which pitch correction software is best?

[B2RPW]

I need to buy a pitch correction software for my studio that runs PT10 on Mac OS 10.8.4. The main application is fixing vocals, mostly individual lines but some small groups as well. I'm not looking for the T-Pain effect although I will probably use it from time to time just because its there. If I can also use it to touch up other instruments even better. I'd prefer to rely on presets as much as possible and not have to do corrections note by note.

I know there is Antares Autotune and Melodyne. Any thoughts on which one is more appropriate based on my requirements, ease of use and price which are my top 3. Also any other products out there I should consider?

[albee1952]

Melodyne Editor. It will allow you to do things that should NOT be able to be done. Here's 2; how about 4 part harmony sung on a single mic, WITH someone tapping their foot on the mic stand base(oh, did I mention that the 4 parts were....um....WRONG?). Yep, Melodyne and I fixed that and saved a full day of re-recording vocals. I needed an upright bass in a song but don't own one. Played the part on a Stingray. Fed it to Melodyne, exported as a midi file, imported midi to the session, sent it to my Motif es8 on the upright bass patch......client thrilled! I rest my case

[B2RPW]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Melodyne Editor. It will allow you to do things that should NOT be able to be done. Here's 2; how about 4 part harmony sung on a single mic, WITH someone tapping their foot on the mic stand base(oh, did I mention that the 4 parts were....um....WRONG?). Yep, Melodyne and I fixed that and saved a full day of re-recording vocals. I needed an upright bass in a song but don't own one. Played the part on a Stingray. Fed it to Melodyne, exported as a midi file, imported midi to the session, sent it to my Motif es8 on the upright bass patch......client thrilled! I rest my case

Ok that's a pretty persuasive argument. Are you saying Autotune can't do that or just that you know it can be done in Melodyne? Also, do you have any opinion on ease of use, particularly the ability to do simple things with presets or limited manual corrections. Also do I need the full version or will one of the less expensive version work?

My main application will be correcting single melody line vocals and occasionally group vocals recorded on a stereo mic. Once in a while I might also use it to touch up a guitar solo too, but not near as important as vocal fixing. BTW many of the vocals I need to fix are sung by children, does that make a difference?

[jacko]

Waves Tune is very good.

[Bob Olhsson]

Melodyne replaced AutoTune for most of the top pro vocal editors several years ago. It sounded better and I suspect did less harm to the timing. (In the early daze every AutoTune pass needed to be followed by a VocAlign pass to restore the phrasing and even then things often needed to be nudged around.)

I only tune vocals for my own infrequent productions and in my old age I'm very picky about the abilities of the singers I'll work with. Waves Tune showed up in my Mercury bundle and was enough better that I never upgraded Auto-Tune.

[bashville]

The thing about Autotune is that if you've got a performance that's good with just a couple notes to be adjusted, you don't have to go through an extra analysis step and adjust things by hand. There's an "Auto" mode that just fixes it in real-time. So it's incredibly fast to work with that way. You have to know the scales and keys so can automate the key when you need to. It's not always appropriate, but it can be the quick and dirty fix until you want to get more detailed.

Whenever I've glanced at the directions for Melodyne or Waves, it looks like you have to go into this separate world of dragging the notes around on the screen. Waves relies on Rewire, so just ponder that for a moment. Autotune also has a graphic mode, but the fast mode is very valuable when you're doing a big block of BG's really fast. You just slap the plug on, and it's done.

I also thought when I tried Melodyne a few years ago, that it had kind of plasticky sound compared to Autotune, like it was reconstructing the entire performance according to its parameters, whereas it seemed Autotune was only touching the moments it needed to. Maybe that's changed.

It's like Bob said--your method is going to be dependent on the type of singers you're dealing with. If someone can tell me that Melodyne has the same capability without doing the analysis step, I'd love to know. I own Melodyne editor, and couldn't find it, but I admit I wasn't digging too hard, because I already have what I need at the moment.

A new issue for Autotune is that the older version (5) I was using forever, which still works in PT10, has hardly any delay in Native mode, whereas the new plug 7 with extra graphical stuff is something like 500 samples. So that's progress.

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by bashville

The thing about Autotune is that if you've got a performance that's good with just a couple notes to be adjusted, you don't have to go through an extra analysis step and adjust things by hand. There's an "Auto" mode that just fixes it in real-time. So it's incredibly fast to work with that way...

Unfortunately this also really screws with the timing and phrasing.

[bashville]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Unfortunately this also really screws with the timing and phrasing.

I have WAY not noticed this, and I'm usually pretty good with those things. If you're talking about on a millisecond-measured level where you'd hear phasing or very slight slap-delay issues compared to the original, I'll defer to your ears, since the usage I'm talking about is to make it better fast.

But if you mean like throwing the performance out of sync, where it sounds like the performer came in wrong, or is just off, then I can't agree, and I've been using some version of it for a long time.

It's hard if we can't be listening to the same thing at the same time, because I'd love to hear what you're hearing. You mentioned the "early days" working with it. I've been using version 5 of it for a long time (I think I had it since 3?); maybe what you're talking about improved in subsequent versions.

[bashville]

The only other issue I'll mention with Autotune in "Auto" mode, is that you have to be careful with the "onset" speed when there is vibrato in the performance. The algorithm starts chasing the vibrato and trying to adjust the pitch, when obviously it's supposed to be undulating a little. You're better off in graphic mode with that.

[TOM@METRO]

Waves Tune has been my "go-to" for years. This is the Waves plug-in I am really missing in PT11 while waiting for AAX.