MTRANSFORMER Review
Melda Audio is known for both their high professional quality and their unappealing drab UI. MTransformer is no exception to this representation, but it does something so unique I can look past the interface. MTransformer is a spectral remapper, which can be used for pitch shifting, frequency shifting and much more. When you first load up MTransformer, you are presented with an odd UI which I will not be showcasing in this review. The sidebar of presets drastically change the UI into various control interfaces. These are presets that wrap the main interface that I’m excited about into a “user friendly” device with familiar controls. Instead, up top there is an “edit” control, this takes you to the actual full version of MTransformer. Here you find the spectral remap curve, a variety of transformation controls.
The main event is the “transformation” curve, a spectral remapper. On the X axis, you get the input frequency, conveniently displayed with an analyzer. The Y axis is your output frequency. This allows you to draw out custom curves, morphing one spectrum into another. It gets quite wild fast if you push things extreme. Even with minimal adjustments you can make a piano sound like a kalimba made from some alien material. The possibilities with this one curve are endless, it’s hard for me to even describe any practical sound design methods as I’m still learning and creating with this one. Just next to the transformation tab is a level tab, this lets you remap volumes. You can make the quiet parts loud, and the loud parts quiet. It’s a rather incredible effect that I know even less about.
Above this section is the various transformation controls, you have some spectral settings, for adjusting your buffer size and resolution, as well as the smearing quality. The transform and transform level controls morph their respective curves from linear (default) to whichever curve you’ve created. This is a particularly different sound from the dry/wet balance, which simply crossfades between the two signals. There’s controls for variance, smearing, and feedback which really push things into another dimension. Finally you have the pitch shift, frequency shift, and formant controls, which all do as the label suggests.
I can’t quite say I fully understand MTransformer yet, I mostly just play around with the curves until I get something interesting. It’s truly one of the most intense and wild sound design tools out there. Is it useful for everything? No, as well, it’s probably a bit too crazy for most things. But it can transform sounds into completely unrecognizable territories in a way that nearly nothing else can. I highly suggest MTransformer if you’re looking for an effect that lets you reshape sonic spectrum. Being a Melda product means there’s a couple other details you can take advantage of in this one. For one, you can right click any curve segment and select from a variety of curve types, this is useful for easily creating steps. Additionally you can actually map curves and nodes to controllers which can be automated/ externally modulated. It’s a bit tedious to set this up, but it does well to exacerbate the madness. MTransformer pairs up quite nicely with Magic delay, giving you remap control over frequency, amplitude and time. Speaking of GS-DSP, their Magic Pitch plugin is a similar concept, also Enrage has a module similar, but they all sound drastically different from one another.
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MTRANSFORMER: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/28-Frequency-Shifter/1865-MTransformer?a_aid=61c378ab215d5