Bubblegum: the free plugin that brings detailed pitch editing to producers on a budget

Bubblegum is a new free plugin that enables music producers the ability to adjust the pitch, timing and duration of individual notes within recorded audio, including notes played simultaneously in chords.

Developed by Your Smile is Art, the plugin offers a graphical approach to pitch editing inspired by Celemony’s Melodyne. It’s available for Windows and macOS in VST3 and AU formats, while a Linux version remains in beta.

How it works

Bubblegum analyses recorded audio and displays the detected notes as individual shapes on a piano-roll-style interface. Users can then move notes to different pitches, reposition them in time or change their duration, making it possible to correct performances or reshape musical phrases without the necessity of recording them again.

Its ability to work with polyphonic material is a key feature, allowing users to manipulate individual notes within a chord rather than restricting editing to a single vocal or melodic line.

Bubblegum arrives during a wider push to make pitch-correction tools more accessible. AutoTune Go is now available in FL Studio, including to users on the free tier of FL Cloud. While AutoTune Go focusses on real-time vocal tuning, Bubblegum takes a different approach, giving producers hands-on control over individual notes in recorded audio.

The plugin’s workflow involves loading it onto an audio track and using its Transfer function to capture the material for editing. Once the audio has been transferred, the detected notes can be adjusted directly within the plugin’s timeline

Alongside individual-note editing, Bubblegum includes global Pitch and Formant controls, which can be linked to shift the overall recording together. A quantize function moves detected pitches to the nearest semitone, offering a starting point for pitch correction.

More detailed adjustments are available through six editing modes: Main, Vibrato, Drift, Slide, Volume and Formant. These provide additional control over the characteristics of individual notes, including their pitch movement and tonal qualities.

Background

Bubblegum was created by electronic music producer M Fusina, who publishes software under the Your Smile is Art name. The project began after the developer encountered problems with their copy of Melodyne and decided to build a simpler alternative.

Although Bubblegum does not offer the full feature set of established commercial pitch-editing software, its combination of polyphonic note manipulation and detailed editing control makes it a potentially useful option for producers looking to experiment with recorded audio without investing in a paid tool.

Bubblegum is available to download for free from the Your Smile is Art website, with optional donations available.