Hey Vocalists... Anyone have experience with live pitch correction?

Lawjac

Lawjac

Member
Hey yall,

Just curious to see if anyone has used or using vocal pitch correction/tuner in a live setting. I know there is controversy over that sort of thing, like its "cheating" or whatever, I dont really care. I just want to see if there is anything out there that is close to sounding natural, not the heavily processed "autotune" sound.

Please and thank you...
 
Antares Auto-Tune Live

Auto-Tune Live perhaps? The vast majority of the pop tarts out there wouldn't have careers if it wasn't for auto-tune (and using backing tracks for their live vocals.) What people think of as that "auto-tune sound" is an effect achieved by using certain settings within the program... when used properly it should not be noticeable.
 
TC has a few pedals that do that sort of thing. E.g the Mic Mechanic pedal:


Here's an example of a video from a live performance that has gotten a lot of attention (over a million views).
Not everyone knows that they're using pitch correction but I think it helps the performance.
Now that you know it though, it'll probably be obvious to you but it's subtle enough that most people don't realize.


If it makes you feel better about your performance, I say go for it. Just try to not sound like Cher. :)
 
Anyone know which pitch correction device/software the "Africa" cats were using?
 
Those guys do rock. I know them from our day jobs, and I actually play with them some times and sit in on the U2 songs. Mike is awesome. He works for the county's public defenders office and is a great guy. He has received some local news attention recently because his very young son was sadly diagnosed with cancer. The guy on bass, Jeff, is also a great dude. He is (ironically) one of the top dogs at the county's District Attorney's office.

What sweeteners are used in post production on these videos, I can't say because I don't have any part in it. What I can say is that I have played with them, and listen to Mike sing many times- he sounds amazing in the room and certainly doesn't need pitch correction. Like I said, I am not there for any post sweeteners, so maybe (being the perfectionist that he is) he tunes a little, but I can say 100% that there is no "live" pitch correction in use because I've been there, plugged in, and done the usual poking around at other players gear racks. And, I will reiterate, to my ears, he sounds just as good live in person as these videos portray.

-Phil

Red Hill Mining Town (U2 cover) - Mike Masse, Jeff Hall and The Phil - YouTube
 
Last edited:
I have used the TC Helicon VoiceLive pedal a lot live. But only for background vocals.

I have it setup in chord mode mostly. So it watches the guitar part. When I sing, it pitch corrects me to the closest pitch in the chord I am playing. From there the harmonies are relative to that note.

So for example, I can sing the 3rd and 5th above the lead by singing the 3rd and the TC harmonizes that.

The mic preamp in that thing is actually pretty good as are the EQ and compressor too.

You have to sing a strong part with good ins/outs to get the harmony to sound right. But it works well.

If you are using wedge monitors, you have to watch the levels too. If the harmony is too loud and your vocal mic is picking it up, it will get warbly when it re-harmonizes with itself.

Same for acoustic guitar. If the guitar is picked up by the microphone too loud, it will be processed by the pitch corrector and/or harmony generator.

But, the TC unit has very easy configuration for footswitches to turn the harmonies etc. on/off so you can do things like address the audience etc.

Richard
 
We ran a TC Helicon HarmonyXT for awhile to do backup vocals live (fed a dry signal from output 2 to the harmonyXT), but eventually ditched it in favor of learning to sing them ourselves. We got more grief from sound guys using that pedal than I ever have for wanting to go direct to FoH out of the axe. It does sound amazing on some things though. Also, you can't use the tune and the harmony at the same time.
 
Sidivan said:
We ran a TC Helicon HarmonyXT for awhile to do backup vocals live (fed a dry signal from output 2 to the harmonyXT), but eventually ditched it in favor of learning to sing them ourselves. We got more grief from sound guys using that pedal than I ever have for wanting to go direct to FoH out of the axe. It does sound amazing on some things though. Also, you can't use the tune and the harmony at the same time.
Click to expand...

If you can rig it where the harmonies aren't folded back in the wedge mix, your sound techs will be happier :) I say that because I run sound for some local charity events and one of the frequent groups uses a harmony pedal that wreeks havoc in the wedge mix. For her, I run a passive mic split and put the harmonies in FOH only.
 
barhrecords said:
I have used the TC Helicon VoiceLive pedal a lot live. But only for background vocals.

I have it setup in chord mode mostly. So it watches the guitar part. When I sing, it pitch corrects me to the closest pitch in the chord I am playing. From there the harmonies are relative to that note.

So for example, I can sing the 3rd and 5th above the lead by singing the 3rd and the TC harmonizes that.

The mic preamp in that thing is actually pretty good as are the EQ and compressor too.

You have to sing a strong part with good ins/outs to get the harmony to sound right. But it works well.

If you are using wedge monitors, you have to watch the levels too. If the harmony is too loud and your vocal mic is picking it up, it will get warbly when it re-harmonizes with itself.

Same for acoustic guitar. If the guitar is picked up by the microphone too loud, it will be processed by the pitch corrector and/or harmony generator.

