User Manual

Performance Optimization

Sound Optimization

Here are a couple of tips on how to fine-tune the PITCHMAP parameters for best results.

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Increasing the Threshold parameter can help preserving drum transients

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Also, decreasing Purify below the default 50% can improve transient preservation

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If you’re seeing a lot of “pitch jumping”, try adjusting the Input Ref. Tuning and the Xclude Round. Mode

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Bypassing very low and very high frequencies can help preserve bottom end impact and transient crispness; adjust the Low-Cut and High-Cut

sliders so that any components you do not wish to tune/map are Bypassed. Please note: when MUTE is on, this will completely remove those

components instead of Bypassing them!

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When working with signals that contain vocals, or if harmonics of certain sounds are being missed, try activating Natural

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If you are working on signals that are not very dense, such as single polyphonic instruments or vocal stems, you may hear some unexpected,

higher-pitched “ghost copies” of the signal. Increasing Electrify slightly to around 60-70% will often reduce or completely remove this.

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In general, sound quality is proportional to pitch-shift factor, so you should always try to achieve desired harmony/melody changes with as

little pitch-shift as possible. When using MIDI MAP mode, the easiest way to make sure you get the minimum shift possible is to Reset the

GUI sliders before activating MIDI MAP and to use the Repeat mode. When using the Pitch Mapping Sliders, you can set their heads to Round

by shift-clicking them, which sets them to a mode that automatically uses the shortest shift distance. Also, once you’ve set up a target key/

scale using the sliders or the Transform macro, use the Voicing Arrows to define which source pitches get mapped to which interval in the

target scale --- some voicings will use vastly less pitch shift and may sound just as good (or better)

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When working with very dense material, or material with very noisy or broadband sounds like heavily distorted guitar chords or aggressive

synth-sounds, PITCHMAP may sometimes fail to recognize all harmonics and may move some of them to a residual layer (which typically

holds drum transients and the like). In this case, you may hear some traces of the original pitch or inharmonic coloration. Raising Purify can

reduce this effect.

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Raising Purify significantly will however make your sound resonant/synthetic. This can be counter-balanced to some degree by raising Feel or

by adding small amounts of Glide.

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On some sources, like heavily detuned finger-picked acoustic guitars, pitch correction may sometimes not fully remove tuning inaccuracies

even with Threshold and Feel at their minimum values. This is mainly due to a) beat frequencies in the chord and their harmonics being

detected as separate pitches and being corrected differently than the rest of the sound and b) the very short pitch “bend” that the picking

itself introduces by manipulating string tension. Try using Strict mode, which will remove more tuning inaccuracies while sacrificing some

zynaptiq PITCHMAP Quick Start Guide v 1.0

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