3 levels of pitch correction, DP and Auto tune

[toodamnhip]

I have found a fairly successful way to ensure the sweetest level of pitch correction using DP’s pitch correction, and Auto tune 7. Of course, I also have Melodyne, and this has it’s moments too.

The philosophy here is the same as Mastering where one does NOT use ONE processor too hard, but instead, uses several mildly.

Here are the steps:
1) Use DP tuning for it’s precision and ability to segment the pitch of notes vibratos at different zoom levels. At this level, fix Big problems, especially certain vibratos that get out of tune. You can also grab whole long notes and put them on the pitch graph. Do your best here, but don;t kill yourself with the final “sweetness” of the vocal. Antares will be doing that. Your job here is to use DP well but simultaneously, you are improving a vocal enough so Antares won’t have to work so hard.

2) Put Antares in auto mode and figure out the best overall speed and humanize levels. Speed is about how quickly Antares grabs a note to tune it. Here, you want to be a bit MILD, using a slower speed if possible because you will be using a faster speed in the next step for more acute problems. The humanize should be set around 45 or so to allow for longer notes to be corrected differently than staccato notes.
Once you have Antares set to a gentler speed and humanize, (I like to use speed=50, humanize 45), put antares into graphic mode.

3) Graphic Mode-final sweetening in Antares.
The concept here is that you want to use Antares to “sweeten” the notes you have corrected in DP.
You are going to have TWO levels of speed control in general in Antares. A) The SLOWER level you set in Auto mode, (in this case 50- 45), and B) The level you set in graphic mode preferences, I usually use 20 or 15 and this is a faster correction value.

4) Track the pitch of the entire vocal into Antares, then, use “Import Auto” to import the speed of correction 50-45 that you set in “auto” mode.

5) Line by line, go through and compare NO Antares, by bypassing the plug in, with the “imported” antares correction. Sometimes you can even erase the ATTACK of a note if it sounds unnatural, leaving the body of the note corrected. If a notes sounds better with NO Antares, you will next try the note creation tool to see if that sounds better or worse than DP’s correction alone.

6) Use the note creation tool, (3rd from left in the tool window above note display), and see what parts of notes sound better with the faster amount of pitch correction set in graphic mode, (15-20 in my example). When using the note correction tool, remember you can adjust any individual created note’s attack time for more extreme correction. Also, I use the note creation tool to ERASE tuning data that doesn’t sound better in Antares by swiping over a section of a note and then hitting “cut” in the antares window, which cuts the note created, leaving NO correction.

7) And you just jockey these factors around. The DP only pitch, the slower “import auto” Auto tune correction, the faster note creation tool correction. You will find that Antares is better at sweetening the overall LONG time pitch of a note but that certain moments of notes are better with either faster note correction times or left alone. You will also find it nice to erase the initial attacks of notes to ensure a natural correction of the body of a note.

This is triple level, light correction that sums to an overall gentler, sweeter final product.

I hope this proves useful.

[Dan Worley]

Fantastic tip! I'm going to try this for sure. Thanks for writing that all out.

[toodamnhip]

Fantastic tip! I'm going to try this for sure. Thanks for writing that all out.

You’re welcome.
There are many variations available to this whole technique.
For example, what if you’ve done the DP pitch correction and BEFORE Antares, you are fairly happy with DP alone?
Well, in that case, after importing all the DP pitched data into Antares, you can then just use “import auto” or the “create pitch” tool on notes where you are not quite 100% happy. Doing this instead of importing “import auto” pitch data throughout the whole vocal performance. Pitching is a touchy, moody thing. Sometime I will start out with the intention to use DP pitch lightly and find myself going so deep in DP pitch that it needs little Antares. Sometimes i am not liking DP’s sound when notes are placed perfectly on the graph and want to rely more heavily on Antares. It’s like a carpenter...the more tools you have, the more jobs you can do well and in more ways. Instead of having ONE pitch hammer, you now have at least 2 or 3.