But, the TC unit has very easy configuration for footswitches to turn the harmonies etc. on/off so you can do things like address the audience etc.

Richard
Click to expand...
Pretty much same experiences here but with different products.... so, couple of sets of feedback here.

1. Got a good deal on an Antares AVP-1 on evilbay a number of years ago. Used it as an effects unit for lead singer in band. Pitch correction was fairly good but added artifacts to the output if not adjusted VERY carefully. Experiences pretty much matched those listed here.. http://www.antarestech.com/news/reviews/Antares_AVP-1.pdf

2. I initially bought the Harmony-G to "enhance" the backing vox I was doing for the band. I quickly learnt that adding a harmony to my [already] harmony line using a guitar [chord] input as guide, did not work well at all... in fact.. it was TERRIBLE. It worked far better with some tweaking and no guitar input, but that method produced inconsistent results. It worked fine as harmony (with guitar) for lead vox. No PITCH correction on that one but REALLY good harmonies.

3. I added a VoiceLive-2 last year.. to give the band (me) more vocal flexibility. Here, my experiences reflect those of Richard's above. The pitch correction is good, but one needs firm vocals for tracking. Harmony ranges/capability are absolutely unbeatable. The "tone" button - which basically makes your vox "FOH ready" - is great for solo use, but we found our soundguy preferred to have that control, and didn't want to give it up to a "black box".

In short, the pitch correction works fine... but it takes getting used to.
One BIG thing I learnt with these devices is (like vocal compression) do NOT put the vocal effects into your monitor mix. Where the device allows, *send a separate harmony feed to FOH* where possible - IOW, do NOT blend your vox with the harmonies/pitch correction/effects into a single feed. It will *mess you up* and if - like Richard stated above - it gets back to the mic and attempts to harmonize the harmonies, it gets REALLY messy.

YMMV

Update: - I guess richard beat me to it on the separate feed to FOH part.. :)
 
s0c9 said:
One BIG thing I learnt with these devices is (like vocal compression) do NOT put the vocal effects into your monitor mix. Where the device allows, *send a separate harmony feed to FOH* where possible - IOW, do NOT blend your vox with the harmonies/pitch correction/effects into a single feed. It will *mess you up* and if - like Richard stated above - it gets back to the mic and attempts to harmonize the harmonies, it gets REALLY messy.
Click to expand...

+1
I have a TC-Helicon Voiceworks processor and have only played around with it at practice. One thing I learned quickly was that it can really throw you off if all you hear in the wedge is the pitch corrected sound. What you hear may be on target but the actual note you're singing may be off quite a bit thus making it dangerously close to straying from the intended note. It can end up sounding like Guitar Midi Synth quirky errps and iips.
 
Rich G. said:
+1
I have a TC-Helicon Voiceworks processor and have only played around with it at practice. One thing I learned quickly was that it can really throw you off if all you hear in the wedge is the pitch corrected sound. What you hear may be on target but the actual note you're singing may be off quite a bit thus making it dangerously close to straying from the intended note. It can end up sounding like Guitar Midi Synth quirky errps and iips.
Click to expand...

That is a good point.

IMO, these things are not for correcting extreme pitch.

The better singer you are to begin with the better results you get. Put a really good vocalist through these things and it really is mind blowing.

Richard
 
That Africa vid is great, but there's definitely correction going on there - can clearly hear it adjusting the notes. Not 'Cher stylee' of course, but it's happening all the same.

That said, it's still cool :)
 
Cover'd said:
That Africa vid is great, but there's definitely correction going on there - can clearly hear it adjusting the notes. Not 'Cher stylee' of course, but it's happening all the same.

That said, it's still cool :)
Click to expand...
ALL the ones I listened to are way cool, but they are definitely "post processed". As to exactly what that processing is/was, idk, but there's no way the attached audio was recorded live - even direct.
 
How can you tell if the pitch correction is applied directly or in post?

I know that a friend of their's has said earlier in the thread that they don't use a pitch corrector live and I've got no reason to doubt that, but I'm curious about how anyone can tell post from pre presumably by ear in this case. I'm curious because because the effect somewhat crude in some places which is why I would have assumed pre (it's rather easy to do smooth non-realtime pitch corrections in post).

Oh, and just in case someone reads this in a way I did not intend, I think that video is awesome, these guys clearly have talent and I have nothing against pitch correction in the way they're using it. I posted it because I like it :)
 
I would say that was done pre and that it's a direct recording mixed with some ambient mics

It is indeed a bit crude, or 'obvious', in places - that's the giveaway. However, it is used in a 'musical' way and there's no doubt the guys are good to begin with
thumbsup.gif
 
I will say again that I am sure there is no live pitch correction going on. He records direct out of the mixing board. What happens in the post I don't know. What I can tell you is that he does use an "auto-face" correcter that makes him look like Louis CK at all times, including live. That is not a post effect.

-Phil
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom