My Antares Processor and auto-tuner

[lumbago]

OK - apart from the "learn music theory" angle, or the "set to chromatic" angle, for autotunes, here are a couple of tips I've gleaned over the years.

- You can sometimes get the singer to alter their pitch by increasing or decreasing their headphone volume.

- You can sometimes get the singer to sing sharper by standing, or flatter by sitting down, owing to the air pressure from the diaphragm.

- If pitching high notes is a problem, tilting the vocalist's head to one side stretches the larynx structure enough in some singers to provide more control

- You can always try another take / overdub / punch-in, and mix the best phrases from the best takes.

- Some singers can't pitch their voice to chorused sounds very well, (Electric Pianos and guitars), yet with a standard piano or raw guitar they sing better.

- It is sometimes useful to record a guide melody track for the vocalist to sing to, then mute it later.

- Sometimes a hot drink or a cold drink or honey/lemon/aspirin before the take will alter the vocal pitch of the performer.

- Sometimes you can put the autotune over the headphone guide melody track - some vocalists respond to frequency "niches" - a couple of cents from A=440 and they aren't comfortable.

- Always consider the vocal range of the vocalist *before* you decide on the key of the track.

- There are plenty of vocalists who *can* pitch OK.

 

[David M]

You really should learn to at least know what key you are in. And you have to make sure, as someone else pointed out, that you are tuned to 440.

What I usually do is record my vocals dry and then run them through auto tune when I mix down. What I will do is loop a few bars at a time and run the vocal track through the auto tune and back into a new track. I usually ad compression and reverb at this point as well. I will make adjustments to the auto tune until the loop sounds is best. This usually just means adjusting the speed, but I could see where you might do more, like remove a note from the scale. Once the loop sounds as good as I can get it I'll bounce the effected vocals to a new track.

I used to record with the vocal producer on, but I found that by doing it later a few bars at a time I could get a much better sound. I can avoid having any artifact at all. Also, if the song has a key change it is easier to deal with.

I used to think the Vocal Producer was practically worthless, but now that I have more experience with it I like it. But you cannot expect miracles from it. It just makes my voice sound a little better than usual.

One thing I found really helpful is a singing instructional program I bought from Musicians Friend called “Born to Sing”.

With the combination of voice lessons and the vocal producer I have made a dramatic improvement in my vocal recording in the past year.