Adding pitch width to headline synth parts

If you haven’t programmed detune or pitch-widening techniques into your synth parts – you can do this at the processing stage instead

Pitch has a powerful impact on our relationship with music and the individual instruments which make up the tracks we listen to. We can tell, immediately, if a singer is out of tune, and yet when we run recorded performances through pitch-correcting software, it’s often the case that the ‘out of tune-ness’ equates to only a few cents either sharp or flat. The reason notes sound out of tune is because they’re notably (if only a little) above or below the other pitches within our tracks, providing an unwelcome clash. However, if sounds are stretched both sharp and flat at the same time (using detune to equally widen a pitch base in both directions), they can occupy a more dominant role in a mix, without sounding out-of-tune.

Our backing track contains plucks, kick and bass. The plucks are fine but they’re a little ordinary-sounding and would benefit from a richer sonic presence. We can achieve this by reaching for pitch-spreading detune tools. Here’s the track at its...

The UAD Studio D Chorus plugin adds an Ensemble-style detune to spread the pitch base wider, and Eventide’s H910 Harmonizer uses an Envelope to spread pitch wider as each note is detected, colouring the Attack of each note.

We also add a specialist reverb treatment to widen pitch spatially. This comes from Valhalla’s Shimmer, to which we add a +12 semitone pitch offset. This creates a high, celestial cloud of reverb to add extra presence to the plucks.