Category Archives: Vocal

SALE – Save 30% Off VocAlign Pro & Upgrades From VocAlign Project Until July 31, 2017

VocALign+Pro+Sale

For anyone who’s been waiting to pull the trigger on a VocAlign Pro licence, the good folks over at Synchro Arts have made it even easier to make the purchase. From now until July 31. 2017 – you can save 30% on VocALign Pro licenses, rentals and upgrades from VocALign Project.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with VocAlign Pro, it’s an incredibly powerful plug-in that allows users to quickly and easily align vocal’s to each other. In addtion, it recently got a massive upgrade when ARA integration was added for Studio One users.

Have a look at the video below to see it in action. It really coudn’t be more simple:

Main Features

  • Automatically analyzes the energy patterns of two audio signals and edits one to match the timing of the other.
  • Includes basic and advanced alignment and editing algorithms.
  • Works with voice, musical instruments and sound effects.
  • Provides time saving and quality benefits for ADR, tightening double tracked vocals and backing harmonies, foreign language dubbing, etc.
  • Simple, intuitive Audio Suite, AAX, VST3 and AU plug-in integration for most popular DAWs. (See Features)
  • The Pitch of aligned audio is unchanged.

Fast, Automatic Alignment with Advanced Functionality

“VocALign Pro 4 is the most advanced version of the legendary VocALign program, providing instant tight alignment of one audio signal to another. Simply capture a Guide signal with the right timing, capture a Dub signal to be aligned, press one button, and a new aligned Dub is generated and returned to your DAW.”

For more information on VocAlign Pro, to demo the software, or to check out the sale prices, be sure to head over to the Synchro Arts website.

Using Waves Vitamin To Add Air & Excitement To A Lead Vocal

https://embed.pivotshare.com?media_id=60811&channel_id=7235

When trying to get a lead vocal to pop out through a dense mix, sometimes you may find that the traditional bag of tricks including eq and compression don’t quite seem to cut it. In this video, Marcus demonstrates how to use Waves Vitamin in a send & return workflow to accentuate the top-end energy of a lead vocal track in PreSonus Studio One.

Smoothing Out Compression Using Volume Envelopes In PreSonus Studio One

Compression is an extremely useful tool to help even out the dynamics of a vocal track to sit in a dense modern mix. Having said that, most compressors by default are not that smart, and can benefit from some “help” with how they deal with the program material.

In the above free video tutorial in PreSonus Studio One – Marcus Huyskens demonstrates how to smooth out a vocal Pre-Compression by using volume envelopes to tame harsh sibilant consonants, and correct general level discrepancies in a performance.

Note: It’s worth mentioning that in a final mix – the above example would still benefit greatly from a De-Esser, but this is more about the principle of using this concept to smooth out the performance first, before adding additional processing.

What about you? Do you currently use a similar method when mixing vocals? Leave us a comment below – We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Mixing With Waves Plug-ins: Part 7 – Processing The Vocals

https://embed.pivotshare.com?media_id=55602&channel_id=7235

In this 7th video of an 8 part free Mini Series, Marcus Huyskens demonstrates the vocal processing chain used on the vocals & vocal chops. He starts off by adding some grit using the Kramer HLS, then adds some stereo width using the Doubler2. He then adds some ambience using the RVerb, and reigns in on some harsh frequencies using the C4. Lastly he turns to the CLA-76 to tighten up the overall dynamics, and sends them out the the H-Delay, and Sound Shifter to complete the chain.

New High-Speed VocALign ARA Integration Comes To Studio One

 

Synchro Arts‘ legendary automatic time-alignment software, VocALign, is now available with lightning fast, easy-to-use ARA integration in Studio One 3.3.1+.

At Studio One Expert, we have known about this for a while, and have been helping Synchro Arts with the features of this amazing ARA plug-in.

Since 1995, VocALign has been known as the unique, ‘must have’ time alignment tool in any audio professional’s workflow. It provides vast time-saving and quality benefits when tightening double-tracked vocals and backing harmonies, aligning instrument tracks or sound effects, and syncing ADR or foreign language dubbing. 

ARA Intergration

ARA (Audio Random Access) is a pioneering extension for audio plug-in interfaces. Co-developed by Celemony and PreSonus, ARA technology enhances the communication between plug-in and DAW, and gives the plug-in and host instant access to the audio data. 

Synchro Arts and PreSonus have worked together to integrate VocALign tightly into Studio One with a simple, streamlined workflow to provide automatic, instantaneous time alignment of the selected audio signals.

Carsten Gehle, Technical Director of Celemony Software comments: 

“We’re excited to have Synchro Arts as a new partner supporting the ARA plug-in platform. It allows VocALign to gain speed, convenience and ease-of-use which essentially represents the goal of our ARA technology.”

