Voice Tweaker

V4
Users manual

Revision 2

Voice Tweaker Users manual

Brought to you by Xponaut

URL: http://www.xponaut.com
Sales: info@xponaut.com
Tech support: support@xponaut.com
Copyright 1998-2007 Xponaut.
The software described in this manual is subject to change without notice.
Thanks to:
All participants in testing out the new Voice Tweaker generation.
Special thanks to Nick Busigin and Gail Selkirk for proofreading this manual.

Trademarks
Voice Tweaker is a trademark of Xponaut.
Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation.
Cakewalk, Sonar and DXi are trademarks of Twelve Tone Systems.
Cubase and VST is trademark of Steinberg.
Other products or company names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.

Voice Tweaker Users manual

Voice Tweaker License Agreement:

LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR END-USER
IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING THE HEREIN
DESCRIBED SOFTWARE (HENCEFORTH THE SOFTWARE). BY INSTALLING
THE SOFTWARE, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THE
FOLLOWING AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS
AGREEMENT, YOU MUST REFRAIN FROM INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE.
LICENSE AGREEMENT
Xponaut gives you (an individual or a single entity) permission to install and use the Software
described within this User manual. The Software is protected by copyright and is the property of
Xponaut according to intellectual property laws and treaties. The Software and this User manual
document are not in the public domain, and are protected by the copyright laws of Sweden. So
you may not sublicense, rent, lease, convey, distribute, copy, modify, translate, convert to another
programming language, decompile, disassemble or diffuse the Software for any purpose.
DISCLAIMER:
THE SOFTWARE DESCRIBED HEREIN IS PROVIDED AS-IS, WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. XPONAUT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES RELATING
TO THE SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ALL SUCH WARRANTIES ARE EXPRESSLY
AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMED.
XPONAUT ACCEPTS NO LIABILITY FOR ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGE ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE
SOFTWARE EVEN IF XPONAUT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES OR CLAIMS. THE USER OF THE SOFTWARE BEARS ALL RISK
AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE.

Voice Tweaker Users manual

Contents
1 Foreword.........................................................................................................................................7
2 Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 8
3 Installation...................................................................................................................................... 8
3.1 Install....................................................................................................................................... 8
3.2 Purchase...................................................................................................................................8
3.3 Uninstall.................................................................................................................................. 8
4 The basics....................................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Pitch, Spectrum and Formants.................................................................................................9
4.2 Pitch correction......................................................................................................................12
4.3 How Voice Tweaker works...............................................................................................12
5 Voice Tweaker control................................................................................................................. 13
5.1.1 Pitch section....................................................................................................................14
5.1.2 Formant section.............................................................................................................. 14
5.1.3 Auto Correction section..................................................................................................15
5.1.3.1 mode selection (via Scale button)........................................................................ 16
5.1.3.1.1 Midi Scale mode...............................................................................................16
5.1.3.1.2 Auto Correction to scale...................................................................................16
5.1.3.2 mini-keyboard..........................................................................................................16
5.1.3.3 G-clef.......................................................................................................................17
5.1.3.4 Correction................................................................................................................ 17
5.1.3.5 Scale offset.............................................................................................................. 17
5.1.4 LFO section.................................................................................................................... 18
5.1.5 Modulation Matrix..........................................................................................................21
5.1.6 Wave section.................................................................................................................. 22
5.1.7 Output section................................................................................................................22
6 Options......................................................................................................................................... 23
6.1 Pitch detection tab................................................................................................................. 23
6.1.1 Pitch detection algorithms.............................................................................................. 24
6.1.1.1 AMDF (Average Mean Difference Function).........................................................24
6.1.1.2 FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)................................................................................. 24
6.2 Pitch correction tab................................................................................................................25
7 Presets...........................................................................................................................................26
7.1 Preset location....................................................................................................................... 26
7.2 Default preset........................................................................................................................ 26
8 MIDI control of parameters..........................................................................................................27

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Table of figures
fig 1. Waveform of vowel a (as in bath), female speaker..............................................................8
fig 2. Spectrum of vowel a..............................................................................................................9
fig 3. Formant peaks of vowel a..................................................................................................... 9
fig 4. Vowel a normal (above) and transposed upward a fifth (below)........................................ 10
fig 5. The Voice Tweaker VST property page ............................................................................... 12
fig 6. Vibrato with zero offset of LFO........................................................................................... 18
fig 7. Vibrato with +1.0 offset of LFO............................................................................................ 19
fig 8. Vibrato with -1.0 offset of LFO............................................................................................ 19

