The best pitch shifter for drums... I mean EVER!

Have you ever tried to create a pitch shift on a snare drum (mostly used in electronic music) but once you start going up, the transients are gone? Yeah, not even Waves plugin sounds good. It sounds like a phaser type of thing and it loses definition. 

We, lucky Logic users have the best pitch shifter in the world for that and it's called......... Ultrabeat! Yes, try it and let me know if I'm wrong

All you gotta do is:

1 - Load your snare sample (or anything else) into your Ultrabeat.

2 - Assign the sample's osc pitch to the Mod Wheel. You do that by choosing Max on the Mod option and then choosing CtrlA on the Via option:

NOTE: make sure that on top of Ultrabeat where it says midi controller assignment, the A option is set to ModWheel

3 - Raise the modulation handle (green) to the pitch you want the sample to go (see image)

4 - Add ModWheel automation to your track and enjoy it. You keep the transients and still have that pitch going up (or down)

Hope it helps

Hi iam3ple

I've tried to recreate your method and the result simply sounds like Ultrabeat is accelerating or decelerating the playback of my sample. Is that what you're hearing too?

Yes the pitch increases or decreases, but the sample also becomes shorter or longer. Flex time could achieve the same affect, and I could more easily control how much of the transient I would like untouched.

Hi iam3ple

 

I've tried to recreate your method and the result simply sounds like Ultrabeat is accelerating or decelerating the playback of my sample. Is that what you're hearing too?

 

Yes the pitch increases or decreases, but the sample also becomes shorter or longer. Flex time could achieve the same affect, and I could more easily control how much of the transient I would like untouched.

Yes, that's the normal behavior on any pitch shifter. The only difference is that unlike some plugins out there, like the Waves pitch shifter that a lot of people use, you don't lose the transients on a sample. If you're using it just to pitch shift one sample and then use that sample, then yes, maybe Flex Pitch is better if you want to keep the length. My approach is more intended for electronic music when you have a snare build up, where the pitch changes over time. With Ultrabeat, as I said, you don't get artifacts and don't lose the transients the same way you do when you use other plugins. Hope it makes sense.

Yep, your explanation makes sense 

I like your latest track 'Don't Go Away' , good music.

Yep, your explanation makes sense 

 

I like your latest track 'Don't Go Away' , good music.

Good that it makes sense!

And thanks! Glad you like the track. More to come, once a month so stay tuned...!

Could you cut or do a fade-in that eats the attack part of your most beloved snare sample and use that as the pitching one, use the original attack un-pitched alongside it?

That's an option, but why do that when you have a plugin that does that for you automatically? what if you decide to change the snare? You will have to do it again.

For me time is super important and I search for the best options to save time so I can focus more on being creative, but also the best quality and maybe I'm wrong, but maybe even if you cut the attack, most pitch shifters add this "phasing" effect. I'm happy with Ultrabeat and it does the job pretty well

If you really care about the attack (which I'm not saying you have to), you'll do it separately. Any sample pitched up will lose its original weight/body/depth eventually pitching it up like that, and pitching thins out the attack, too.

PS. Couldn't you do the same in EXS24, too?

If you really care about the attack (which I'm not saying you have to), you'll do it separately. Any sample pitched up will lose its original weight/body/depth eventually pitching it up like that, and pitching thins out the attack, too.

 

PS. Couldn't you do the same in EXS24, too?

Have you tried the method I described yet? And compared it with, for example, the Waves pitch shifter or even the pitch shifter in Logic? There's no comparison.

I care enough to know I still have it, but not enough to waste my time doing it manually for the reasons I explained.

The EXS24, besides the fact that you have to save the preset before you close the edit window, which is not practical for me, doesn't go up in pitch gradually. You hear the steps (semi tones).

And if any pitch shifter changes the sound, as you said, what's the point of doing it with the exs24 instead of Ultrabeat when I know it works the way I want?

Ultrabeat slows down/speeds up sample. 

You can do the same in any other sampler, or with Flex time speed mode.

I personally prefer Battery 4 to ultrabeat for one-shot drum samples, because its cleaner/faster to work with.

Waves (and logics, and most others) pitch shifters actually shift pitch, meaning, length/duration stays the same while pitch changes.