Carolyne, this isn't a firestorm in any way shape or form. It's educational. Talking and listening to others is how you learn.

I'm going to agree with Pat Marr in saying that the learning curve with Melodyne when you use it to pitch correct is very short. I believe I was fixing vocals in about 10 minutes after I had it installed for the first time. It's that easy to use. The thing is that Essential is always upgradeable as needs increase.

Once you know how to work with it... using it is a piece of cake and you can see at a quick glance if a note is on or off pitch. The staff there call the notes "blobs" and the software lets you move them around. Simply click and drag or edit by typing in the numbers. Not only can you edit the pitch.... you can also edit the vibrato levels and fix notes that are in other ways, not right. Kinda hard to describe it but I know it when I hear it and it can be fixed. If you came in early or late, it's fixable too.

The best thing about Melodyne is that it can be totally transparent. For example..... can you hear anywhere in the track I returned to you the artifacts of where pitch correction was used? My guess would be that you can not. Considering that it was working with stereo tracks.... I should have converted to mono first but didn't (my mistake). About the artifacts, I don't think you can tell where I corrected.

It's also one thing to say you sing with character and finesse. It's another to say that singing flat is a trademark. I think if you started putting your vocals on pitch in the places that count....and leave it flat in a few places where it adds character.... there will not be any repercussions from the other musicians you work with. In fact I'd wager the reaction might even be the opposite. I think you'd get complimented on the vox.

Singers tend to use 2 or 3 things.... They say, I sing that way because it adds character.... or they use excess vibrato to cover the off pitch factor. Neither of those are good things for a singer to do....and trust me when I tell you, I used both on my own singing. Noobs in recording also use excessive FX to try to make their singing sound better. None of those are valid excuses or practices IMHO.

On the vocal track I worked on for you, I did not fix everything. I went through and fixed the important notes.... the ones that really needed to be on pitch. Other places I left it a bit flat. Some notes where a full half step or more flat. Some of the notes, when I corrected it to pitch did NOT sound good.... go figure that one out.... so using melodyne's precise editing function, I simply entered the pitch cents that I wanted to flatten the note. A minus 20 cents, while not on pitch, in fact sounded the best to my ears. So I left a bunch of notes...I think I did that in 4 or 5 places. I also used ME to lessen the vibrato in a few places where it was excessively strong.... Placing the note on pitch and lessening the vibrato was a major improvement on the places where I did it.


REQUEST: It would be interesting if you would put 2 links up. Link to the original song...smooth jazz like you first posted....and then also the same smooth jazz version with the corrected vocal track I sent back to you. That way, folks who wanted to compare them and hear what was done could A/B them both. Trying to compare the jazz version with the country version is not a good way to hear the difference in the vocal track since the BGM distracts.

Of course.... keep in mind... the changes I made to this track were based on WHAT I THOUGHT would be an improvement to the track. 10 other people would have done it 10 different ways.....

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 01/17/15 12:45 PM.
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