Can I create a virtual harmony track using any of the bundled features of MPowered 8

[LSW]

Before elastice audio, there was this time shift plug in that seemed to offer more features for creating a virtual harmony track. I'm not sure if it was "SMART" thus adjusting the interval to the key signature but there was a formant knob that helped make the harmony part more realistic.

I see a pitch shift plug in, which doesn't seem suited for the task. I've been experimenting with elastic audio, and unless I'm missing something, it looks like I'm going to have to select single notes to make them either major thirds or minor thirds.

Or, is there a way to set up elastic audio to do this automatically. I know there are a bunch of third party plug ins that can create virtual choirs from a single lead vocal, but I can't get one of those at the moment.

[YYR123]

I sent you a pm

[albee1952]

Nothing in the basic package will do this, unless you have Celemony Melodyne(which CAN do it, but its not automatic). To get good harmonies, they really need to be sung and recorded. Fake harmonies generally sound....well... fake, but sometimes its a decent way to construct parts to reference(so you can sing parts that work). If you need it to be automatic, one of the TC Helicon boxes would be worth checking out.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by albee1952

one of the TC Helicon boxes would be worth checking out.

Do they sound natural?

[Southsidemusic]

Originally Posted by YYR123

Do they sound natural?

Nope! Pocessed and plastic-y. If you are a singer/songwriter and do live gigs in small pubs etc it is a pretty decent product range but for studio work .. NO.

The Full version of Melodyne is really the only product that comes "close" to food harmonies but still not a "real feeling" sound.

I know we use it a lot for purposely tweeked harmonies on vocals and if you listen to Kesha for example they use Melodyne on ALL her vocal harmony and it sounds "modern edm/pop" but far from real sounding. The only way is to do them with a real singer

Christopher

[LSW]

Originally Posted by albee1952

Nothing in the basic package will do this, unless you have Celemony Melodyne(which CAN do it, but its not automatic). To get good harmonies, they really need to be sung and recorded. Fake harmonies generally sound....well... fake, but sometimes its a decent way to construct parts to reference(so you can sing parts that work). If you need it to be automatic, one of the TC Helicon boxes would be worth checking out.

Ok, we're getting somewhere! I do have Melodyne which I guess was offered with the package I bought at the time. At first I wasn't exactly what it was, then I did a little reading. First impression, confused with all the Re-wire and exporting and importing.

I do try to use real singers whenever I can, but this is a special project where I want the lead singer to do all the parts. But he recently passed away. Also, I usually mix the backing vocals a lower level than most do, so virtual artifacts are less noticeable.

But thanks for pointing me in the right direction! Much appreciated. Worst case, even if Melodyne doesn't work out, I'll at least know how to use it and be ready for more "legitamate' uses.

Last question - is there anyway to bypass the installation error when trying to install Timeshift and Signal tools? There error says that I must have Windows xp or later when I go to install. This could mean that it's detecting Windows 7, or it could be that even if I were to install them that they simple wouldn't run on PT 8. I'm thinking of something along the lines of what I used with the iTunes EXE - it broke it apart into it's various components - some where just other executables. I'm wondering if I could do something with these other EXE files - extract the DLL or actual plug in files and place them where ever they should go.

[clutch]

Depending on the version of Melodyne you have, you may not need to export, and re-import etc.
If you duplicate the original vocal track, then insert the Melodyne plugin over it, you'll find a Transfer button in the top left corner of the plugin. Click that, then play down the audio you want to "transfer" into the plugin.
Once you hit stop, it'll convert the audio into the normal Melodyne blob view where you'll be able to drag around note as you please. No exporting etc required.
I believe the version you're looking for will be in the "Other" folder of plugins if you organise by type.

[LSW]

Originally Posted by clutch

Depending on the version of Melodyne you have, you may not need to export, and re-import etc.
If you duplicate the original vocal track, then insert the Melodyne plugin over it, you'll find a Transfer button in the top left corner of the plugin. Click that, then play down the audio you want to "transfer" into the plugin.
Once you hit stop, it'll convert the audio into the normal Melodyne blob view where you'll be able to drag around note as you please. No exporting etc required.
I believe the version you're looking for will be in the "Other" folder of plugins if you organise by type.

Thank you so much for the advice. This is something I will have to try. I did bring up Melodyne in standalone mode and imported a track, but didn't get too far, just wasn't ready for the learning curve.

I was able to install the old Time Shift plug in and created a harmony part - just one line of the vocal so far. It seemed to work and sound better than elastic audio. Strange this is, the "Time Shift" mode seems to work better than the pitch shift mode. It contains the formant knob, but this didn't do much except make the vocal sound even more unnatural. Also, this only shows up in the Audio Suite, not the real time plug ins - can't remember if it was always like that, if it was really meant for real time processing and if there's a way to get it in there.

Anyhoo, I'm going to try Melodyne next. It does show up under "Other" as you said, and since it is supposed to recognize the key you're in then hopefully once I have figured it out I can build the track is less than 8 hours.

Side note - the time shift plug in sounded surprisingly good for at least when working with smaller intervals, like the third above the tonic. But, I did have to isolate some of the words/notes in the vocal line because on some it's 3 semi tones and others need 4 semi tones. I expect I'll run into more issues with unnatural sounds when trying to add notes with larger intervals, like the fifth above, whether I use the higher version or take it down an octave.

Another side note - with this particular song I'm doing some experimenting to maybe get that Bon Iver sound - I know he has a nice falsetto on his own, but I wonder how much pitch shifting he may have actually done on some of his productions. It's hard to tell because he layers so many vocal tracks at times and adds lots of effects.