Autotune is a plugin which is quite famous, even I get it in the wikipedia definition, as follows: Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies.Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise the off-key inaccuracies and Mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform Apparently. Live Pitch Correction Many artists will rely on Auto-Tune and other pitch-correction tools in the studio, but the technology has advanced enough where singers can use it in concert, too.
Visit our to find games and activities to meet your classroom's curriculum needs for Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies. Every day is a day to celebrate!Learning at PrimaryGamesCalling all Teachers! Cooking games online.
Whether you want to do it for real or fake it, double tracking can add very effective texture to vocal parts.
Antares Auto-Tune Pro. You can’t have a discussion about VST plug-ins for vocals without highlighting Antares Auto-Tune — it’s arguably the world’s best-known vocal plug-in. Even folks who know nothing about audio engineering have heard of it.
My guess is that double tracking was discovered the afternoon the multitrack tape recorder was invented! If a singer performs the same part twice, playing the two together can give a magical, rich thickening of the sound. However, much relies on the singer's ability to use the same phrasing and pitching on each take: some singers nail it every time, but others seem to be unable to do the same thing twice, producing a messy end-result.
In the year 2011, the engineer’s ability to take an “off note” and bump it to a correct note is a well known fact. Made most popular by the use of Antares Auto-Tune by artists such as Daft Punk, Cher, and T-Pain, Auto-Tune has become a commonly understood (sometimes mis-understood) concept and has even shown up as an iPhone app. Auto-Tune Pro, Auto-Tune Artist, Auto-Tune EFX+, Auto-Tune Access, Harmony Engine, Mic Mod and more. Home of the Auto-Tune plug-in, the music industry standard for pitch correction and vocal effects. Shop and learn about the best plug-ins for pitch correction, vocal effects, voice processing, and noise reduction.
Keeping It Real
There are numerous methods of 'faking' double tracking, or something close to it, and I'll come on to those, but let's start with some of the tricks you can use to improve an authentic double‑track performance.
Here & Now: If you want the double-tracked performances to sound as close as possible, try, if possible, to record the double very soon after the original. That way, you know that the singer will easily be able to capture the same feel, and that the mic positions, any ambience, and so on, will match up. You'll still get the 'shimmer' but it should feel like a tighter performance.
Cut & Paste: If you didn't know when recording that you'd want the double-tracked effect, you may already have captured the perfect second take. Most songs have repeated sections, so as long as the feel hasn't changed too much over the course of the song you can copy and paste to double up those parts. Be mindful, though, that using identical double‑tracked sections throughout the song could result in a lack of variety.
Pitch Perfect? If inconsistent pitching is the problem, you can use pitch‑correction software, such as Auto-Tune or Melodyne. It's best not to be too aggressive with the treatment: it's easy to iron out all the natural, small pitch‑differences that give you the rich sound you wanted in the first place!
Plug‑ins such as Antares' Duo create two slightly different parts from the same vocal source by varying the pitch, timing and other factors. Although the result isn't exactly like true double‑tracking, it can add some thickness to vocal parts.
Forcing Imperfection: If the singer is too pitch‑perfect, you may have the same problem, particularly on long, held notes, where the two parts can seem to merge. To remedy this, one trick you can try is playing the singer's headphone mix through a pitch‑shifter and offsetting it by a few cents. That way, they'll sing the new parts a tiny bit sharp or flat. You can then use the same amount of pitch‑shifting to offset the original track in the other direction when playing back the results, in order that the nominal pitch‑centre remains correct.
Happy Endings: Where words end on hard consonant sounds, such as the letter T, the results can sound messy unless the singer is ultra precise. A common trick is to ask the singer to soften the ends of words on the second pass so that only the hard endings of the original vocal track are noticeable.
In cases where the singer's phrasing isn't adequately accurate, most DAW software makes it fairly easy to slice the second part into separate words or phrases so that they can be lined up visually with the first track. Where words have been extended too long, or where uncontrolled consonants have slipped through, you can often shorten them using a volume envelope, but where individual syllables are either too long or too short, you may need to break some words down into individual syllables and use time-stretching (or time-compression) to match them to the length of the original. I've done this a lot recently using Logic's Arrange-page region‑stretch facility, and there are similar functions available in most serious DAWs. If you do this a lot, though, consider dedicated software such as Synchro Arts Vocalign.
Don't be tempted to edit something just because it looks a bit out of time on the screen, though: always use your ears to see if something is close enough to sound acceptable before going in with the knife. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of editing with your eyes rather than your ears.
Better Than The Real Thing?
