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Songwriting
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Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 103
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Hi guys,
New to the forum and to band in a box. Although I've read through the forum a few times to get help with BIAB.
I've put together a few songs in band in a box and have started recording the vocals on them but I've had a bit of a problem. In my head I have a melody that works perfect with the lyrics and the chord progression, but when I sing it I realise that I have the rhythm down correctly but some of the notes just aren't right.
There are two reasons for it that I can think of, 1) I'm coming up with the sound by knowing what I want it to sound like but without knowing the actual note to make sure I'm singing it in tune and 2) my singing is always very pitchy and I don't have great control. I've used melodyne to correct the pitch but because I don't know the actual note I'm going for I don't know how close to being in tune I am to be able to manually correct the pitch. Although I was quite happy that Melodyne had me down as singing in the right key!
Other than actually composing the melody in notes before singing it, which may take me a long time because the last time I read, never mind wrote, actual notes was back when I was 14. So I'd have to go right back to the start in learning how to do that. Are there any ways that anyone can suggest to get the vocal melody right without writing it down note by note?
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Songwriting
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Joined: Aug 2011
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RichardB1985,
Welcome to the forum and to Band-in-a-Box!
One way would be to record the audio of you humming or whistling the melody or playing the melody on a monophonic instrument. Band-in-a-Box and some versions of Melodyne have a feature that analyzes monophonic audio to create a midi track.
For instance, hum the tune while listening through headphones to a backing track of drums and bass. The drums will help you to keep the desired tempo while the bass provides the root notes to help keep you on pitch.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Dec 2016
Posts: 1,173
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Joined: Dec 2016
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If you have the song in Melodyne and have already pitch corrected it you can simply export the file to MIDI (ensure you select entire track in the MIDI save options). Then pull the MIDI into a DAW or as a Melody in BIAB and apply an instrument.
Last edited by Teunis; 07/03/19 03:12 PM.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Aug 2018
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If you can sight-read AND you are musical enough to hit those notes to a backing, charting the melody may be of help to you. And it may be a help in setting the pitch correction software, too.
Instead, I'd suggest simply practicing. You'll have to at least be able to hear in your head where the melody is going, and if you can do that, then vocalize it (words and all) to your backing. Do that as many times as you need to, BUT do it away from the microphone.
Once you do record a take, then record another one. Don't stop for "wrong" notes...only if you screw up the lyric or timing. You may even want to record one, two, or three more. When you have, you'll have a selection of takes from which you can choose in DAW your best phrases, words, verses, etc. Stitch those together for your master vocal. This should limit the number of"notes" that might need major pitch correction. These are the ones you should concentrate on in pitch correction and not (hopefully) the entire vocal.
If you still want/need to run pitch correction over the entire vocal, render the above track to a new base-track and apply PC to that one.
Few people hate to record their own vocals more than me, but this is the "shortcut" that works best both in results and in time saved, not the technology.
It's good that melodyne had you assigned to the right key, but it's your own ears that should be telling you if you are flat, sharp, or completely off the melody "in your head" that you've been practicing. I don't have melodyne, but if it doesn't let you hear what is being corrected in real-time, then I don't know what to tell you...except that I wouldn't want it.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Sep 2010
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Are there any ways that anyone can suggest to get the vocal melody right without writing it down note by note? Hi, Richard. When you're fitting a melody to chords, you're generally going to pick notes that match with the chords - especially notes that fall on strong beats. If you've got a note that doesn't "fit", you should try making that a note of the current chord. For example, let's say you've got a in the key of A Major, and on a particular bar, the chord is C♯m. The melody sounds fine, except in one place where you sang an F note. Melodyne knows that key of A major has the following 7 notes in it: A B C♯ D E F♯ G#To "fix" the F note, Melodyne has to change it to a note that belongs to the A Major scale. F is midway between two notes in the A Major scale: E and F#How does Melodyne know which is the right note? There's really no way for it to know for sure, so it makes a guess. Perhaps Melodyne decides that you were singing the note flat, and changes it to an F♯. Now the note is in the right key, but it still sounds wrong. That's because you know something that Melodyne doesn't: the chord that the melody is against. The C♯m chord has the notes: C♯ E G♯Instead of selecting an F♯ note - which isn't a member of that chord - Melodyne should have selected the E instead. To recap: When you've got a melody note that sounds "wrong", you should change it to a note that belongs to the chord that's currently playing. Did that answer your question?
-- David Cuny My virtual singer development blogVocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?BiaB 2025 | Windows 11 | Reaper | Way too many VSTis.
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Songwriting
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Joined: Jul 2019
Posts: 103
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Thank you for all of the replies, they are really helpful.
I'm glad to know I was on the right track with the things I was trying to fix it. I suspect I didn't practice it anywhere near enough before my first attempt at recording it. I think I was still figuring out how I was going to sing it as I recorded it, which I suppose was always going to make fixing it an uphill battle!
I'm going use all of the advice in my next attempt at recording and hopefully I'll be able to actually finish the song and have something I'm happy with!
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Hello Richard.
Record yourself whistling then use melodyne to turn your whistling track
into a Midi track. That will make it a lot easier to adjust the notes.
Rob4580
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So... I'm going to go the opposite way with my advice.
When I write a song, I have a fair idea what I want to say and what I want it to sound like. However, as my co-writers who have actually worked with me on a song will tell you....with me, nothing is ever written in stone or sacred to the point where it can't be changed as needed. Well, let me say "rarely" as there have been a few times where I wanted something to stay in when my partner in song was saying lets do something different there......
So.... the question is, Are you so committed to a particular melody that you would rather NOT write a song than to let the notes you hear in your head deviate from that unwritten melody?
My advice is adapt, change, and overcome, and write the song.
Many times when I start to write a song and especially if I am co-writing it, the original sounds nothing like the finished song. It's just that the evolution of a song is always a work in progress. Often what I hear in my head really wasn't all that good to start with but I had convinced myself it was. I learned to ignore that and write anyway and then to rewrite it several times before getting to the final version.
You should try that.
Last edited by Guitarhacker; 07/25/19 01:01 PM.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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