Hello,

I am planning to purchase cubase essential 5, but I need a pitch correction utility for vocals.  I can see the Cubase Essential package has a PitchCorrect utility, but not variAudio, which comes with Cubase 5. 

http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/musicproduction/cubase5_product/cubase5_featuredetails100.html

Does anyone happen to know the difference between PitchCorrect and VariAudio?

Would appreciate a feedback.

Thank you.

Hi,
Well someone here might be inclined to sit down and write a few pages of an explanation for you, but also there`s no reason you can`t research this yourself. Simply go to the Steinberg web site and download the documents for Cubase 5. (Click Here) You will note that Pitch Correct is a simple plug-in (see Plug-ins manual), but VariAudio is not (see Operations Manual), and the latter`s features are far more extensive than the former. All this is irrelevant though if you are set on buying Essentials anyway.
To get you started, here`s some info on Pitch Correct:

Pitch Correct automatically detects, adjusts and fixes
slight pitch and intonation inconsistencies in monophonic
vocal and instrumental performances in real time. The advanced
algorithms of this plug-in preserve the formants of
the original sound thus allowing for natural sounding pitch
correction without the typical “Micky Mouse” effect.
Furthermore, you can use Pitch Correct creatively. You
could e.g. create backing vocals by modifying the lead vocals
or vocoder sounds by using extreme values. You can
use an external MIDI controller, a MIDI or Instrument track
or the virtual keyboard to “play” a note or a scale of target
pitches that determine the current scale notes to which the
audio should be shifted. This allows you to change your
audio in a very quick and easy way, which is extremely useful
for live performances. In the keyboard display, the original
audio will be displayed in blue while the changes are
displayed in orange.

Here`s some info on VariAudio:

With the AudioWarp features, editing audio in the time
domain has become significantly easier. However, editing
pitch was limited to having just one single numeric “transpose”
value per event or part.
With cutting-edge technology Cubase finally turns the
dreams of musicians and producers into reality: editing
vocal lines in the Sample Editor has become just as seamless
and quick as if editing MIDI notes in the renowned
Key Editor. This is the new VariAudio feature that offers
completely integrated vocal editing and pitch alteration of
individual notes in monophonic vocal recordings and can
solve intonation and timing problems with only a few
mouse clicks.
And how does it work? First, the vocal line is analyzed and
split into segments shown as graphic representation of
the notes sung. After the detection process is complete,
the recognized notes can be modified entirely “non-destructive”
so that any modifications to the audio material
can be undone or reverted to the state of the original file.
VariAudio was developed and optimized specifically to be
used with monophonic vocal recordings. Though the detection
and stretching of notes of other monophonic audio
recordings, such as those of a saxophone, may work well,
the quality of the end result depends greatly on the generic
condition and structure of the recording’s texture. The following
sections explain the exciting functionality of VariAudio
in which we only refer to monophonic vocal material.
VariAudio allows you to change your audio on the vertical
axis (see “Changing the pitch” on page 247) and on the
horizontal axis (see “Warping segments” on page 250).
􀃖 If you load projects with VariAudio files in Cubase Studio,
the original files will be played back and your VariAudio
modifications will be ignored. If you want to hear your
modifications in Cubase Studio, you will have to bounce
the audio files that have been edited with the Cubase
VariAudio features.

Hope that helps, but do download the C5 documents, and check this out yourself.............frank

Thank you very much, Frank.  I had no idea the documentation was available online.  The link is very helpful. 

I will review them thoroughly before I make a decision.

Thanks once again.