Anyone familiar with Mark Henning's AnaMark virtual synth? Well, I'm trying to recreate the "Dirty Pitch" control knob that allows random tuning of a note (or notes) in PlugData.

This is to spice up 12 tone equal temperament, especially good for older types of instrument sounds. On Max setting, the knob (or slider) might produce a random variance of +/- 50 cents, for any synth that lies in between it and the VST host (I don't use a DAW).

Can anyone help with this?

Thank you,
Dave S.

On Max setting, the knob (or slider) should produce a random variance of +/- 50 cents, for any synth that lies in between it and the VST host output (I don't use a DAW).

Sorry about that.

Thank you for assisting me with this; sounds very promising.

Can you explain why there are two slider controls and have you tested this out yourself?

Dave S.

Dirty pitch should be in the range of +/-50 cents for it to allow slightly sharp/flat notes.

I spent about 45 minutes with ChatGPT but there were still issues. I wasn't even able to compile the patch.

I spent about 45 minutes with ChatGPT but there were still issues.

Not sure why you'd expect otherwise

You didn't mention that you need this patch to be compatible with Heavy, always good to mention beforehand.

Maybe share your patch so we can all tell what you're trying to do?

What do you mean by "You didn't mention that you need this patch to be compatible with Heavy, always good to mention beforehand." What is heavy?

I don't have a working patch to share.

out-of-tune.pd

What is heavy?

Then what do you mean with "compile"?

I don't know if this is what you are going for, but based on your initial description this is what I envisioned.

I would use frequency modulation to get random pitch fluctuations.
I would use a random pitch oscillator to achieve this too, so it's not predictable like a sin wave would be..

You can see what I did in the screenshot.
I used perlin~ from the else library, it's a pretty good random pitch generator, but there are a few good ones in Else. It's worth trying a few out. I would use a low number, like less than 3 for the frequency of the oscillator doing the modulating.

I used a saw~ for the actual oscillator, and I think that's a Cyclone object.

For a brief explanation: a given frequency is being randomly oscillated within a given range (amount of oscillation). If you want a less wide oscillation change the amount of oscillation. The frequency of the perlin~ ( or whatever noise oscillator you use) is how fast the modulations are happening.

Just to clarify, I use VSTHost by Hermann Seib (instead of a DAW) to summon virtual synths and effects, something like this:

MIDI in (MIDI keyboard) - Synth - Reverb - MIDI out

And this is what I would like to achieve:

MIDI in - Dirty Pitch - Synth - Reverb - MIDI out

The Dirty Pitch is not intended to produce any sound, just static random pitch bend MIDI messages for the virtual synth to produce an ANTI autotune effect controllable by the user.

So the Dirty Pitch PlugData script, would need to be converted/compiled (or whatever) into a VST3 Plugin format.

Dave S.

Yeah plugdata only comes as VST3, LV2 and CLAP versions.

If you use compiled mode in plugdata (which uses the Heavy Compiler, as I said earlier) you can export VST2 plugins as well, but you have to make sure you use compatible objects.

No, I'm not tied to VSTHost but it's much less intimidating than a DAW. Also my compositions (if you can call them that) are usually a single take/track. I also enjoy creating new timbres for virtual synths.

I downloaded your "out-of-tune.pd" to my plugin folder but VSTHost does not detect it. What am I doing wrong (something stupid I guess)?

@Orangery You have to install plugdata and open the pd patch from there.

Ah, I see now, thanks. As PlugData was already installed on my machine, I just copied it to my VST folder, fast updated plugins and opened the application in VSTHost (so basically what you said). Thanks for that.

Update: I now have the PlugData application in my VST folder and loaded up your "out-of-tune.pd" script (first version) in VSTHost via PD (following "dreamer's" advice).

Yes, the Dirty Pitch controller seems to work well and is a lot of fun and very much appreciated! Others have also provided ideas (scripts); maybe I should try them too?

Thank you everyone.

I've used an updated version of out-of-tune.pd to create outoftune.vst3 using Camomile
outoftune.zip

I have just tried the updated VST version; very neat, thank you. I also liked the first version, even though mathematics was wrong.

Could you explain a little on the UI controls. It seems that "pitch drifting" after a note is triggered, is now possible.