Wednesday, June 26, 2013

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?

1 comment :

  1. Hello Zakk

    Thanks for the brief summary on these two plugins. As an artist I understand how difficult and time consuming it can be to always sing a particular line perfect when you are paying studio time. Although I am not a fan of too much vocal enhancement I still believe that its initial purpose is great. I have, however, seen some producers use Melodyne and I must that is quite confusing to look at from an amateur's perspective! A serious producer should be proficient in both programs if he want to make in the vast world of the industry.

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