Pitch shifter

A pitch shifter is an audio processor that changes the pitch of an audio signal. Originally marketed by Eventide as the Harmonizer effects processor, advances in digital signal processors soon made higher-quality pitch shifting and harmonic pitch shifting possible.

Since the mid-1990s, formant correction has been available to avoid the "chipmunk voice" effect that typically occurs when shifting vocal pitch upwards. Pitch shifters are included in most multi-effect generators today.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, pitch shifting has had enormous influence on recorded music. Among several others, specialized DSP (Digital Signal Processing) software such as Antares' "Auto-Tune", Celemony's "Melodyne" and Prosoniq's "TimeFactory" has given producers of contemporary music the ability to ensure their recordings have no unwanted intonation inaccuracies.

A Grindcore sub genre, goregrind, utilizes the pitch shifter effect to tune down the vocals (usually screams or sometimes growls) to produce a vocal sound reminiscent of the low pitched growls and yells of Zombies from splatter films.