Numerous attempts have been made to find a process that can be applied to a single vocal part to make it sound double‑tracked. Some have proved reasonably successful, and others that failed on a technical level have become effects in their own right.
The Real Fake: The first, and most obvious, process was ADT, or automatic double-tracking, which was usually accomplished by using the playback‑head monitor facility of a tape recorder to produce a short 'slap‑back' delay. It's this technique that creates the familiar effect that was used on countless early rock & roll records, and was famously exploited by artists such as John Lennon.
You can create the ADT effect easily using modern technology. Simply add a digital delay to the vocal at around the same level as the original part, with a delay time of 80‑120ms, and then turn the feedback control to minimum so that you get only one repeat.
Pitch Modulation: More sophisticated emulations combine slight time‑delays with pitch modulation or pitch offsetting. One of the earliest devices to do this, the Drawmer Double Tracker, was based on analogue charge‑coupled delay-line chips, plus an LFO for gentle pitch modulation. The Double Tracker is no longer in production, but you can get similar results by applying a very shallow, slow pitch-modulation to your digital delay line, to imitate the natural pitch variation that occurs with double-tracking. You could also roll some top end off the delay to mimic the limited bandwidth of those analogue delay chips. Plug‑ins such as PSP Audioware's Lexicon PSP42, which includes a 'Doubler' preset, can give a similar effect.
Pitch-shifting: An alternative to pitch modulation is to use pitch‑shifting, just as we did earlier with real double‑tracked parts. Move the original up by four to eight cents, and the delay down by the same amount. This approximates the kind of pitch difference that might occur in a real performance and avoids the sometimes obvious cycling effect of LFO‑driven modulation.
Emulating Real Double-tracking: We now have software plug‑ins such as Antares Duo that try to get closer to a genuine double-tracking effect, something that's achieved by making the small timing and pitch discrepancies between the original and delayed parts more random. Some also create not just a second vocal line but several parts, and allow the formant of the voice to be shifted slightly to create a different character for each of the added parts.
PSP Audioware's Lexicon PSP42 can be used to create very short, bright modulated delays, that give a rich, textured effect similar to 'authentic' ADT.If you have a DAW and a basic set of plug‑ins, you should be able to combine them to find your own recipe for fake double‑tracking. Here are some strategies you can try.
First, copy your vocal onto a second track, delay it by 80ms or so, then use a pitch‑correction plug‑in to pull it tightly into pitch, but not so tightly that it sounds false or robotic. Even if the original part was very well sung, there should now be enough pitch difference to create an audible effect. If you go too far you can end up with a phasey character, in which case use a slower rate of pitch‑correction. It's worth pointing out that though this phasey effect is normally unwanted, it can be great as a special effect in its own right and can be great on guitar.
A variation on this theme is to use a program that lets you change the depth of vibrato present in the original performance without changing the nominal pitch. Some DAWs, such as Cubase 5, have this functionality built in, but if yours doesn't, you can use a third-party processor such as Melodyne. By reducing or increasing the vibrato depth of the second part (which should ideally still be delayed slightly) you may get enough variation to create the desired effect.
For a more subtle ADT effect, try using a reverb program that allows you to create only early reflections (or a short ambience) instead of traditional delay — something like Smartelectronix Ambience is ideal. What you're aiming for is a short burst of fairly bright reflections with no reverb tail. If you bring the pre‑delay value up to 80ms or thereabouts, you'll hear a rich ADT effect that's less mechanical‑sounding, with fewer phasey artifacts than pure delay. You can still combine this with any of the pitch‑shifting or modulation techniques already discussed, and feeding the reverb via a pitch-correction plug‑in can often be successful.
Make Mine A Double!
Double‑tracking can add a pleasing thickness to a vocal part, and although nothing sounds as convincing as the real thing, all the approaches to 'faking it' have their own character, which may just as easily suit your song. Even if you decide against fake double‑tracking on your lead vocal part, you might find it a good way to thicken backing vocals. As a rule, any vocal processing of this kind will make the vocals sound less 'in‑your‑face', so you may need to play with EQ and levels to get the mix sounding properly balanced. So if your singer is capable of doing it 'for real', you may want to try that first. After all, we're all used to recording multiple takes in order to 'comp' the best version, and you only need to play two takes together to get a feel for whether double‑tracking is going to work for that particular song and/or singer.
Published April 2009
In our How to Mix Music guide we talked about why mixing dynamic sounds is a tough egg to crack. Vocals are super dynamic so they’re trickier to mix.
But you don’t have to pull your hair out every time you hit the mixing board to get the perfect vocal.
