EQ Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 50) GEAR HEAD VOCAL TOOLS IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD WITH TODAY’S DAWS, THE SKY’S THE LIMIT ON PROCESSING THE HUMAN VOICE by Craig Anderton As much as your lead guitarist might not want to admit it, it’s usually the vocals that provide a musical focus. In fact it’s been said that the human voice is the ultimate instrument, but it’s also an imperfect one: Unlike the frets that guide you through a guitar or the keyboard keys that constrain you to perfect half-steps, when it comes to making a great vocal sound, you’re on your own. Or are you? Today’s tools for vocalists are far more evolved than the equalizers and plate reverbs used when dinosaurs roamed the earth: You can change pitch, change gender, change timbre, fix clams, enhance vibrato, add harmonies, and a whole lot more. We’ve collected a bunch of information on vocal helpers, and also reviewed four software tools that stand out from the pack, to help you work your way through the terrain of recording vocals in the new century. So grab that mic, plug it in, and as it says in the tune immortalized by Benny Goodman’s band . . . “Sing, Sing, Sing!” HOW PITCH-CORRECTION TOOLS WORK All pitch correction tools work pretty similarly: They analyze a note’s pitch, compare it to a scale, then apply the appropriate amount of pitch-shifting to have the note conform to the scale. Nor does this have to be a traditional scale; for example, both Waves’ Tune and Antares Evo Auto-Correct let you specify standard but also highly exotic scales. You often determine how a device applies this correction. For example, you might want to have the input jump instantly to the new pitch, or slide to it over time instead. There may be various bells and whistles, such as being able to accentuate vibrato, “flatten” the natural vibrato and synthesize a new vibrato, change the formant (vocal characteristics, such as transforming male to female), and the like. Furthermore, in most correction devices you can turn off “auto-pilot” and see a display that indicates how far off the note is from the scale. Then you can adjust the note for the desired degree of accuracy. As this usually 50 EQ MARCH 2009 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - March 2009 EQ Magazine - March 2009 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Mr. Scruff Apollo Sunshine Al Schmitt Toolbox Third Eye Blind Kind of Blue Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Ableton Live Vocal Tools Gadgets & Goodies Room with a Vu EQ Magazine - March 2009 EQ Magazine - March 2009 - EQ Magazine - March 2009 (Page Cover1) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - EQ Magazine - March 2009 (Page Cover2) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - EQ Magazine - March 2009 (Page 1) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - EQ Magazine - March 2009 (Page 2) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - EQ Magazine - March 2009 (Page 3) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Contents (Page 4) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Contents (Page 5) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Talk Box (Page 6) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Talk Box (Page 7) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Sounding Board (Page 8) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Sounding Board (Page 9) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Mr. Scruff (Page 10) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Mr. Scruff (Page 11) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Apollo Sunshine (Page 12) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Apollo Sunshine (Page 13) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Al Schmitt (Page 14) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Al Schmitt (Page 15) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Al Schmitt (Page 16) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Al Schmitt (Page 17) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Toolbox (Page 18) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Toolbox (Page 19) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 20) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 21) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 22) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 23) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 24) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Third Eye Blind (Page 25) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 26) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 27) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 28) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 29) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 30) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 31) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 32) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Kind of Blue (Page 33) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Guitar Trax (Page 34) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Guitar Trax (Page 35) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Bass Management (Page 36) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Bass Management (Page 37) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Key Issues (Page 38) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Key Issues (Page 39) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Drum Heads (Page 40) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Drum Heads (Page 41) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Cords (Page 42) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Cords (Page 43) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Mix Bus (Page 44) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Mix Bus (Page 45) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Cheat Sheet (Page 46) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Cheat Sheet (Page 47) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Ableton Live (Page 48) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Ableton Live (Page 49) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 50) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 51) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 52) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 53) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 54) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 55) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 56) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 57) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 58) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Vocal Tools (Page 59) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 60) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 61) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 62) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 63) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 64) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 65) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 66) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 67) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 68) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 69) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 70) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Gadgets & Goodies (Page 71) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Room with a Vu (Page 72) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Room with a Vu (Page Cover3) EQ Magazine - March 2009 - Room with a Vu (Page Cover4)
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