Hey guys,

I have been using Melodyne for several years but never really tried Auto-Tune. I got a monthly package which is pretty pricy, about $25 dollars. There are 16 different plug-ins.

I have just begun to experiment with it. It is much different than I really expected.

I sang a simple four-bar set of vocal notes which I checked with Melodyne. The first two were flat so I fixed that in Melodyne.

The sounds that Auto-Tune had to deal with were on pitch.

The amount of control that exists is amazing. I am not talking about producing strange sounds but enhancing a vocal.

Are there others here that use Auto-Tune?

Billy

Yes, it's a treat to work with. A bit soul destroying though when you can see you're out of tune but can't hear it! This video is reassuring however! https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=669110#Post669110

I am finding there is a lot more to Auto-Tune than pitch correction. Pitch correction across a complete track sounds pretty un-useable to me.

When I first used Melodyne I saw the same issue. I then learned to only correct notes that sounded bad enough to correct.

I am finding it necessary to play the vocal melody on the piano and learn that. Then I can go back and start to bend the notes around. Having my lead guitar player play the vocal line in rehearsal helps also.
I can sing on pitch if I have a reference but I could not sing F# off the top of my head if my life depended on it...lol

Having every note on pitch sucks.

Anyway, the whole professional set of 16 different plugins can be downloaded for a free trial.

I hear a lot of negative feedback about Auto-Tune. It reminds me of conversations with tube guitar amp purest. They put a transistor effects box between their guitar and the tube amp I just custom-built for them.

Billy

That is the secret to using pitch correction software. I usually take the first take of my instrumental leads and correct a couple of missed notes. I have found playing/singing the same lines over and over losses a lot of emotion and drive. YMMV

You probably know I add instrumental jazz arrangements to songs. My two favorite instruments for this are flugelhorn and soprano sax, instruments notorious for being difficult to play in tune. Plus, at my age my skills aren’t quite what they were.

Autotune does come in handy. I use it very sparingly, both for pitch and timing. The one place on which I concentrate most is endings of phrases. In particular, if the last note has a pitch that’s ‘off’, it makes the start of the next phase sound wrong.

Yep, the trick is in how you use it.
It can indeed be used in such a way it is generally undetectable, and it can be overdone.

I usually try to delay the tuning a bit, so, like Matt, the note ends in tune but the initial inflection is untouched unless necessary.

Never used any of this on a vocal. I do like it for getting a good segue from RT to vocal as Matt alluded to and for occasionally changing a bass note. But I do understand its place in the vocal production arsenal. Just glad the producers of great bent note country and jazz singers never had access to it

Bud

There is a plug called AVOX DUO that is pretty useful. Another is called AVOX CHOIR that I think I may be able to use. I am not sure yet. It is not obvious at first glance how to ues this stuff. And there are the other ten or so plugins I have not really looked at enough to know just what they do.

None of the pitch correction type software is very useful for types of music where a lot of bent notes are going on. Just my opinion.

In general, if we are doing a vocal at home, I think it is better to punch it in than correct it with software.

It does have some enhanced vibrato control that could be useful also some throat changeability which is worth exploring.

There is a whole other world of music that never gets posted here because most of us are too old to like it. It is quite possible some of this Melodyne/Auto-Tune type software has other uses.

Fun toys to play with.

Billy

"It is quite possible some of this Melodyne/Auto-Tune type software has other uses."

Do Melodyne and AutoTune let you take an arbitrary audio recording and transform it into MIDI?

Logic's flex pitch will do this, and I also use the polyphonic audio-to-MIDI product "MIDI Guitar". But I don't correct vocal tracks or physical instruments; I create new MIDI tracks from recordings of animals and things, to be set to virtual instruments. Wondering what the best software for that kind of extracurricular activity is.

Melodyne does. I don't know about AutoTune.

Oh, good! I see that application is part of my Izotope subscription, I shall have to check it out. (I like to overload music recognition systems with complicated noise and see what they hallucinate.)

We're still talking about music, right?

I believe your Izotope subscription contains the Melodyne Essential and that is the only Melodyne version that does not do Audio to MIDI. You would need to purchase at least the next version, the Melodyne Assistant, to accomplish audio to MIDI.

Well, that explains why I'm sitting in front of Melodyne, unable to find it. Good thing I checked here! It looks like I would need to even go higher to get the "DNA" for polyphonic function.

Mario, I have Melodyne Essential 4 which was upgraded to 5.
Both editions can perform audio to MIDI conversion on monophonic audio files.

They are unable to perform audio to MIDI conversion on polyphonic audio files.

Many users forget but the Band-in-a-Box Audio Editor can per page 318 of the BiaB User Manual.

Billy,

You may not remember but Peavey and AutoTune collaborated to create the +++ AT-200 +++ electronically tuned guitar. In addition to a standard "E" tuning the guitar can play in alternate tunings like Drop-D.

The AutoTune website also offered a kit to retro fit electric guitars and lap steels as well as pedal boards for vocalists.

I was a fan of AutoTune until they decided to get out of the hardware business.

That is interesting Jim as their web site says that it does not do Audio to MIDI. Thanx for setting the record straight.

I don't use RB much so I forgot about that function. Thanx for that also.

I'll probably stick with MIDI Guitar, as I really need polyphony – I want to be able to take a recording of roosters on freight trains and turn it into a MIDI symphony.

The recognition technology is optimized for real guitar playing, but it handles whatever I throw at it pretty well.

https://www.jamorigin.com/

Interesting stuff Jim. I had seen automatic tuners on a Taylor acoustic that actually mover the machine heads. I never came across the Peavey.

Billy

Gibson came out with motorized and automatic guitar tuners in 2008. +++ WikiPedia Article +++ and +++ YouTube Video +++ Really expensive and not well received.

I've been a huge user of melodyne since the early days. I like that it's mostly transparent when used properly.

I used to use the shortcut of letting Melodyne Editor do the whole track using it's own discretion. That was fast and most of the time OK, but I was finding that I often had to fix what ME just attempted to fix. And the downside to that was, quite often there was no fixing that gave it a natural sound. So, at some point, I stopped using the auto-fix and started going note by note, phrase by phrase through the tracks that needed some help. Manually fixing a vocal track really doesn't take very long, especially if you ignore the stuff you see and simply listen to the notes and fix what needs fixing. And there's a few times that it's actually easier to do a punch in recording rather than to waste time trying to fix it after the fact.

The version I have is one of the early poly-chromatic versions. I have used it to edit piano and guitars and it does OK. It's better at removing notes from a chord than adding them or moving them more than a half or whole step. Handy for a chord that has a few unintended slightly sharp notes from aggressive fret-board string bending in the chord.

Always tune before you record or play. That's a lesson learned more than once. Don't rely on the old phrase the we can fix it in the mix. But if you do have to fix it in the mix, there's no better tool than Melodyne Editor.

I wouldn't call the Peavey AT-200 electronically tuned. If I understand correctly, it just doesn't need to be tuned at all.

I had a cheapo "electronic guitar" like that, once, I think it was made by a toy company. It had nylon strings that made no sound, you tightened them until they felt right and played.

Electronically pitched is likely the better term. Either way it doesn't matter as the guitar did not help Peavey or Antares.

Within a few years Peavey was downsizing big time to stave off bankruptcy while Antares was pivoting from hardware to software.