Quick tip: formant correction

Formant correction

Time-stretching and pitch-shifting are part of my daily routine. The Pro Tools “Elastic Audio” feature fullfils my demands for fast and uncomplicated length and pitch adjustments of audiofiles.

Elastic Audio is good, no question about that. But you have to select the appropriate algorithm for different kinds of audio to get the best results.

Polyphonic

Polyphonic material. I use this for Songs.

Rhythmic

Rhythmic material. I use this for drumloops.

Monophonic

Monophonic material like a bass or a vocalist.

Varispeed

While timestretching there is a pitchshift mode too. I use this with tempo automation to create a ‘chipmunk’ effect and to make the audio run faster.

To use Elastic Audio, right-click on the audioclip you wish to manipulate…

…and select “Elastic Properties”…

Problem

If you pitch acapellas you’ll have a problem because there isn’t a perfect formant correction setting for that kind of audio within Elastic Audio. All the settings create unnatural sound.

Solution

The X-Form algorithm of Pro Tools features formant correction.

X-Form

X-Form is based of the iZotope-Radius-Time-Stretching and Pitch-Shifting-Algorythmn, licensed from iZotope.

This algorithm needs some time to work on your audio. It is rendered only, not realtime, but it delivers better results in timestretching and pitchshifting.

If you want to use also the formant correction you just have to enable it. Just click again on “x-form” in the elastic audio section. It will opens a little plugin in where you can enable it.

Just press “enable”

Did you know?

X-Form is also available as an Pitchshifting Audio Suite Plugin on the Avid website. It costs about EUR 500 and has more features.

While testing the trial version of it I can’t recognize a qualitative difference.

Personally i wouldn’t buy this plugin but if you try it and find a reason why it’s better as the elastic audio one (beside the adjustments you can make) then let me know.

Have fun with formant correction!