One of the reasons I use Reaper as my DAW is because it allows me to perform pitch shifting and time stretching. That's not just for vocals, but also for solo instruments that are almost, but not quite right.

If there's a note that cuts too soon, I can stretch the note, or steal one from another phrase and pitch shift it into place. Very often, I'll frankenstein a solo together from all sorts of parts. Being able to repeat a phrase that I like, but adjust it so it works under a different chord, is really helpful in creating a part that sounds good.

What I'll often do is generate several tracks of the solo instrument, and then go through each track looking for bits that I like, without worrying much about whether the notes match the chords because I can fix that later. It's the feel of the phrase that's most important. Then I'll try assembling the pieces together so they make sense as a solo, phrasing the notes the way that I want. I'll crossfade the bits so they work. Depending on the source material, I might work with bits as short as single notes. This is where being able to stretch notes is really helpful.

You can probably do this in BiaB. Reaper just happens to be the tool I'm most familiar for this, and years ago when I tried doing this in RealBand, I just threw up my hands because I couldn't find the tools I wanted.

Something like Melodyne can also be used to "fix" the pitches.

Once I've got that mostly in place, I'll start finessing the actual pitches. If I'm lucky, BiaB will have produced something that's really close to what I wanted. If not, I'll have a lot of work to do. Sometimes, it just makes sense to switch over to a different instrument, as the feel of the solo just doesn't match the vibe of the song.

When all else fails, I can fall back on MIDI tracks. For example, Indiginus has some great instruments with lots of articulations (hammer ons, slides, etc) that you can use to embellish solos and make them sound more convincing. But that requires a very specific ability - to hear exactly what you want the guitar solo to do. And I've rarely been able to create a MIDI solo that's half as convincing as what can be done with BiaB.

Anyway, being able to extend a note means that I can fade the solo out as the vocal is coming in, if that's needed. Or I can give the phrase a proper ending.

-- David Cuny
My virtual singer development blog

Vocal control, you say. Never heard of it. Is that some kind of ProTools thing?