Voice Tweaker Users manual

1 Foreword
First of all, we would like to thank and also congratulate you on choosing one of the most
powerful and versatile VST plug-ins for voice and instrument manipulation available. We hope
youll enjoy using Voice Tweaker as much as we have developing it.
The story of the Voice Tweaker began in the spring of 1998 when I was trying to do a demo work
with a chorus setting of six voices. I had no chance of singing low enough to reach the bass part,
so I decided to obtain a program to pitch me down about seven semi tones. After a considerable
amount of searching, I was surprised to find that I wasn't able to discover any software that did a
good job of pitch-shifting my voice. The programs I did find fell into two categories, those that
preserved the harmonics, and those that shifted the harmonics equally along with the fundamental
pitch. None of the programs I found could convincingly do what I wanted. So, I started to search
for information and literature on speech and how the vocal system works. Given the information
and my background as a software engineer and also having knowledge of signal processing, the
Voice Tweaker analysis and design began. During the very rainy summer of '98 (in Sweden,
anyway), the first version of Voice Tweaker was born. Since then, it has enjoyed continuous
development of its algorithms and user interface. The reception and fame Voice Tweaker has
gained during these years is well beyond my initial expectations, and it fuels my continuing
enthusiasm in evolving the Voice Tweaker further.
In late 2004, Hans Mller and Jonas Lindberg joined up to help in creating the latest incarnation
of Voice Tweaker, the fourth generation. One of the key features of this generation is crossplatform compatibility, i.e. Mac owners can now use Voice Tweaker as a plug-in to their favourite
audio workstation software. It also features a revamped analysis and synthesis engine, with lesser
CPU utilization.
Voice Tweaker is now released under the Xponaut banner.
Sincerely,
Robert Bielik,
Hans Mller,
Jonas Lindberg
Xponaut

Voice Tweaker Users manual

2 Introduction
This manual covers the operation and parameter descriptions for the new generation of Voice
Tweaker. The manual's organization is as follows: Installation, purchase and uninstallation in
section 2 below. Section 3 explains the basic concepts about pitch and transposition, and also how
Voice Tweaker works. Section 4 describes each available function thoroughly. Section 5 explains
the options parameters.

3 Installation
3.1

Install

To install Voice Tweaker, double-click on the installation setup (vtsetup.exe) file. Then follow the
on-screen instructions. The items copied to your machine are the Voice Tweaker VST plugin
DLL (.dll file, dynamic linkage library) component and the scale preset resources.

3.2

Purchase

To purchase Voice Tweaker, you first need to download the trial version of Voice Tweaker (if
you haven't already done that). Go to www.xponaut.com and select the product page for Voice
Tweaker and click on the Buy Now! button.
You will then be redirected to a PayPal secure order page. Follow the instructions and enter
information for payment where needed. If everything went OK, you will receive a serial number
within a few minutes (it will be sent to the email address you entered on the PayPal order page).
Start Voice Tweaker and open the user interface. When the Copy protection dialog is shown
enter the serial number you've received (also, store this serial number in a safe place). If the
dialogue automatically closes you have successfully unlocked the product, and that's about it.

3.3

Uninstall

If you for some reason need to remove Voice Tweaker from your system, click on the Windows
Start button, select Settings - Control Panel - Add/Remove Programs, and select Voice Tweaker
from the list of installed software and click the Add/Remove button. Alternatively, click on the
Windows Start button, select Programs Xponaut VoiceTweaker Uninstall.
If you decide to uninstall Voice Tweaker, we would appreciate your telling us why especially if
it is due to problems you have encountered. We are always striving to improve Voice Tweaker
and your feedback is important to us.

Voice Tweaker Users manual

4 The basics
4.1

Pitch, Spectrum and Formants

Whenever you hear the sound of a voice or an instrument, your brain will immediately interpret
its pitch. The pitch of a sound is most often defined as the fundamental frequency of a sound, i.e.
the frequency of its waveform repetition, its periodicity. Apart from the pitch, or fundamental
frequency, a sound also consists of harmonics, which are always whole number multiples of the
fundamental frequency. A square wave, for instance, contains only odd harmonics which means
that the frequencies in the signal, apart from the fundamental, are of multiples 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and so
on of the fundamental. Thus if the square wave's fundamental is at 220 Hz, its harmonics will be
at 660 Hz, 1100 Hz, 1540 Hz, 1980 Hz and so on... All of these frequencies or harmonics with
their individual amplitude differences comprise what is known as the spectrum of a sound. The
spectrum is what characterizes the sound as coming from a human voice or say, a piano. The
waveform and spectrum of a voice might look something like this:
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
-0.1
-0.2
-0.3
-0.4

500

1000

1500

2000

Samples

fig 1. Waveform of vowel a (as in bath), female speaker.

