Old 05-15-2021, 11:38 AM   #1
vejichan
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 423
Default autotuning vocals for beginners

whats the easiest way of autotuning vocals in reaper? what do you use and how do you do it? what if you don't know the key that you are in.. any advise and suggestion is appreciated. Thank you
vejichan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-15-2021, 11:53 AM   #2
serr
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 12,561
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by vejichan View Post
autotuning vocals for beginners
Agreed!


Couldn't resist. Just grab one of the autotune plugins. Reaper has one too.

Can't hear key?! Well, hmmm. Try to do a little ear training? You kind of want to be able to identify the key droning under any bit of music. Just in general. But there's nothing stopping you from grabbing. "Wait, that's not it. Either's that. Oh, there it is!"

Autotune is often just set to chromatic. Correcting to the nearest note. It's the real tone deaf caterwauling ones that need to set it to a scale.
serr is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 05-16-2021, 10:07 PM   #3
wildschwein
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Alkimos, Western Australia
Posts: 159
Default

This may help get you started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCb313W6yf0
wildschwein is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2021, 04:18 AM   #4
SiddieNam
Human being with feelings
 
SiddieNam's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: UK, in and around London.
Posts: 395
Default Yes -- go with ReaTune and choose "Chromatic", or read this...

Reaper's "ReaTune" is an absolutely marvelous plugin given that it's part of just the always excellent Reaper package. If you use Cakewalk, for example, the DAW might be free, but it tries to sell you Melodyne after a (fairly useless) trial period -- Melodyne's cheapest option ("Essential") on its own, is US$99, and does largely the same things as Reaper's ReaTune. Reaper in total is $60. $60 for vocal tuning plus all the other Reaper magic. D'uh!

Ok, Reaper's ReaTune UI is not quite as swish. But trust me, you can use it and it works amazingly. Kenny's video (mentioned previously) is great. Just remember to bring down the Attack to about 100 ms as he mentions, maybe play around with it to get the best result for what you're trying to do.

Why am I posting really? Surely not to repeat what others have already said? Well, no, I was going to talk about key identification. Kenny assumes you know the key in his video. But you can do one of three things if you don't know.

1) Set the scale to (anything) Chromatic -- for non music theorists, that's every note -- all the white ones and all the black ones. That will work to give a basic polish any mostly decent vocal.

2) Get a plugin that can do key detection (Mixed In Key have some software that does this -- it's aimed at DJs really, but it kind of works, mostly...). I'm not aware of anythng that can do it that's already implemented in Reaper.

3) Without meaning to be unkind, you might find it helpful to bite the bullet and learn a little bit of music theory. I would suggest that it's possibly easier than you think. Let me suggest what to do -- and I'll be nice and friendly (I've seen some music snobs rant about this on other forum posts -- I won't do that!)

So, it's often cheaper and quicker to just figure the key out for yourself. I have the advantage of being a classical pianist, but I think my advice will work for most producers: Try this :

a) Assuming you can identify the note "C" on a piano keyboard (if not, look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaA3_PXx6Mo), play all the white notes in an upward direction, so that it plays the irritatingly useful "doh-re-mi-fah-so-lah-ti-doh" tune so popular amongst Sound of Music fans. Play it a few times, learn how that tune sounds. "La" it to yourself in your head. Imagine that it's your fave bit of music ever, so you just know it by heart. "la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la"... "doh-re-mi-fah-so-lah-ti-doh". Just learn this, Ok?! Brilliant. That tune, when it starts on C, is in the key of C Major. Got it? Great -- we can move to step 2. Don't forget how that tune sounds.

b) Once you've done that, try playing that tune so that it sounds like the same melody, but starts on a different note. Perhaps slightly higher, or slightly lower. The note the tune starts on is the Major key in every case. Let's do an easy-ish one as an example -- try it starting on "G". You will find that to play the "doh-re-mi..." song you have to hit F# (F sharp) instead of F.

c) Once you've practiced doing this, then you can try playing it alongside any bit of music you're interested in. Now, it'll be tough if you're going for hardcore jazz or some complicated classical, but if you're going rock, pop, or dance or something, you should find that you can find a version of the "doh-re-mi..." song that sounds in tune with the song you want to learn the key of. Try different ones until you find one that seems to have all the same notes as they're singing (or trying to sing!). 99 times out of a 100 you'll have nailed it. Look at the note that "Doh..." lands on -- that's the Major key of your song. Easy right?

