If you need to address a lot of pitch issues in a lead vocal,
which is something I have to do all of the time--
my timing is pretty good, but my pitch is--
leaves a lot to be desired--
so I like to use a third-party piece of software called Melodyne in order
to notch all the pitches up or down and make me
sound a little bit more professional.
So doing that in Pro Tools or Ableton would be really time-consuming.
And it wouldn't sound as good as if I use something
that was dedicated to this function.
So I've got a consolidated file.
This is my comp of all of the takes of my vocal.
And what I'm going to do is I'm going to navigate to where this file is inside
of the Project folder.
So I'm just navigating to a finder window here.
Here's the project.
So I'm going to look in the Samples because this is a sample.
And a consolidated file falls under the Processed category.
Since we've processed the file, there it is, Consolidate.
And there is the file.
So I'm right-clicking on this file.
And I'm going to choose Open With Melodyne.
And here we are.
So first thing's first.
Just like any [INAUDIBLE], I'm going to need
to make sure that Melodyne is routing audio to the proper place.
So I'm navigating to the Preferences menu.
I've got this built-in microphone and output selected,
which is what I'm currently using.
And the sample rate matches what I dictated for my session
in the beginning.
So we should be all good.
I'm going to zoom over here.
So this should look familiar.
There's a piano roll on the left-hand side and then all of the pitches
represented in this fashion.
And basically, what's happening is that Melodyne is taking the audio file
and converting it to MIDI.
So we can adjust this just like we would a MIDI file.
If I grab one of these--
(SINGING) Turn around.
--I can make these sweeping adjustments up and down.
And if you're just seeing a straight line,
that means that you're looking at the Percussive algorithm.
And you're going to want to switch to Melodic because we
are adjusting pitches.
So let's just zoom in here.
I've clicked on the magnifying glass.
And I'm clicking and I'm dragging left and right and up and down
in order to get these visually where I want them to be.
I'll go back to my cursor.
So as I click on a note here, you can see
I'm given a indication as to what note it thinks it is.
It thinks it's a G flat 3 and that I'm 50 cents flat, which is a lot.
There's only 100 cents in every note.
So I am almost at an F. And Melodyne's making an assumption based upon math.
So it's not correct all of the time.
And it forces you to really use your ears, which is
why I like using this software so much.
So as I have one note selected, I can actually just use the navigation arrows
on my computer's keyboard--
(SINGING) Me-mo-ry.
Your me-mo-ry.
--In order to just move from note to note.
So I can make this really quick and easy.
(SINGING) Mem.
Your--
So I don't think that that sounds too out of tune.
I know it's telling me that it is.
But I don't like to tune things that don't really need to be tuned.
(SINGING) Mem.
I move over here, B flat 3.
I'm only 2 cents sharp.
I don't tune things that are over about 10 cents sharp or flat
unless it's a really high note that is important that I'm hitting spot-on.
(SINGING) Mor.
So this one is negative 28 cents flat.
I could use a little bit of love there.
So I'm just clicking and dragging up.
And I'm not going to 0 all the time.
(SINGING) Rees.
Go up with this one, too.
(SINGING) Mo.
Me-mo-ries.
Nice.
[FRAGMENTED SINGING]
So it looks like I'm really flat here, actually, instead of extra sharp.
So I'm pulling up again.
So I'm on this B flat.
[FRAGMENTED SINGING]
Again, very flat, that is.
You'll notice some reoccurring themes with the way you sing typically.
[FRAGMENTED SINGING]
Negative 12 is probably fine.
[FRAGMENTED SINGING]
[INAUDIBLE] down [INAUDIBLE].
Sometimes I like to have a piano or some sort of keyboard instrument
so I can make sure that I'm actually hitting the right note.
Your ears can get fatigued as you tune.
So let's take a listen to this file and see how we did with our tuning.
(SINGING) Your memories-- you don't remember them.
They remember you.
You turn around and there they are staring back at you--
put you in your place.
Sounding really good so far.
(SINGING) Your fantasies-- they don't become the truth.
They become another version of what you can't believe could ever come to be.
So you can really hear the edits in the comp here.
(SINGING) Oh close your eyes and see the light, the light.
Don't tell me it's not that easy, too much of a sacrifice.
Don't tell me that you can't see it's all an illusion.
All right.
I'm really happy with that.
I tend to write outside of my vocal range.
And so Melodyne is a lifesaver more than once or twice.
Let's just say that.
So last thing is to export this file so that I can import it back
into my session.
So I'm going to go to File, Export, choosing the type of file that I want--
WAV is fine-- making sure the sample rate and bit depth are the same.
I'm going to select Entire Length of file.
And I'm going to export this.
So I'm going to call this Lead Vocal TUNED so that I know.
And I'll put it on the desktop for now so it's easy to find.
And we can just drop this back into the session.
Going to minimize this for now.
Then here I am back in my finder.
I'm going to navigate back to the desktop.
And there is my lead vocal that's tuned.
So I'm just going to grab this guy and drop it
right onto the file that was there previously,
pull this out, and let's give it a listen.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Your memories-- you don't remember them.
They remember you.
You turn around and there they are staring back at you--
put you in your place.
Sounds great.