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-10
-20
-30
-40

dB

-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Frequency in FFT bins

fig 2. Spectrum of vowel a.

If you would take a piece of virtual string and attach it to the peaks in the spectral diagram, you
would get a smooth curve that represents the spectrum without showing the individual harmonics
involved. Note that the smooth curve now has several peaks. These peaks are called formants and
are resonant frequencies from cavities in the vocal tract system. The formants characterize the
vowel spoken and if the speaker is male or female.
-10

Formants

-20
-30
-40

dB

-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

Frequency in FFT bins

fig 3. Formant peaks of vowel a.

Normally, when a sound has its "pitch transposed", it means that the sound is merely played faster
or slower, much like playing a tape recorder faster or slower. With software pitch transposition
we can also apply some software "tricks" that keep the tempo constant. However, if you merely

Voice Tweaker Users manual

play a sound clip faster, the sound not only changes pitch, but it also changes in character. Simple
pitch transposition often results in voices that sound like Donald Duck, Chip 'n Dale or on the
other extreme, i.e. transposing downward, more like a monster or the Master Control Program of
the motion picture Tron
The reason for this change in character is that the change of speed in playing a sound changes not
only its fundamental frequency, but also its spectrum. More importantly, the positions of the
peaks of the smoothed curve (the formants) are changed. It is the change of the formant locations
that cause this "character change" phenomenon. If we kept the formant locations in place while
changing the fundamental frequency, we could change the pitch of a sound and still retain its
original character. The Voice Tweaker employs an algorithm (see 4.3) that decouples the
transposition of the fundamental frequency from that of the formant locations. Using the Voice
Tweaker, you can change the fundamental pitch while leaving the formants located at their
original frequencies. You can change the pitch of the formant frequencies while leaving the
fundamental alone. You can also change the fundamental and the formant frequencies by
different amounts. This provides a great deal of flexibility in altering the pitch and the character
of a voice or an instrument. Here is an example of our test signal (vowel 'a') when pitch is
transposed upward a fifth. Note that the formants are not shifted.

0
-20
-40
dB -60
-80
-100

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

0
-20
-40
dB -60
-80
-100

Frequency in FFT bins

fig 4. Vowel a normal (above) and transposed upward a fifth (below)

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4.2

Pitch correction

As most of us know, singing in tune can be pretty difficult. It is even more difficult to sing in-tune
with feeling and expression. A performance sung out of tune could very well be "energetic"
whereas one sung in tune could be "emotionless". Normally the procedure in a studio would be to
re-take the part in question until tuning and feel are good or acceptable. With pitch correction, this
no longer needs to be done, as it is now possible to take a wonderful performance that may have
out-of-tune sections and tweak them so that the whole performance is on key. With Voice
Tweaker this type of pitch correction is only a few mouse clicks away. Now, you can focus on
performance aspects without worrying so much about being in perfect tune.

4.3

How Voice Tweaker works

At the heart of the Voice Tweaker plug-in is an efficient and accurate pitch detection algorithm,
which is essential for creating and implementing the signal processing routines used by the Voice
Tweaker. The development of this pitch detection algorithm was anything but simple. As well as
efficient and accurate pitch detection, robust pitch correction is also difficult to achieve. There
are algorithms extant that could be used for pitch correction where octave errors do not produce
noticeable artefacts. However, these types of algorithms cannot transpose pitch convincingly over
an interval larger than about +/- 1 semi-tone. This may be OK for use in an effect that does only
pitch correction, but it is not sufficient for the effects implemented by the Voice Tweaker.
To detect pitch, the input signal must be periodic and fairly "clean". If you try to use Voice
Tweaker after a Scotch or two, or after smoking a large cigar, it will probably fail. This is due to
the signal getting "noisy" in the pitch sense. This is also why you can't pitch transpose anything
other than mono-pitched signals. For instance, the pitch detection algorithm won't know which
voice to detect in a chorus.
After the pitch algorithm determines the pitch, the input signal is "chopped up" and reassembled
again by the synthesis engine (PSOLA, pitch synchronous overlap and add). Reassembling can be
done at a different rate than the "chopping up", thus producing a pitch transposition. It is a
technique very different from the re-tuning technique used in samplers, and whilst being very
powerful, it is also very dependent on the pitch being determined correctly by the pitch detection
section.
The Voice Tweaker pitch-shifting algorithm has a high degree of resolution, and can pitch
transpose to as small an interval as 0.0005 cents (the mathematical processing limit). The Voice
Tweaker algorithm has no real upper limit on how much you can transpose a signal.

