United Plugins perfect vocal tracks with TrapTune
Independent development teams federation United Plugins is proud to announce availability of TrapTune as founding partner SounDevice Digital’s latest plug-in — putting perfect vocal tracks within easy reach of anyone working within the trap sub-genre of hip-hop or elsewhere for whom an automatic tuner with a unique character holds the key to creative success.
As anyone working in modern-day music production will likely testify, a perfect vocal track is the key element of almost every song — which is where SounDevice Digital’s TrapTune from United Plugins comes into play as the perfect fit for the trap sub-genre of hip-hop or, indeed, any scenario where hard-tuning is needed. Needless to say, TrapTune could conceivably be the only tool needed to achieve that perfect vocal track. That said, TrapTune is not just an automatic tuner with a unique character — albeit one that can capably deliver everything from subtle pitch correction to the likes of an artificial ‘Cher effect’ (exemplified by the American singer/actress’ global chart-topper ‘I Believe’ back in 1998 on account of its pioneering use of software audio processing), but can be combined with a second voice harmony, doubler, and special effects section to creatively craft a vocal track that really stands out from the sound of the (plug-in) crowd.
Clearly, TrapTune is especially well suited to genres where hard-tuning is required — think trap, hip-hop, EDM (Electronic Dance Music), R&B, contemporary pop, and more, but, of course, creativity should know no bounds. After all, any genre can conceivably benefit from TrapTune’s unique character.
Key to TrapTune’s creative success is its tune in section; there, the TRAP TUNE INTENSITY (%) knob may well be the only control anyone turns to. tune in controls the intensity and speed of natural tuning and intensity of hard tuning as an effect, while also working with formants (FORMANT SHIFT), voice transposing (TRANSPOSE), and key of the tuning.
The second voice section effectively adds another voice singing in unison with the vocal track being processed by TrapTune. It is possible to TRANSPOSE that additional voice by semitones and switch OCTAVES to lower (deeper) or higher if required, while hitting the STEREO VOICE switch activates TrapTune’s doubler effect. Exactly as might be expected, the vocal immediately gets bigger-, wider-, and stronger-sounding as a result of doing so.
SounDevice Digital’s TrapTune also includes a distortion section, specially tuned for vocals; controlled by the DRIVE (%) and DRY/WET (%) knobs therein, this can provide users with a wide variety of distortion effects, ranging from warm saturation right through to total mayhem!
Musically, TrapTune would be incomplete without its included reverb and delay sections, so users are able to easily access a beautiful-sounding plate reverb tuned for vocals with as few controls as possible, as well as a modelled tape delay with FEEDBACK (%) and time (LENGTH) controls.
Simply scanning through the plentiful presets included in TrapTune — also included for anyone to try in its unlimited 15-day trial version (available for free) — should satisfy anyone, thanks to the sheer variety of unique sounds on offer.
On the face of it, TrapTune’s distinctive design DNA carries through from SounDevice Digital’s Voxessor (https://unitedplugins.com/Voxessor/) — released early last year to widespread critical acclaim as a sophisticated tool that assists anyone wishing to create a perfect-sounding voice-over in next to no time (thanks to all voice treatment processes such as compression, equalisation, and saturation being easily accessible alongside several shortcuts), with which TrapTune makes for a perfect pairing. Put it this way: while TrapTune takes care of the effect part of the creative partnership, Voxessor handles the ‘technical’ work to fulfil the treated voice’s essential needs.
Needless to say, TrapTune shares several admirable attributes with fellow family members now numbering 29 plug-ins, each playing their part in United Plugins’ proliferating product portfolio, providing maximum audio quality by using internal 64-bit audio processing as well as being able to handle any sampling rate — 192 kHz (or even higher) — and also the fact that it intelligently detects whether it makes sense to perform any processing at all; if not, it temporarily turns on sleep mode, meaning it requires virtually no CPU (Central Processing Unit) power at all, thereby saving computing resources for other processes. Putting a photorealistic 3D yet flexible GUI (Graphical User Interface) to the test with TrapTune, likewise, leaves its users with the impression that they are working with real world hardware; however, it easily adapts to their needs since they can always drag the arrow at the bottom-right corner to change its size — smaller to save precious ‘screen estate’ or larger to make it easier on the eye and, as a result, even easier to use than it already is.
It is fair to say, then, that anyone looking to create a unique-sounding trap, hip-hop, or R&B song needs a unique vocal effect, yet now need look no further than SounDevice Digital’s TrapTune plug-in. As an automatic tuner with unique character suited to trap music and more, perfect vocal tracks are now within easy reach of anyone.
TrapTune is available to purchase for a time-limited introductory promo price of only €19.00 EUR until September 30, 2022 — rising thereafter to its regular price of €79.00 EUR — as an AAX-, AU-, VST-, and VST3-compatible plug-in (using internal 64-bit audio processing capable of handling any sample rate) directly from its dedicated webpage (https://unitedplugins.com/TrapTune/), where a 15-day, fully-functional trial version for macOS 10.10 and newer and Windows 8/10 can also be downloaded for free.
Note that no iLok, dongle, or internet access is required for TrapTune activation. (All United Plugins software uses license files for activation and owners can freely use purchased software on all their computers as long as they are the user.)