generating harmonies?

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pedro803

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I have been around home recording for a lot of years, but I have been out of it all together for about 15 years -- so I am pretty much like a newbie to a lot of this stuff -- but I am amazed at the free software synths and effects that are available. What I am wondering about though is generating harmonies. Are there any free options on the plugin side for something that will generate harmonies? You know like a digitech vocalist hardware or TC Helicon or the Antares sofftware that costs a couple hundred bucks? Are there any free or low-cost options for software harmony machine?
 
Free usually equates to poor when doing such a task. Even with the best at doing this (Melodyne) it is dependent on what is given to it. It can still suck. Better to find your own harmonies and sing them.

If you are trying to pull something like that live, well that is even tougher.

Full versions of Cubase 5 and above come with some ability to create alternate pitches (harmonies), but that isn't so free either. There are other Daw's that have some form of pitch correction or transposing, but none really get close to the real thing. It can work, but it depends on what level you desire it to sound. You can use pretty much any DAW to pitch transpose a part to create a harmony. Whether it sounds good, well that is up to you and what you consider quality.

I suppose it depends on what it is you are looking for.
 
Sonar is mid to above average on harmonizing, and pitch shifting. Works great on guitars and fair on vocals if they're recorded and performed well. Can also be used for stereo widening, tape stop effect, etc. Only $70, but it only works as a Reason rack extension: Reason runs $400, so again, not nearly free. OTOH if this is available for Reason, there may be a similar plug-in, and I don't know if it works with the $100 Reason Essentials. If so, for $170 you can have a harmonizer, but you'll have to rewire into your daw. Look up Propellerhead.se and see if you can find some answers.
BTW, Reason allows rewiring through virtual bus to other DAWs. I've never done it, personally, but I'm sure they can tell you how to use Reason, if not Essentials as an external effect with many different DAWs.
 

Here is an example of the harmonizer in Reason. It's free. The sample, not the harmonizer lol.

There is only one vocal track. Neptune is doing the rest.
 
Well done. Sonar is much better at harmonizing than Neptune (which comes free in the Reason package), but this is a great example of the use of it.
Manslick, do you use Reason or are re ReWireing?
 
Well done. Sonar is much better at harmonizing than Neptune (which comes free in the Reason package), but this is a great example of the use of it.
Manslick, do you use Reason or are re ReWireing?
 
I use Reason. I bought it back in 04 or 05 after I saw it demonstrated on Leo Laporte's Call for Help show. It was a drum machine to me then but over the years it's gotten way better as a full service daw. The upgrades are reasonable so I just keep going with it.
Yeah I have heard way better examples of harmonizers than Neptune, but you get what you pay for.
 
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