Widen Your Instruments with MicroShift by SoundToys

Music producers have been experimenting for decades to generate "larger than life" vocals and instruments. Luckily, today, there are many ways of creating a wide stereo image, but some of the plugins are also capable of introducing additional aspects like depth and texture. For example, a company named SoundToys has released an excellent plugin called MicroShift, and in this tutorial, we will examine its unique sound-processing capabilities.  

MicroShift by SoundToys

MicroShift gives you three different types of classic stereo-widening tricks at the push of a button. It uses a particular recipe of pitch shifting and delay that varies over time to create a rich stereo width. It's incredibly straightforward to use and ideal for spicing up necessary instruments or for blending background vocals subtly into a mix. The design replicates hardware pitch shifters like the Eventide H3000 and the AMS DMX 15-80s. MicroShift captures the quirks of the originals, including saturation and even the different de-glitching algorithms used by these units. Bearing this in mind, you can have the big, expansive sound of the original hardware with a refined and straightforward interface that makes getting those tried-and-true sounds faster and easier than ever. In the following tutorial, I will guide you through its user interface and show you a few practical audio examples. In the project I made earlier in SoundBridge: DAW, I have an acoustic guitar riff and a vocal line, which will be suitable to process with MicroShift. Let's start by adding a fresh instance of the MicroShift to both channels of the Acoustic guitars and the vocals. 

As you probably noticed, the interface of the MicroShift looks pretty straightforward, but don't let that discourage you. This simple control makes much difference. Let's start going through them one by one.  

Mix

This control determines the balance between the dry (unprocessed) and wet (processed) sounds in MicroShift. For the most precise, fullest sound, 100 percent wet is the way to go. For a beefy, more chorused sound, you can use the Mix control to blend in the original dry signal with the pitch-shifted and delayed effect.  

Focus

Controls the crossover point of a 2-band crossover filter and applies the affected signal only to the high band. While very source-dependent, it helps widen mid and high-frequency content without making the low-end sound vague or muddy. It defaults to 20 Hz but can go up to 10 kHz.  

The Style

It's divided into three different variations. Style 1 is modeled on preset #231 from Eventide's H3000 hardware unit. It is a genuinely close match to the delay and pitch variations of the original preset. Style 2 is modeled on preset #519 from the H3000, based on a different pitch-shifting algorithm. The Style 3 is modeled after a favorite setting from another vintage hardware unit, the AMS/Neve DMX 15-80. This style has much wider delay variation, different saturation characteristics, and a separate, harder, 'de-glitching' circuit.  

Detune

Increases or decreases the micro pitch-shifting happening with any of the three types. Because the pitch shifting for each style is continually time-varying, this control is in units of percent. At 50%, the amount of detuning is halved — but it doubles to 200%.  

Delay

This control increases or decreases the amount of delay that is happening with any of the three types. Because the delay for each style is continually time-varying, this control is in units of percent. At 50%, the amount of delay is halved. At 200%, the amount of delay is doubled.  

Audio Examples

Once we have examined the main control parameters, we can move to the audio examples. As I mentioned before, first, we will hear how acoustic guitar riff sounds unprocessed and then processed with Microshift. You will notice that with MicroShift, the acoustic guitar riff has a new texture. It became wider, spacious, and slightly chorus-sounding. On the other hand, the vocal line was already double-tracked and harmonized in the first place. Nevertheless, Microshift gave it a slight push to become broader and more present in the mix. Finally, we will listen to the acoustic guitar riff and the vocal line in context with the other elements in the song.  

~Ac. Guitar - Unprocessed 

~Ac. Guitar - Processed With MicroShift

~Vocal - Unprocessed 

~Vocal - Processed With MicroShift 

~Full Mix