Editors can save hours in the studio and let VocALign do the fine re-timing work automatically. Users simply select Guide and Dub audio events and drag and drop them into VocALign which instantly edits the Dub audio to match the timing of the Guide.

Two versions of VocALign are available: 

  1. VocALign Project 3 – the classic, basic VocALIgn with the new Studio One integration is now more affordable than before, and uses computer-based authorization.
  2. VocALign PRO 4 – the most advanced version of VocALign is operated in the same way as VocALign Project, but has these additional and advanced features: 
  • Several Dubs can be processed at the same time
  • Advanced alignment handles more challenging feature differences
  • Improved editing quality
  • User Synch points can provide targets for alignment
  • Longer signals can be processed

Note: VocAlign Pro requires an iLok USB key for trial and full authorization.

Arnd Kaiser, PreSonus General Manager comments:

“Using VocALign ARA inside Studio One really feels like working in one piece of software; and it’s speed and ease-of-use redefines state-of-the-art audio time-alignment inside your DAW. Furthermore, the new low price for VocALign Project makes this solution even more attractive!”

Jeff Bloom, Managing Director of Synchro Arts concludes: 

“We are incredibly grateful to Celemony and Presonus for providing us with the ARA technology to make this VocALign integration so exceptional.”

Vocalign Project is available from the Synchro Arts and Presonus stores and from Pro Audio dealers world-wide.

Other time-saving Synchro Arts Products: 

For users who want even more creative power to automatically align pitch, timing, loudness, manually adjust tuning, timing, or create double tracks – then Synchro Art’s latest product, Revoice Pro also integrates seamlessly with Studio One.

Note: You will need Studio One Professional 3.3.1 and above to use the ARA technology.

Video Review – UAD Manley VOXBOX

Russ takes a look and listen to the Manley VOXBOX and gives his impressions of it.

Like the voice itself, Manley’s VOXBOX channel strip is a beautiful and evolved system — a high-end blend of tube-driven preamp, dynamics and EQ circuits, designed specifically for your all-important vocals.

Featuring UA’s groundbreaking Unison™ technology, the Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip plug-in for Apollo and UAD-2 hardware is a stunningly faithful emulation of this premium vocal channel strip. One listen and you’ll hear why it’s the vocal choice of Beck, Rick Rubin, U2 and more.

Summary – What I Think Of The UAD Manley VOXBOX

“I absolutely love it!

We get sent loads of stuff at the expert blogs, we are reviewing day-in-day-out, it can get a bit tiresome. But the Manley VOXBOX is not another channel strip, it’s a very special channel strip, especially as it offers Unison technology via Apollo, so you can track with it like real hardware.

I have to say I’m absolutely blown away by it. I have never used the hardware one before so I can’t compare them, but as a plug-in that you can track with and mix with I have to give this a huge thumbs up. I think the team at Manley and UAD have done a brilliant job. They say the vision behind this channel strip was capturing the human voice and I think they have nailed it. 

It gets an Editor’s Choice Award. For me it’s one of the best plugins that Universal Audio have made for a very long time.”

Creating a Stereo Vocal From A Mono File Using Revoice Pro

Last week I was given a track to mix but i only had a mono double track vocal in the chorus. I felt the vocal needed some more width, so I loaded up Revoice Pro and Bobs your Uncle all was good in my world!

Video Review – iZotope VocalSynth

In this video review Pro Tools Expert team member Dan Cooper takes a look at VocalSynth, a new vocal effects engine by iZotope.  Watch the video to hear how it performs on a lead vocal and to hear what Dan thinks.

Thank you to our friends at Time+Space for sorting us out a copy for this review.

Four Vocal Engines:

  • Vocoder: robotic vocals
  • Polyvox: organic harmonies
  • Compuvox: glitchy digital speech
  • Talkbox: singing synthesized sounds

Main Features

  • Specialized vocal effects: Add edgy or tasteful distortion,filters, speaker convolution modeling, beat-repeating madness, and wide stereo delays.
  • Correct off-key notes in your vocals with real-time pitch correction with natural-sounding results.
  • Streamlined voice generation: Add harmonies, octaves, or unisons in Auto mode, or get the exact harmony voicings you want.
  • Quickly access classic sounds via the preset browser that you’ve known and loved, plus distinctive new combinations of all four vocal engines.

Demo & Purchase

A free trial of VocalSynth is available to download from iZotope.  You can either purchase VocalSynth from iZotope or from Time+Space

5 Tips On How To Beat Vocal Sibilance

Check out this fantastic article by Adam Vassée from our sister site Pro Tools Expert with 5 tips on how to beat Vocal Sibilance.

Vocal sibilance is the tonal harshness that arise from syllables like S, T and Z. Often they occur in the frequency range of 5-9kHz. This problem is often caused by the artist’s vocal formant, but can be exaggerated when using the “wrong” microphone or bad microphone placement.