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5 Voice Tweaker control

For controlling the Voice Tweaker, there is a property page that displays and controls the Voice
Tweaker's operation.

fig 5. The Voice Tweaker VST property page

The controls are grouped according to functionality (although some might have crossfunctionality as well, more about that later). The property page is comprised of the following
sections: Pitch, Formant, Auto-correction, LFO, Modulation Matrix, Wave and Output. The
following chapters below will describe each section and how it is used in more detail.

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5.1.1 Pitch section

There are two controls in this section:

Coarse setting for pitch transposition, ranging from -24 semi-tones (down) to
+24 semi-tones (up).
Fine setting for fine control of pitch transposition, ranging from -50 cents to
+50 cents.

Using both coarse and fine controls together allows the total pitch transposition to
range from 24.5 semi-tones (down) to +24.5 semi-tones (up).

5.1.2 Formant section

There are two controls in this section:

Coarse setting for formant transposition, ranging from -24 semi-tones

(down) to +24 semi-tones (up).
Fine setting for fine control of formant transposition, ranging from -50 cents
to +50 cents.

Using both coarse and fine controls together allows the total formant
transposition to range from 24.5 semi-tones (down) to +24.5 semi-tones (up).

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5.1.3 Auto Correction section

The Auto Correction section is used to automatically correct the pitch of a mono channel in real
time or, in off-line (batch) mode if the host software supports it. The Auto Correction section has
the following controls, some of which are described in greater detail in subsequent sections.
The Auto button that works as operation mode selector, as well as turning the auto
correction off. It has the following choices which are explained later:
Auto Correction Off
Auto Correction Midi Scale
Auto Correction: <Currently selected scale file>
Load Scale
A level meter showing the deviation of the audio sources pitch from the correct pitch as
determined by the auto correction.
A mini-keyboard for setting notes comprising the scale (used in Midi Scale mode).
Correction setting for setting the amount of correction (explained in a later section).
Scale offset setting for offsetting a note in the selected scale.
G-clef key selection drop-down (is only shown when selecting a scale)

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5.1.3.1 mode selection (via Auto button)

5.1.3.1.1 Midi Scale mode

In this mode, you can do two things:
You can click the keys of the mini-keyboard to select exactly which notes shall comprise the
scale after which the auto correction will operate.
By routing MIDI to the Voice Tweaker (while no keys are selected on the mini-keyboard),
you can use MIDI to guide the auto correction. This allows you to easily change the scale
on-the-fly, by having the MIDI notes comprising the scales recorded on a MIDI track in
your sequencer. As long as a MIDI key is down, that key is used in the current scale. With
no MIDI keys down, there is no auto correction.

5.1.3.1.2 Auto Correction to scale

When you select the Auto Correction: <selected scale> option, the auto correction will operate
according to the selected scale. By selecting the Load Scale option, you can change the
selected scale. As Voice Tweaker now loads scale files created by Scala, you can create just
about any scale you like, from semitonal scales to microtonal scales. You'll also note that the
currently selected scale is shown on both the Auto-button drop-down menu, and in the Autobutton tooltip.

5.1.3.2 mini-keyboard
The mini-keyboard of the Auto Correction section in Voice Tweaker has the following functions:
When audio is streaming through Voice Tweaker, the current detected pitch (or note) is
shown by high-lighting the corresponding key of the mini-keyboard.
Selecting notes in Midi Scale mode.

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5.1.3.3 G-clef
When the auto correction to scale mode is selected, the G-clef is shown so you can change the
key of the selected scale. The currently selected key is shown in both the G-clef tooltip and the
Auto button tooltip.

5.1.3.4 Correction
The correction parameter represents the speed at which the Voice Tweaker pulls the pitch of
the audio source towards the correct pitch as determined by the auto correction. The correction
amount/speed is settable in the range from 0 to 100%. 0 means no correction (the slowest setting),
and 100 means that the pitch is hard-corrected to the selected scale (fastest setting). An amount
of 30 50 % is normally good for achieving a natural sounding pitch correction.

