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What is the deal with pitch shifting
So I know that title sounds like a bad stand up comedy routine 
but all joking aside 95% of all pitch shifting I've heard on the ios sounds like garbage to me. Especially for chords. Most of the time there's some kind of terrible pitch tracking algorithm that ends up sounding like a sick robot having diarrhea.
Tonestack pitch shifter pedals are the only ones I've ever found that work for chords, sound good and dont do the weird note tracking nonsense. Why do most other pitch shifting algorithms do this? I can play chords all day in Tonestack and it always sounds spot on and does not do the awful jumpy tracking that other apps do.
Thoughts? why do apps use such crappy algorithms? Why is tonestack alone in this respect?
Comments
To my knowledge the best way to pitch shift is stretching the duration while maintaining pitch and then changing the playback speed. That requires layers of tiny slices of the wave but it sounds good if it's done right.
For instance octave down
shorten duration in half and playback half speed
Octave up: double duration and playback 2x
so why the tracking on so many apps?
It's too bad that Bias FX can't do chords properly with the POG 2 simulation. And there's one Harmonizer app, ZMH-1, that seems to work quite well with chords but has a horrible ui and no way to control it by midi at all. Would be great if it got an update!
The more I use Tonestack the more I like It! but I'm just surprised it's the only guitar app that can pitch shift chords. Why are most apps using bad algorithms that sound awful?
Audiostretch does correct pitch shifting of chords on the fly but it's not a real time effect.
those algorithms are probably based on emulating Whammy-styled gear, which sucks in (audiotechnical) 'realism', but has a special sound character. The bug is a feature...
Wait, so you can play a guitar chord and ToneStack plays it back lower/higher? I had no idea any app could do this. I thought pitch shifting was always for single notes.
I've tried them all and can confirm that Tonestack is the best of the best with pitch shifting. It's the one I use to play bass on my six string in a pinch. Chords sounds decent, too.
All pitchshifters are poly . BassOctavers need single notes to sound clear without artifacts.Although there are some poly bass octavers .
@Hmtx Yeah all of tonestack pedals are poly including the bass octaver and the massive polyoctaver which can play 4 octaves at once (its pretty obnoxious actually
. Tonestack is amazing. Full chords and you never get that awful fizzle noise.
Sounds like fun. thanks for the inspiring ideas. I do love ToneStack's bass octaver, I'll have to experiment some more with the others
There is a pedal on Tonestack which is meant to be excellent. It is called the "Wanger" Apparently is is based on the Digitech Whammy 5 which costs appx £160. I think they are know as polyphonic pedals. Havent tried it but this is why I am sticking with Tonestack as it saves me lugging detuned guitars around.
I finally deleted Tonestack due to its awful feedback problems that never got worked out for me. I wanted to like it but just could never get rid of the awful background noise.
What interface did you use Tritonman? If you use any interface that utilises the headphone jack (such as the original IRig) feedback problems were a nightmare. I use a Sonic Port, which connects to the Lightning port (the slot for the charger). All problems gone away. Also keep an eye on your level in and out in the app itself. This worked wonders for me.
I get literally no feedback or noise issues in my iconnectivity Ica4+. I'm genuinely curious as to what interface you used as well.
All pitchshifters maybe poly, in the sense that you can play anything you want into them, including chords, but what comes out isn't necessarily suitable for polyphonic input. Over my 40 years of playing I've used many, many hardware and software pitchshifters; my first pro hardware unit was a Yamaha SPX90 in 1985. Yes it had a pitch shifting algo, but it really didn't handle chords at all well; you could get away with playing octaves or root/fifth double stops into it, but it still didn't sound great. I've also used Eventides, Boss GT units, Roland VG units, Zooms, EHX pedals, and very few of the pitch shifting algos sounded wonderful with a poly input. My EHX poly capable Pitchfork is good and so is the Whammy Ricochet. Software pitchshifters have been a bit hit and miss too, but they're getting much better. There have been many hardware and software pitchshifters historically that proved to be a bit crap with a poly input, but that doesn't stop anyone from using them in that way. I love a bit of warbly goodness ;-) Or are you talking about harmonising pitchshifters, which typically output a multi-voice poly signal from a mono input?
Will have to try my other interface after downloading again. The one I have been using does use headphone but the funny thing is none of the other guitar apps have this problem when I use it.
I also had the same problem with Tonestack and no other amp apps when using a headphone based interface. However, it performs great when using my iRig HD lightning interface. For what it's worth, Tonestack and Flying Haggis are my two favorite amp sims. Don't make me choose!
I like them both also, but have to give Flying Haggis the nod because of their balls to name it that.
It is a helluva name.
I experiment a lot with pitch shifting on my bass and have tried various cheaper pedals (Behringer and Mooer etc...). I have also used Tonestack and have come to the conclusion that if I really want to get the sound I want, I have to invest in a Pog 2. Everything just sounds tacky. Royal Blood have a phenomenal sound and if you want to get close to that, it has to be Pogs.
Just in case anyone hasn't heard of them, check this out.