Soundtoys
MicroShift
Creates stereo width through time-varying micro-pitch shifting and delay, with adjustable detune, delay scaling, and a crossover that limits widening to higher frequencies.
GUI Screenshot
From My Notebook
The page is ready. Listening notes, favorite settings, and experiments will live here.
The Overview
MicroShift builds on the paired detune-and-delay technique used to widen vocals, guitars, and other instruments with classic digital pitch processors. The left and right sides differ subtly in pitch and timing, and those differences vary over time. Three Styles reproduce different reference behaviors, including their tonal and saturation characteristics.
Compared with Little MicroShift, the full version exposes Detune and Delay scaling as well as Focus. Focus is a crossover: only the upper band receives the widening treatment. That makes it possible to keep low frequencies more stable while spreading vocal presence, guitar shimmer, or synth detail across the stereo image.
Begin by choosing a Style and listening to its fully wet result, then adjust Detune and Delay to determine how animated and separated it feels. Raise Focus when a full-range spread makes the bottom end loose. Finally, use Mix to decide whether the result should be a clearer widened layer or a thicker dry-plus-processed combination. It is a widening effect, not a corrective pitch editor or a replacement for a genuinely separate performance.
Manual, About MicroShift, p. 4; The MicroShift Control Panel, pp. 5–6.
The Controls
Style
I follows H3000 preset 231, including its varying pitch/delay and saturation behavior. II follows H3000 preset 519 and its different algorithm, delay variation, and frequency response. III follows an AMS/Neve DMX 15-80 setting, with a wider variation in delay and a different de-glitching and saturation character.
Select a Style before adjusting the detailed controls. Their starting behaviors differ, so identical scaling values do not guarantee identical pitch movement or timing across styles.
Detune and Delay
Detune scales the amount of micro-pitch change in the current Style. The units are percentages because the underlying shift varies over time. The manual's examples are 50% for half the original amount and 200% for twice the amount; this is not a cents readout.
Delay similarly scales the Style's time-varying delay. Smaller amounts tend to make the voices less separated in time, while larger amounts expose more doubling character. It is also expressed as a percentage of the Style's behavior rather than an independently entered delay in milliseconds.
Focus
Focus sets the crossover between the untreated lower band and the upper band receiving the effect. It defaults to 20 Hz and can be raised to 10 kHz. Increase it when a bass instrument or full-bodied vocal loses low-frequency stability, or when only a high-frequency halo is wanted. It is not a conventional high-pass filter removing the source's bass.
Mix and workflow
Mix balances dry and processed sound. The manual identifies fully wet as the clearest wide presentation; mixing in the dry source produces a thicker, more chorused result. Make the width and Focus decisions first, then adjust the blend while listening against the arrangement. Check a mono downmix when the widened layer is important, rather than judging only on headphones.
Manual, Mix, Detune, Delay, and Focus, p. 5; Styles I–III, p. 6.