How To Prevent Sibilance

The best option in my view would be for the vocalist to learn how to sing without too much sibilance. (But it could be hard for you as a recording engineer/producer to make the singer learn a new micro vocal technique during a session). So here are a few tips that I like to use.

Choose The Right Mic

If you notice that the singer has a lot of sibilance you may want to try out a “darker/deeper sounding” microphone. Look for something that has a smooth top end. The most expensive microphone is not necessarily always the best for your situation. Play around.

Find The Right Spot

Even if you just have one microphone you can still get the right sound. Play around with the placement of the microphone. Personally I like to aim for the corner of the mouth if the sibilance is too harsh or exaggerated. This technique can interfere with the frequency response, so be careful.

If Those Don’t Work, Then What?

If you have tried out the techniques above and still have a lot of sibilance, you probably can fix it in the mix. I always advocate to “fix” things in the recording stage so as not to end up with a 24 hour edit session. But sometimes you just can’t get rid of the problems.

Automation

You can automate the gain of all the S:s, T:s and Z:s. Its a bit time consuming – but worth it in the end.

De-essing

This compression is reacting only to the problem-frequencies. It is fast and easy to tweak and find the problem, but it can make your S:s sounds “spikey”. You also might catch some of the treble of non sibilant words and pull down some of the “glitter” of the vocal.  Be careful not to remove too much, or your vocalist may end up sounding unnatural.

Pre-trigger

This is a trick I learned recently that works really well. Duplicate the vocal-track and nudge the copy about 50ms earlier in the sessions than the main vocal-track. Now grab a De-esser on your main track and key it to the copy. Every time a “s” hits on the copied signal it will activate the de-esser on the main signal 50ms before the actual “s” from the main signal. The De-esser will reach peak gain reduction before the “s” and will remove the “s” sound very transparently. 

So theres 5 solid tips on dealing with Vocal Sibilance, what about you? How do you deal with the issue? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Article by Adam Vassée

3 Quick Tips For Getting A Killer Vocal Performance

Check out these 3 Quick TIps on getting a killer vocal performance by Adam Vassée from our sister site Pro Tools Expert.

This week’s tips are about how you can quick and easily affect the performance of your vocalist in a positive way in just a few seconds. If your vocalist feels comfortable with his or her headphone mix, you probably don’t have to “fix” things later on with pitch correction tools.

Make The Singer Feel Comfortable

This is so important. You want to make sure that your artist feels comfortable. A confident person performs much better then someone that just wants to go home instead of recording a kick ass vocal take. Try to remove the focus from the singer and the performance. Make the singer to feel that you are just a helping hand and not someone the person has to fear. If I want something specific when I am recording an artist I try to give the person just a couple of instructions at the time. The trick is that you just ask the artist to do small improvements overtime without making them feeling worthless. A loss of confidence is the last thing we want. If the artist repeatedly makes mistakes, just tell him or her that something went wrong with the sound and that’s why you need a re-take. Sometimes I stop the recording immediately if I know that the take is useless and then I blame Pro Tools for freezing. It works all the time. [EDIT – We Don’t really have this problem do we??] Moving along then…

Choose The Right Headphones

In last week’s article I also mentioned that open back is better for mixing and closed back headphones is better for tracking. But when recording vocals you need a sure instinct. A pair of closed back headphones can make the singer feel confined because it is an airtight seal around the ear. For someone that is used to singing live on stage or at home with a guitar, this could be a problem. You will get less bleeding from the headphones with the closed back, but if the singer is not used to performing with these type of headphones, you probably have to struggle more to get a good vocal-performance. Many singers also like to take one headphone off to be able to hear themselves more naturally and this will cause bleeding. So you might consider giving them a pair of open back headphones. [EDIT – If you have the capability to do so, some headphone amp’s will allow you to ‘Mono Sum’ the mix & mute the Right or Left headphone, this can help with the bleed] 

A Good Headphone Mix

A good headphone mix is a key to a good performance. Remove things that you don’t need when you are tracking. It saves your computer’s CPU and makes it easier for the singer to hear what he or she actually is doing. Try to remove instruments with complex sounds and rely more on acoustic instruments if it’s possible. Distorted guitars produces harmonics above the fundamental tone. If a lot of these frequencies are overlapping at the same time, they can have an affect on how difficult it is to zero in on the correct pitch for the vocalist. You can experiment with what mix allows the singer to match pitch but also sing with enough energy for the final mix. [EDIT – If the vocal level is too loud, some singers will go flat, if its too quiet, some will go sharp, so it’s all about finding that perfect over-all mix and vocal level for the vocalist]

So there you have it, 3 incredibly simple, but useful tips.  What about you? What types of tips would you give for getting a great vocal performance? Leave us a comment below, we’d love to hear them!

Original Article by Adam Vassée