![]() This is the kind of plugin that really lends itself to easy-going experimentation. In fact, stacking multiple instances of Microshift in series adjacent to one another or either side of processes to re-collapse the signal to mono, especially if we use Microshift on different settings, may produce a very unique sound. Of course, it’s mono again, but we could always re-widen it, either with another instance of Microshift or another process. To my ears, this altered sweep sounds interesting enough that it might be useful for something. Here’s some white noise fed through a sweeping, resonant, low-pass filter, first the original mono version, then a widened version, then a collapsed version…Ĭlearly the collapsed version sounds very different to the widened version, but no-one said we had to keep the widened version. Sound designers often get the best results by bending a few rules. Sometimes, the sound you get when you collapse the stereo field of a microshifted signal at mono-incompatible settings may be exactly what you’re after, particularly if you’re looking to create an interesting sound effect. However, because of the range of variation available with this plugin, as long as you know what to watch out for, you can be pretty confident of finding the trade-off between stereo width and a uniform listening experience for all to suit your needs. Many smart speakers are mono for example. ![]() ![]() Why bother collapsing a signal to mono after you just went to the trouble of making it beautifully wide? Not all your listeners may hear your content in stereo. When you’re listening to your audio in stereo, it may sound one way, but collapsing the stereo image to mono again after the plugin in your signal flow may result in a rather different sound owing to possible phase issues that might crop up. The thing to be careful of when using this plugin, if it’s something your project requires, is mono-compatibility. This parameter ranges from 20 Hz to 10000 Hz. Say you’re widening a very rich sound, a melody played by a brass ensemble perhaps, you could widen the crisp highs while leaving the bass element solid and centered. Microshifting is only applied to the higher of these two bands. This parameter controls a two-band cross-over filter. There is also an input gain control to allow you to adjust how the signal is saturated.įinally, the ‘Focus’ control offers even more flexibility. These affect not only the pitch-shifting algorithm and the amount of delay and de-tuning variation possible, but also the characteristics of the saturation that is also applied to the signal, meaning that you get warmth as well as width. The ‘Style’ parameter allows you to change between three different processing algorithms modeled on presets from the hardware unit on which this plugin is based. This number of permutations increases dramatically when you factor in the ‘Style’ parameter. Experimenting with these controls offers a wide range of permutations for your sound. These controls are adjustable between 50 and 200%. ![]() The ‘Detune’ and ‘Delay’ controls adjust the offset in pitch and time between the left and right channels of your audio. Here’s a notification tone produced by Zapsplat at 0%, 25%, 50% and 100% mix… When the control is set to 100% wet, full stereo width is achieved. However, here it acts as a stereo width control, assuming you’re feeding Microshift a mono source. blends the processed and unprocessed signals. The simple ‘Mix’ control does exactly what you might expect, i.e. Microshift applies a tiny delay and pitch offset that varies over time to each channel of your stereo audio and this simple trick has the effect of blowing a mono source wide open so that it fills the stereo field without cluttering it. But what exactly does it do?Īlthough Microshift is a pitch-shifter at heart, that’s not the effect you hear when you listen to something that’s been fed through it. So the plugin is little by name and little by nature, both in terms of its appearance and its effect. I’m thinking of offerings such as Phase Mistress, Echoboy and Temolator, but sometimes less is more and, if six controls are all you need to get the job done, Soundtoys sees that six controls are all there are to keep things simple, uncluttered and above all, intuitive. Soundtoys has created some highly configurable plugins with parameters to suit every occasion. This idea that really small changes can have really large consequences came to my mind when I sat down to review Microshift, a pitch-shifter from Soundtoys with a difference. You’ve heard of “the Butterfly effect”, the idea that if a butterfly flaps its wings somewhere, a storm might be created somewhere else.
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