vocals: to tune, or not to tune?

[Fragle]

hey guys,

maybe it's a silly question, but i'm in a situation where i'm not sure which option is the better one....

well, i tracked some (clean female) vocals for an upcoming EP. everything sounds great, great expression, great intonation - except the chorus. the chorus is extremely expressive and fits the mood of the song so well, but the intonation is pretty off - which i didn't notice while tracking her as tbh i was floored by the amount of feeling and soul she put into that line.
now, i have tracked a few more takes of that chorus, just to be safe. most of them get the intonation dead on, or at least i could comp a technically perfect take. HOWEVER, none of the other takes give me THAT feeling....they're in tune and well sung, yes, but i don't feel the message nearly as well as with the other take.

now, i have a pretty strict no autotune policy....the woman can sing pretty damned well, i don't see the point. the thing is, you can spot tuned vocals in an instant....everything's so perfect and accurate, all the ever so slight pitch fluctuations that even a great singer has get tuned to shit, it just doesn't sound real anymore. or to put it in another way, i'm trying to steer clear of that nickelback/paramore big rock sound where everything's edited to a 100% perfection, at the expense of life and soul (IMHO).
normally i'd have re-tracked that line once more, spending more attention on expression while making sure the notes are still dead on. i'm afraid re-tracking is not an option at this point, though.

so, what i'm wondering....would you guys use one of the other takes and just deal with it, or would you take that very special take, and just autotune that sucker?

 

[tempe]

You don't have to AUTO tune it, go into graphic mode and just do the notes that are out, and leave the performance information (vibrato, climbs to notes etc) in tact, if she's a good singer it can't be that horribly intonated, just fix what needs fixing!

 

[jangoux]

are you using melodyne, autotune? if it is melodyne, just split the offending parts in a thousand of smaller parts and tune those smaller bits. It sounds a lot more real tuning this way!

 

[Fragle]

frankly, i'm using freeware...gsnap....
i nearly always record death/thrash/black metal vocals, so i never saw the need to buy autotune/melodyne/whatever

 

[~BURNY~]

Buy melodyne dude. If you want to keep things natural (which is a very legit concern), you need to tweak it note by note.
When it's done right, it's nearly impossible to spot but it require patience and dedication.

 

[Fragle]

is melodyne essential sufficient, or will i have to get the real multitrack version?

 

[vespiz]

More often than not, I use the trusty old pitch-shifter in PT.
Just process the offending word, or in some cases the whole passage, if it's (for instance) more flat than on note.
It works ok, if you need only to nudge the tuning slightly. Especially if you have doubles, triples etc going on.

Of course this requiers that you listen (and undo/repeat the process) a bit more and have a pretty good ear for tune.

 

[John_C]

have you tried using reapitch? people always say it's only any good for completely snapping to pitch. Personally i've never been able to make it do anything other than subtlety bring things closer to desired pitch!

 

[Keregioz]

you can spot tuned vocals in an instant....

I disagree. It all depends on how much the singer is off key, what program you use and how you use it.
I use melodyne extensively in my recordings for vocal correction and I've never heard anyone complaining about the vocals sounding autotuned.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

[...]just split the offending parts in a thousand of smaller parts and tune those smaller bits. It sounds a lot more real tuning this way!

just curious: why does it sound better to tune small bits or note for note?
i thought the 'correct pitch' macro with which you can tune the entire track was the same?

 

[Skinny Viking]

if there is a word or two slightly out, I'd leave it alone if it really gives off the vibe you're saying it does. If you can just nudge them slightly closer to the note they're supposed to be that might be a nice way of splitting the difference .. it won't sound so "out" and you'll preserve the feel

if you do it correctly you'll never hear the tuning

 

[John_C]

it's perfectly possible to fix intonation without anyone noticing a thing. It's when you start clamping a note to pitch for the duration that it's obvious

 

[sinewavealex]

Even the usual pitch shift feature that comes with most DAW as a standard should be sufficient just to touch up a few spots here and there.

Before I got autotune, I used to pitch shift everything manually, and once did so to an entire release (5 song EP)

 

[midget donkeys]

You can download the demo of Melodyne from their website and use it without any restrictions for a number of days (either 15 or 30 I think). It would be a cheap way to give it try on this project without spending any money.

 

[arv_foh]

I disagree. It all depends on how much the singer is off key, what program you use and how you use it.
I use melodyne extensively in my recordings for vocal correction and I've never heard anyone complaining about the vocals sounding autotuned.

and how thick and dense the mix is surrounding the vocals

and if you're using melodyne i'd highly recommend printing the tracks after you tune them or else it will probably crash your session, a lot

 

[Sloan]

the chorus is extremely expressive and fits the mood of the song so well, but the intonation is pretty off - which i didn't notice while tracking her as tbh i was floored by the amount of feeling and soul she put into that line.

I would keep it as is, and maybe let the artist hear the treated version and choose what they feel is best for them.

 

[Joel4662]

I use gsnap too
In this situation I slice out the clip I wanna tune, apply gsnap to that one clip, with the amount at around 60-80%, so it's not so "perfectly" in tune.
Works good enough for me

 

[paladin shredder]

You can download the demo of Melodyne from their website and use it without any restrictions for a number of days (either 15 or 30 I think). It would be a cheap way to give it try on this project without spending any money.

+1, try it and see if it works.

its a fantastic program, not just for pitch issues. you can easily raise and lower the volume of each note, time stretch certain parts to be longer or shorter, or just leave some parts completely alone.

 

[MondoLikeMetal]

My singer can get a little pitchy, especially when he hulds a note too long. I've used the pitch shift in my DAW for correcting my singer's vocals sylible by sylible only, but your telling me that Melodyne can analizse portions of a sylable and corect the pitch within one note? how does it do that?

 

[AntonioPetrole]

My singer can get a little pitchy, especially when he hulds a note too long. I've used the pitch shift in my DAW for correcting my singer's vocals sylible by sylible only, but your telling me that Melodyne can analizse portions of a sylable and corect the pitch within one note? how does it do that?

because it is god. Its seriously the most incredible program