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Autotune on vocals live

pklima

pklima

Commercial User
May 2, 2003
8,460
7,052
Kraków, Polska
Disclosures
Karoryfer Samples
#1
I don't want the pitch correction, I want the blatantly autotuned, fake plastic sounding vocal effect because I cover a lot of songs that use it and I want them to sound more like the originals. No different than using guitar distortion.

Is this practical live? What effects unit would you recommend for ease of setup live and maximum fakeness? I guess heavy compression and EQ (cut out everything except a fairly narrow band of mids) would help too, if that doesn't cause feedback problems.
 
#3
I know the rackmount units exist, as do various other vocal processors with pitch correction which might also have a "really fake" setting that would sound close to the Antares original... I'm mostly just wondering how practical they are, and which one would work the best for this kind of purpose.

I mean, has anybody done this on the "local cover band" level? Can they be set quickly between songs, switched on for just a verse, and generally operated without a dedicated soundman who knows the songs and key signatures?
 
#5
App Store has Auto-tune clone for iOS
You'll see a lot of mic stand clips for iPod,iPhone,iPad around.

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You could have a separate mic for when you want special effects
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A Capella groups do this all the time for their bass and drums
 
#7
Walmart has exactly what you need!

Walmart.com: I Am T-Pain Microphone, Black and Red: Music Instruments & Karaoke

Seriously though, there are a couple of band around here that use them. They may not back track the vocals, but they use enough efx on their vocals that they might as well track them. I think all of this stuff will modulate and effect the signal coming in the more your voice is a little flat or sharp from reference. Do you have a soundman that can control it or do you need to control it all yourself? I would probably want a soundman to control this as much as possible, at least initially.

Wes
 
#8
seamonkey said:
You could have a separate mic for when you want special effects
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A Capella groups do this all the time for their bass and drums
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Hmmm... A dedicated mic might be a great idea, we can always use it as a third mic with the effects turned off when we need three vocals at once, but use it and a "regular" mic with one singer on songs where we want to switch between natural and unnatural vocals.
DiabolusInMusic said:
Have you ever actually done the auto tune effect?
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On recordings using a VST plugin, certainly, both on my voice and on a few of my other singers, even used it along with other effects to make "synths" from some bowed DB parts.

I especially like leaving the lead vocal alone and autotuning backing vocals to death - it makes them take up less space in the mix, in a way. Got that idea from listening to Timaya, but it also shows up in other genres.
Wes Whitmore said:
I think all of this stuff will modulate and effect the signal coming in the more your voice is a little flat or sharp from reference. Do you have a soundman that can control it or do you need to control it all yourself? I would probably want a soundman to control this as much as possible, at least initially.
Click to expand...
No, no soundman. That's why I want something that's not going to require much effort to operate live.

The best way to make the effect really obvious seems to be not to sing badly, but to do some typical R&B ornamentation.
 
#11
DiabolusInMusic said:
Have you ever actually done the auto tune effect?

I personally haven't but from what I hear to get those ridiculous sounding pitches like on most pop/rap tracks you have to intentionally sing pretty badly which is fairly hard for a decent singer.
Click to expand...

You have some choices with these things, listen to your voice, or ignore your voice.

Give it a try on the extreme settings. It can take few minutes of practice but after a while you'll tune out your voice and be playing auto-tune like an instrument.

amazing what the human brain can do with a little practice.

Auto tuners can also help you to tune in your voice. Pitch correction is used by many vocalist. It very subtle and and you really can't hear it. When a singer approaches a note then auto-tune can correct it, the singer hears it and corrects their own voice, within a fraction of a second.

It's not a big deal. Not any bigger deal than frets. :D
Or even when a singer has a recorded track playing in their IEM, that they sing along to so they know what pitch to sing (Insert Ashley Simpson SNL)

And the extreme effects can be fun and familiar. People like to hear familiar sounds.
 
#13
pklima said:
I don't want the pitch correction, I want the blatantly autotuned, fake plastic sounding vocal effect because I cover a lot of songs that use it and I want them to sound more like the originals. No different than using guitar distortion.

Is this practical live? What effects unit would you recommend for ease of setup live and maximum fakeness? I guess heavy compression and EQ (cut out everything except a fairly narrow band of mids) would help too, if that doesn't cause feedback problems.
Click to expand...


Check out the TC Helicon Voice Tone C1 or for a more fully featured pedal the Voice Tone Create XT, both are geared toward use in a live setting. They can be had for under $200, but at that price the XT would be used.
 
#16
5StringFool said:
Check out the TC Helicon Voice Tone C1 or for a more fully featured pedal the Voice Tone Create XT, both are geared toward use in a live setting. They can be had for under $200, but at that price the XT would be used.
Click to expand...

I use the TC Helicon stuff, and have been pretty happy with it..It's sometimes a little weird to hear effects inb the monitors for some folks, but I prefer it since I "work" the delay and reverb tails particularly for my own specific style... The pitch correction is more suttle, but it works. SOme have complained about latencey being an issue, but I have not ....real auto tune I have no experience with, tho didn't mention your budget......I am not a "real" singer, but somebody's gotta do it... For solo stuff it's really cool, and @ venues with house production, I always ask the engineer if it's ok to use it.. And also let him be the judge of whether it's working" or not for the venue and my gig...It's more of a confidence thing for me, just in case I get really sideways with my pitch..I DO insist on using my own personal mic no matter whae I go<Beta87>..good luck...
 

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