New Gear Review: zplane Elastique Pitch Version 2

Elastique Pitch Version 2 is a real-time pitch shifting plug-in for RTAS, VST, AU and AAX host DAWs running from 44.1 to 192kHz sample rates. It uses zplane’s élastique Pro pitch shifting engine—the same technology licensed and used within many DAW systems.

Elastique Pitch has a single automatable joystick that will transpose pitch and timbre ±12 semitones—50 to 200% with the display showing the shift in either semitones or percentage and all without affecting tempo. You may choose to keep timbre (formants) linked to pitch change or not.

Version 2 adds adjustable Feedback delay, Voicing Control for adjusting the dominant formant frequency quality, three different GUI viewing sizes and the infiniSTRETCH high quality freezing effect.

You can connect a MIDI controller and conceivably control up to eight instances of Elastique Pitch by using eight MIDI channels—think backing vocals singing oo’s and ahh’s and then building big stacks of harmonies and octaves. I had no CPU issues with running six at the same time throughout a mix. Using Elastique Pitch Version 2 is addictive.

With a collection of factory presets for typical film and video frame rate pull-up/downs, Elastique Pitch Version 2 sells for $199 MSRP. It works in Macs and PCs and is a great addition to your DAW’s bag of tricks.

products.zplane.de/elastique-pitch-2

Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com