Does anyone slice up their vocal tracks and level match each syllable or note?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Scott Baxendale
  • Start date Start date
Scott Baxendale said:
I used it on my voice on this track.

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Age restricted?

That is what I get when I try to hear it on YouTube.

I get what Scott is saying though. Think it was a bit confused as to how much he was editing.

I have had singers that needed much editing as far as lack of mic control or even particular way of singing. Sometimes 'ciip gain' type of editing can be necessary. Or at least beneficial.

I have never used Waves - Vocal Rider, but I just bought it to see how it works. I keep hearing about it and it's cheap. I'll give my input soon about that.
 
I don't slice it up down the syllable, but I will usually do 6-8 takes through the entire song, and then slice it into phrases.

After that I use the "Lanes" feature in Cubase to choose the best takes for each line or phrase.

Funny thing is, most of the slices I choose are usually from a single whole take. It's usually one or two spots in the song that give me trouble and that's where I make the most edits.

I don't think that is so different from repeatedly punching in at a spot to get the take like I used to do years ago with magnetic tape.

But for level purposes, like the OP mentions, I would think a compressor plugin would level things out overall pretty well. If it's a decent performance that is :-)
 
musicturtle said:
I don't slice it up down the syllable, but I will usually do 6-8 takes through the entire song, and then slice it into phrases.

After that I use the "Lanes" feature in Cubase to choose the best takes for each line or phrase.

Funny thing is, most of the slices I choose are usually from a single whole take. It's usually one or two spots in the song that give me trouble and that's where I make the most edits.

I don't think that is so different from repeatedly punching in at a spot to get the take like I used to do years ago with magnetic tape.

But for level purposes, like the OP mentions, I would think a compressor plugin would level things out overall pretty well. If it's a decent performance that is :-)
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I pretty much do the same as this. Most of the work is encouraging the singer over several takes to give a good performance. Inevitably I will have to make some volume adjustments before the rest of the plugs get used
 
I don't edit every note but I do manually adjust the level on the most offending bits. Too much and the vocals lose dynamics, too little and they don't punch.
 
rob aylestone said:
I don’t get it Scott, that sounds like its just compressed? I cant believe all that work, syllable by syllable makes it through differently to a compressor doing it’s thing?
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It’s not as much work as is being implied. It might take 15-30 minutes for most tracks
 
Does seem like a lot of work but if that's what works for you...
I use a plugin called Trackslammer and seems to work for me. Puts the waveform in a block, best way to describe it. It works well on back up multipart harmonies. If all the parts are equally even, it makes it easier to blend and be more cohesive.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
I saw a tutorial on how to take a vocal track and slice up every point where the wav changes amplitude and level balance the low levels with the high levels. I do this as sort of a manual type of compression. Once I have spent the time doing this step I think my vocals sit in the mix better. I still do the other normal vocal processing but start with this manual editing technique.
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You can do that if you want - I’m more of a ‘Get a Better Performance’ if have vocal tracks that need that kind work.
 
Papanate said:
You can do that if you want - I’m more of a ‘Get a Better Performance’ if have vocal tracks that need that kind work.
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It’s not really a performance thing in the way I’ve used it. It’s also a technique I learned from a fairly famous producer who has produced some hits.
 
Scott Baxendale said:
It’s not really a performance thing in the way I’ve used it. It’s also a technique I learned from a fairly famous producer who has produced some hits.
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Who? Mutt Lange? He’s famous for micro editing everything - to the point that the tape works on has to be transferred - Engineer Mike Shipley(RIP) told me that when working on Def Leppard's Hysteria record the tape they used was practically transparent at the end - he said it was tedious - except the proof was in the pudding - Lange was almost alway right.
 
Papanate said:
Who? Mutt Lange? He’s famous for micro editing everything - to the point that the tape works on has to be transferred - Mike Shipley(RIP) told me that when working on Def Leppards Hysteria record the tape they used was practically transparent - he said it was tedious - except the proof was in the pudding - Lange was almost alway right.
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No, it was Warren Huart. I really think the results I’m getting are worth the extra half hour of editing.
 
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