EQ Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 56)

GEAR HEAD TC-HELICON VOICEMODELER note). Each of these offers various “Styles” (typically a couple dozen, each of which sounds seriously different), while a slider controls the amount of the added effect. A Modulation section can affect the Resonance and Spectral effect with different LFO amounts (although not different parameter values for the two effects; there’s also sync-to-tempo for the LFO—extra credit for including a random waveform option, which is very useful. Cool stuff: As you might imagine, there are a lot of options here, and when you find the right combination (believe me, it’s also possible to find wrong combinations!), you’ll want to save it. Fortunately, there’s a convenient preset architecture that allows for easy choice of defaults and the creation of sub-folders, as well as A-B comparisons so you can decide if that edited version really is better before you save it. Another cool feature, albeit in eye candy-land, is the VoiceModeler display. This has several “lanes” that show the amount of signal contributed by the various effects. Limitations: There’s no way to get rid of the original vocal sound, which is too bad—sometimes I’d like to hear just the process itself. I tried putting another dry track in parallel, switching it out of phase, and hoping it would cancel out the original vocal component; nope. Bottom line: Before you actually use this for a mission critical project, experiment with it and get all the “funny sound” experiments out of your system. While you can obtain some novel effects by slamming the Effect sliders all the way to the right (“Hey! I’ve made Dexter sound like a girl!”), some of the best uses of VoiceModeler are subtle ones that add just a little bit of “shading” to the voice. Maybe I’m just a sucker for things that work simply and elegantly, but overall, if you have a PowerCore system and work with vocals, I think you’ll find this an exceptionally useful tool. Fig. 4. TC-Helicon’s VoiceModeler for PowerCore makes it easy to add interesting “characters” to vocals. TC-Helicon makes three plug-ins for PowerCore: Harmony4 (four line parallel harmony generator), Intonator HS (realtime pitch corrector), and VoiceModeler (Figure 4)—which is definitely my favorite. After all, when it comes to harmonies, Harmony4 seems somewhat dated compared to hardware like the DigiTech VL4 and software like Antares’ Harmony Engine; and Intonator HS works as advertised, so if you have a PowerCore and need realtime pitch correction, you’re set. But VoiceModeler ($249) is a very creative tool that can transform voices in novel ways. It reminds me a bit of Antares’ AVOX, but more streamlined. What it does: The heart of VoiceModeler is the Effects Section, which lets you impart qualities like Breath (good for adding a diaphanous quality to choir sounds), Resonance (sharp, filtering-type effects that change timbre), Vibrato, Growl (good for sounding like you blew out your voice out, so you don’t have to), Spectral (changes character), and Inflection (adds pitch-shifting effects, like scooping up to a Ex. 3. MOTU’s Digital Performer makes it easy to redraw pitches and correct vocal mistakes, but you can do deeper as well. change pitch without changing duration; with programs that do “Acidized” looping (Sony Acid, Cakewalk Sonar), upon looping a clip you can change pitch without changing length. Ableton Live can do this as well, albeit with a different process. With programs that use DSP algorithms for pitch-shifting, there will usually be some kind of check box called “Preserve Duration” or “Time Correction” for when you stretch pitch. Make sure this is enabled. Here’s how to add harmonies with Pro Tools 7 LE, but the procedure is similar for other hosts. 1. In Edit view, right-click in the track header of the track you want to harmonize, and select “Duplicate.” In the dialog box that appears, enter 2 for the Number of Duplicates. 2. Click on the first copy to select it, and go AudioSuite > Pitch Shift. Enter +4 for “Coarse” to create a major 3rd harmony. 3. Make sure “Time Correction” is checked so that the clip duration doesn’t change. 4. Click on “Process.” 5. Click on the second copy to select it, and go AudioSuite > Pitch Shift. This time, enter +3 for “Coarse” to create a minor 3rd harmony and again, 56 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

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