5.1.3.5 Scale offset

This feature of the Voice Tweaker can be useful in creating instant harmony parts (using this
feature and the wet/dry mix and pan setting of the Output section). The scale offset setting allows
you to have the output of the corrected pitch offset by a user-specified number of scale tones. It
is most easily explained by showing you a couple of examples. Let's demonstrate how this
feature works:
Start by selecting a scale. For this example, we chose the Major pentatonic in C. (Select Load
Scale option from the Scale drop down menu. Then browse down to the "Major
Pentatonic.scl entry and click OK. Then select C key from the G-clef drop down).

Major pentatonic in C.
Now, when a singer, with the auto correction activated, sings an E (within a few cents), the auto
correction algorithm will output an E (of course...).

But what happens if we would set the scale offset control to say +2 ? The result is that the note
output from the correction algorithm is A, and not F# as one might expect.

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Notice that A is +2 notes away from E in the selected scale. So what would happen if we would
select an offset of 2 ? Exactly. The output note would be C.

This short example shows how the scale offset setting can be used to get an instant "harmony"
with the correct scale selected. (See 4.1.7 Output Section for instructions on how to mix the
original/dry and offset/wet signals to get instant harmony playback).

5.1.4 LFO section

The LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) section provides the modulation signal for the autovibrato
function as well as being one source in the modulation matrix section (see later section). The LFO
section has the following controls:
Sync button, which switches between normal mode and tempo synced mode (where LFO
cycle time is locked with the sequencer tempo)
rate parameter that can be set in the range of 0.01Hz (1 cycle in 100 seconds) to 15.0 Hz or
from 16 bars to 1/32t in tempo synced mode.

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Six waveform buttons that allow you to choose between: sine, square, triangle, sawtooth
positive going, sawtooth negative going and random.
Autovibrato level settable from 0.0 semitones to 6.0 semitones.
An offset parameter, settable between -1.0 and +1.0, is useful when you would like to mimic
a singer's vibrato that vibrates over or under the mean value of the pitch.
delay, which is the time from onset of a voiced section (or change of note within a voice
section) before the ramp starts
ramp which is the time it takes for the LFO level to reach its maximum, starting after the
delay time has expired.

Let's take a look at an example of how the autovibrato can be used. We'll start off by adding
vibrato to a part by using the following settings:
autovibrato level = 1.0 semitones
delay = 0.01 sec (virtually no delay for this example)
ramp = 2.00 sec
rate = 7.0 Hz
waveform = Sine Wave
offset = 0.0
These settings would result in a vibrato that would evolve over time as shown in fig. 6 below:
+100 cents

-100 cents
fig 6. Vibrato with zero offset of LFO.

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However, when singing with vibrato, singers sometimes tend to raise the pitch somewhat
throughout the vibrato portion. With VT, you can use the offset parameter of the LFO section to
accomplish just that effect. Just as an example, if we select an extreme setting of +1.0 for the
LFO offset parameter, we will end up with a modulation curve that looks something like this:
+200 cents

0 cents

fig 7. Vibrato with +1.0 offset of LFO.

And, symmetrically, if we set the LFO offset parameter to the other extreme, -1.0, we would end
up with a curve as shown below:
0 cents

-200 cents

fig 8. Vibrato with -1.0 offset of LFO.

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5.1.5 Modulation Matrix

The modulation matrix allows you to route different modulation sources to different destinations.
The sources available are:
Lfo : The LFO output
Amp : The normalized amplitude of the input signal
Voiced pitch : The pitch of the input signal normalized to the currently selected min and max
detection frequency.
Midi pitch : Input pitch from current Midi key down
Velocity : Current Midi key velocity
And the modulation destinations are:
Pitch Coarse
Formant Coarse
Pitch Fine
Format Fine
Mix
Correction Level
Auto Vibrato
Hold waveform
The last destination demands an explanation. The hold waveform function allows you to hold the
last waveform of the input signal indefinitely, but it is still output at the pace which the input
signal dictates (possibly auto corrected). It is hard to explain, you'd better try it for yourself.

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5.1.6 Wave section

The "Hold" button allows you to freeze the current voice waveform. The waveform active at the
instant of pressing the Hold button will be used as long as the Hold button is depressed. As soon
as it is released, the audio will play normally.
Tip: Automate this function via MIDI from the sequencer for new spectacular effects never
heard of before...

