Prismizer

Prismizer
Original author(s) Francis Starlite (frontman of Francis and the Lights)[1]
Initial release May 2016[2]
Type Pitch correction
License Proprietary

Prismizer (/ˈprɪsəmaɪzər/) is an audio effect using multiple different audio codecs that sounds similar to a vocoder in that it combines pitch and frequency characteristics from multiple sources (most frequently used on the human voice) but to a different, choral effect. It utilizes the Antares Harmony Engine plugin and recalls the sound of Auto-Tune. The name combines the two words, prism and harmonizer, in reference to the polyharmonic pitch, which provides saturation akin to the dispersion of light through a prism.

While the Antares Harmony Engine plugin has been used in many albums, the 'Prismizer,' which references a specific configuration, debuted on the Chance the Rapper mixtape Coloring Book. He has stated that it will appear on the new Kanye West album, Turbo Grafx 16. It can be heard on Frank Ocean's sophomore album, Blonde, the Bon Iver album 22, A Million,[3] and Farewell, Starlite!, the debut album of its inventor, Francis Starlite of Francis and the Lights.

The live instrument version of the Prismizer was developed by Chris Messina, studio manager for Justin Vernon, and is known as the "The Messina.".[4] The Messina isn't actually an instrument, but rather a laptop running the "Prismizer" connected to a MIDI controller with some other form of outboard gear.[5]

In music

Earlier this year, Vernon and West made guest appearances on “Friends,” a song by Francis and the Lights, which featured Vernon, West, and Francis singing through Prismizer, a software program that, like Auto-Tune or the vocoder, makes sounds bright and syrupy. Melodies pulse and glow, supposedly following the dispersive properties of a prism. After fiddling with Francis’s Prismizer, Vernon enlisted his engineer, Chris Messina, to tweak the software. Eventually, Messina created the Messina, a combination of software and gear that is capable of harmonizing voices and instruments live. (The success of the first two Bon Iver albums has allowed Vernon to make investments in and around Eau Claire: he set up April Base, the studio Messina oversees, became part-owner of a boutique hotel, and helped found an annual summer music festival.)
— Hua Hsu, The New Yorker, [6]

Francis Starlite of Francis and the Lights perfected the method of reaching bright polyphony sounds without using a vocoder or Auto-Tune. It works like light that passes through a prism area and, naturally, splits into a color spectrum. Something similar happens with the vocals — it is not monotonous, but scattered and voluminous, giving a choir effect to the sound. Chance the Rapper spoke on Prismizer in an interview to Zane Lowe after its debut on Coloring Book:

That’s the one perpetual thing. I’ve heard a lot of songs with harmonizer, right? One of my favorite things that I see on the Internet is people commenting on the album, whenever people talk about this vocal sound that he’s created, they call it Auto-Tune, or they say this sounds like a lot like Bon Iver - Justin, who Francis worked with and showed a lot of this musical styling to, uses a very similar harmonizer effect - but there’s this very special thing that Francis does that he calls Prismizer. I love it, and it’s going to be Kanye’s album, and it’s on Frank’s album, but, this Prismizer thing that he does, he sings or he’ll take a vocal and then, very similar to a vocoder, instead of it being singular keys though, he builds chordal sound around it, so it sounds like a choir, so, when you first hear Ye’s vocal come in, it sounds like 15 cyborgs, all singing in Auto-Tune, but really it’s one vocal with Francis saying, ‘OK, this is the 3rd and the 5th and the 7th,’ and he just builds a full choir around it. This whole sound is my favorite thing because it resembles the choir sound that I’ve been trying to get forever, the choral sound, but it also kind of makes it futurist at the same time. That’s like, I think, one of the all-encompassing ideas of the whole project. Francis is credited on “Summer Friends” but he also did all of the Kanye vocals on it. He also does it at the end of “Same Drugs,” and, even though it’s not him playing on “How Great,” My Cousin Nicole came in and sang this lead vocal for “How Great Is Our God,” and my homie Peter came in and did Francis’s Prismizer with his same harmonizer and preset that we learned from him and really makes it sound like a whole new thing.[1]

See also

References

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