There’s a dizzying amount of audio effects plugins out there. That’s why we did the digging so you don’t have to.
Here’s 9 plugins that will help you get your vocals and beats fitting together like peas and carrots.
1. Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity
Ever recorded an entire vocal only to realize you had the mic in the wrong spot? No sweat.
![]()
The Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity lets you change the mic placement AFTER you record. Pretty useful and pretty cool.
2. Acon Digital Multiply Chorus
Vocals need some color. That’s where a chorus plugin comes in.
Acon Digital’s Multiply Chorus will thicken up your sound. It’s a whole bunch of tiny delays (we’re talking milliseconds) that fill out your vocals to liven them up a bit.
3. Melda MAutoPitch Auto-Tune
Auto-tune’s origins are pretty strange. But there’s no denying that it’s an invaluable tool for producers dealing with vocals.
Auto-tune is the vocal mixer’s secret weapon. MAutoPitch is one of the best auto-tune plugins around. It fixes pitch, corrects sour notes, and even gives you that iconic T-pain/Cher effect if you want it.
Mar 24, 2020 If your Mac can't start up from its built-in macOS Recovery system, it might try to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. When that happens, you see a spinning globe instead of an Apple logo during startup: To manually start up from Internet Recovery, press and hold either of these key combinations at startup: Option-Command-R. Mar 19, 2016 If you're using your Mac at a school or business, it might be trying to start from the wrong version of OS X. Contact your IT department for more help. If this is your personal Mac, try reinstalling OS X by using OS X Recovery. OS X: About OS X Recovery. OS X Recovery includes a built in set of utilities as part of the Recovery System. Boot Camp 5.1 includes several Mac drivers so that Windows will recognize your trackpad, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, the iSight (or FaceTime) camera, the Eject key on the Mac keyboard, networking, audio, graphics, and so on. A Boot Camp Control Panel for Windows. Apr 01, 2020 Or use Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. If you're using a keyboard made for a PC, such as a keyboard with a Windows logo, try a keyboard made for Mac. If you're using Boot Camp to start up from Microsoft Windows. Mac startup key combinations. Oct 17, 2016 Summary: The post describes some manual method to repair C drive in Windows OS and summarizes the procedure to repair Bootcamp Partition on Mac hard drive. It also suggests a third-party Mac data recovery tool to recover data from NTFS based BootCamp Partition. Download the. Mac recovery boot camp.
This one comes in a free plugin bundle with all sorts of fun mixing toys.
4. Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
Reverb for vocals is essential. Reverb takes your vocals out of the room you recorded them in, and allows you to make your own sound space.
OldSkoolVerb has got you covered no matter what your needs are. From huge halls to a tiny closet, it gives you all the options to create the perfect sonic space in your mix.
5. Klanghelm DC1ALayering Auto Tune Vocal Phase Chart
The DC1A is a nifty little character compressor by Klanghelm. It uses sophisticated compression settings and an easy 2 knob setup that has you covered “from smooth levelling to heavy pumping.”
Be sure to check out their absolutely EPIC demo video.
6. Alex Hilton A1 Trigger Gate
If you’re wondering how far you can push your vocal track this plugin will do a great job letting you know.
Using a step-style sequencer the A1 Trigger Gate packs in a boat load of cool effects. It’s good for all sorts of stuff. So grab it and start experimenting.
7. Glitch Machines Hysteresis
Just like any other part of a mix, vocals are a great place to experiment. The effects on Hysteresis definitely deliver a whole bundle of experimentation.
This delay plugin creates “robotic artifacts and abstract music malfunctions.” Count me in.
8. Acustica Ochre EQVocal Auto Tune For Pc
All good mixing needs a keen sense of EQ early on. Vocals are no exception.
That’s why the Ochre from Acustica is so useful. It’s perfect for sculpting out the best vocals you can.
9. Fine Cut Bodies La Petite Excite
Exciter plugins add subtle harmonics to your vocal track for some extra sonic-excitement in the high range.
![]()
The free La Petite Excite from Fine Cut Bodies (you just have to signup to get it) is a great plug to try out.
Throw it on your vocal and enhance it to your liking with some subtle harmonic distortion.
Go make that perfect vocal
Vocals are tricky to mix. But with these handy plugin tools it doesn’t have to be so tough. Grab ’em all, hit the studio and get cracking on that perfect vocal track.
And don’t forget to let us know your favourite plugins for mixing and mastering vocals. We wanna know all your tips and tricks too. :)
Free Vocal Auto Tune
Get all of the LANDR-approved free VST plugin collection:
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |