots to think about. Just to add a bit more specificity to the question, what I'm hoping to do is create tracks with the sort of bends and inflections you hear from players of uilleann and other Celtic pipes. Hard to do that in standard notation, or piano-roll!


> I mean, Audiomulch.

Thanks. Your first link wasn't clickable but www.audiomulch.com was embedded in it and I found the site.


Thanks and hat tips all 'round to everyone who has responded so far!
posted by jfuller at 3:00 PM on April 8, 2007

Reaktor also has quite a few generators that would provide this, but it's pricey along with the learning curve.
posted by ronmexico at 4:26 PM on April 8, 2007

Editing controller data is now MUCH easier than it used to be. You can draw in curves etc, smooth them out and so on.

I would suggest getting a cheap keyboard with a pitch wheel (eg Midiman Oxygen-8 or similar) and using this to input controller values then edit them in a sequencer.

Another approach is to buy a Theremin!

(The guy who engineered our second album had a thing for theremins and used the studio downtime to record theremin quartets... some of the most beautiful, unearthly stuff I've ever heard)
posted by unSane at 5:07 PM on April 8, 2007

The shareware audio workstation / sequencer software Reaper, like other (more expensive) packages, lets you draw automation envelopes over a track-- for instance, you can make a recorded track louder and softer over time by drawing the profile of the volume you want: up for loud, down for soft. Reaper can automatically make the envelope smooth for you.

It turns out that if you put a VST Instrument in a MIDI track, you can draw envelopes for any of that instrument's adjustable parameters - like pitch bend, if the instrument has a knob for that. Combine that with a smooth envelope and you might be able to get the effect you want. It's the equivalent of recording zillions of pitch bend events, but instead you just have a nice editable curve to work with.

Unlike doing your pitch bends with a wheel as you're performing, this would have to be done during editing*. But it sounds like that's what you want to do anyway.

* Reaper (and similar software) could actually record an external pitch wheel into your automation track if that's what you wanted to do. As unSane points out, though, you could get a cheap controller with a wheel. I would guess that it's easier to edit pitch envelopes that are entered by hand than ones that are recorded from a wheel but I don't have experience with the latter.
posted by moonmilk at 5:15 PM on April 8, 2007