How to make vocal transformer sound less like a joke?

Short answer: The vocal transformer is kind of a joke.

Long answer: I assume you want to raise the pitch one octave? I got nice results for male -> female by clicking the pencil icon and setting the lower ruler down a bit from the preset. You have to find the point between the sound of a male falsetto and a mickey mouse.

You have to find the point between the sound of a male falsetto and a mickey mouse.

As everyone knows, that's where the female voice lies....

LOL!
X

What I would really like to achieve is a higher pitch (but nowhere near an octave)

If you want the melody to be the same, the pitch has to be the same or an octave higher - everything inbetween would transpose the song and wouldn't match the accompanying instruments.

That's why in the Vocal Transformer you have two sliders - one is for the pitch and one is for the "character" of the voice. It works with the formants and can make a voice sound "higher" or "lower" although the pitch is the same.

What you can do, of course: If the highest version of the female melody that you can sing is not an octave below the target pitch but only a third or a fourth, you can record the line in a different key (by temporarily transposing the rest of the instruments) and then use the Vocal Transformer to raise the pitch. Because the less halftones you push the recording up or down, the more natural you can make it sound.

Check out Melodyne.

Hands down the coolest plug in/stand alone ever created. Worth every cent and then some.

X

Hi, Christopher,

For that job, you might be better off with an Audio Editor.
Audacity, which is free, is a nice program. It can do pitch change with-or-without duration change, etc.

WH

Oh. That's a whole different thing. It wouldn't make much sense for you to speak a lot higher than you normally do, because that would sound unnatural. But you don't have to raise the voice by an octave - use a fifth (7 steps) to approximate it (first ruler), that corresponds to the average natural difference, and then play around with the formants (second ruler). Audacity would only raise the pitch, and that makes the voice mickeymousy per se.

Hi, Christoph,

+Audacity would only raise the pitch+

It doesn't have the Formant control, but it does have all the effects that are available in GB, so you can use EQ and all the other options to affect the sound.

+that makes the voice mickeymousy+

As with GB and other apps, if you go up far, it will sound unnatural. So don't go up that far.

WH

but it does have all the effects that are available in GB, so you can use EQ and all the other options to affect the sound.

No, it doesn't have the Vocal Transformer, and that's really crucial for the character of the voice.