Pitchloop89 uses a digital tape loop with two independent pitch shifting delays.
Allowing us to add anything from subtle vibrato and space to our sounds,
all the way to completely transforming and mangling the source material.
Here I have a simple drum loop. Let's turn Pitchloop off for now and take a listen.
And now let's turn it back on.
So it seems like all Pitchloop is doing right now is adding a little bit of delay.
I can adjust the delay time here using the position parameter.
You can see the delay time here in milliseconds.
Notice how when I adjust the parameter for the top delay unit, which is for the left channel,
the same change is reflected in the bottom unit, which is for the right channel.
However, if I adjust the bottom unit the same change does not get reflected to the top.
If I want to completely unlink these two delay units, I could just hit the arrow here -
and now I can adjust any parameter for each delay unit freely.
Let's bring them back together for now.
So far, Pitchloop has been functioning as a simple delay unit.
But where things start to get really interesting is when I enable the Hold button.
Let's turn the Dry/Wet up to a hundred percent so we can really hear it.
So right now Pitchloop is blocking any new audio from coming in,
and instead looping a small segment of the audio that came in previously.
I can scrub through the audio that it recorded using the Position parameter here -
This black graphic here represents about two seconds of audio,
and these two blue lines represent the part of the audio that I'm looping.
So I can scrub through the audio like so.
I can randomise the position here, adding a bit more movement...
or, if I'd like to modulate the position, I can turn up the depth on the LFO here.
And now the position moves on its own.
I can make it move faster or slower using the Rate parameter
and change the LFO shape as well. So maybe instead of Sine, I'll try Square
or Ramp, which is more of a sawtooth shape,
or I can completely randomise the position using the Random setting.
Or maybe even Move so that instead of jumping to a random position, the movement is smoother.
Let's change it back to Sine for now and I'll turn the LFO off.
Say I wanted to adjust how long the loop is...
To do this, I'll adjust the segment here.
And you can see that the segment time is written down below in milliseconds.
Smaller segments sound very glitchy and digital.
I'll turn the LFO back on and turn down the Rate.
Notice how the Segment time is now changing ever so slightly.
This is because Pitchloop's algorithm adjusts the segment time
to find the cleanest possible transition point between segments.
If I want to turn this off, I can turn off Xing here at the bottom left.
To hear the difference, I'll turn the segment down a lot.
Sounds very digital. And if I click on Xing again,
sounds a bit more glitchy with Xing back on.
There's also the option to have a longer fade between segments
using the Fade button, which we'll get into later.
If I'd like the segment to loop backwards instead of forwards, I can click on back here.
And if I'd like to globally scale down both the position and the segment time I can click Short.
I can downsample the looped or delayed signal using these buttons over here...
Lowering the sample rate will pitch down the audio and also add a unique grainy texture
reminiscent of older digital hardware samplers.
Now in addition to adjusting the position and segment,
I can also pitch the held signal up or down using the Pitch parameter.
I can detune the pitch of both the left and right delay units here.
And add some Pitch Bend or Vibrato using the Depth parameter.
I can change the shape of the LFO here to make a square.
And make it faster or slower as well.
The sound design possibilities here are truly endless.
If I'd like to tame the signal a little bit, I can filter out the low end using the Low Cut parameter.
Or take out some of the high end as well.
Over here I have the Feedback parameter which sends the output
of the delay units back into themselves.
Because Hold is enabled right now, incoming signals are blocked and so the feedback does nothing.
If turn Hold off, then I really start to hear it. Especially when I turn up the pitch.
As we'll hear later, the different feedback routing options result in completely different sounds.
If I'd like I can adjust the stereo field of the output here.
And adjust the volume of the different delay units.
Now that we have some understanding of how Pitchloop works,
let's try applying it to a few sounds to add some space and texture.
Over on this track I have a simple piano and I'd like to use Pitchloop
to give it a more psychedelic atmosphere.
So let's turn the drums off for now and take a listen.
All Pitchloop is adding right now is a bit of delay.
I'll turn up the position to increase the delay time.
And next I'll take the Pitch Shifter for the left channel and put it up an octave,
and take the Pitch Shifter from the right channel and put it down an octave.
To exaggerate the pitch shifting effect, I'll turn up Feedback.
Right now Feedback is set to Sum mode which means
that the output of the pitch shifters are added together
and then routed back into their inputs.
In and Left/Right mode they are not added together and then routed back into their inputs independently.
Cross mode routes the output of the left channel's pitch shifter into the input of the right channel
and vice-versa, to create a really interesting up/down alternating effect.
I'd like to make the delay sound a bit less glitchy, so I'll turn up the segment
and I'll turn Xing off to make the segment consistent in time.
I'd like to tame the sound a bit. So I'll turn up the Low Cut to cut out a little bit of the bass.
And turn down the High Cut to make the upper frequencies a little less harsh.
Turn the outputs up on the delay units.
I'd like to make sure that I got my timing right, so let's hear it with the drums.
Nice, I'm quite happy with that. Let's add my guitar melody.
Let's solo out the guitar for a bit.
What I'd like to have here is for the guitar to have a thicker, more chorusey sound.
So I'll start by turning on Short which will drastically lower the position and segment time.
I'll turn up Random for a bit of stereo effect.
And turn the position of the right channel's delay up a bit.
I'll turn up the segment to make the sound a bit smoother.
And turn on Fade, which creates a longer crossfade between segments
which helps smooth out the delayed sound even more.
Let's give it a bit of a psychedelic flavour.
I'll turn up the depth which creates a bit of pitch wobble.
And finally, I'll turn up Feedback which gives it almost a slapback delay sound.
Here's what it sounds like without any Pitchloop - pretty flat and dry.
And here it is with...
Alright, now let's hear it in the context of the beat.
And let's add a bit of bass.