Autotune - "phasing"

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Showdoctor

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I normally record vocals onto two tracks. One from the microphone through the compressor and the second from the digital out on the pre-amp straight into the audio interface.

The problem is, if I have to "fix" any part of the tracks with the auto tune plug in I get a "phasing" effect unless I pan the tracks hard R & L. Is there a solution to this problem?:confused:
 
There are a few solutions to this.

One is to record the dry only and apply your autotuning as the first plug in the chain.
After that, send it to a compressor on a separate track, so the tuned version is coming out dry and compressed.
This means using a software compressor instead of your hardware, so I'm guessing it's no good?



An other is to record as you are but to bus the two tracks into one, then apply autotuning to that combined track.

This incorporates your hardware eq, but it'd be interesting to see what effect, if any, adjusting the two track levels has on the autotune plug.

Would you let us know, please?


A third option is to just record dry, do all your tuning, then sent it to a hardware out, into the compressor, and re record to a new track.

Obviously that means you have to be sure your tuning work is finished, other wise you'll end up doing the re record thing several times.
 
Thanks for that.
On your second option, do you mean combine both wave files into one wave file? If I send them both to one bus I would still have to access the individual wave files to apply the autotune unless I dropped it in at the points that need fixing?
 
I was all ready to give you a piece of advice when I discovered I'd gone unconscious, created an account under the name Steenamaroo, typed a response in a very eloquent manner and apparently thought up two extremely intelligent alternative solutions while I was unconscious as well.
Good going, me! :thumbs up:
 
Showdoctor said:
Thanks for that.
On your second option, do you mean combine both wave files into one wave file? If I send them both to one bus I would still have to access the individual wave files to apply the autotune unless I dropped it in at the points that need fixing?
Click to expand...

Not quite. I mean record your two tracks; One comped and one dry.

Then set up a bus track / aux track and send both audio tracks to it.
Then you can put the autotune on the bus/aux instead of the raw tracks.

Any other effects would need to come after the tuner AFAIK.
Like I say, I'm not sure how the tuner would react to panning or volume changes on the original track.

I think no2 is the simplest way, but no3 is certain to work.





propman said:
I was all ready to give you a piece of advice when I discovered I'd gone unconscious, created an account under the name Steenamaroo, typed a response in a very eloquent manner and apparently thought up two extremely intelligent alternative solutions while I was unconscious as well.
Good going, me! :thumbs up:
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...I'm not sure who to rep for this. :p
 
Showdoctor said:
I normally record vocals onto two tracks. One from the microphone through the compressor and the second from the digital out on the pre-amp straight into the audio interface.

The problem is, if I have to "fix" any part of the tracks with the auto tune plug in I get a "phasing" effect unless I pan the tracks hard R & L. Is there a solution to this problem?:confused:
Click to expand...
Well, it's obvious. If you record two parallel tracks and then change one of them, they will no longer match.

My suggestion is, record only one vocal track. You can still use your hardware compressor after you autotune.
 
What's happening is that the autotune on the first track is modulating the other track because the waveforms are similar. I say "similar" because the compressor has effectively made them different, even though there are probably no artifacts when you combine them dry. There might also be a slight bit of latency between the digital and analogue captured tracks.

Have you tried autotuning both of them at only the problem areas?

Cheers :)
 
If you auto tune them both, the tune will react differently to each track because the envelope is different. kind of the same way when you try to time stretch two overhead tracks, you get small timing differences between the two.

In order to process two tracks the exact same way, you need to send them through the same instance of the processor at the same time.
 
OP must have a pretty special compressor if it's worthwhile giving up the convenience of a plugin. If it's a Behringer or even a run of the mill dbx then pretty much any plugin will sound as good or better and be much more versatile.

So there's your solution, bail on the outboard compressor and do it ITB.

If the OP has a $2500 boutique tube compressor then disregard this advice.
 
Option 4 is to sing in tune. Ha. Im so kidding. I would say tune your track, then send it out to compressor.
 
Farview said:
If you auto tune them both, the tune will react differently to each track because the envelope is different. kind of the same way when you try to time stretch two overhead tracks, you get small timing differences between the two.

In order to process two tracks the exact same way, you need to send them through the same instance of the processor at the same time.
Click to expand...

Good point.

This is the most sensible answer.

Cheers :)
 
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