Hey guys, in this video we’re going to cover how to use GSnap as a free autotune plugin
in Cakewalk by BandLab.
GSnap is a great free plugin to add on vocal tracks to lock the pitch to a scale, or it
can even be controlled by a MIDI input.
Before starting this video, we recommend checking out our tutorial series on how to use Cakewalk
by BandLab as a digital audio workstation.
GSnap isn’t included with Cakewalk, so let’s go online and download this plugin.
Once it’s downloaded, place it in a folder on your computer where you want to keep your
plugins.
Then start up Cakewalk and create a new blank project.
From the project, go to the Edit menu at the top and select Preferences.
Then go down to VST Settings under File.
Add a new VST Scan Path at the top to show Cakewalk the folder where we put the GSnap
plugin.
Then press the scan button down below to search for new plugins.
From here, we can start by creating a vocal track, setting up the microphone input, and
recording the vocal take.
We won’t actually be playing back any of this for this tutorial, since I’m not a
singer and using copyrighted content, but we’ll still go through the entire process
of editing it and setting up the plugin, which you can then use on your own tracks.
With the vocal track recorded, go ahead and add the GSnap plugin.
We press the plus button by the FX panel to add a new plugin.
GSnap is found under the uncategorized section at the bottom.
Now we have the autotune applied to our track and we can start messing around with the settings
to dial in the sound and amount of correction that we’re looking for here.
Starting at the top we have our pitch detection controls.
We can set a minimum and maximum frequency that it will detect between to make detection
easier, especially if there’s a bit of noise or something as well.
The gate is basically a noise gate threshold, which adjusts the minimum level that the pitch
is detected at, so it will only enable when there’s vocals, instead of noise.
Speed sets how fast the autotune responds to changes is pitch.
Too fast and it can be all over the place, but too slow and there’s a delay in the
pitch correction response.
You can leave this as it is, or adjust it to best suit your track.
There are two modes that GSnap can be used in.
One is an automated pitch correction that snaps to the nearest note on the selected
scale.
The other is MIDI correction, allowing us to snap to a MIDI note that is inputted to
the GSnap plugin.
We’ll look at that a little more later.
We can also switch between these modes with Cakewalk’s automation controls if we want
to use MIDI for specific sections of the song.
That automation mode is found under the GSnap automation lane and it’s called MIDIMode.
We can move the line up to put it in MIDI mode, and down to put it in scale mode.
When we’re in scale mode, we can select a scale at the top for the notes that GSnap
will snap to, depending on the key of our music.
We can also manually click on the notes on the piano view to enable or disable them with
the green circle or the X.
For MIDI mode, we need to set a MIDI input.
First, go to the VST2 dropdown at the top of the plugin and select Enable MIDI Input.
We can create a new MIDI track and add an output on that track for the GSnap plugin,
that way GSnap is also receiving a MIDI input.
Sometimes when I’m writing out the vocal melody in Cakewalk I also like to use an instrument
plugin or a synth to hear the melody from the MIDI file, just to make sure it sounds
like I want it.
Our next controls are the threshold, amount, attack and release for actually altering the
note.
Threshold determines how much around a specified note it will snap.
So right now it’s set to 100, which is a 1 semitone snapping region around our note.
Outside of that and it won’t snap.
When we select a scale like we did earlier, it will automatically adjust the threshold,
but keep in mind what it’s set to when using a MIDI input if the notes you’re trying
to correct are way off.
The amount sets how much pitch correction is applied, so we don’t actually have to
snap all the way to the note, but can just bring it a little closer.
Attack and release control how fast the correction is applied and removed.
The last set of controls are the MIDI controls for the pitch bend, vibrato, and vibrato speed.
All these are controlled by MIDI inputs that can come from the continuous controllers on
a MIDI controller, such as the Akai MPK249 that I use for all my videos.
Thanks for checking out this video on using GSnap autotune plugin in Cakewalk by BandLab.
If this video helped you out, don’t forget to give it a like, subscribe to the channel,
and press the bell icon to get notifications whenever a new video is released.
You can also check the video description for social media links to stay up to date on all
our new content.