Zynaptiq PITCHMAP Manual

PITCHMAP
User Manual V1.5.0

Introducing PITCHMAP 5
What is PITCHMAP? 5
System Requirements 6
Mac Requirements 6
Windows Requirements 6
Installation & Authorization 7
Installation Mac 7
Installation Windows 8
Authorization Mac & Windows 10
Authorization Details 10
De-Activating a Machine 11
Overview 12
Features at a Glance 12
Applications And Usage Scenarios 13
The Parameters 14
General Controls Behavior 14
General GUI Layout 17
The Header Bar 18
The Preset Manager 18
Storage Locations 18
“About” Screen & Update Check 19
The Graphic Display & Mapping Editor 20
Overview 20
Display 20
The Upper Keyboard Thumbnail 21
Mute Filters: Low-Cut And High-Cut Sliders 21
Mute Switch 21
Lower Keyboard 22
PITCHMAP
2 User Manual v 1.5.0
Reset 23
Right Keyboard 23
Pitch Mapping Sliders 23
Bypass 24
Edit Mode Section 25
Edit Mode 25
Key Edit Mode 26
Live MIDI: MIDI MAP 26
EXT. MIDI 26
Process Section 27
THRESHOLD 27
FEEL 27
PURIFY 28
GLIDE 28
ELECTRIFY 29
Algorithm & Macro Section 30
KEY TRANSFORM Macros 30
ALGORITHM 33
STRICT 33
XCLUDE ROUND. MODE 33
The Footer Bar 34
INPUT REF. TUNING 34
OUTPUT TUNING 34
Snapshots 34
Quick Start Tutorials 36
Tutorial A: MIDI Modes and Setting Up MIDI Control In Your Host 36
Ableton Live 36
Logic Pro 37
Cubase 38
Pro Tools 39
Tutorial B: Correcting Tuning Issues in Mixed Signals 40
PITCHMAP
Tutorial C: Attenuating Wrong Notes 41
Tutorial D: Changing the Key/Scale/Melody of a Recording using the GUI Macros. 42
Tutorial E: Changing the Key/Scale/Melody of a Recording using the GUI Sliders 43
Tutorial F: Changing the Key/Scale/Melody of a Recording using MIDI 44
The Standalone pp 45
FAQ 46
Questions & Answers 46
Authorization Issues Windows 47
Sound Optimization 50
CPU Load optimization 52
Getting Support 53
PITCHMAP
Introducing
PITCHMAP
What is PITCHMAP? PITCHMAP is the world’s first and only real-time, polyphonic pitch correction and pitch
mapping plug-in. Need to correct pitch inaccuracies on one instrument in a full mix or a
polyphonic recording? Want to change the key of an entire song and simultaneously go from
minor to major 7/9 on the fly? PITCHMAP allows you to do all of that, and more. To
accommodate for modern musical genres and to open up a wide array of sound-design
options, PITCHMAP also provides means of controllably making the process sound more
synthetic in a very unique and evocative way.
Based on our proprietary MAP (Mixed-Signal Audio Processing) technology, PITCHMAP does all
that by separating a musical signal into individual elements/sounds, including their associated
harmonics and transients. Sounds to be processed are selected by their fundamental pitch, and
their tuning can then be corrected or their pitches arbitrarily mapped individually, using pitch
maps the user creates from within the GUI, or real-time MIDI data. On the fly and in
unprecedented fidelity. The immediate nature of this process opens up new ways to intuitively
interact with the compositional aspect of a recording, and unlocks a huge creative potential.
We sincerely hope you will enjoy using PITCHMAP as much as we did creating it. It is the
culmination of 40 combined years of research and professional audio production expertise, and
thus we are very excited to provide you with this unique and exceptional tool.
Now go create great audio!
Yours,
Stephan M. Bernsee & Denis H. Gökdag
zynaptiq headquarters
Hannover, Germany
September 2013
PITCHMAP
System
Requirements
Mac Requirements ‣ Intel-based Apple Mac computer

‣ Minimum of 2 CPU cores running at 2.4 gHz or faster
‣ 1 GB of available RAM
‣ Mac OS X 10.6 or newer
‣ 60 MB free Hard-Disk space
‣ Apple AU (AudioUnits), Steinberg VST 2.4 or Avid RTAS/AAX compatible host software
‣ AAX requires Pro Tools version 10.3.5 or newer
‣ Internet Connection for Activation (though not necessarily on the Computer used for audio)
Windows Requirements ‣ Minimum of 2 CPU cores running at 2.4 gHz or faster

‣ 1 GB of available RAM
‣ Microsoft Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or Windows 7/8
‣ 60 MB free Hard-Disk space
‣ Steinberg VST 2.4 or Avid RTAS/AAX compatible host software
‣ AAX requires Pro Tools 10.3.5 or newer
‣ Internet Connection for Activation (though not necessarily on the Computer used for audio)
PITCHMAP
Installation &
Authorization
Installation Mac Installing and authorizing PITCHMAP on a Mac is very straight-forward. Simply expand the
ZIP file you received, navigate to the Mac OS X folder in the resulting directory and mount the
contained disk image file (.dmg) by double-clicking it in the Finder. Then launch the installer
contained on the resulting, auto-mounted volume. Follow the on-screen instructions to install.
The installer will install the following files to the following locations:
1) AudioUnits mono/stereo plug-in for both 32- and 64-bit use to <root drive>/Library/Audio/
Plug-ins/Components/
2) VST mono/stereo plug-in for both 32- and 64-bit use to <root drive>/Library/Audio/Plug-
ins/VST/
3) RTAS mono/stereo plug-in to /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins/
4) AAX mono/stereo plug-in for both 32- and 64bit use to /Library/Application Support/Avid/
Audio/Plug-Ins
5) Manual, PITCHMAP Authorizer app & stand-alone application to /Applications/Zynaptiq Plug-
In Support/
During installation you will be prompted to activate your plug-in, so please keep your
activation code at hand. Please note that we strongly advise to activate your software at this
point, and not from within your host application.
PITCHMAP
Installation Windows Installing and authorizing PITCHMAP on a Windows system is very straight-forward. Simply
expand the ZIP file you received and navigate to the Windows folder in the resulting directory.
Therein, you will find the following individual installers:
1) VST 2.4 mono/stereo plug-in (32bit)
1) VST 2.4 mono/stereo plug-in (64bit)
2) RTAS mono/stereo plug-in
3) AAX mono/stereo plug-in (32bit)
4) AAX mono/stereo plug-in (64bit)
Choose the appropriate installer and launch it. Please note that you need to be logged in as
admin level user!
The installers create the following files:
1) The VST installer creates the PITCHMAP VST plug-in in <Program Files Folder>\Steinberg
\VstPlugins. Note: should you keep your VST plug-ins in a different location, you should
point the installer to that directory when provided with the option. Note: please do not
rename, move or delete the “Data” folders installed next to the plug-ins
2) The RTAS installer creates the PITCHMAP RTAS plug-in as well as the PITCHMAP RTAS data
folder in <Program Files Folder>\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins. Note: please do
not rename, move or delete the “Data” folder installed next to the plug-in.
3) The AAX installers create the PITCHMAP AAX plug-in in <Program Files Folder>\Common
Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins.
PITCHMAP
All Windows installers will install the PITCHMAP Authorizer app to <Program Files Folder>
\Zynaptiq\PITCHMAP\.
Windows Vista, Windows 7/8 users: please make sure you activate the plug-in when
the activation dialog is opened during install (and NOT from within your host!).
PITCHMAP
To be able to use your new software, it needs to be activated. During installation of
Authorization Mac & Windows PITCHMAP, the PitchmapAuthorizer app will automatically be launched.
Enter your serial number and click “Activate”. If your machine has access to the internet, you’ll
be shown a confirmation of the successful authorization and you’re good to go. If the machine
you’re activating on has no internet connection, you will be guided through the process.
Authorization Details Generally, our copy protection mechanism will allow you to have two machines authorized at
the same time. It is essentially a challenge-response type system that takes specifics of your
computer into account anonymously. However, unlike most other challenge-response systems,
PITCHMAP
the Zynaptiq copy protection allows the user to de-activate a system at any time, and re-
activate it later - without contacting us. So essentially, you can pretty much move your
authorizations around as needed. The only limitation is that in order to de-activate a machine,
it needs to be connected to the internet.
De-Activating a Machine To free up an activation, you can de-activate a machine. To do this, please launch the
PitchmapAuthorizer app, and click “Deactivate Product”.
You will be presented with a confirmation message and you’re done.
Please note that the machine to be de-activated needs to be connected to the internet!
PITCHMAP
Overview
Features at a Glance PITCHMAP provides all of the following functionality in real-time:
‣ Automatic correction of pitch inaccuracies in polyphonic and mixed signals

‣ Mapping of source to destination pitches via the GUI
‣ Definition of destination pitch grid via live MIDI
‣ Process bypass on arbitrary notes selected by their fundamental pitch
‣ all of which leaves non-pitched signals like drums virtually untouched
‣ Suppression & Extraction of mix elements based on their pitch using Mute Filters via GUI or
MIDI control
‣ Continuously variable unique synthetic coloration options via parameters Electrify and Purify
‣ Polyphonic portamento/glides using the Glide parameter
‣ High-speed workflow: options to rapidly generate complex pitch maps using macro controls
‣ Snapshot functionality to allow rapid creation of automation
‣ Mono/Stereo plug-in supporting 44.1kHz and 48kHz sampling rates (higher rates being
worked on)
PITCHMAP
Applications And Usage Scenarios PITCHMAP has quite a lot of uses. Here are a couple of them.
‣ Fixing tuning inaccuracies in mixed signals

‣ Adapting one recording, song, loop or sample to fit another
‣ Playing own compositions using a recorded song or loop as an “instrument” using live MIDI
input to map pitches
‣ Changing the key/scale of a recording/song/loop/sample
‣ Changing the pitch of individual notes within a recording
‣ Suppressing mix elements
‣ Extracting/Isolating mix elements
‣ Rapid song prototyping
‣ Creative sound design
‣ Speeding up sample-based music production, re-mixing and mash-up creation workflows
significantly
PITCHMAP
The Parameters
General Controls Behavior PITCHMAP sports several control types, which have a variety of usability features. We will
describe the ones with extra functionality here.
“Trackball” Slider
This control is a unique Zynaptiq type - it is essentially a vertical
fader, that looks like a knob. The benefits of this configuration are
that they are simple to control with a mouse like a fader, yet
conserve GUI space like a rotary control. Also, the combination of
the horizontal marking on the “Trackball” and the circular value
display make it very easy to tell the current value of the parameter.
‣ Drag up/down to change the parameter value.

‣ Hold shift while dragging for finer resolution.
‣ When the control has focus, the up/down arrow keys and the mouse scroll-wheel can be
used to increment or decrement the value. The control has focus whenever the mouse
hovers over it.
‣ CTRL-click or right-click on the control to reset it to default.
‣ Double-click on the control opens a text box for numerical entry of the value.
PITCHMAP
“Standard” Slider
This is a straight-forward slider control, which comes in horizontal as well as vertical

configurations. Essentially, it follows the same rules as the “Trackball”:
‣ Drag the thumb along the slider axis to adjust the value
‣ Click anywhere in the slider groove to set the value directly
‣ Hold shift while dragging for finer resolution.
‣ When the control has focus, the up/down arrow keys and mouse scroll-wheel can be used to
increment or decrement the value. This control type has focus after it was clicked on AND
the mouse hovers over it.
‣ CTRL-click or right-click on the control to reset it to default.
‣ Double-click on the control opens a text box for numerical entry of the value.
Toggle Switch
A latching switch that activates a function or switches between two different functions. CTRL-
click resets it to default.
PITCHMAP
Momentary Button
A momentary switch that triggers an action, such as a reset/clear. This control type comes in
several sizes, but is always essentially a rectangular outline.
Pull-down Selector/Menu
Opens a menu on click. You can recognize this control type by its “cut off” top right corner.
CTRL-click resets this to default value.
Checkbox Switch
Functionally identical to the Toggle Switch, this switch type is used within the display area.
PITCHMAP
General GUI Layout The PITCHMAP user interface is divided into 6 sections: the Header- and Footer Bars, the
Graphic Display & Mapping Editor Area and the Edit Mode, Process and Algorithm/Macro
Sections.
Header Bar
Graphic Display
& Mapping
Editor
Edit Mode Algorithm/

Section Macro Section
Footer Bar
Process Section
PITCHMAP
The Header Bar
The Preset Manager To make working with the different plug-in formats easier, PITCHMAP provides it’s own preset
manager and preset format. This way, you can load your custom settings exactly the same way
regardless of whether you’re working on the Mac or on a Windows machine, whether you’re
using RTAS or VST.
The Preset manager is accessed using the small triangle icon in the upper left corner of the
GUI:
A click on the triangle icon brings up a menu that provides options for
saving and loading presets, saving the current setting as default and
re-setting the default preset to factory default values. If you edit a
recalled preset, the triangle icon will be lit up to indicate that the
current and saved values don’t match.
Storage Locations There are separate locations for factory presets and user presets, and they both depend on the
OS platform you’re working on:
Factory presets (Mac OS X): these are stored inside the actual plug-in.
Factory presets (Windows): these are stored in the PITCHMAP VST/RTAS/AAX Data folder,
which is installed next to the plug-in.
User presets (Mac OS X and Windows): these are stored to <your user document
directory>/Zynaptiq/PITCHMAP/Presets/
PITCHMAP
“About” Screen & Update Check Clicking on the Zynaptiq Logo opens an “About…” screen
which displays version information as well as copyright and
and legal notices. Also, from within the About screen, you
may check for updates manually or toggle automatic weekly
update checking.
PITCHMAP
The Graphic Display
& Mapping Editor
Overview
Display The Display is your central source of information about your signal in PITCHMAP.
Understanding it and the functionality it provides is essential to getting the most out of
PITCHMAP. Basically, it displays 3 octaves of your input signal in a fashion similar to a
spectrogram, flowing from bottom to top, with lower frequencies to the left and higher
frequencies to the right. However, it is not a simple spectrogram that maps frequency content
and amplitude to horizontal position and color, it is significantly more advanced than that.
What we display are detected sounds, including their harmonics, transients and noise
components, whose fundamental pitch we map horizontally. Absolute pitch is coded into the
color, and amplitude is displayed using the width of the symbols. The Lower Keyboard at the
bottom of the Display also indicates their pitch, serving as legend or grid. In a way the Display
is rather similar to a piano roll.
The Display also serves as background for the Pitch Mapping Sliders, helping you find the
pitches you want to process.
PITCHMAP
The Upper Keyboard Thumbnail
The Upper Keyboard Thumbnail is used as reference grid for the Low-Cut and High-Cut sliders,
and for navigating the Display. The lighter grey 3-octave area corresponds to the visible 3
Display & Lower Keyboard octaves. Drag the grey area or click anywhere in the upper
keyboard to scroll the Display and the Lower Keyboard.
Mute Filters: Low-Cut And High-

Cut Sliders
Sounds outside the bounds defined by these sliders are either bypassed or muted, depending
on the state of the Mute switch. Drag these to adjust the cut-off point. CTRL-Click anywhere on
the Upper Keyboard Thumbnail to reset these. When the Low-Cut slider is dragged to the right
past the High-Cut slider, the range between the sliders is bypassed/muted, not the range
outside of the sliders. Please note: THESE ARE NOT FILTERS! When in Mute mode, any sound
that has it’s base pitch in the area that is Muted will be removed, including its harmonics,
transients and noise components. Think in terms of muting channels on a mixing desk.
Mute Switch
This control defines whether the material outside of the boundaries defined by the Low-Cut
and High-Cut parameters is Bypassed or Muted.
PITCHMAP
Lower Keyboard
The Lower Keyboard has multiple functions. Firstly, it serves as a reference grid for the sounds
shown in the Display. Secondly, it serves as source pitch grid for the Pitch Mapping Sliders.
Thirdly, it is used to edit the Bypass and Xclude states per source pitch. Think of the keys of
the Lower Keyboard like mixer channels (with every pitch that is contained in your recording
having its own mixer channel) and you’ll get the hang of it pretty fast. Also displays which
MIDI note is being pressed when in MIDI MAP mode.
Behavior influenced by:
A click on a key toggles the Bypass/Xclude state for that pitch, depending on whether Bypass
or Xclude is selected in the Key Edit parameter. A Bypassed key will show green, an Xcluded
key orange/red.
Also, Repeat/Visible/Custom is respected. So, for example, if Repeat is on, a click on a key will
toggle the state for that key in all octaves. CTRL-Clicking anywhere on the Lower Keyboard
resets all states. When in MIDI MAP mode, the Lower Keyboard serves display purposes only,
and keys pressed via MIDI will be shown in blue.
Finally, a SHIFT-Click on one of the keys will play a sine wave at that pitch.
PITCHMAP
Reset
Resets all Pitch Mapping Sliders to default values. Use this to start from scratch. Alternately,
you can CTRL-click anywhere in the Display to reset the sliders.
Right Keyboard The Right Keyboard represents the destination (output) pitches and serves as a
grid for the Pitch Mapping Sliders. The keys light up when adjusting a slider to
show its value.
These are the main GUI controls for mapping pitch. By dragging these up or
Pitch Mapping Sliders
down, you are mapping a source pitch (as shown by the Lower Keyboard) to a
destination pitch (as shown by the Right Keyboard). Think of this like a routing
matrix or patchbay, “this goes there”. Or you can think of a slider as a
transpose/pitch-shift value that is available per source pitch. While dragging a
slider, the relevant pitch is soloed. Holding alt/option while dragging drags along
the sliders of the same pitch class across all octaves (so dragging the slider of a
C drags the sliders every C). The body of the slider shows a level meter for the
pitch that is referenced. The head of the slider adjusts the mapping behavior,
and can be switched through 4 states by shift-clicking it.
PITCHMAP
Square Slider Head
Pitch is mapped within the octave of the source pitch only, exactly defined by setting a
slider. WYSIWYG.
Round Slider Head

Mapping is automatically performed towards the nearest octave. For example: when
you’re mapping a C to an E, the E in the same octave as your source pitch will be used (it
has a distance of +4 semitones to the C). If you mapped the C to an A (+9 semitones),
the lower octave will be used (-3 semitones). The purpose of this mode is to keep
transposition as low as possible to maximize sound quality, and it is actually quite similar to
the way musicians voice their chords intuitively.
Downward Triangle Slider Head

Mapping always uses the octave below, effectively transposing your slider down by an
octave. The purpose of this mode is to allow transpositions outside of the range
visualized by the Right Keyboard, while keeping it easy to read the map.
Upward triangle Slider Head

Performs the same thing as the Downward Triangle Slider Head, but transposes up by an
octave instead of down.
Bypass Performs a highly complex function best described as Bypassing the plugin.
PITCHMAP
Edit Mode Section
Edit Mode
The active Edit Mode defines behavior when editing Pitch Mapping Sliders, Bypass/Xclude
states via the Lower Keyboard and when using MIDI MAP.
Edit Mode: Repeat
When Edit Mode is set to Repeat, any value edited is copied to all octaves. Example: when
dragging a Pitch Mapping Slider associated with a “C”, the same value is applied to every “C” in
all octaves. This mode is useful for quickly mapping one pitch class to another across the entire
spectrum. When using MIDI MAP, playing a chord results in the entire range being mapped to
that harmony, giving results instantly.
Edit Mode: Visible
Visible works like Repeat, but restricts the range to the visible three octaves. Example: setting
Bypass enabled using the Lower Keyboard for an “A” causes all “A” keys in the visible three
octave range to be set to the same value. Visible mode helps tailor independent intra-scale
voicings for different frequency ranges (basically for bass, harmonies and melodies). In MIDI
MAP mode, the range outside of the visible area is divided into two separate Custom zones.
Edit Mode: Custom
In the Custom setting, only the exact key/slider/note that you edit is changed, leaving all other
values alone. In MIDI MAP mode, this allows playing completely independent phrases in
varying parts of the MIDI keyboard. This even allows mapping all source pitches to a single
destination pitch (which can sound very cool)!
PITCHMAP
Key Edit Mode
The active Key Edit Mode selects whether clicking on a key on the Lower Keyboard edits the
Bypass or Xclude state of the corresponding pitch. When in MIDI MAP mode, selects whether
MIDI notes are used to map the pitches (Xclude) or to un-mute a pitch (Bypass)
Live MIDI: MIDI MAP
MIDI MAP is a unique PITCHMAP feature that allows forcing melodies or harmonies you play via
MIDI onto the signal being processed. It’s like you were playing the instruments contained in
the signal via MIDI, all at the same time. MIDI MAP also allows intuitive de-mixing by allowing
only sounds to pass through that correspond to the MIDI notes you are playing. When MIDI
MAP is active, the Lower Keyboard, including all associated Bypass and Xclude states, is
ignored. Instead, live MIDI input is used to set values. Depending on the state of the Key Edit
parameter, MIDI notes either define the destination pitches allowed (Xclude) or are used to un-
mute a key (Bypass). MIDI MAP respects the Edit Modes Repeat/Visible/Custom setting.
See the Quick-Start Tutorials on how to set up MIDI with PITCHMAP in your host application.
This feature is specific to the AudioUnits version of the plug-in. If your host does
EXT. MIDI not support sending MIDI to plug-ins, you can activate EXT MIDI. This causes any
MIDI signal sent to your DAW to be “heard” and used by PITCHMAP. If your host
DOES support sending MIDI to plug-ins, please do not activate this!
PITCHMAP
Process Section
Allows automatically Bypassing notes that are detuned less than an

THRESHOLD
amount set with this control. At minimum Threshold, everything is
processed. With higher values, notes that are already somewhat
accurately tuned will be Bypassed. For creative applications set this low,
for fixing tuning issues in sensitive material set this high.
Clicking on the Threshold label toggles between Threshold and Global
Threshold. The difference between the two is whether or not transposed
notes will be bypassed (Global) or not.
FEEL Allows re-introducing micro-variations in pitch, such as vibrato, after

correction is applied. Set low for very tight or synthetic results as popular
in many recent genres, medium for tightened and natural results, and
high to preserve all intonation detail (while still having any pitch mapping
applied).
PITCHMAP
PURIFY Purify adjusts the amount of noisy components. Values higher than the
default 50% reduce noisy components and introduce an effect
reminiscent of resonance, values below 50% increase the the level of
noisy components. Can be used to deliberately create a surreal sound or
to bring focus to transients and other non-harmonic aspects of the
signal. High values increase CPU load.
GLIDE Glide adjusts the length of polyphonic glide/portamento to be applied.

