hi,
i was wondering the best and easiest way to take a vocal and its double and align them so all the phrasing lines up tighter. i have C4 and probably will be upgrading to C6 soon so if it has something to do with variaudio, let me know. i am roughly familiar with it. if thats the case, can you open both takes in the sample editor to closely align them? the new version of logic has ‘flex audio’ and seems really slick and convenient. check out the 4th video which is about half way down the page on ‘flex time’.
if i could have the two takes above one another to visually align them, what would kick ass.
yes, i know, in a perfect world the client would do another take, but hey, this is the 21st century and people do not seem to want to learn to actually get good at their ‘talent’. they would rather i ‘fix it’.
hmmm… kind of lame. well, i guess i still have to use melodyne for the time being. i was hoping for something similar to melodyne which is what flex time basically is except you can do it on the fly without having to load the audio or open a new window.
i know, in a perfect world the client would do another take, but hey, this is the 21st century and people do not seem to want to learn to actually get good at their ‘talent’. they would rather i ‘fix it’.
But you cannot really fix it because once you start to manipulate the time aspect of digital audio, no matter how good the software you will always get artifacts. The worse the original timing the more artifacts. My answer is then in three parts:
The people at the top of this game PLAN everything (and then some) because there name goes on the product and this is how they get the next big gig. IMO no matter what century it is your timing problems are you fault because you did not plan the vocal recording session properly. I don’t just mean time, (yeah always add extra even if it’s for free because that will save you time) I mean plan every little detail and please have the lyric sheets in front of you after all this work, this is your future too right?
Having seen the master work his magic many times I can only recommend you pick up his book and read that chapter. http://mixingwithyourmind.com The “Time Machine” trick really does work and is the only artifact free method.
VocAlign – not cheap but out of the bunch the best you can get. This tool is the sound you hear on many records, but they nail part 1 above then use it to get the sound: http://www.synchroarts.com
If your really stuck one of my clients has VocAlign and I am sure he would tighten them up for you for a small time fee, its only a few clicks, takes more time posting or uploading. PM me.
Cubase has Audiowarp (also in C 4 I think) which I think contains the flex audio functions. There was a question from a logic user some days ago on one of the forums here, that showed what flex audi does in a video link. You can do the same in Cubase in the sample editor.
thanks for the replies.
to dawtuition. that is all great and dandy, and maybe you have the luxury of working with larger, more ‘professional’ clients than i, and i agree with what you said, but its just not reality for me in most situations. most of my clients are on a very tight budget and do not have a lot of foresight. they call me and want to record in a few days. as much as i tell them, they don’t really plan all that well and are kind of in and out of the studio. also, me planning the session doesn’t have much to do with them singing acurrately in a very short amount of time. trust me, i get where you are coming from. i always pep talk my clients and give them advice on how to be more efficient, accurate which saves them time and money plus gets much better results. seems to fall on deaf ears most of the time. i worked out in LA for a while at a major studio with high end, famous clients and professional producers that know all of this. this is not anywhere near that.
i have been looking at vocalign for a while. seems to be what i am after. just not wanting to buy another program if there is a good, similar function in cubase.
can you open two tracks in the sample editor at the same time so you can align that way?
