It's not just the chords that make R&B sound like R&B. That's only half the equation. It's also the sounds you use with said chords that maketh R&B. And although R&B often follows the sound palette of the current day, some sounds span multiple decades. Some sounds will come up time and time again. Some sounds are just quintessential R&B.
The Pitch Sine
In comes the pitch sine. What is it? The pitch sine is a sound constructed using sine waves, the purest wave and tone.
What makes the pitch sine unique, however, is the "pitch" part of the name. The sound uses an envelope to pitch down the notes we play before raising them to the correct pitch of the keys we've played. This movement creates a distinct sound, one that, when coupled with the purity of sine waves and fullness of R&B chord voicings, delivers a moving experience. And that quintessential R&B sound!
The problem is, not many VSTs come with these sounds out of the box, in fact, I haven't found a single one. This realisation took me on a journey in search of third-party pitch sine presets, which I eventually found.
However, I also wanted to find a free solution that anyone could easily use.
Pitch MOD
Pitch MOD is a Logic Pro Modular MIDI FX preset that I've created to emulate this sound. A preset you can use on any sound to give you the pitch sine flavour. Watch the video below to hear it in action.
You can download SG Pitch MOD for free or pay what you want to support my work.