Autotune Help

[ILLSON]

So im generally versed in autotune.. i can work thru it and understand how to use what..

I just want to know if there are any tips for using autotune for a guy who's background isnt so musical lol.. like i couldnt tell you what key a song was in to save my life..

What i do is, say take a stack of vocals, choose one, track it into autotune in graphical mode (i use audiosuite and not a plug in on the track), then i use the option that traces the original wave form and then make adjustments to bring it to the closest note on the graph.. i then adjust the tracking speed and what not to make it sound natural.. i then use that template and process the other vocals that were stacked.. sometimes it sounds right, others it doesnt..

what am i missing here or anything that i can do to help? i guess its that point in my engineering career that i should start to learn notes and chords huh? lol
i mean, i can somewhat tell if someone is flat or sharp cuz it just doesnt sound good.. but others, like when i work with someone who really can sing, i just want to tighten up the vocals a little better with vocalign and some autotune..

any tips or tricks?

[Ravian]

melodyne .

[jchas]

I use it alot, but not the way you do apparently.
First off, yes, it would make a world of difference if you had a good ear for pitch, and yes, it helps a lot to know your scales. Without these tools you are kind of correcting in the dark - sort of like touching up an oil painting when you're color blind.
I try to be as frugile as possible with the lead vocal, only applying Autotune to the smallest possible wav clips and only when the flat/sharp is not just noticable, but objectionable. If only a held vowel of a single word of a short phrase of a 3 minute song is questionably flat, why start adjusting the whole track? Simply cut the smallest possible section of wav (trying to do your cuts during quiet areas) and draw your correction on the offending note. When you're done, combine the clips back together. You may need to adjust the speed and choosyness a bit to lock it in - but most of the time it only takes a few seconds per clip. If there are too many clips to do in a short period of time I always make sure i've recorded at least 3 tracks that I can use to build a composite track of the best bits first, then tune if I need to.
If the harmonies are countermelody I perform pretty much the same process on those. If they are primarilly held Ooohs and Aaahs I do a bit more drawing of notes as the held notes tend to really blend well when closely locked to perfect pitch. I've never used a template, but unless the other tracks are exactly the same part a template won't work. Notes are different, inflections are different etc.
WHich reminds me, when drawing in your pitch, never draw over grace notes or glide ins and glide outs, that's typically where the Cher zipper effect comes in.

[uncle duncan]

Using one template for every vocal in a stack is not going to sound very good. You're going to lose the shimmer of the variations in pitch, and it's going to sound mechanical. If you have to tune every BG vocal, you need better singers. That doesn't help after the fact, but it's a consideration for next time. (Have the singer take off one headphone, so they can hear their voice in the room. Sometimes this brings them right back into tune.)
I always have a keyboard plugged in so I can make sure I'm tuning to the right note. You play the note the graph is indicating - say it's a 'B' - and you make sure that's the note of the melody. Somtimes a singer goes so far off, they're closer to the wrong note on the graph, and if you pull it down to that note, you might be changing the intended melody. Learning pitch isn't that hard, especially on a keyboard. And, if you're serious about your craft, it's something you need to do.