And a last “aside” here...besides the smallest of time stretches/crunches, use MELODYNE for note stretching. Or even try Antares 7. DP falls very very short in this area.

[twistedtom]

Thanks pitch corection is one of my weak areas.

[Tobor]

Funny, how timely. This weekend I was pitch correcting a sax track and started out using Nectar 2's auto mode to see how well it could do by itself. Pretty good for the most part, but there were some squirrelly sections so went into DP's Pitch Editor to fine tune. I used DP to massage much of the track, while leaving Nectar 2 on as well. Really nice results!

Say, I hadn't used DP's Pitch Editor since upgrading to 8.05, has something changed here? Something seemed different. I'm trying to think back, I think the little pitch bars were there before but I'm missing the pitch squiggles, if that makes any sense.

[toodamnhip]

Funny, how timely. This weekend I was pitch correcting a sax track and started out using Nectar 2's auto mode to see how well it could do by itself. Pretty good for the most part, but there were some squirrelly sections so went into DP's Pitch Editor to fine tune. I used DP to massage much of the track, while leaving Nectar 2 on as well. Really nice results!

Say, I hadn't used DP's Pitch Editor since upgrading to 8.05, has something changed here? Something seemed different. I'm trying to think back, I think the little pitch bars were there before but I'm missing the pitch squiggles, if that makes any sense.

The last time there was a change to the pitch feature was to add darkened bars in the background. I know of no other change.
I would love to request they add the ability to nudge a pitch up or down in user definable semi tones , using the up-down arrow keys..Now THAT would be cool.

[mikehalloran]

I rarely use pitch correction - little need but, of course, when ya must, ya must.

I haven't used DP's since 5. Somehow, I just couldn't make it work for me in 7. That's when I discovered Nectar's ease of use. I have AutoTune 7 and recently upgraded to Nectar 2.

With the classical and jazz singers I record, there's little need and with the folk singers, I normally wouldn't dare but there are times... I haven't recorded a pop singer in decades.

I'll save that post. I have the tools. I discovered how good DP 5 was when a cellist didn't make a recording date so I grabbed a bow and used the one in the studio. I played cello in high school but hadn't really touched one in decades. The raw track was unusable without massive pitch correction - or 6 months of getting my chops back together. DP didn't turn me into YoYo Ma but I sounded, well, pretty good and there was no need to rebook the date. I even bought a cello which I gave to my daughter after my stroke.

[toodamnhip]

I rarely use pitch correction - little need but, of course, when ya must, ya must.

I haven't used DP's since 5. Somehow, I just couldn't make it work for me in 7. That's when I discovered Nectar's ease of use. I have AutoTune 7 and recently upgraded to Nectar 2.

With the classical and jazz singers I record, there's little need and with the folk singers, I normally wouldn't dare but there are times... I haven't recorded a pop singer in decades.

I'll save that post. I have the tools. I discovered how good DP 5 was when a cellist didn't make a recording date so I grabbed a bow and used the one in the studio. I played cello in high school but hadn't really touched one in decades. The raw track was unusable without massive pitch correction - or 6 months of getting my chops back together. DP didn't turn me into YoYo Ma but I sounded, well, pretty good and there was no need to rebook the date. I even bought a cello which I gave to my daughter after my stroke.

I would hazard a guess that no one doing pop and commercialized or “well produced” music fails to need or use tuning. I have artists that sing amazing leads that rarely need to be touched, but start stacking complex harmonies in quads and try to sound like the radio? No way, one needs pitch correction. And many leads need it too.
And for me, once I start sweetening a vocal, it sets a standard that makes parts once thought IN pitch, need a touch of correction TOO. This may be controversial to some, but pitch correction is a tool that is as good as the operator. When done badly, it is an outrage at times to touch a vocal. When done well and invisibly, it is a wonderful and integral part of commercial music production. I wont name names, but there are some HUGE artists that are well known as the cream of the crop of singers, not just pop, but in the whole world. And they also get tuned. Legit Classical artists..no. Classical pop artists..yes. And when i do straight ahead Jazz, no. But anything polished and short of “legit” straight ahead types of music...yes! Pitch away.

