Vocalign--waste of time?

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:23 pm

Does anyone on the forum find Vocalign useful? I have been messing around with a beta version and so far, I'm not impressed. It seems like a really cool algorithm that only works passably well under just the right circumstances, but will still leave artifacts if you listen closely.

Any tricks for using Vocalign for an arhythmic guitarist to sync up to a percussion track after recording? Where does this program fit in the big scheme of things?

Tim

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 9:48 am

Vocalign is an amazing plug in that works for me every single time that I reach for it. Not sure why it's not working for you...

I would not use if for locking a guitar player into a drum track. I would only attempt to do that manually.

For locking in background vocals though, it can't be beaten.

HTH.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:07 am

I've found that Vocalign works best on mono sound sources. Anything that is polyphonic tends to end up with artifacts. Vocalign was originally intended for Film/Video ADR (or looping), to sync the overdubbed dialog with the picture.

:p:

Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2004 12:12 am

I have to second that, Vocalign, (hence the name) Vocal alignment. Was meant only to tighten up rubbery ADR loops.

Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2004 11:39 pm

As it was told to me, Vocalign is also useful for choruses. I belive that the song 'Who let the Dogs Out' used the plugin quite a bit to get everyone saying the exact same thing in the exact same manner.

Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 12:36 am

FWIW,

It's more transparent (less unpleasant) if you take shorter clips to render - it seems to work best with less information (not unlike people Laughing

)

best of luck,

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2004 5:08 pm

Sounds like this thing is just another tool to make your music so perfect that no one wants to hear it.

I have a really good "vocalign" program. it's called "Don't Fuck up".

Do you know how the Beatles got everyone to sing the same way? They all practiced, used there ears and sang the same way.

Sorry, I'm just sick of over produced music. Let it breathe people!

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 7:07 am

noit has a serious point here! I´m also tired of musicians that even compose thinking about the editing and plug-ins!
I know... sometimes is easier just to move on and "fix" somebodys performance... but... isn´t doing that extremely annoying? Isn´t it disgusting when you listen to a well sounding album and think how awfully the band sounds live?!

OH! I also love VocalAling for Brass Sections, Violins and al Lead kind sounds.

Best regards
SysOp

Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:37 pm

Noit...

It's ok to think like that if you're producing Beatles and have hundreds of hours of free time to practice & studio time to record, edit & mix unlimited numbers of bad takes... In the real world Vocalign is a wonderfull tool that saves precious time, esspecially if you have dozens of background vocals for, let's say, an RNB tune that need to be perfetlly in sync. I use it only for Vocals, and it works VERY well if you don't push it too far... Don't fix what aint broken, and you'll have a winner ! Smile

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2004 12:55 pm

I never had the use for vocal align........all the R&B singers I have recorded over the years never needed it.........or should I say never used because it wasn't available yet (wasn't an option on the Studer tape machine I was using) and it was not required. I will probably have use it for the first time sometime in the near future if I have singers who blatently need it. But for right now I do not have the need to use it.

Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2004 6:40 pm

Then I guess you were increadibly fortunate to work with such good singers (robots). Smile

I work with pretty good female singers, but I almost always used to vaste my time on getting the consonants to be perfectly in sinc for every single duplexed vocal & backing vocal, and it can sometimes be a pain in the back... So why not make an almost perfect take be a perfect take ? It wont hurt... Smile

You don't actually need to use Vocalign if you don't want to... just admit that it's a great tool Smile

hehe Cheers !

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 1:18 pm

I have worked with Melodyne which is a great tool for aliging vocals and monophonic tracks. It also works as a stand alone plugin with DAW features. I have not used vocalign personally, but I strongly suggest you guys check the demo for Melodyne, specially the one where they describe how the program works, it will impress you.

http://www.celemony.com/melodyne/Demos.html

cheers

Jose Luis Arbelaez

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:51 pm

1. I used Vocalign on the film I recently completed for the ADR sessions. It was flawless. Some of the actors who did the sessions were not the ones who originally acted in the scenes, but you would never know.

2. I HATE singers who cannot do what they have to do. However, I am paid to get the job done, not have opinions about thier talents. When the producer (who pays my fees) says fix it, I fix it.

3. If you need to match your sloppy guitar playing with the drum track try using Beat Detective. It works great, but you could probably re-record the tracks in the same amount of time needed to break the track down to work with Beat Detective.

4. Technology will never replace talent.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:05 pm

About the Melodyne, for which I started a new thread, also on this forum...

I too think it is an incredible piece of software, as far as you dont overdo it. I for example had problems when tuning the two duplexed vocal tracks, recorded separately, to be almost perfect, which developed a dynamic phase realationship between the two, and when summed into mono, resaulted in a phasing effect which could not be solved out by simple phase flipping or shifting on one of the channels. Never tune the tracks to be totally perfect, because it won't sound natural. But it can very well be used to correct even the very severe intonation / time problems... or just experiment with harmony... I still think it sounds much better than Autotune.... Any other opinions ?

Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 5:59 pm

"Vocalign" is one of the best protools plug-in. It sound at its best way on chorus align by no more than around 10 words each time.

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