Autotuning a Choir. Can it be done?

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:22 pm

I am looking at mixing a project and the choir is flat for most of the song. I believe the choir was tracked live infront of four mics. I have asked if we can hire pro singers for the song but I don't think this is in their budget. I didn't track the Choir but I was asked to tune them. I am affraid that their will be bleed on the mics between registers and I might not be able to tune it. I was wondering if you folks had any ideas? Thanks.

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 3:52 pm

In a word - No.

If the entire choir were flat for the entire performance by equal amounts, then it could be done. Otherwise, by fixing some notes, you'll make others worse.

Time to consider hiring out that pro choir - damn the budget... Wink

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:12 pm

Thats what I thought.

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:13 pm

Have you tried it? It'd be interesting (probably the correct word) to listen to.

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:27 pm

No I haven't tried it yet. But I will futs around with it when I receive the OMF. I just had a quicktime to look at but I will post about my results.

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 7:47 pm

I often am asked to fix choirs that drift sharp or flat - Collectively, on unaccompanied tracks. (Where they're given a bell tone at the top, then they just drift down - or up - together, slowly, over time.)

Otherwise, you can't - and don't - won't to mess with it if there are other instruments going on. (Which is rarely the case anyway, since they'd have a point of reference and wouldn't drift away so easily.)

I use Samlitude/Sequoia's "Elastic Audio" plug in to slowly draw the waveform (and pitch) back up, over time, often over the length of the piece, or where the music director says it begins to happen. (Often after the first verse or chorus, and then eventually locks in at the "wrong" pitch point.) Elastic Audio works in real time, so it's pretty cool when it works properly. If it's gradual enough of a change, and if the recording is high quality enough, you don't really hear it, esp if the resampling rate is high enough.

Once in a while, I'm asked to fix an "exposed" note - a soprano, or a solo violin, etc. We try it, and see if it works or not. If it doesn't, we leave it and move on. I had a music director really push me to make a fix once, even though if one listened close enough, one could hear the ENTIRE string section slide up a tiny bit - along with the "Fixed" note. He was the client, he was paying, and in the end, against my advice, we left the "fix" in place. No one has since caught it or commented about it, though. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2008 4:15 pm

Well the project didn't come through. The studio had some issues and the client went to another facility. Oh well next time.

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:05 am

Copy the track twice. Pitch shift one copy sharp by between 10 and 15 cents, and the other flat by the same amount. Place them back in the mix a little lower than the original.
This fools the ear into fillowing the most correct pitch.

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 2:10 am

I've recently got a newsletter from Melodyne (I have the Plugin version) and I think you should read the news and see the video about Direct Note Access. If it works as described then it might be possible to tune groups of instruments of the same kind and chords of solo instruments. I wonder how it would work with the choir mentioned above.
http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna_media
Tell me what you think about it. I was very much surprised Exclamation

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:22 am

Hope it does what they claim. I have a LOT of clients who will go NUTS over this, again, assuming it works as touted.

I see it's a Fall 08 release date too, eh? Bugs bugs bugs, no doubt. Twisted Evil

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 8:31 am

I'm curious to see how it works with complex symphonic work.

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