This week we were tasked with learning how to use Auto-tune by auto-tuning a mix we were given and then mixing it as well. I haven't used auto-tune a lot, so this was a good exersize for me to get back into it and get some real practice using the essential plug-in.
Read more after the break...
Read more after the break...
For this song, there was two vocal tracks for the verses as well as the other for extra vocals during the choruses. During the choruses as well, there are a ton of vocal tracks for background vocals! There are six tracks all together, two low, two mid, and two high. All the tracks sounded good, but the singer did a lot better during the low and high tracks. There was a lot of work to do on the mid tracks that sometimes even required moving a note around to make it fit in with everything else. But, I put auto-tune on every track in order to make them all sound great and to get as much practice at auto-tune as I could.
Overall, auto-tune is a very nice plug-in to use, as long as you have someone show you the ropes beforehand. It is a bit confusing but is a crazy powerful tool once you know how to use it. I always put it in graph mode and had the plug-in create the notes for me, from which I tweeked. I didn't need to have that many notes to have the tracks sound great, just the extended notes and some of the off-tune notes. Most of the time auto-tune was spot-on with the length of notes, but the vibrato given off by the singer really messed around with some of the auto-tune. Because of this, I had to shorten a lot of the notes created by auto-tune in order to make it sound alright with the vibrrato. Other than that, I just had to work around a few lengths and the amount of correction.
The only big problem was the recognition of what were notes. The knob for sensitivity was very interesting; it generally worked, but sometimes when it went down, it created more notes. And sometimes the notes were just a slight bend of the tone, but not a whole new note, so I had to make sure to take those notes out or put them all the way down in order for the voice not to sound to rubbery or honky-tonk.
It was really interesting to see how auto-tune worked with different parts. Overall once I got a track or two done I could know exactly how auto-tune would work with the rest. I could recognize when a note was too close or not really a note just by looking at it from the experience from the others tracks. Working in auto-tune also got a lot easier as the tracks went by, and it was really awesome to learn.
After that I just had to mix the song, which was fun and a little less tedious that the auto-tune. The main points that had to be changed were the EQ on the bass and snare; the snare needed more of a pop and the bass drum needed to be a little thicker. I went through all of the tracks and added the needed EQ as well as compression. The drumkit got some reverb as well as the bass and guitar. The fun part was adding reverb on all of the backing vocals. The reverb really blended the voices well and made it sound a lot more powerful.
Without further ado, here's the mix:
Overall, auto-tune is a very nice plug-in to use, as long as you have someone show you the ropes beforehand. It is a bit confusing but is a crazy powerful tool once you know how to use it. I always put it in graph mode and had the plug-in create the notes for me, from which I tweeked. I didn't need to have that many notes to have the tracks sound great, just the extended notes and some of the off-tune notes. Most of the time auto-tune was spot-on with the length of notes, but the vibrato given off by the singer really messed around with some of the auto-tune. Because of this, I had to shorten a lot of the notes created by auto-tune in order to make it sound alright with the vibrrato. Other than that, I just had to work around a few lengths and the amount of correction.
The only big problem was the recognition of what were notes. The knob for sensitivity was very interesting; it generally worked, but sometimes when it went down, it created more notes. And sometimes the notes were just a slight bend of the tone, but not a whole new note, so I had to make sure to take those notes out or put them all the way down in order for the voice not to sound to rubbery or honky-tonk.
It was really interesting to see how auto-tune worked with different parts. Overall once I got a track or two done I could know exactly how auto-tune would work with the rest. I could recognize when a note was too close or not really a note just by looking at it from the experience from the others tracks. Working in auto-tune also got a lot easier as the tracks went by, and it was really awesome to learn.
After that I just had to mix the song, which was fun and a little less tedious that the auto-tune. The main points that had to be changed were the EQ on the bass and snare; the snare needed more of a pop and the bass drum needed to be a little thicker. I went through all of the tracks and added the needed EQ as well as compression. The drumkit got some reverb as well as the bass and guitar. The fun part was adding reverb on all of the backing vocals. The reverb really blended the voices well and made it sound a lot more powerful.
Without further ado, here's the mix:
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