How much can you speed up voice before it is obvious?

[LazerBeakShiek]

Yes, that about what I got. 1 semitone, the file Sign1.mp3 is sped up 1% in the DAW.

My old method used a sampler where I could 'play' the vocal sample on a keyboard. Since I started the thread, I made the purchase of the Melodyne software. Currently getting to know that. Make a vocal line. Sculpt it in a graph. break up the words. Tighten up the wavy line. Move the section up or down in pitch. Stretch it in time. Same idea as the sampler. Not done on a keyboard, but a picture graph. Vocal design as a visual art form. Cool tool.

 

[jimmys69]

Sorry if I ask this, but I really do not understand the need to 'sculpt' a vocal line.

Not to be offensive in your way of creating, but in my projects Melodyne is used to fine tune a already well performed vocal performance. It obviously is able to do much more, but your voice from what I have heard is not bad.

It seems that maybe I just don't get what you are going for. And that is cool too man.

Everyone works differently. I am not judging in any way

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Thank you. I was never a lead singer. Multi instrumentalist, perhaps.

My goal is to learn the tools. Be fluent in them. Have some fun with my family and friends. My 14 y/o niece does a killer Frozen 'Let it Go'. When she misses a note now and again, it brings a smile to see, that its only a quick fixee up in Melodyne. Play back is like magic and it sounds fixed. Sometimes I am in awe of the technology. For me it seems a natural progression from samplers.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Here is a sampler type vocal from the VP9000. It causes a recognizable effect where each sung note in the run is very separated. Strong. It is 90's tech so I sound robotic. If I spent some time blending my voice line and the mixed gospel sample voices A's,oo's ee's oh's ah's, you could really make convincing synthetic voices. I only blended the beginning half. Every note is synthetic. I did not sing that melody. It is the bend wheel.

Melodyne has resynthesis and some other functions that can do the same thing as sampling/vocoding. I can make a recording of that, but it looks like you use Melodyne already.

 

[grimtraveller]

a semitone only in my admittedly limited experience. Just maybe a whole tone.

I agree with this {in answering the actual thread title question}. I used to go to a tone and a half but that is half way to Mickey Mouse. My Akai DPS12i can go two and a half tones, but I'd never go anywhere close to that for a vocal. Unless I really wanted some weird effect. I might do it on an instrument that I'm not that skilled on or a passage that's too fast for me to play in real time. Again, I'll often use varispeeding to change the texture when I'm recording. Say, for example, I want to have the chords of guitar 1 sounding much higher in tone than guitar 2, then I might slow down the recorder, transpose, play the part in the new key, then when back to normal speed I'd have the same chords, but sounding like they were played on different parts of the neck. Also sounds good on saxophone.
It rarely, if ever, sounds awful on an instrument but it does on a voice if I go beyond a tone. The only time it's not a problem is when doing choir or gang vocals {be they harmony or backing} with only a couple of vocalists. By speeding up and/or slowing down, one can make two singers sound like a choir of 12 or more {when put back to normal speed} and if blended right, won't sound artificial at all.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

one can make two singers sound like a choir of 12 or more {when put back to normal speed} and if blended right, won't sound artificial at all.

Would you have a clip of this? You are recording fast at a higher pitch ? Then slowing it down and it sounds like 12 people?

The VP has samples from choirs and gospel clips. Layering 10-12 of my voice does not sound crisp like a sample. So I use 1 of my voice , shave off the pitch, and play the choir sample along to back it. It is cleaner that way. As I get into Melodyne more I will find new ways to do everything.