Autotune and improving your vocals

[DM60]

I get all that...but once you get the phrasing from the whole mix...step back and fine-tune the melody using a single note instrument as your guide, like a piano....if you are having trouble getting in tune.
The problem with a full mix is that you are not really hearing yourself clearly, you're listening to the whole things, and it's harder to focus on just the melody...which is what your vocals are about.

It might be faster than all that tracking, auto-tuning, re-tracking...etc.
Just a suggestion.

I was thinking about that, and while I still agree to some extent, when I am working on a song, it always takes me 20-30 attempts before I begin to settle on how it will sound. With that in mind, I thought, while not kill two birds with one stone. Plus with the software, even though it will sound like poo, you could experiment with different notes.

You also could export the vocals to MIDI and use a piano VSTi and use it as a "guide".

I was just thinking for those people who might not have someone working with them and giving real time feedback (others in the band), this could be a good way to "learn" and improve.

[jimistone]

What has helped me on my vocals is simply listening to recordings of my singing.
If it sounds like shit, ask yourself the question..."why does it sound like shit?"
Is it because it's hard to understand the lyrics that are being sung?
If so, the consonants need to be greatly exaggerated when delivering the vocal. It will seem to you like it's going to be evident in the recording but usually it sounds 100% better when you do that.
More often than not it will be sounding like shit because the vocal is off pitch....sometimes sharp but most often flat in places.
I believe everybody has a natural tendency to slur certain words and sing certain notes off pitch. Different words and notes for different singer's. It is very difficult to hear yourself sway off pitch without developing your ear. That is where listening to recordings of yourself singing helps tremendously. When you listen to a lot of recordings of your vocals you will start to pinpoint the notes and phrases you have a natural tendency to botch. Through diligence and reputation it will get ingrained and you will start to recognize that you are singing a note flat. That how you develope a good ear.

It works.

[BikerDude]

Firstly your voice sounds worse to you than it does to others.
I pretty much guarantee it.
There are professional artists who just can't listen to recordings of their voice and of course to the rest of the world it sounds great.
Jason Isbell has said he can't listen to his singing and to me it sounds great.

So there is that.
But that doesn't mean that it doesn't need help.
It's good to try to improve but personally when it comes to recording I have no issue with subtle pitch correction.
Like on the TC Helicon things. To my ear is sounds normal as long as you get close to the note.
There is no harsh correction like a robot.

[kickingtone]

Firstly your voice sounds worse to you than it does to others.
I pretty much guarantee it.
There are professional artists who just can't listen to recordings of their voice and of course to the rest of the world it sounds great.
Jason Isbell has said he can't listen to his singing and to me it sounds great.

Doesn't mean much.

If he had said that he loved the sound of his voice, more people would tend to say, "it's not all that".

If you say that you can't stand the sound of your voice -- gamesmanship -- you stand a greater chance of drawing attention to it by saying, "what! you've got a great voice!"

People can be funny like that.

If you find most successful singers doing the latter, it's more to do with the Darwin Awards.

[musicturtle]

Practice singing. Practice singing scales/arpeggios using solfege or scale degrees. Practice singing scales/arpeggios on all of the vowel sounds. If there is no one to give you feedback, use the tuning software trick after recording yourself doing these exercises.

This is especially helpful for singing original music, because you have nothing to copy, so it is important that you are singing pitches that are correct relative to each other.

Also, look up singing exercises to improve your vocal technique(breath control, support, etc.) there are of course tons of resources online.