pitch correction ?

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:10 pm

Hi

Can someone help me,

I have a vocal sample which I plan to use in a new project, the problem is that the vocals drift between the cracks of the keys. I am looking for some sort of software which can analysis the pitch and correct it without making it sound warbly or that it has been passed through a vocoder.

All the top studios seem to have some sort of magic button which turns bad vocals into good ones. Can anyone tell me what this button is and where I can get one ?

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:44 am

i haven't actually tried to pitch-correct a vocal track, but i use a digitech GSP-2101 processor that has a competent (though by no means state of the art) pitch shifter. most decent units are capable of shifting pitches in quarter-step intervals- effectively offering pitch shifting into a range (directly) in between 1/2 steps. you can use a pitch shifter alone or combine it with a detuner. a detuner is usually used in combination with the original signal to produce a thickening effect, somewhat similiar to a chorus sound, but without the varialbe modulation of a low-frequency oscillator. detuners affect pitch in what are called 'cents'- which are either hundredths of an octave (as opposed to 12ths of an octave or half steps) or hundredths of a half step....i can't remember which, annoyingly...in either case it's a much finer degree of pitch shifting.

to correct the offending pitch, you have to manually tweak and apply the filter to the portions of the waveform you wish to modify, then set the output to the effected signal only.

i'm betting there's software that does this, but i've never heard of anything that can do it automatically- it's one thing for a human to know the note they're trying to correct TO and quite another for a program to. i suppose if the base tuning of all the instruments are known (i.e. A=440) and you could select the portion of the wave you wanted to modify then you could use some kind of software to tell it to correct a pitch to "middle C#" or something....but i've never seen software that can do it.

dunno how much help all that is....my first impulse would be to re-record the vocal track and capture a good performance. it's always easier (and far preferable) to get a good recording of a good performance than to fix things later in the mix.

good luck- would be interested to know if you find software that can do it.

PEACE
inf

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:46 am

Hi infidel

Thanks for your reply

I have never used the digitech GSP-2101 processor so I'm not shure what it can & can't do, at the moment I have the use of a digitech vhm 5 vocalist harmonizer, its great for harmony parts and it has pitch shift and pitch correction but it's not much use for the vocal sample I was planning to use. It makes it sound the same as the fx that Sher used on her voice in some of her dance songs from the late 90's.

What I am looking for is something that can change the pitch and still have it sounding natural. The sample I plan to use is from an old tape recording and it's not my vocals so there is not much chance of re-recording the track.

The tape might have got spooled out, stretched or chewed at some point which has affected the vocals, I might be better trying to find something that can clean up old tape recordings

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 8:45 pm

yeah- sounds tricky to re-record the vocals hehehe. never tried a digitech harmonizer- but pitch shifting generally doesn't do that keyboard-y sound Cher got (i think i know whatcha meant, like on 'Believe').

good luck with yer software hunt.

PEACE
inf

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 9:45 am

Antares Autotune is the "standard" for this type of stuff. I don't have either the hardware or the software plugin, but that's the type of software is what is used. There are several others that do simlar stuff. imho. Use it sparingly - imho it can ruin a recording if used too much.

smili

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 10:26 am

Hi smili

You think " Antares Autotune" is the one then

I'm shure I have that somewhere, I was given loads of disks with all the top plug-ins for Cubase that I have never really looked at yet, I think I'll have to make some time to have a good look through the disks to see if there are any more goodies on it.

Thanks for your reply and if you think of any other software or anything that might help please let me know

pitch correction ?

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