{"id":16107,"date":"2014-05-06T08:57:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T12:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/?p=16107"},"modified":"2014-05-06T08:57:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T12:57:48","slug":"easy-adt-melodyne-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/2014\/05\/06\/easy-adt-melodyne-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Vocal Month: Easy Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) with Melodyne Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a great ADT program lurking within Melodyne Essential<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

by Craig Anderton<\/p>\n

So is Celemony\u2019s ADT (Automatic Double Tracking) program any good? If you have Melodyne Essential, you can find out for yourself\u2014because it\u2019s the same program. Yes, hidden within SONAR X3<\/a>‘s Melodyne Essential is a very cool ADT effect that\u2019s extremely effective with vocals.<\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Double-tracking is the process of singing a second vocal on top of a main vocal to \u201cthicken\u201d the overall sound. It\u2019s impossible to sing a vocal exactly the same, so there will be slight timing and pitch differences that add interest and depth. Automatic Double Tracking produces this effect electronically, which can give more control over the double-tracked vocal. While there are dedicated plug-ins to give the ADT effect, Melodyne has all the tools needed to do this. I\u2019d go so far as to say Melodyne can produce one of the best electronically generated ADT effects I\u2019ve heard.<\/p>\n

The Melodyne ADT effect works best with vocals where you haven\u2019t already added extensive pitch or timing correction. As an aside, I never do a \u201cwholesale\u201d quantization of notes; to my ears, removing the \u201cincorrect\u201d pitch variations in a vocal actually create a less compelling performance. Instead, I manually correct only those notes that actually sound \u201cwrong.\u201d Even then, I don\u2019t always quantize exactly to pitch. Music is about tension and release, and subconsciously, you\u2019ll often sing a little flat or sharp (tension) and end up on pitch (release). Making all the pitches \u201cperfect\u201d removes this emotional component.<\/p>\n

As an analogy, conside B. B. King\u2019s guitar playing. He often bends a flatted 7th not quite<\/em> up to pitch. By not resolving the note, instead of completing the phrase it leads you into the next one. Timing and pitch variations are an essential part of music, so don\u2019t overdo the correction.<\/p>\n

Setup<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to set up the ADT effect with Melodyne.<\/p>\n

1. Clone the vocal to which you want to add the ADT effect.<\/p>\n

2. Right-click on the cloned click and create a Melodyne Region FX.<\/p>\n

3. Select all the notes in the vocal.<\/p>\n

4. Turn up Correct Pitch Center to about 60% (Fig. 1<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fig. 1: Correcting pitch and\u00a0 timing subtly on a cloned vocal track can produce an automatic double-tracking effect.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

5. Turn up Quantize Time Intensity to about 60% (Fig. 1<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

6. Evaluate the ADT effect, and tweak the pitch and timing correction amounts as appropriate.<\/p>\n

Generally you don\u2019t want too much pitch or timing correction\u2014just enough to be different from the main vocal.<\/p>\n

Mixing ADT Vocals<\/strong><\/p>\n

When mixing, centering the two vocals tends to maximize the similarities to chorusing; the vocals sound somewhat more diffused, which works well for \u201cgentler\u201d material. Panning them slightly oppositely (about 30% right and 30% left) can give a more spacious sound in stereo.<\/p>\n

With sparser mixes, centered panning often fits best while the somewhat spread sound helps the vocals have more presence in dense material, like hard rock with lots of distorted guitar. However, these aren\u2019t \u201crules\u201d as ultimately, the song itself will dictate which works best in the final mix.<\/p>\n

Give this technique a try\u2014I think you\u2019ll be as surprised as I was about how effectively it provides an authentic, convincing ADT effect.<\/p>\n

BETTER TOGETHER: TRY SONAR X3 AND MELODYNE FOR FREE!<\/a><\/p>\n

SONAR X3 QUICKTIP: MAKE YOUR VOICE THICKER (STUDIO & PRODUCER)<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a great ADT program lurking within Melodyne Essential by Craig Anderton So is Celemony\u2019s ADT (Automatic Double Tracking) program any good? If you have Melodyne Essential, you can find out for yourself\u2014because it\u2019s the same program. Yes, hidden within SONAR X3‘s Melodyne Essential is a very cool ADT effect that\u2019s extremely effective with vocals. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Vocal Month: Easy Automatic Double Tracking (ADT) with Melodyne Essential”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2251,71,111,1,113],"tags":[2302,212,227,2303,2258],"class_list":["post-16107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dsp-101","category-mixing-tips","category-studio-recording","category-uncategorized","category-vocal-recording-tips","tag-adt","tag-craig-anderton","tag-melodyne","tag-vocal-editing","tag-vocal-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16107\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noelborthwick.com\/cakewalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}