[mikehalloran]

Not arguing with you.

but start stacking complex harmonies in quads and try to sound like the radio?

Not yet been an issue for me except Christian radio - and I'm creating a lot of those harmonies thanks to other Antares plugs. No doubt you know the ones I mean, right? All so it can be played on 10W stations where audio goes to die...

[Dwetmaster]

Can anybody tell me what's the best way to "Offline" render a graphically Auto-tuned track? Bounce to Disk? or as a destructive plugin? (Using the copy-paste from the live plugin to the destructive one.)

[buzzsmith]

Nice thread!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mikehalloran]

Can anybody tell me what's the best way to "Offline" render a graphically Auto-tuned track? Bounce to Disk? or as a destructive plugin? (Using the copy-paste from the live plugin to the destructive one.)

Duplicate the track and work on it, I would think. Bounce the track to disk works to copy the track and if you have edits, probably the fastest way. You can also bounce in real time to create a new track.

Although, there is no standalone version of Autotune, you can create a new project and work on a copy of the track using the AT plugin. You can also use another program to host the plug and open a copy of your vocal track in it—DSP-Quatro, Toast and IZotope RX come to mind.

Melodyne, however, works as a plugin or as a standalone.

If you focus on what you want to accomplish, you will see that there are a number of ways to do what you want.

[Shooshie]

I have found a fairly successful way to ensure the sweetest level of pitch correction using DP’s pitch correction, and Auto tune 7. Of course, I also have Melodyne, and this has it’s moments too.

The philosophy here is the same as Mastering where one does NOT use ONE processor too hard, but instead, uses several mildly.

[...]

7) And you just jockey these factors around. The DP only pitch, the slower “import auto” Auto tune correction, the faster note creation tool correction. You will find that Antares is better at sweetening the overall LONG time pitch of a note but that certain moments of notes are better with either faster note correction times or left alone. You will also find it nice to erase the initial attacks of notes to ensure a natural correction of the body of a note.

This is triple level, light correction that sums to an overall gentler, sweeter final product.

I hope this proves useful.

Great post, 2dam!

Shoosh

[Armageddon]

My philosophy with Auto-Tune was always to use it sparingly and to apply as little as possible (last time I used it on vocals was way before gridded pitch correction, like DP's built-in algorithm or Melodyne). Using more than the absolute least amount necessary (I even used to automate the plug to switch off when it got past the problem areas) always sounded bad to me. I like your idea of using one to augment the other; I can really see how Auto-Tune could smooth over hard edits made by graphic pitch-editing.

I'm also glad somebody brought up Nectar 2, which has a decent pitch-correction algorithm. The only other one I own, aside from the ones mentioned, is Waves Tune. Haven't used it yet, so I'm not sure how it stacks up. Also -- and I haven't gone through my entire Waves 9 arsenal yet, so I'll have to check to verify I didn't just dream this -- I believe there's an old-school emulation of the pre-Auto-Tune analog pitch shifter producers and engineers used to use to correct vocals and instruments that you can (it seems) control with a MIDI controller's pitch wheel.

[mikehalloran]

Even Nectar 1, renamed Elements, is pretty good. It's a great "set and forget" approach to a track that needs help. The result usually sounds pretty good.

I recently sold an old hardware pitch corrector that could generate 4 simultaneous harmonies. The original manufacturer bought it from me—they never kept one of the exact model I had. I'd bought it with my G3, DP 2 and about $12k worth of hardware and had completely forgotten about it till I was going through my basement a few months ago. The basement of my San Jose Victorian is where analog equipment goes to never be seen again—even worse now that I no longer live there because of the stairs.