Vocal Correction

How many singers in the music industry can maintain perfect pitch through a whole recording session? Odds are, most probably can’t. Because of this issue, something had to be created to solve that this issue. That is why vocal correction software was created.

Vocal correction is used in most modern music. From the biggest Pop stars, to the new coming Indie artist, almost everyone’s vocals have to be fixed. To fix the vocals, a mixing engineer needs a plugin to do the corrections. Two big vocal correction plugins are Autotune and Melodyne. Each do the same thing, just in different ways.

Autotune is the most known vocal correction plugin. Most believe this plugin to be the easiest. It has many different options on time correction and manipulation. Also, it has pitch correction to fix flat and/or sharp notes while singing. This is definitely an easy to use plugin for anything vocal. This is widely used by anyone from amateurs to professionals. Autotune gives the user an option of what kind of vocal or instrument (not a wide selection) to alter. It gives an easy way to correct pitch by allowing the user to select the key of the song instead of fixing spots individually. The option is still open to fix things with more detail, but this is for advanced users. It is a great plugin with an easy to handle layout. This is a great vocal correction plugin to start with for novice mixing engineers.

Even though Melodyne is not widely heard, people in the music industry definitely know what it is and how to use it. Melodyne is a little more detailed than Autotune. Melodyne plays the music into the plugin and then it analyzes the sound file. When vocals are analyzed, the plug in places each part of words and phrases on their pitch selection. From here, the user can manipulate the sound file just about any way possible. From vibrato to timing, Melodyne edits it all. It is a visible platform and everything is organized. All the editing is easy to do; just choose the tool preferred, click, and drag in the direction desired. Melodyne is not a hard plugin to learn how to use, but it can be confusing for the new mixers out in the industry.

There are many great software and plugins to edit vocals. Two of the best and wide known is Melodyne and Autotune. Even though they may work in similarities, one could feel better to use to the user than another. It all depends on the user. Which one would you choose?

Pro Tools Software

Making music can be intimidating to most people, but they still want to do it. Of course someone can learn to do or play something musical, but to record and mix the music is a whole other ball game. A great program to use is Pro Tools. It is very clean software and everything is organized. This is the first place someone should start if recording and mixing by his or her selves.

When recording, the set up of the session is easy. When the program is started it asks the user about the session he or she wants to start. This includes the time code, bit depth, I/O Settings, and the Audio File Type. New tracks were always easy to start and name with the shortcut command-shift-n. The action prompts the user to choose how many tracks, what type of tracks, and how many outputs. Different tracks, such as aux tracks, are used for different reasons. The Aux track is used more for allowing artist to hear his or her self or to allow a different perspective of listening in the studio. The Audio tracks are mostly to record on. These tracks hold the music and play back the music. MIDI tracks are used if a midi keyboard is connected to the computer and can be recorded in live time. Recording is easy with a full sized keyboard. Just hit the number 3 on the numerical pad of the keyboard.

If  mixing on Pro Tools from a Pro Tools recorded session, all of the session settings will be pre set. There are many shortcuts to make mixing easier too such as, copy (Cmd – C), paste (Cmd – V), trim, separate, consolidate, duplicate, mute (Cmd – M), etc. Different tracks are used a little differently in mixing. The Aux track is used more for effects or filters. This would be Time-based effects, such as reverb or delay. Audio tracks are used to playback the recorded material. Dynamic effects can be placed directly on these tracks, such as compressors or equalizers.

            Recording and mixing owns own music can be difficult. If one sits down and takes the time to learn about a program, it makes things a lot easier. Just from the amount of shortcuts and ease of setup, Pro Tools is very suitable software to use.

Music With The iPad

Technology has moved forward in the last decade at an exponential rate. Making music is a whole new ball game now. A person can always make music, but now a person can utilize computers to do all the hard stuff for them. Now, a person can use their phone or even their tablets to make music mobile.

            Today, a person can use their iPad to make music. From plugging a guitar into the tablet to recording a person’s voice, everything in the music industry has been revolutionized. There are many applications that can be used to do these tasks. GarageBand is a great application used on many Mac computers, and now it is available for the iPad. With this application on the iPad, a person can make their music mobile, record music directly, tweak audio, and much more. If a person does not have instruments, or does not know how to play instruments well, the application also offers virtual instruments. Using these virtual instruments, a person can record his or her own music onto its own track where it can then be mixed to the artist’s satisfaction.

Seeing the potential of the iPad, developers have started creating more applications to render the tablet to its full potential. With the iPad, a person can now tune their instruments, dj, use it as a midi controller, create beats, add effects to a guitar, and much more. Not only can you use the iPad for instruments, but also as an aid. From displaying sheet music, to making a metronome, to using it as a surface control, the iPad has revolutionized the music industry.

Music is far from what it used to be, and with the iPad it will become so much more. Making music or playing music, everything is different. With all of these new ways of music, the future can only be nothing but amazing.

Analog to Digital

Music recording and playback has transformed a lot in the past century. From the Phonograph to the iPod, music has made its alterations and so have the people that create, distribute, and sell it. The industry has moved into a new era recently called the “Digital Age” of music.

In the analog world of music, people had more difficult times with music. To make music, an artist would have to spend a great deal of money to record at a recording studio. For an artist to sell their music, they would have to go through a recording company to make the CDs and demos to then be distributed. Before, as most people will remember, people had to travel across town to purchase music at a vendor. For the consumers of music to listen to their purchased music, people had to play the bought music on the designed player of the product.

In the new age, people can now make, distribute, purchase, and listen to music in new ways. Artists can now record their music to their own laptops and make their own demos. Not only can they record, but they can also mix their own music. Using software such as Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studios, Garageband, etc., people can import their music into the software and mix their music the way they want for much cheaper. Many of these software can utilize plugins to do many different things such as imitate amplifiers, alter vocals, fake reverberation, and so much more. Making a demo is as easy as placing the tracks that were created into software such as Waveburner and clicking burn. Because of the digital music, purchasing music is now digital as well. Consumers can just log onto the Internet and go to the iTunes store, enter their payment method and click purchase. The best part has yet to be mentioned. With new sites and applications such as Spotify, Pandora, Songza, and more, people have new free ways to listen to their favorite music and discover new music they’ll come to love.

Music has come very far from Edison’s original creation. As the industry moves forward with technology, it seems the world may soon be saying goodbye to the analog world and hello to the digital future.

For more information and resources on the history of music follow this link.

For more information and resources on the digital movement follow this link.