5 VOCAL TUNING MISTAKES (How to Use Melodyne)

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00:26 - Mistake #1
06:41 - Mistake #2
10:56 - Mistake #3
13:11 - Mistake #4
14:09 - Mistake #5

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Check out David Tyo's music:

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#VocalTuning #AutoTune #MixingVocals

[celemony]

Great video, thanks a lot! One tip for the melisma note in bar 47: if you split the note into even more chunks, it is much easier to get the melisma under control and tune even the slightest bits. Keep up the good work!

[heavymetalmixer]

Even if we wanted to pitch correct any vocal there's still a limit, and that limit is set by the performance, so the singer still needs to do his/her best and the end result will sound the best too (less mistakes to fix = better sound).

[pembertonsmithmusic]

There is so much to learn with Melodyne, never even heard the word melisma before. Thanks for the video

[jjd]

Hi Rob - thanks for the vid. Very timely as I'm actually using Melodyne today to tweak a bunch of vocal harmonies that I've comped :)
All good tips but I'd like to offer a different POV on the idea of using multiple takes - a different take, so to speak.

I've taken this approach quite a bit in the past and of course it does get results. However, it has a few drawbacks, of which I'll mention two -1) You spend A LOT of time picking between the elements of multiple takes and 2) It happens from time to time that in one or more sections NONE of the vocal take cuts it. When this happens you may need to do some pretty radical surgery to make it work. That's not only time consuming, but quite an art to get it sounding natural.

An alternative approach that I often prefer to use is as follows:-
- Singer comes in all warmed up an ready to go (of course they do ;).
- Get all you levels etc on the mic, good headphone mix levels for the singer and be aware that how the singer is placed in relation to the mic effects the tone. (How high the mic is set in relation to the singers face; distance singer is from mic; whether they are facing square to the mic or slightly offset to one side or the other - all of these things effect the tone and are details well worth paying attention to in relation to the qualities you want to capture in the singers voice in the particular context of the song you're working on)
- Do two full takes (yes - only two!)
- The singer comes out of the booth and together you do a quick rough comp. In sections where neither of the takes cuts it, leave a muted section as a place-holder.
- send the singer back into the booth to do sections that didn't make the cut. Just keep on doing takes of each of the sections until you're basically happy with one. In this fashion go through the entire song filling in those sections with muted place-holders. You may also decide that a previously comped section can be done better and redo that too.
- the end result is a roughly comped complete track, ready to do more detailed edits and auto-tuning.

This process takes a little more of the singer's time but overall saves a lot of time because you don't spend hours pouring over the finer points of multiple takes doing the comping etc. Of course it depends on the person but I've found that most singers respond really well to getting this engaged with the process of making a good comp and as they go back and work on the sections become quite focussed on achieving the result they'd like to hear. I like to start with only two full takes because it makes doing that quick comp with the singer much easier and quicker. With some singers I might do three but, be warned, having more than two takes slows the process down!

Another approach that I've been taken through (this time as a singer) was simply going through section by section until we had the section nailed. I still prefer starting with a couple of full takes because it gives you a sense of the song as a complete thing. When you go back and focus on the sections, you're doing the section in the context of the whole narrative.

Anyway - hope that made sense; I've gotta get on with nuancing some vocal comps with Melodyne now. Ironically, since I'm moving house and between studios I took the four singers to another studio and, with my time being cheaper than the studio's, we just went in and did multiple takes! I've been paying for this by spending way much more time than I'd like compiling takes...

Thanks Rob for always being so generous with your knowledge and experience. I learn heaps from you :)

[rogerweafer]

Johnny Cash said that he must have done 80 TAKES (probably half that but still) on "Folsum Prison" and they didn't have any of THIS available, so that was just to get THE one! Thanks, I was beginning to think I was the only lazy vocalist.

[DavidRosario]

I'm a Studio One user, which comes bundled with a stripped down Melodyne. I upgraded to a more complete version of Melodyne but still find Cubase's built-in VariAudio to be more featureful, flexible, and convincing. I will literally sometimes export a project to Cubase just to edit the vocal and then continue in Studio One.

[IdleAcheiver]

Logic has its built in flex pitch feature. It’s pretty good

[Jobobaboss]

Thank you man, i’ve baught melodyne a week ago because my trial has expired and the program just felt great and sweet to use and manipulate the vocals with. I have lots of ideas and am desperate for technical knowledge to put that on to my computer. I still need to learn a lot and this definitely helps me as a beginner to maybe get somewhere. Thank you and thank you Melodyne

[eduardonelali]

Perfect! I work the same way! But Cubase's variaudio give's you more agility with the tools, more control, with almost any artefacts and you can use it quickly even before comp to help to choose the best take for that sillable. In fact you just helped me to continue using Cubase. Anyway, very good job! I'm happy to see I already work like you and by the way clients are very happy.

[naldosrecords]

Love your saying "Create Regardless"..Think that needs to be a T-shirt

[amkmuic]

Tips #3 and #4 Using a single take is tempting, but multing is the right way to do it. Agree 100%

[sabinajoh]

I got melodyne essential for free when I upgraded Acid pro and it’s been fun
I’ve also noticed that it’s in general great for removing breathes and other background noice really seamlessly

[janvork]

FYI Logic Pro X has a manual pitch correction tool as well: Flex Pitch.

[blaqtora]

That intro was beautifully mixed and mastered.

[ronylussari]

Thanks a lot for the tips man! Cheers from Brazil.

[hovrtronic]

One correction. Pitch drift at zero percent is not normal, Pitch drift at 100% is corresponds to the original audio. Same applies for pitch modulation. See 4:57 if you dont know what I'm talking about

[schoontube]

This is quite informative and interesting. Excellent job (as usual). That said, I wouldn't want to do this with home recording, due to the large effort in learning the software as well as the amount of time it takes to do such fine editing. Probably the Logic Pro automatic level is the most I would ever consider for home recording. I suppose if your ambition is to produce something that will be heard on the "radio", it's what you have to do...

If you're going to use a professional studio, be sure to set expectations with the engineer up front, and if you decide to correct tuning, make sure the engineer really knows what they are doing and are quite facile with the software; otherwise, you could spend a lot of time/money on fine-tuning.

Lastly, I think it's rather sad that our expectations for vocals have reached such a level of perfection. Maybe that's why all pop vocals essentially sound the same these days.

[CommishsPlace]

What a godsend! Thanks for such a great tutorial!

[ccuny]

I wished I'd picked this video a year ago when it was posted. Thanks a lot for the concise and really helpful tutorial.

[taruhmei]

Thank you so much🙏🙏🙏🙏, sir I really needed this tutorial.