Transformizer / adaptive sound design

[Piet De Ridder]

Transformizer is a plug-in, from a Danish company with the same name, which “makes sounds intelligently adapt to each other by forcing ‘child’ sounds to accurately mimic certain parameters (pitch, amplitude, timbre, length) of a ‘master’ sound."
It’s a rather pricey tool — $599 — but it seems to be able to do stuff that I don’t see an alternative solution for.

The introduction video (second one below) is annoyingly uninfomative. The quickest way to get a first idea of Transformizer’s powers is to watch the 'Basic Operation' tutorial.
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Transformizer is available for Mac and Win, AAX, AU and VST.
If you register with Transformizer (the website), you can download a 14-day trial license of the software.
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[Guy Rowland]

On the face of that it example, it seems similar to one of Synchro Arts Revoice Pro's tricks, frequency tracking one source into another. In RP's world, this is mainly for ADR and voice work, to change the intonation of a performance but I think it would work in a similar way to this if used on other material. I might have a bit of time in the next week or two to have a play with that.

(Also their PT implementation seems not quite as elegant as RP's, which has a bridging app to line up the timecodes on both so stuff can stay in sync. Tranformizer seems to only work free-form.)

[playz123]

I read about this the other day, and watched the videos, and am a bit surprised Piet's announcement didn't generate more comments here...positive or negative. I find the idea and the way it works of great interest, but only in a limited way for me, simply because I wouldn't have a need for it very often. And, at that price, I don't think it will attract many people with a budget in mind either. Not suggesting the product isn't worth the current cost, and I'm sure a lot of work and programming went into it, but I can also think of a lot of other things that I need more that I could buy for that price. I would have liked to see a walk-through of it and many more examples, but guess those are useless requests since I won't be purchasing it or considering it unless the price drops significantly. Interesting product, and I wouldn't mind testing it out sometime though.

PS: Guy, meant to mention that it was nice to see your photo in the Dec. issue of SOS magazine. Does that mean we should start calling you MR. Rowland now that you've made it to the "big time"?

[Gregh]

looks interesting but there is not enough material out there yet to see what it is like in practice - although they offer a demo which is good. The interface looks well done but too expensive for me. I can do some of that (I think) using Spectral Layers Pro - intersection of frequencies, and Reaper - imposition of amplitude, maybe some other stuff if I had a better feel for what Transformizer offers. But of course if you were using this all the time having that functionality in a good design is easily worth the money. The demo video of the lion etc sounded like there were artefacts of spectral processing - the classic chirping effect - but maybe not.

[X-bassist]

This seems like an interesting idea, but everytime I use a plugin that does pitch/volume tracking, the end result becomes a mess. Usually drastic eq is needed to slice out the frequency area you want to keep (like the boom or the crack) but even then it becomes less than satisfactory. Often I end up ditching these ideas and coming up with better sounds myself, often creating foley with a mic and some props, or performing a synth sound l've created and getting a better match to picture that way. Taking a static sound and conforming it with a non-static sound (even if it's your source material) is not always the best way to go.

In the end keeping it simple and performing to match picture aways wins out, whether it's sound design or music score, so perhaps it would just collect too much digital dust. At $599 even more so. But I'm not saying I would pass up a 90% discount from VST buzz someday for more experimentation.

[Guy Rowland]

I've just had a play with Revoice Pro to see if it can get the same effect. With my skills, it can't. In theory it can map pitch from one source onto another, but the output is horribly grainy and not at all convincing. I've played with every control I can find. In its defence, it's designed for voice work and its not claimed to work on pure musical material, but even so its a little disappointing. Does anyone know if Melodyne 4 can do it?

Could be my skills though... In general I rarely get results out of RVP as good as the demos, even though basic pitch shifting quality is excellent.

Any which way, as others have said $599 feels like an awful lot of money for something so arcane. I'd like to hear some more real world examples of uses.