Whenever a new sound starts, the pitch ramps up/down from the source
pitch to the destination pitch over an amount of time set with this slider.
Subsequent sounds on the same pitch do not trigger the Glide again,
unless interrupted by a non-pitched transient. Pretty cool.
PITCHMAP
ELECTRIFY Electrify can be used both to introduce a very unique, electric synthetic
coloration and to optimize the process to your signal. The default value is
50%, which works well for most situations. High values make results
sound electric, low values can actually improve processing quality but
may introduce unexpected harmonics when working with sparse
recordings. Values around 60-75% can work well to improve results when
working with mixed vocal stems. High values work best in combination
with a low value for Feel. Note that setting Electrify to very low values
increases the number of sounds detected and will thus use more CPU for
the Display. Technically, this controls adjusts how many sounds are being
tracked - at maximum position, only one sound is tracked.
PITCHMAP
Algorithm & Macro
Section
KEY TRANSFORM Macros
Key Transform is a macro function that can be used to quickly create a Pitch Map based on a
destination key/scale by setting all Pitch Mapping Sliders to specific values. Key Transform
consists of two pull-down menus for selecting destination root key and destination scale. The
macro is applied on releasing either of the pull-down menus. Also, two “voicing” buttons are
provided. Clicking these will shift all Pitch Mapping Sliders left or right by one semitone per
click. The result is that the key/scale stay the same, but the input pitches are rotated against
the map - similar in concept to chord inversions or the “degree” within a scale.
As PITCHMAP does not make assumptions on the input key/scale, Key Transform does not
transform relative to the input key/scale. Instead, it transforms relative to a C chromatic scale
(which is what the Pitch Map defaults to). What does this mean in practice? It means that if
your input scale is D minor, and you select A Major, input pitches will be mapped to output
pitches in the following way:
As you can see, the results are rotated against what you’d
Input PITCHMAP Classic
expect to happen from the perspective of classic music theory.
D B A
Also, you’ll note that the G# is missing. To align the two tables,
E C# B
press the Right Voicing Arrow two times. Why two? Because that
F D C# is the difference from C (which we base our transform on) to D
G E D (the scale the input has), in semitones.
A F# E
A# F# F#
C A G#
PITCHMAP
This will result in:
So we’re getting close, but what’s up with the E showing up
Input PITCHMAP Classic
twice and the G# missing again? Well, that’s because we
D A A
deliberately chose an example that highlights the caveats of our
E B B
approach.
F C# C#
G D D
Key here is understanding that the notes in different scales are
not equally spaced. Also, scales can have a different number of
A E E
intervals - for example, classic western scales have 7 intervals,
A# E F#
but Pentatonic scales have 5. Neither of the two is a divisor of 12
C F# G#
(the number of steps an octave is divided into). So there are
bound to be rounding errors, and there really isn’t a purely
mathematical, “correct” method to decide whether an interval that exists in one scale should
be mapped to the next higher or the next lower interval when going to a scale that doesn’t
have this interval. This choice would depend on user preference, direction of movement within
the scale, and a whole bunch of other factors. Also, whether to transpose a source pitch that is
in neither of the source or destination scales up or down is a decision that a musician would
base on a similar set of considerations - a choice we do not want to make for you.
In a nut-shell: since PITCHMAP doesn’t identify the source key/scale, we must generalize the
transform, so that it works with *any* input signal, regardless what key/scale it is in. All this
results in some compromise if you look at the process from a music theory point of view -
while from a practical perspective, our approach gives good results in nearly all cases.
Well, why is it that we don’t track what the input key/scale is? The answer is quite simply that
it isn’t really possible to do this in real-time, as there are ambiguities that can only be resolved
by looking at the context the pitches are in. For example, the notes (E, G, B) may either be an
E Minor... or a G Major that omits the fifth and adds a 6th. You can tell the difference only by
looking at what was being played before and after this chord, and even then, there’s quite
PITCHMAP
often room for interpretation. So in order to reliably discern the source key/scale, you’d really
need to drop out of real-time and do some sort of learning/pre-analysis, that looks at the
whole file or at least a longer section. We specifically did NOT want to go down that route, as
PITCHMAP is all about immediate results and a musical workflow.
The good news is that all of this really doesn’t matter very much in practice. To change the
key/scale of an input to a desired target key/scale, all you really do is
‣ select the target key/scale using the Key Transform macro, then
‣ click on the left/right Voicing Arrows until you like the results (if you didn’t already like them
before), and
‣ fine-tune the map by adjusting 1-2 sliders manually if needed.
Of course there’s nothing stopping you from manually mapping pitches from scratch if you’re
all set on a specific input-to-output map. Or you can choose to use MIDI MAP mode, which
solves most of the issues described above - instead of mapping each possible pitch to a
specified target pitch, MIDI MAP mode simply sets up a grid of allowed target notes and
everything just slides into place.
Note that as Key Transform is just a means of setting the Pitch Mapping Sliders, it doesn’t
“remember” what key/scale you have selected earlier when closing and re-opening the UI, as
you may have made changes to the sliders anyway.
PITCHMAP
ALGORITHM
Selects Linear, Medium or Natural algorithm modes. In Medium and Natural modes, the
analysis engine uses a perceptive model to discern voice components in the input signal, and
process these separately. This can prevent a certain type of coloration when processing signals
that are musically rather “busy” and contain voice. If you notice unexpected coloration of voice
components, try different values here. Also, for isolating sounds, try the different settings to
see which Algorithm mode works best.
STRICT
This switch toggles between normal and Strict pitch correction modes. Strict removes more
