RePitch - Sound on Sound - February 2023

Here's an excerpt from their 4-pager review in the SOS February edition:

Summary:
An effective reimagining of the pitch-correction tools from Synchro Arts’ ReVoice Pro in plug-in form.

RePitch positives:

• Clean, elegant user interface.
• Comprehensive keyboard shortcuts and multiple undo.
• Superb documentation and tutorials.
• High-quality pitch-correction with plenty of scope for detailed user control.
• Close integration with VocAlign Ultra.

Synchro Arts have obviously put a lot of thought into the RePitch GUI. It seems understated and even plain at first, but the more I used it, the more I came to appreciate it. It’s superbly clear, and there are nice touches such as the yellow ‘heat map’ along the top of the window, which identifies areas where processing has been applied, making it easy to pick up on potential trouble spots. Having the pitch represented as a more or less continuous line running through each note is familiar from Melodyne, but what’s not so familiar is the ability simply to pick up a mouse and draw how you think this curve should look. Naturally, you can introduce artefacts if you attempt to change things too much, but for the most part, this falls into the ‘I never knew it could be that simple!’ category... the RePitch Draw tool is a powerful weapon that has no direct equivalent in Melodyne.

“The default ‘Snap All to Note Centers’ algorithm produces extremely natural results with few or no audible side-effects.”

What I haven’t yet commented on is how the pitch correction sounds. I think the best answer I can give is “as good as you make it sound”. The basic algorithm is clearly very capable, but as with all tools of this sort, the skill and taste of the user is the main thing that stands between artefact-free vocal tuning and a robotic mess.

Overall, though, it feels very grown up for a v1 product. And as with all of Synchro Arts’ products, the HTML documentation and video tutorials are first-rate.

A special thanks to Sam Inglis and Sound On Sound for reviewing RePitch!