Begginer q. Flex tool in Cakewalk?

[PamInNZ]

Hi helpful people,

I'm migrating from using Garageband to Cakewalk - loving it!  Current (and regular) project is to combine multiple home-recorded vocal tracks that have been sung while listening to a click track.

Some singers come in a little early or late in areas and I want to make some minor timing shifts - sometimes just for one note - for a clean sound.  In garageband I would use the Flex tool (by adding and manipulating flex markers in the audio region’s waveform) and wondering if there is the equivalent in Cakewalk for these types of minor timing adjustments?

I know I can stretch clips - but if I understand right,  I need to split the clip for that and would like to avoid that.

Thanks in advance!!

[reginaldStjohn]

in cakewalk there is audio snap. pg 599 of the Reference manual goes into great detail.  Select an audio clip and hit "alt-a" to open the audio pallet. You many need to move some of the transient markers around or add some.

I actually like to time most of my audio clips by hand by splitting and moving the clips into time. This avoids any artifacts.

[PamInNZ]

10 minutes ago, reginaldStjohn said:

in cakewalk there is audio snap. pg 599 of the Reference manual goes into great detail.  Select an audio clip and hit "alt-a" to open the audio pallet. You many need to move some of the transient markers around or add some.

I actually like to time most of my audio clips by hand by splitting and moving the clips into time. This avoids any artifacts.

Thanks so much - will explore this feature.  Yeah I prefer to split and move for a whole section - just that sometimes the timing error is just one bit of a complete phrase.  If I split at that point, I end up with a break.  Could just be my amateurish way of doing things though.  I've been learning as I go.

 

 

[John Vere]

If a singer is out of time to a backing track then they are actually not real singers and I would send them home, or make them pay me double to make them sound right...  

This is not hard to do by simply splitting the vocal takes into little pieces that you drag to the correct place on the timeline. But it's a lot of extra work that a good singer would eliminate. 

https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X3&language=3&help=Tutorial6.5.html

 

 

[scook]

There is also a dedicated VocalSync tool.

 

[marcL]

On 5/10/2020 at 2:33 AM, reginaldStjohn said:

in cakewalk there is audio snap. pg 599 of the Reference manual goes into great detail.  Select an audio clip and hit "alt-a" to open the audio pallet. You many need to move some of the transient markers around or add some.

I actually like to time most of my audio clips by hand by splitting and moving the clips into time. This avoids any artifacts.

I do something similar, but use a combination of splitting/moving clip contents and audio snap. Like that I am quite fast.

1. I split my audio clips into phrases (short components) that end with a long note (most of the time).
2. I move the contents of those short clips (with Shift+Alt+drag: moves only the contents, not the clip!) into a compromise position so that all notes have minimal distance to the targeted positions.
3. Then I set the track edit filter to "Audio Transients".
4. I zoom in and correct the detected transients manually without stretching the audio (drag the transient at the diamont position).
5. I select this clip, open Audio Snap (alt+A) and click "Quantize...".
6. I set "Swing" between 47..53 (according to the original playing) and "Strength" somewhat lower than 100%. With the "Audition" (preview) button I search a proper setting.
7. After pressing okay I bounce the clip (this is not necessary, but releases resources and avoids accidental (re)altering).
8. When I have done all the short clips of a part, then I set manual crossfades between them (and bounce them together).

With the approach above

• I reduce artifacts
• I retain some of the natural rhythmic divergence of the original performance.

I really like the results, CbB is a great program with a lot of possibilities!

[lapasoa]

As Scook wrote Vocalsync is the key.

[Mark Morgon-Shaw]

You guys who are not using VocalSync are working way too hard . Works great. Coupla clicks ..boom..done..love it

Used on this cover version..the recorded  BV tracks were a bit wayward ! It tightened them right up instantly.

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by Mark Morgon-Shaw