Finding Izotope and Melodyne Assistance

[chamlin]

In the past I've used a few of my engineers to fine tune my vox. They're meticulous and never do broad stroke "tune it all" stuff. Keeps my voice sounding natural but in tune. I sing pretty much on pitch but have a LOT of minor pitchiness #flatish that once tweaked sounds so much better to me. I'm finishing lead vox for 2 albums right now and really don't have the money to pay the very reasonable $60-$80/hr. It would probably end up costing $2,000 for the 2 albums.

Also, I have sooooooo many distracting vocal artifacts (lip smacks, a knocking sound when singing some phrases like "inside us (KNOCK) now",  and a funky vibration when I sing certain "w" or "v" words. If I focus on NOT doing these, not only does it not really help but it kills the feeling of the vocal.

Suggestions for less expensive but quality talent in these Melodyne or Izotope areas? Guys who are technically and musically good with these programs and will do the detailed approach who need work? Or forums where talent offers their help like graphic artists do on fiverr.com? (I'm not able to learn the software at this point.)

[Sailor55]

I've been using Melodyne for many years now. I need it desperately because I'm quite a mediocre singer. However, I've produced some damned good singers and still found uses for Melodyne. It isn't all a matter of pitch. I use it extensively for word by word volume control. Yeah, I know there's vocal followers to do that automatically, but I don't like them.   If a singer goes to a low note that's perfectly in pitch but lacks power, then that note only gets boosted.  No guessing and hoping a plugin algorithm will fix it without wrecking anything else.

A deep-dive analysis of one's own vocal is a wake up call for most of us.  There's all manner of bugs in there you wish didn't exist. Do it over again and there will be a different set of glitches.  Now, a few bugs are just part of the human signature. A lot of bugs gets starts to get irritating.

I record my vocals line by line.  I have no choice.  When I sing a line I'll know if its worth looking deeper as soon as I finish. Usually I tell myself I can do better and blow away whatever I've done (all the while, worrying that I've never do it that well again).  Ya gotta have faith I guess. When I really think I've nailed a line I'll analyze it with Melodyne. If it's close I won't fiddle with it. If there's only one or two little tweaks, I'll do them. Then I decide if I'll stay with what I have. Sometimes Melodyne tells me it's better to just try again. It's a good thing it's only me in the room. Anyone else would go nuts listening to me nitpick over and over. Often it isn't even the pitch, volume or vibrato. It's just a poor delivery. Nothing fixes that.

Here's the deal, as I see it.  No matter how well you think you sing on pitch you need to ramp up to a note. It takes a few milliseconds. The lower the note, the longer the ramp. That ramp up can be a real mess. The human voice is not a synth. It can't be at pitch instantly.  Melodyne is only to happy to show you how long it takes you, personally, to do this. If you take too long to ramp, Melodyne will make a separate note out of the first bit then show the rest of the note an octave (or more) higher.  Frustrating, but if the note sounds good anyway then its best to just leave it alone.

Melodyne is a marvelous thing, but it's not very good at removing the 'smacks' and 'knocks'  you are complaining about unless those are very separate entities or you can cleanly slice the note at the point where they occur, mute that part and still be left with a usable note.

What I often do is edit out junk first, or fade in a phrase before I go to Melodyne.  Melodyne does many great things but it's quite poor at fading notes in or out. So... all that may be of no specific help to yo,u but it might help your understanding of the situation. Cheers... 

 

[chamlin]

Thanks, that's good and helpful information.  For pops, smacks, clicks, Vv's, I'm hoping Izotope's Rx will work.  We'll see!

[chuckebaby]

On ‎4‎/‎13‎/‎2019 at 12:38 PM, chamlin said:

Also, I have sooooooo many distracting vocal artifacts (lip smacks, a knocking sound when singing some phrases like "inside us (KNOCK) now",  and a funky vibration when I sing certain "w" or "v" words. If I focus on NOT doing these, not only does it not really help but it kills the feeling of the vocal.

What kind of Mic did you use and how did you record vocals (Pop screen, Distance) ??

[chuckebaby]

I don't want to be the downer here but some stuff might be impossible to fix even with RX < which I love to use/own it.

EQ notch filters will get you 20% there but you might lose some great tonal characteristics in the timbre of the vocal itself. I never go into the studio to record an album and set up an SM 58. I always start with pre production: Choosing Vox mic's, wind resistance, distance to mic, room, exc .

Vibrations on syllables like W and V can sometimes be traced to lose parts on a mic stand and or/ shockmount < if its a condenser.

Lip smacking is almost always positioning (too close to the mic) or a vocalist bad habit. When recording vocals I always solo the Vox track and listen through good monitors, then headphones to isolate crap coming through.

Heres what I would do.. Use a good over all 4 band EQ (like the quadcurve) to get a basic good sounding vocal track (don't use any effects at this point like Reverbs, delays, exc.. just the dry Vox track. Once you have accomplished this, Start notching tight band filters to find the offending sibilance, mouth noises, chewing .

This is the point which you will know if you need to re-record the vocal tracks or RX will work for you.

 

[Byron Dickens]

Move away from the mike and use a pop filter.