Pitch correction...

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:24 pm

Is it possible, using Autotune or another similar software, to manually change notes on a vocal track? Not just minor correction... I'm talking extreme vocal makeover. Like taking a vocalist who can sing only half of notes or less in tune, and making them sound as though they sang every note on tune.

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 7:14 pm

I bet if you hang around for just a little while there will be someone who can tell you just what you need to buy to do this!

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:36 pm

Smartass answer - only if the vocalist has extremely attractive breasts (or pects).

The long answer is that it is a standard practice with major label pop artists to "comp" vocals: you take 15 takes of a song and go through word by word and syllable by syllable and pick the best instance from the 15 takes and paste them together. I presume that there are vocalists whose pitch needs correction on a large number of syllables. (I've never done this myself and don't intend to. But many instructional books on using recording software will give you a tutorial on how to do it - claiming that every engineer has to know how to do it. Producers tend to keep mum about it when they are talking about their artists. Draw your own conclusions.)

So yes, it can be done. Long expensive process. How likely is it that this record will sell a million copies?

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:37 pm

I'm no expert but a friend of mine who's been recording for a while would suggest melodyne.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFCjv4_jqAY

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:07 pm

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Gooollleee Sarge!

Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:18 pm

I'm no expert but a friend of mine who has been recording for a while would recommend singing lessons.

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:23 am

Doh! That's what I get for not paying attention to what is going on around here!

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:11 am

Thanks for the responses. I'm sure that it will be tedious and that it would be easier to just record an artist who can actually sing instead, but... She's pretty, and a good friend of mine. I'm sure it will be tedious but it's work and time that I am willing to put in.

When you say it's an expensive process, how so?

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:41 pm

The Auto-Tune series 4.12 can do absolutely remarkable things in automatic mode. Worth the price of admission. Works as a DirectX plug-in for most software's. You don't have to correct every note. It does. Highlight the track and apply the plug-in. This is assuming she is isolated on her own track? That's the only way you can accomplish this. You may have to experiment with the plug-in settings a bit but it will do quite a job. Generally under $300.

Hope you get laid?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:35 pm

RemyRAD wrote:

The Auto-Tune series 4.12 can do absolutely remarkable things in automatic mode. Worth the price of admission. Works as a DirectX plug-in for most software's. You don't have to correct every note. It does. Highlight the track and apply the plug-in. This is assuming she is isolated on her own track?

I've never experimented with Auto-Tune before, so I have no idea what "automatic mode" is or what it does. It's hard to imagine that a program could automatically make every note in tune with no human assistance... After all, the program doesn't know what the melody is supposed to sound like?

RemyRAD wrote:

This is assuming she is isolated on her own track?

Of course.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:17 pm

Despite the spam I own the melodyne VST, and like it. I only use it as a last resort, but it is a powerful tool. I hope thats ok MarkG. ;->

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:29 pm

MarkG wrote:

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Gooollleee Sarge!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. I found a Jim Neighbors album in my stack of vinyl the other day, and I felt a little sarcastic.

Link, I actually tried the demo version of melodyne a few years ago and couldn't figure out how to use it. If I could have made it work I probably would have bought and used it (most likely, OVERused it!)

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:03 pm

Based on the Youtube video posted by dartstothesea, Melodyne actually looks surprisingly easy to use. It looks like simple clicking and dragging to me... Is it actually more difficult to use than it looks?

Keep in mind that I will only be editing vocal tracks here, not full productions.

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 12:12 pm

Yep its very simple to use, but it does have a few bugs, or at least I have a few issues with it. Mainly, if you apply it, do some edits and save the project. When you close and reopen the pitch changes will not play back correctly. However if you print the changes during the seesion to a new track you can avoid that problem. I think they may have mentioned that issue somewhere on there site or in the manual. But regardless it's a pain...

Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:16 am

RE: I've never experimented with Auto-Tune before, so I have no idea what "automatic mode" is or what it does. It's hard to imagine that a program could automatically make every note in tune with no human assistance... After all, the program doesn't know what the melody is supposed to sound like?

I just wanted to respond to this post from tbr567. Autotune can do quite a lot to correct vocal pitch problems automatically when set correctly. You are correct about the melody, Autotune does not know the melody, however the melody of a song is phrased by a vocalist using notes which Autotune does of course understand and this is how it acheives its aim.

The program is able to detect the pitch of incoming notes and compares it mathmatically to the proposed output values. For simplicity lets say the singer sings a note (slightly off pitch) from A-440Hz. Autotune notices that the frequency of the sung phrase is not spot on 440Hz, but in fact at say 415Hz that of Ab. If we are singing in the key of C, Autotune knows that there are no (b) flats in the key of C, so it modifies the note to the next step up which is 440Hz. To the human ear the note sung now appears to have been sung correctly in tune.

Therefore it modifies the digital signal to reflect how it would sound if the singer had sung the phrase in tune. That is just a hopefully simple explanation of how software like this works. Naturally it is far more complex than this, but this should be enough for a noob to grip the basic concept of Autotune. I am new on this forum yet an experienced recording engineer of more than 10 years. I look forward to expanding my knowledge. I am also an accomplished vocalist.

Good to be at recording.org tks Smile

Adam

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