5.1.7 Output section

You can set the output of the Voice Tweaker to be a mix of the processed (wet) signal and the
original (dry) signal. You can also set a delay time for the wet signal. Let's take a look at the
controls in this section:
mix parameter allows you to combine the wet signal with the original dry signal in various
proportions. One use for this parameter would be to provide instant harmony parts
when
used with the appropriate scale and scale offset parameters settings in the Auto correction
section (see the 5.1.3.5 scale offset section for details).
dry panning allows you to pan the dry, or unprocessed , output signal.
wet panning allows you to pan the wet, or processed, output signal.
"wet delay" parameter allows you delay the wet signal in a range from 0.0 to 250.0
milliseconds. This delay can be useful in minimizing "phasing" effects when the processed
signal is close to the original. It is also useful for auto-doubling voice effects when used
together with the autovibrato in the LFO section.

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6 Options
By clicking on the Options button there are a few parameters you can set which can improve
upon the pitch detection of Voice Tweaker in certain cases.

6.1

Pitch detection tab

The pitch detection tab allow you to select:

Analysis interval (ms): The time in milliseconds between pitch measurements (as long as
there is no voiced segment and level is above threshold)
Look ahead (ms): The time in milliseconds of how far ahead the Voice Tweaker looks.
This look ahead time determines this plug-in's output latency (which normally is
compensated for in the audio workstation software).
Min detect frequency (Hz): The lowest possible frequency detectable. By tweaking this
parameter you can guide the pitch detection. Say that you know you don't sing below 100
Hz, then you can set this parameter to 90 Hz.
Max detect frequency (Hz): The highest possible frequency detectable. It is analoguous in its
usage to the above parameter.
Detection iterations: The number of consecutive pitch measurements that are required to
conclude that the pitch detected is valid.
RMS level for detection (dB): Voice Tweaker will ignore signal levels below this threshold
setting.

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6.1.1 Pitch detection algorithms

6.1.1.1 AMDF (Average Mean Difference Function)
Currently, this algorithm has no settable parameters.

6.1.1.2 FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)

The FFT transforms signals in the time domain into its corresponding frequency domain. The
parameters settable for the FFT transform are:
Max FFT peaks used: The number of peaks used in the FFT for determining the fundamental
pitch of the signal.
Allow missing fundamental: Whether or not to accept an FFT where the peak for the
fundamental is missing. In certain instruments, the fundamental frequency can be very low in
level.
Max FFT Peak-to-Peak level (dB): The level range in which the number of FFT peaks used
must lie.
FFT Max-to-Fundamental level (dB): The level difference from max FFT peak to the
fundamental peak. This parameter is not applicable if missing fundamental is allowed.

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6.2

Pitch correction tab

The pitch correction tab allows you to select:

Reference frequency (Hz): Frequency of middle A as used by the auto correction.
Hysteresis (%): The percentage of how much the pitch of the input signal can go out of
bounds of its current corrected note.
Formant inclusion: Used to link pitch and formant when doing pitch correction.
Pre Transpose: Used to apply the pitch transpose before the signal is sent to the auto
correction. It can be used, for instance, to trim a singer who is constantly low so that the auto
correction can do a better job.

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7 Presets

Using the Presets button you can load and save Voice Tweaker presets. Every single parameter is
saved together will all settings in the Option dialog. So if you have changed the detection
frequency range, it will be saved also.

7.1

Preset location

Whenever you select to load or save a preset, the dialog current directory will default to the Voice
Tweaker preset location. The default location where presets are stored is:
<Voice Tweaker Installation Directory>/VoiceTweaker Files/Presets
PC example (default installation):
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins\Xponaut\VoiceTweaker Files\Presets
Mac AudioUnit example:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/VoiceTweaker Files/Presets
Mac VST example:
/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/VoiceTweaker Files/Presets

7.2

Default preset

If there is a preset file in the above location called default.vtpreset it will be used upon loading
Voice Tweaker into your audio host. This allows you to have your own personal default
preferences loaded each time you want to use Voice Tweaker.
So all you need to do is to tweak the parameters to your liking, and save the settings as
default.vtpreset (you don't need to provide the .vtpreset extension though).

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Voice Tweaker Users manual

8 MIDI control of parameters

The new Voice Tweaker can now have (almost all of) its parameters controlled by MIDI
controllers. By right-clicking on a parameter, you have the choice to let it learn a MIDI control.
If you right-click on the parameter again, you will see which MIDI control number is assigned to
it, if any, and also it will allow you to learn a new MIDI control number.

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