Love it or hate it pitch correction software is everywhere in modern music, software such as Antares Autotune can be heard on thousands of recordings. If you’re not sure what I'm talking about you must have been living in a hole for the past 10 or so years. Autotune has been used religiously by industry professionals to correct the pitch of vocals, making the singer sound better than they actually are. Used subtly it is nearly impossible for the average listener to detect but if you drive the software to its limits and set a high correction speed then you can achieve that instantly recognisable robot voice effect.
The effect that I'm talking about is most commonly associated
with that infamous Cher vocal from her 1998 hit ‘Believe’. The robot like
vocals created by Autotune has also been adopted by rapper T-Pain who has used
it extensively throughout his career.
Although Antares Autotune is the most popular pitch
correction software on the market it is not the only one. There are many other
options out there for producers that want to touch up their vocals and experiment
with pitch correction.
My favourite has to be Neptune, a device that is included
with Propellerhead’s Reason. Neptune is the most intuitive pitch correction
device that I have come across to date, it sounds fantastic and once you get
stuck in it is really easy to use. Neptune isn't just an Autotune knock-off though;
it comes with a bunch of extra features that many other pitch correction
devises lack.
For me Neptune proves most useful when I'm working with a sample
heavy production. Most sample packs come with key and tempo information so that
you can easily find the right sample for the job, but this isn't always the
case. Neptune can easily tune sampled audio to the key of your track so that
you don’t have to worry about it sounding odd or out of place. Yes, it is true
that pretty much all pitch correction devices can do this but not all of them
can do it as easily as Neptune does.
The one thing that makes Neptune stand out from the
competition is its ability to be used as a voice synthesiser. This feature allows
you to play in realistic vocal harmonies with your midi keyboard.
The YouTube videos below are from the Propellerhead 52Reason/Record tips series presented by James Bernard. The first video shows you
how you can take out of tune vocals and use Neptune to make them sound better.
The second one shows you how to use Neptune to make subtle enhancements to
fairly decent vocals.
Remember; pitch correction devices like Autotune and Neptune can be used for a whole lot more than just vocals. Experiment with different audio sources and have fun with creating music, because really, that’s all that matters.