pitch variation, but may reduce transient crispness.
XCLUDE ROUND. MODE
Selects the rounding mode used when Xcluding notes. This influences the way that pitches that
lie between allowed destination pitches are handled, e.g. in which direction they are moved
under which circumstances. Available options are Up, Down, Nearest and Intelligent. Intelligent
tries to avoid jumping as much as possible, Nearest creates typical (and quite popular) tuning-
effects.
PITCHMAP
The Footer Bar
INPUT REF. TUNING
This slider allows adjusting the input/source reference tuning, e.g. what the algorithm sees as
being “in tune”. This value is in Hertz, representing the absolute frequency of what is
considered as an A4 (typically 440.00 Hertz). If your input signal is not tuned to 440Hz, you
may see many “tuning jumps”. Adjusting this slider may reduce that.
OUTPUT TUNING
Adjusts the output tuning. Does not affect Bypassed components. Use this if you want to have
your results fit another recording that is not tuned to A=440Hz.
Snapshots
The Snapshots allow saving different pitch and key maps within one plug-in preset. Use this
feature for example if different parts of a recording need different mapping/xclude/bypass
settings. Using the Snapshot functionality, you can create one setting per song part and call
these using host automation. Automation would otherwise be very time-consuming to say the
least. Snapshots store the state of the Pitch Mapping Sliders and the states of the Lower
Keyboard keys, but NOT the values of all other parameters. As these can be automated using
your host application, storing these with the Snapshots would create potential conflicts.
PITCHMAP
Snapshots are saved by alt/option-clicking on the slot you wish to save to and recalled by a
click on the Snapshot slot to be recalled. Alternately, you can first click on the Save button,
then on the Snapshot slot you wish to save to. To cancel, click Save again (and don’t click on a
Snapshot button). Both methods overwrite the targeted Snapshot slot without further warning,
so be careful!
PITCHMAP
Quick Start Tutorials
Tutorial A: MIDI Modes and There are two modes of MIDI operation in PITCHMAP: MIDI MAP and “regular”. The regular
mode is always on, except if MIDI MAP has been activated. In regular mode, incoming MIDI
Setting Up MIDI Control In Your notes will toggle the state of the corresponding key of the Lower Keyboard, respecting the
Host Xclude/Bypass and Repeat/Visible/Custom settings. So pressing C3 on a MIDI keyboard while
in Xclude and Custom modes will cause the C3 key of the Lower Keyboard to be activated if it
was inactive before, and vice-versa. In MIDI MAP mode, incoming MIDI notes define either the
grid of allowed target notes when in Xclude mode, allowing you to literally play the target
harmonies and melodies via MIDI, or which notes to play back at all when in Bypass mode.
Ableton Live
To control PITCHMAP via MIDI in Ableton Live:
‣You’ll need one audio track and one MIDI track
‣Insert the plug-in on the audio track to be processed
‣Create a MIDI track
‣Select your MIDI input device as input to the MIDI track, set monitoring to “In”
and
‣Select PITCHMAP as destination for the MIDI track
To use MIDI MAP mode to change the harmonies and melodies of your audio,
simply load the preset 01 MIDI Map Template - Medium located in the preset
folder 02 MIDI Templates.
PITCHMAP
Logic Pro
To control PITCHMAP via MIDI in Logic Pro:
‣ Insert the plug-in into an instrument track, you’ll find it in the category “AU MIDI-controlled
Effects”
‣ Place the audio file to be processed on an audio track, and set the track’s output to “No
Output”.
‣ Choose the track that’s playing back the audio as the side-chain source from within the
PITCHMAP GUI.
‣ Select the Instrument track in the Arrangement view, the red “R” button on the track header
should be lit up.
To use MIDI MAP mode to change the harmonies and melodies of your audio, simply load the
preset 01 MIDI Map Template - Medium located in the preset folder 02 MIDI Templates.
PITCHMAP
Cubase
To control PITCHMAP via MIDI in Cubase:
‣ Insert the plug-in on the audio track to be processed
‣ Create a MIDI track
‣ Select your MIDI input device as input to the MIDI track, activate monitoring and
‣ Select PITCHMAP as destination for the MIDI track
PITCHMAP
Pro Tools
To control PITCHMAP via MIDI in Pro Tools:
‣ Insert the plug-in on the audio track to be processed
‣ Create a MIDI track
‣ Select your MIDI input device as input to the MIDI track and
‣ Select PITCHMAP as destination for the MIDI track
PITCHMAP
Tutorial B: Correcting Tuning Here’s a quick run-down on how to correct tuning issues in mixed signals.
Issues in Mixed Signals ‣ Insert PITCHMAP into an effects slot of the audio track that needs pitch correction.
‣ Load the preset 001 Tighter Pitch from the preset folder 01 Tuning And Chord Changes
‣ If you need stronger pitch correction, lower Threshold and Feel until all notes you wish to
correct are being corrected.
‣ If you want less pitch correction, increasing Feel re-introduces the pitch deviation (unless
you want a 100% tuned result, in which case you should set Feel to 0%), and increasing
Threshold will bypass processing on all notes that are already close to being in tune.
‣ If you’re not getting enough pitch correction even with Threshold and Feel at zero, which
may happen in rare circumstances, try checking Strict.
‣ If your signal contains drums and they’re adversely affected, try raising Threshold a little,
decreasing Purify slightly, or using the Low-Cut and High-Cut Sliders at the top of the
Display to Bypass very low and very high components (which typically represent kick drums
and hi-hats/shakers).
‣ If there are parts of the signal that you wish to explicitly exclude form pitch correction, such
as a vocal line with lots of performance detail, you may want to Bypass the relevant pitches.
To do this, select the Key Edit Bypass mode and Bypass all notes you wish to remain
unprocessed by clicking on the respective key of the Lower Keyboard. Note that the Edit
Modes Repeat/Visible/Custom apply (see the relevant section of this manual). You will
probably want to set Edit Mode to Custom for most cases covered by this tutorial. When
Bypassing a pitch, its Lower Keyboard key turns green, the sounds displayed in the Display
are grayed out, and the associated Pitch Mapping Slider is hidden.
PITCHMAP
‣ If you are hearing a lot of “tuning artifact pitch-jumps”, chances are that the input signal is
not tuned to A=440Hz. Try adjusting the Input Ref. Tuning slider to see whether this helps.
Tutorial C: Attenuating Wrong Here’s a quick run-down on how to selectively attenuate individual wrong notes in an otherwise
good performance. Here we take care of notes that weren’t supposed to be there *at all*, as
Notes
opposed to notes being played in a wrong pitch accidentally.
‣ Insert PITCHMAP into an effects slot of the audio track that needs fixing.
‣ Load the preset 03 Suppress Pitched from the preset folder 04 Mixing
‣ Set Edit Mode to Repeat and Key Edit to Bypass.
‣ Bypass all keys by clicking on 12 successive keys of the Lower Keyboard; they’ll turn green
and you’ll hear your unprocessed signal.
‣ Switch Edit Mode to Custom and mute the offending notes by removing their Bypass (which
routes them to the Mute Filters, hence, they’re attenuated).
‣ If “muted” sounds are fluttering between on and off, or if harmonics aren’t all attenuated
evenly, try adjusting the Input Ref. Tuning and switch between the different Algorithm
modes to find the one that works best.
‣ Also, modifying Purify and Electrify can affect the amount and precision of suppression.
PITCHMAP
Tutorial D: Changing the Key/ Here’s a quick run-down on how to change Key/Scale/Melody of a recording using a Pitch Map
Scale/Melody of a Recording using created using the Key Transform macros of the GUI as starting point.
the GUI Macros. ‣ Insert PITCHMAP into an effects slot of the audio track that you want to process
‣ Load the preset 002 Much Tighter Pitch from the preset folder 01 Tuning And Chord Changes
as a starting point.
‣ If you already have an idea what target key/scale you want, select the appropriate key and
scale from the Key Transform pull-down menus.
‣ You’ll probably hear pitch going all over the place. To remedy this, read on.
‣ Move all sliders to the left or to the right using the Voicing Arrows. While you’ve set the
destination pitch grid using the Key Transform macro, in this step you define which notes go
to which grid lines. Think of this as setting the chord inversions. There’ll be settings that
have significantly less pitch shifting - you can tell how much shifting is applied by hovering
the mouse over the Display - the shift values per slider are displayed at the top of the
Display. As a rule of thumb, shift left or right by the number of semitones the target root
note differs from C, and use the shortest distance with regard to octaves - so if you are
going for a D, click the right arrow twice, if you’re going for an A, click the right arrow three
times.
‣ Try changing the Slider Heads through their modes, to see whether any of the settings is
preferable.
‣ Once you have found a setting that is close to what you’re looking for, you can fine-tune the
pitch mapping. You can either adjust individual sliders to route the sounds they reference to
different target pitches, or you can remove specific pitches from the grid by using Xclude. To
edit all sliders of one pitch class (for example, all C notes), use Repeat mode, and to edit
just one particular slider, use Custom mode. You can Xclude keys by first selecting Key Edit
Xclude mode and then clicking on the keys of the Lower Keyboard you wish to remove. The
PITCHMAP
key will turn orange, its slider is hidden, the sound associated is grayed out in the Display
and forced to one of the neighboring, un-Xcluded pitches. Which direction it is forced to
depends on the Xclude Round. Mode. Please note that editing Xclude states on the Lower
Keyboard respects the setting Repeat/Visible/Custom...play with this to learn how the
parameters interact.
‣ Finally, fine-tune the process to minimize unwanted artifacts. Raising the Threshold slightly
may help preserving drums and other transient material better. Changing Xclude Round.
Mode and adjusting Input Ref. Pitch can help minimize pitch jumping. Raising or lowering
Feel can help getting coherent results, and Purify can be used to clean or dirty up the sound.
Also, if there’s a lot going on, you can loose some of the highest pitches by activating Mute
and pulling down the High-Cut slider gradually.
Tutorial E: Changing the Key/ Here’s a quick run-down on how to change Key/Scale/Melody of a recording manually using the
Scale/Melody of a Recording using Pitch Mapping Sliders of the GUI.
the GUI Sliders ‣ Insert PITCHMAP into an effects slot of the audio track that you wish to process.
‣ Load the Default setting as starting point, and set Threshold and Feel to minimum.
‣ Drag the Pitch Mapping Sliders up or down. The sound associated with a slider is soloed
while dragging, and the Right Keyboard’s keys light up to show you what pitch you’re
mapping to.
‣ To adjust one slider at a time, select the Custom Edit Mode. To adjust all sliders associated
to the same pitch class across all octaves, select the Repeat mode, to restrict that to the
three visible octaves, select Visible.
‣ When in Custom mode, hold ALT/Option while dragging to temporarily enable Repeat mode.
PITCHMAP
‣ Slowly raise Threshold to the point where some notes become unprocessed, then back it
down a little. This way, you’re excluding as much transient detail from the processing as
possible, to retain crispness. Adjust Feel to get the desired balance between tuning precision
and realistic results.
‣ Adjusting Input Ref. Pitch can help minimize pitch jumping.
‣ If high-frequency pitches, such as the harmonics of string sounds, unfiltered synths or
distorted guitars, are not being pitch-shifted, try increasing PURIFY and/or setting Algorithm
Mode to it’s different values.
‣ You can also leave the Pitch Mapping Sliders in place, and use Xclude mode to enforce a
particular key/harmony - simply Xclude all pitches except for the ones you want the music to
be playing on. Try the different Xclude Round. Modes to see which method sounds best for
your signal.
Tutorial F: Changing the Key/ Here’s a run-down on how to use PITCHMAP with MIDI controlling the target pitch grid. How to
set this up depends on which host you’re using, please refer to the relevant section of this
Scale/Melody of a Recording using manual.
MIDI
‣ Insert PITCHMAP and hook up MIDI control.
‣ Load the preset 01 MIDI Map Template - Medium from the preset folder 02 MIDI Templates
‣ Start the playback, and play some MIDI notes. The results are influenced by Edit Repeat/
Visible/Custom, the state of the sliders and the Xclude Round. Mode (see the relevant
section of this manual)
PITCHMAP
The Standalone pp
On MacOS X, PITCHMAP comes with a simple stand-alone application, the Zynaptiq Stand-
Alone. This application is intended for quickly previewing audio through the plug-in, and is
explicitly NOT intended to be an editing application. See it as a free bonus FYC.
The application allows playing files through PITCHMAP, as well as recording the results to a
new file. To enable MIDI input, please activate EXT MIDI. As the application is not a full-blown
host, it uses the Mac system audio preferences - including device & sample rate. As any open
application including browsers, the finder etc can request to change the system sample rate,
this means that in order to make sure your new file has the correct sample rate written, you
should follow the following steps:
1) make sure you set the system sample rate to the rate that your source & destination files
have/should have, from within the Audio MIDI Setup utility
2) start playback on the source file *before* you start recording
PITCHMAP
FAQ
Questions & Answers Q: I am hearing ugly drop-outs/ring-modulation/distortion, what is causing that & what can I
do?
A: Most likely, you are overloading your CPU. PITCHMAP is a computationally very “heavy-
weight” process. The first thing you should try is to set the I/O and/or processing buffers of
your host to higher values, ideally 2048 samples or higher. This will significantly decrease the
CPU use and in most cases eliminates the artifacts mentioned above.
Q: (Mac) Logic Pro shows me a “Sample Rate Mismatch” or similar error when inserting
PITCHMAP, and sound is distorted or stops altogether. What can i do?
A: You are overloading the CPU, but Logic is displaying the wrong error message. Increasing
the I/O and process buffer sizes usually cures this issue. If not, see the CPU load optimization
section below for some tips on how to get more out of your machine.
PITCHMAP
Authorization Issues Windows Q: I am using Windows and when I try to activate PITCHMAP, I am seeing an error message
stating there has been an “Unknown Error” and activation fails. What can I do?
A: This means that there is something interfering with the activation process. Disable any
firewall, security or anti-virus software and try again. If the problem persists you should
temporarily disable your internet connection (by pulling the ethernet cable, for example). The
Authorizer app will now display a dialog window that gives you several options for off-line
activation:
Choose “Activate using a different computer that has web access” and click “next”. This will
bring up another window.
PITCHMAP
SOME-WEIRD-CODE-IS-HERE
Enter the Installation ID into the webform found at the URL displayed, using a different
computer to access the web:
You will then receive a response code.
PITCHMAP
Enter the response code into the Authorizer app, click “activate”...and your software should
now be activated successfully.
PITCHMAP
Sound Optimization
Here are a couple of tips on how to fine-tune the PITCHMAP parameters for best results.
‣ Increasing the Threshold parameter can help preserving drum transients
‣ Also, decreasing Purify below the default 50% can improve transient preservation
‣ If you’re seeing a lot of “pitch jumping”, try adjusting the Input Ref. Tuning and the Xclude
Round. Mode
‣ 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!
‣ When working with signals that contain vocals, or if harmonics of certain sounds are being
missed, try activating Natural
‣ 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.
‣ 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)
PITCHMAP
‣ 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.
‣ 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.
‣ 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
PITCHMAP
CPU Load optimization PITCHMAP uses a lot of CPU. The mathematics involved are highly complex, so there’s a lot of
computation to be done. However, CPU load is affected by a couple of variables. We’ll outline
strategies to get the most out of PITCHMAP on your CPU here.
1) Use large buffer sizes. PITCHMAP needs to look at a certain amount of signal to be able
to discern which parts of the signal are the transfer function and which aren’t. If your
buffers are set to values that are shorter than that, CPU load increases significantly.
PITCHMAP internally operates on a buffer size of 1024 samples, so in most host
applications, you’ll want to set the buffer size to the highest possible value. We recommend
*at least* 512 samples.
2) In Logic Pro, all processes that are fed by a live source are processed on on CPU core. When
using PITCHMAP under MIDI control, this means that all down-stream plug-ins are run on
the same core as PITCHMAP whenever its software instrument track is selected and the
record enable switch is lit. Selecting a different track in the arrange, or un-setting the
record enable button allows CPU load to be spread out across all available cores, so this
may help reduce CPU load.
3) Closing the plug-in GUI saves some CPU cycles, too.
4) Setting Electrify very low causes a higher CPU load due to more sounds being recognized,
which causes the Display to render more symbols. Keep the value of Electrify around 50% if
you don’t explicitly use it for fine-tuning your sound.
5) Similarly, very high values for PURIFY increase CPU load - try backing it off a little.
PITCHMAP
Getting Support
If you’re having trouble with PITCHMAP that isn’t covered in these FAQ, please email us & we’ll
get you up and running ASAP. We can be reached via http://www.zynaptiq.com/support-form/
PITCHMAP

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What are the main features of PITCHMAP?

What are the main features of PITCHMAP?

How does PITCHMAP process audio signals?

How does PITCHMAP process audio signals?

PITCHMAP

User Manual V1.5.0

Now go create great audio!

Mac Requirements ‣ Intel-based Apple Mac computer

Windows Requirements ‣ Minimum of 2 CPU cores running at 2.4 gHz or faster

Features at a Glance PITCHMAP provides all of the following functionality in real-time:

‣ Automatic correction of pitch inaccuracies in polyphonic and mixed signals

‣ Fixing tuning inaccuracies in mixed signals

‣ Drag up/down to change the parameter value.

This is a straight-forward slider control, which comes in horizontal as well as vertical

Edit Mode Algorithm/

Mute Filters: Low-Cut And High-

Behavior influenced by:

Round Slider Head

Downward Triangle Slider Head

Upward triangle Slider Head

Live MIDI: MIDI MAP

Allows automatically Bypassing notes that are detuned less than an

FEEL Allows re-introducing micro-variations in pitch, such as vibrato, after

GLIDE Glide adjusts the length of polyphonic glide/portamento to be applied.

KEY TRANSFORM Macros

XCLUDE ROUND. MODE

INPUT REF. TUNING

You will then receive a response code.

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