h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...is it a good idea or will the thing explode?

The thing is that pitch/octave shifters designed specially for vocals are stupidly expensive, whereas the ones designed for use with guitars are only about £100.

Basically I'm after recreating the vocal sound used by Carcass in the late 80s which apparently relied heavy on pitch shifting to get the right inhuman effect.

It'll work, but could sound a tad odd. I don't think guitar pitch-shifters do the formant shaping thing.

What are formant shaping?

IIRC formants are the bits of a vocal sound that don't change with pitch, sibilance and plosives being the most apparent, but there are many others too. If they get shifted with the pitch everything starts to sound odd - hence the Pinky & Perky sound of early pitch shifters.

*getting a bit out of my depth here*

I *think* that high end pitch shifters take this into account and attempt to cover it up with frequency specific sampling, so that the formant bits get treated differently, but don't quote me!

Ah, Pinky & Perky sounds won't be so much of an issue as I'll be adjusting the pitch the other way and will mostly be shouting into the mic.

Should be fine then, if a little wobbly (in a good way.)