Do no harm. That's it. That is the golden rule when editing vocals. Three simple words, but extremely difficult to keep a handle on. The first part of successfully following this directive is defining what constitutes "harm." I'm not trying to be pedantic here. I am serious in advising you to think carefully about what constitutes harming a vocal when editing. Everywhere we turn, pitch correction opportunities are available with "quick and easy" implementation. Either they are built into our DAW or via third-party plug-ins. Turn a knob or hit a macro button, and your vocals are magically tuned; we are promised. But is it always clear that tuning all imperfections out of a vocal performance improves it? Are we making it better or harming it? The answer isn't always obvious. 

Often, the subtle pitch variations, the vibrato that wanders slightly off-centre, the imperfect transitions between notes, the pitch drifting up and down somewhat during held notes are the exact qualities that give a vocal its signature and make it unique. So, yes, tuning everything with a macro or a knob often does subtle harm. I want to suggest that the time it takes to go through a vocal and fix only notes that need it is no greater than the time it takes adjusting and automating knob movements to hit with the necessary strength throughout a vocal. And, the manual tuning adjustments are based on your ears, taste, and judgement. Not on an algorithm.

Dealing With Doubles

Now, what about dealing with doubled or tripled vocal tracks? Now you have two or three different vocal tracks that need your attention and tuning adjustments. If you go through the individual tracks and fix the problem notes as you find them, they may not necessarily match the tuning or timing of the lead vocal. The problem becomes compounded. 

Ideally, you need your doubled and tripled tracks to follow the performance of the lead. In other words, you need to align the tuning with that found in the lead, imperfections, fluctuations, and all. Tuning them manually requires careful soloing of each double and the lead, weighing the discrepancies, and making adjustments to blend. It's too easy to unintentionally harm the doubled or tripled tracks. It's too easy to get fatigued, lose your perspective and objectivity, and your confidence in what sounds good and what doesn't. Now we're getting into the domain where an intelligent algorithm will benefit the situation. 

What is needed is a way to align their pitch and timing, not to an absolute ideal of perfection, but to a lead that is used as the tuning and timing reference. In other words, to not harm the doubled and tripled takes by aligning them to the lead you have also left unharmed.

Enter Vocalign Ultra

Enter Vocalign Ultra from Synchro Arts. With Vocalign Ultra, the notion of "quick and easy" does not equate with a sledgehammer destroying any ounce of nuance in all the tracks it touches. Vocalign Ultra will align the timing and pitch of your vocal stack (of any size) to a reference (guide) track of your choice. The original is left untouched. The others are altered only as much as necessary to follow the tuning and timing of the reference track. 

See Vocalign Ultra at work in this video, as the tuning of a double and tripled vocal are adjusted to match the lead. The result is a strong, unique sounding vocal, with all inflections and expression intact on all three tracks. 

Disclosure: No tracks were harmed in the making of this video!

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels