Hey guys,

This is my first post here, so hello !

I've been searching for a little while now and have not been able to find a good formant plugin for Ableton running on a mac.

Basically i need something that works in real-time but also sounds great. Nno searches on the internet (or this forum) seem to describe "formant" plugins in a way that sounds like what I'm looking for, usually its about melodyne, or changing the actual pitch (which too my understanding (or ears) doesnt sound like formant at all).

Here is an example of the effect that I used in a remix I did. it comes in at 4:03 to 4:22. You can hear how its pitch sounds like its effect yet its stays in the same key as it moves.



To get that effect, I used the Pitch shifter plugin in Logic, which has a fantastic speed and quality to its Formant effect, only problem is that it's in logic and its a pain to go in there, not to mention I want to play with formant when I perform live, Does anyone know of a plugin of the same quality / speed as a third party plugin?

The only one I've found at all is the Waves Ultrapitch shift, but it sounds like crap.

Thanks guys!

I was looking for the same thing but in hardware, but the closest I could find was Melodyne and Hematohm. have you looked into Hematohm?
Frequency Shifter Effect Plugins - Ohmforce: Hematohm | Sound Sonic Online Store
maybe also check Little Endian? Massive might have one built in also.

in terms of quality, nothing beats Melodyne but as you already mentioned you are not interested in that (and it may be overkill if you are only seeking this one effect)

aside from the already mentioned ohm-force plug, NI 'The Mouth' player for Reaktor offers some pleasing formant shifting capabilities.

These have demos:
PitCher
NewTone

And of course the choice of satanists world-wide:
Antares Products

Thanks man, I will look up Hematohm & Little Endian and report back. I also would've preferred it in hardware, but I couldn't find that either!

Massive does have a freq shifter, but Massive seems to be the only NI plugin that doesnt have an FX version to use on other channels.

I've tried melodyne Bridge.. but it requires that you record into it. I need something that I can slap on a channel and be able to pitch on the fly. Is there another version of Melodyne?

Will check these out. I think I'm also having trouble finding it because I'm not sure what to call what the effect is... I've seen the effect under Pitch Shifters, and Frequency Shifters, yet all of them don't have that feature either.

Thanks!

If you want it in hardware form I know the Roland VariOS does this (picked it up for real-time pitch shifting and time stretching myself, it also has formant controls).

You want Neptune in Reason!!

It does quite literally exactly what you're wanting if I'm reading it right!

However $399 might be a little much for one FX!

If I were you I would download the demo and try it, you might even be able to export out the audio you processed in demo mode!

Actually if you're just wanting to use it for on the fly stuff the demo will work just fine, it's only limitation is you can't open projects (but you can save) other than that it's fully functional so I bet it would work right for what you want!

Ok So thanks for the suggestions guys. here is what I found:

Hematohm: is ok, it sounds a little wierd, and not as clean as logic.

Little Endian: Sounds pretty good, the best out of all I've checked so far. Problem is sometimes it would just shut off the audio at some points for no reason, then just come back on in a few seconds. Not ideal for playing live lol

The Mouth: I love NI, and they usually do everything the best. However I could not figure out how to work the damn thing hahah. I will spend some more time with this one.

As for Pitcher and NewTone, they seem to be PC only, and I'm running on a mac :( thanks for the suggestion though.

@ Rob, Do you have any samples online of how it sounds? Might be the way to go.

@ Meow, Thanks for the suggestion, but its a Reason Only plugin? I'd need it to work in Ableton

Thanks guys, my mission to finding the perfect formant plugin is underway, once I've tested all of them I'll post back with the pros and cons of each!

I can record samples after work if you want. tbh I haven't had a chance to play with the unit much, just got it a month or so ago and am still moving around/busy, but it sounded great when I've gotten to use it. What might be a downside to you (judging from your complaints about having to use Logic on top of your current setup) is that it has a proprietary software you need to run alongside your DAW, just to load samples and relinquish MIDI control to your DAW. So it's not entirely independent of a computer.

You can rewire Reason into Ableton and use it there as well.

It's free to download the demo and see if it will work for you, it might not.

SoundToys PurePitch. They made the first ever formant pitch shifter.

That would be awesome if you didn't mind, if its trouble though don't bother

@Meow, I want to avoid a re-wire. Besides, Logic's formant plugin is perfect, i would just use that if i was going to re-wire.

@Beyersound I was unable to find anything about this online? Is it not available for Sale/Demo any longer?

Reaper comes with a pretty good pitch/formant shifter.

EDIT: Seems like ReaPitch isn't included in Reaplugs, must have something to do with the algos they licenced. You can still get Reaper for cheap or use the unlimited demo.


REAPER | ReaPlugs