Waves

Pitchshifting drums to get them in key with
the track around them is often a hairy
process. Even the best software pitching
algorithms can only shift kicks, snares and toms
a short distance in either direction before the
transients begin to sufer and the character of
the sound changes, becoming increasingly less
drum-like the further you go.
Waves reckon they have the solution to this
particular problem in their latest plugin, Torque
(VST/AU/AAX), which, they say, employs their
new Organic ReSynthesis technology to
facilitate manipulation of the pitch and formants
of drum sounds without afecting their
transients, duration, resonance and overall
timbre. Organic ReSynthesis even gets its own
logo on the UI, which suggests that Torque
could be the irst in a series of some sort.
You can Torque
Torque is very straightforward to use, with a
clear and attractive interface comprising just
ive main controls and an Output volume slider.
The irst thing to do is aim the algorithm at the
formant on which the pitchshifting should be
centred with the Focus Area control, the
worklow of which is described in In Focus,
below. With that done, twisting the Torque knob
dials in up to 1200 cents of shift up or down in 5
cent steps – job pretty much done! The rest of
the controls enable ine-tuning of a few key
parameters that govern the action of the
shifting algorithm.
The Threshold slider on the left sets a volume
level below which no shifting takes place. This is
useful for separating loud and soft sounds in the
input signal – the snare and hi-hats in overheads,
for example, or the main signal and mic bleed in
any channel – and shifting only the former.
The Speed and Trim sliders adjust the time
the shift takes to happen (550ms) and the
volume level of the shifted signal in relation to
the input. Speed can be used to hold of the
change in pitch until after the attack stage of the
drum, or make it happen instantly; and Trim is
handy when it comes to compensating for
changes in loudness occurring as a by-product
of the formant shifting process.
The fi nal twist
Torque does a superb job of retuning drums,
being decidedly more transparent and realistic
than conventional pitchshifting, and admirably
quick and easy to apply. Transients hold up very
well indeed, no matter how high or low you go,
and the body of the sound maintains its integrity,
depth and weight. It’s not always perfect, though,
and noticeable artefacts can start to creep in at
the extreme ends of the Torque range,
depending on the tonality of the source sound.
The narrow targeting system of the Focus
section implies that Torque is mainly intended
for use on separate drum multitracks, with the
Threshold control ofering basic separation of
elements within overhead tracks. Nonetheless,
we got usable results with it on full kit mixes and
loops, too. Processing anything but drums with
it rarely yields anything of value, however – it’s
clearly been tuned speciically to percussive
envelopes and timbres.
In short, Torque makes light work of tuning
acoustic and electronic drums, having an efect
as close as we’ve ever heard to cranking lugs on
the real things. Highly recommended.
Web www.waves.com
W a v e s
Torque $69
Your drums are out of tune with the track and the drummer’s
gone home. Can this new plugin help you ix it in the mix?
Verdict
For Repitches drums with impressive
transparency and range
Focus Area for frequency targeting
Speed and Trim controls work well
Stereo, mono and zero-latency versions
Against Extreme shifts can
introduce artefacts
Better than regular pitchshifting and
quicker than retriggering, Torque is a
must for anyone regularly mixing drums
9 / 1 0
Alternatively
Celemony Melodyne 4
230 » 10/10 » €99-699
Absurdly powerful and sounds
amazing, but costs much more
than Torque
zplane Elastique Pitch 2
220 » 9/10 » £147
Adjust pitch and formants
simultaneously with the X/Y
pad – a fantastic creative tool
The Focus section at the top of the Torque
interface is where you select the tonal
component of the drum sound that you want
the Organic ReSynthesis algorithm to target
for shifting.
The Focus display looks like a regular
spectrogram, but is actually a formant
analyser, scaled from 98988Hz and
revealing the resonant energy in the input
signal via an obvious peaking curve. Slide the
Focus Area (the vertical column) left and
right to hone in on the biggest peak and
you’re all set. Generally speaking, said peak
will be the fundamental frequency, but Waves
suggest that the second harmonic is always
worth trying, too, as is experimentation
across the full range.
The frequency and note pitch of the
selected range are displayed in the Focus
Area, and clicking and holding the
loudspeaker button while dragging (or not)
band-pass ilters it for solo monitoring.
In Focus
January 2018 / COMPUTER MUSIC / 97
waves torque / reviews <
CMU251.rev_torque.indd 97 11/14/17 11:48 AM