Free, looks good. Lets make it work…
In another thread (here), bkahuna brought to our attention a free (beta) pitch correction plug.
Since many of us use(d) ObTune (which is now no longer available), or are looking at commercial alternatives, I thought this might be worth a closer look.
The plug is called Gsnap and may be found at the bottom of the page here.
There is also an active thread on KVR Audio, here.
I gave it a quick spin this morning and it looks very promising. There is no manual at present so we are on our own to figure it out, but it doesn’t look that hard.
One thing that it does have that Ob-Tune, and the RBC offering don’t have, is a manual mode.
In manual mode you throw a midi track (of the melody or required pitch inofmation) at Gsnap and it uses the midi pitch information to correct the audio. Excellent, as anyone who has worked with the automatic mode in ObTune will know. This is a bit like what the big boy pitch correctors (Autotune) can do.
Anyway, the plug works fine in automatic mode but I’ve not managed to get the midi side of things to work. I think this may be a limitation in n-Track.
Does anybody know if it is possible to route a midi track to a Vst plug? If we can crack that, we’ll have a nice little pitch correction tool at the right price!
Join in…
Mark
I think the vst has to be set to recieve something from a midi track. I’m not sure… I just remember something to do with midi when I have a brief one or two day play with Groove Agent. Or maybe it was Antares Autotune?
Thank you for the link. I’ll try it.
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I keep on plugging it: the solution to this kind of problems is called Plogue Bidule (no, I’m not on their pay roll!)
That looks neat. 
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I keep on plugging it: the solution to this kind of problems is called Plogue Bidule (no, I’m not on their pay roll!) |
Tell me more.
Although we should be able to get n-track to route it’s midi output to a Vst (even if we need Flavio to change the code).
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Yes, quite, but the host still has to be able to route the midi to the Vst. A Vst is usually stuck on an audio track track and processes just audio not audio and midi. It’s only particular plugs like this one that need this capability.
So did you manage to get Autotune or Groove Agent to work in n-track with midi routed to them? Is so, please tell me how.
Mark
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I’d say: go ahead and try it. They have a (time-limited) free demo.
For this specific situation, you could use Bidule as an insert effect on the audio track that needs correction, load the gsnap plug in the Bidule patch (that’s right: a vst inside a vst) and send the midi there by means of MIDI-yoke or such.
I’m gonna try that and I’ll let you know what happens.
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Let us know. (It’s still a $75 solution though).
Reading the threads over at KVR audio, some hosts will route a midi track to an audio VST. If n-Track can’t do it we should see if Flavio will make the change for us. In my mind hansje’s solution is a workaround but it’s not free.
I’ll wait a bit longer and then if no one has come up with the answer I’ll ask Flavio if it’s possible.
Mark
I must say, the plug seems to be working ok, even without midi input.
Oops…gsnap is definately still in beta.
You don’t want the GUI open when processing!
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Yes, but to use the midi control of the pitch correction would be of real benefit.
Back in V3.2 or so, you could still plug a VSTi in as an insert. (Perhaps you still can.) When you did, it’s MIDI still showed up as an output selectable for a MIDI track. In fact, that’s how I used VSTi’s until I found out I was doing it wrong! (There were some disadvantages to using it this way, though I don’t remember what they were.)
I bet if you use an FX plugin that accepts MIDI input, when you plug it in its MIDI will appear as a choice for a MIDI track’s “Output to” selection.
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You would have lost that bet (just like me btw).
While it’s still possible to plug an instrument as effect in an audio track (and the midi will show up as output option too), n-Track won’t find the midi input of an effects plug-in.
That is: I can’t get the program to do that. (and i’ve tried pretty hard)
Eyup!
I may have got this completely wrong, but isn’t this what the AudioM8 plugin does that comes bundled with Jamstix? (for free!)
And anyway, when you insert a vsti (like, say mda piano) the midi can be routed to it, provided you use the menu function >Track >MIDI > Insert new vst instrument channel.
Steve
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| I may have got this completely wrong, but isn’t this what the AudioM8 plugin does that comes bundled with Jamstix? (for free!) |
Not quite… in fact it does the complete opposite. Jamstix is a Vsti (which by it’s very nature sits in a midi track and works with midi data), and the AudioM8 plugin is added to an Audio track to send the Audio to the Vsti.
We need to be able to do the opposite… send midi to an audio plug (effect).
Nice try though Steve. Cheers.
Mark
Eyup!
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Ah, I get the picture now. Duh
Steve
What about using EnergyXT in n-track (it can be run as a vsti), and running Gsnap inside that?
I think there’s a demo version of Energy XT.
Sorry, didn’t mean to open a can of worms here! I must confess, I’m an ex n-tracker, and my current host handles this without me even having to think about it.
No disrespect meant to Flavio! n-track is an amazing value. Almost everytime I return here I see a long list of new features. It’s nice to still see the developer responding to feature requests from the forum. Keep up the good work!
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Nope. Not a can of worms at all. I’m really glad you told us about Gsnap.
I’ve made the midi control work in Tr****ion. I’d just like it to work in n-Track too.
Mark
Well, funny, because n-Track used to support this, almost by accident.
I bet we can ask Flavio to add support for it in V4. Who’s gonna send the support request?
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Did it earlier today.