Now, this does get trickier with Minor keys. Each Major key has a relative Minor. In the case of C Major, for example, its Relative Minor is A Minor. You can work out any Relative Minor by stepping backwards down the keyboard three semitones (ie the next adjacent notes, including the sharps and flats, three times). The Relative Minor is always three semitones to the left of the Major. Importantly for the purposes of using ReaTune, you might find it will work perfectly well doing its tuning when tuned to the Major key, even if if the song is (strictly speaking) in a Minor key. This is because the notes are the same (mostly; there are subtleties to this, but let's not go any more complicated right now). But if it doesn't work, try setting the key the Relative Minor in ReaTune. (There are actually multiple types of Minor key -- ReaTune doesn't distinguish though. I guess it's using "Minor Melodic". Anyway...)

So, without meaning to brag, I have never used key finding software in my life. I can find the key of a rock or pop song usually in less than a minute or two, and can usually be playing along with it in five. I don't say that to boast, just to show you that it's possible. And the technique I use? Well, I do what roughly what I just wrote for you above. In fact, this is learning your scales in old school music theory speak -- but let me tell you, scales are to music what times-tables are to mental arithmetic. I have an advntage over you in that I know all my scales without having to think about it (because I've learned them since I was a kid). They are etched into my consciousness. But I can't begin to describe how valuable for music production and performance knowing your scales is. Well worth a bit of effort.

HTH.

PS. I say etched into my head. However, if I am trying to play E flat Major my fingers often go off on a C# minor thing on their own for no reason at all. I dunno why. Stupid fingers. There's no controlling them...

Last edited by SiddieNam; 05-17-2021 at 05:15 AM. Reason: Tie-po correxshun (sic)...
SiddieNam is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2021, 01:26 PM   #5
martifingers
Human being with feelings
 
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 2,694
Default

SiddieNam's approach is the answer really but here's a very easy intro to a related topic , working out chords to a song. It's Aimee Nolte so it's good!
Interesting that she insists on singing the notes out loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imj7FniRzyY
martifingers is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 05-17-2021, 04:23 PM   #6
foxAsteria
Human being with feelings
 
foxAsteria's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Oblivion
Posts: 10,255
Default

When I don't know the key, I take a handful of the notes, play them on a keyboard into Reaper's Scale Finder.
__________________
foxyyymusic
foxAsteria is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-22-2021, 05:29 AM   #7
SiddieNam
Human being with feelings
 
SiddieNam's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: UK, in and around London.
Posts: 395
Default Been a while but...

Quote:
Originally Posted by martifingers View Post
SiddieNam's approach is the answer really but here's a very easy intro to a related topic , working out chords to a song. It's Aimee Nolte so it's good!
Interesting that she insists on singing the notes out loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imj7FniRzyY

... I watched this video with Aimee. First of all, she is a superstar, and her technique undoubtedly would work. So yes -- watch the video! She is very good and very watchable. (Why wasn't my piano teacher like her?!)



However, she's looking for chords not the key; so if you don't know your theory anyway, this might still be tricky. As a matter of fact, the chords in a song are usually a consequence of the key it's written in -- there's a strong musical relationship between the two things. But given that this question is about using an Autotune, the OP may not be aware of that level of theory -- what are chords and how are they related to the song's key? Aimee I think is assuming some basic knowledge when you watch her, which is fine for the right audience, but I don't know if the OP is. It is perhaps unlikely that the OP would be able to play the major or minor chord on the piano/synth as Aimee suggests at various times.



In the end, you will want to try to find the scale of a song or use a chromatic scale. I personally advocate learning a bit of theory (as you can tell), or using a software tool. Maybe Aimee has other vids on her channel that will help too.

Last edited by SiddieNam; 06-22-2021 at 05:36 AM.
SiddieNam is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-22-2021, 07:36 PM   #8
lizzard
Human being with feelings
 
lizzard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Posts: 307
Default

Using midi transpose and staying on the white notes can also help nail this with the advantage that your keyboard will now be in "key"

This method is to record the doh ray me far so lae tee doh in c , then have it loop and adjust midi transpose while your song is playing and stop when it fits the best.

Make sure midi transpose is the first plugin in the list .

When pianos were invented they never imagined that any note can be any note like midi allows.
lizzard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-22-2021, 11:42 PM   #9
Bazzbass
Human being with feelings
 
Bazzbass's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: The Land of Oz
Posts: 702
Default

if you can't find the key, autotune won't help you.

Not everybody can play music, some have it in them, some have to study music theory.

Those that think autotune will cure their non-musicality are barking up the wrong tree.
__________________
Have a GOOD time....ALL the time !
Bazzbass is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:10 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.