tuning nightmare- help!

[stevesound]

ok,
just got the PT session from a recording I've been hired to mix. There's one massive problem - the banjo player didn't tune up properly. It's only one string that's off, but it's HORRIBLE to listen to and I can't find a quick fix. I am without an autotune unfortunately, so only equipped with digi's pitch shift it looks like I'll have to manually shift every note played on that string, which is a whole lot.

So has anyone any tricks up their sleeves???

thanks in advance!!
steve

[Don M]

I think you would be best off to have the banjo player tune up and redo his track. I don't know of any real fix there. Autotune would not do it.......

Otherwise just bury him deep in the mix. The client should understand.

[Munxcub]

check out melodyne at www.celemony.com looks really cool and would help you here I think. (according to their promo video)

[cybership]

Mute the Banjo.

There was a banjo player who had to make a quick stop at the supermarket but was concerned because he had his prized vintage banjo in the car and was afraid to leave it. He searched for a parking spot near the entrance but couldn't find one. Finally he decided to go ahead and just try to get back as quick as he could. When he came back to his car his heart sank as he noticed the back window smashed and glass all-round. Quickly he ran to the car to find two banjos inside.

Seriously though, unless you can isolate the waveform of the single out of tune note. Auto Tune will not help you. You were hired to mix not to track. I would bring it to the attention of the client and let them decide if they want to re track it.

Robert

[tele_player]

If you are lucky enough that the bad note only needs to be fixed in single-note parts, you can fix it manually, or with Autotune, or with Melodyne, I'm sure there are others. If it's standing out during chords, you've got a bigger problem, which will need some trickier editing.

Melodyne is amazing. I've only used the demo, but if it didn't cost so much, I'd have it.

[stevesound]

`man, what a nightmare, cheers for all the suggestions, I ended up pitch shifting each note that was out, but the problem was chords and the resonance of the off string over notes that were ok. I ended up with a slightly strange banjo part, the off tune resonance destroying an otherwise fine recording. Such a bummer, I buried it in the mix and advised the client to re-record.

live and learn

[yin7yang64]

You could also experiment with using the equalizer to notch out the out of tune frequencies. It may take a couple of passes to seriously reduce those pitches if you only have the Digidesign EQ. You may end up with a muddier sounding banjo track for all your effort, but still worth experimenting with.

[tantejo]

this do remind me of some incident i faced some years ago.
i was recording a bassplayer and he was out of tune all the time and i
had to check him a 1000 times as i thought it had to do with his playing.
it appeared that his bass wasn't in octave tune. ( a fantastic musicman bassguitar, i realy liked the sound )
a very common problem when talked to some engineers later, but
this was my first experience. i'll guess you learn from this sort of things.
at the end we had to do the recording over with some other bass.
greetings, johan.