Vocals are the heart & soul of a song. Because if this, it is essential that you learn to treat them with the detailed attention they deserve.
Melodyne is a powerful tool that allows you to tweak a singer's (or instrument) performance to a tasteful amount of perfection. But like any powerful tool, it can be confusing and overwhelming. No need to worry, Fab’s got your back.
Follow along as he shares his refined approach to using Melodyne in the most musical way possible.
You’ll learn:
Melodyne best practices and workflow tips
The importance of retaining the integrity of a singer’s performance
How to avoid making a vocal sound sterile and lifeless
Why tuning in solo is a bad idea
What to listen for when deciding what to edit
How to effectively use things like note separation, amplitude tool, pitch modulation, pitch drift, and more!
Addendum: as of Melodyne 2.X+, files are now stored in the session folder.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
00:00:07 Good morning children! Today,
we're going to turn water into wine.
00:00:11 Meaning, we're gonna turn out of tune
vocals into in tune vocals...
00:00:14 using Melodyne, taste,
and discernment.
00:00:18 I was lucky enough to be able to catch
Sara Lieb...
00:00:20 another scaringly in tune singer...
00:00:22 being slightly off, because she was busy
setting up her monitoring system.
00:00:26 Here it goes!
Let's add Melodyne
to the vocal track.
00:00:32 Celemony...
Melodyne plug-in.
00:00:36 Now, before you do anything,
think about music...
00:00:39 press play, or listen to anything...
00:00:41 you must make absolutely sure
as to where Melodyne is gonna
put the files it creates.
00:00:48 Melodyne has a tendency to do
whatever it likes.
00:00:51 And that's fine enough, we're in
democracy. But it doesn't work for us.
00:00:54 Because, say it puts the files
on an internal drive...
00:00:57 or, on an external audio drive,
that you may wipe...
00:01:00 that's not the same drive
as your current session.
00:01:03 In 6 months from now,
when the singer calls
and wants to recall the session for
just one note, you will hate yourself.
00:01:08 So the first thing I do,
every single time I use Melodyne...
00:01:12 every time I open the plug-in...
00:01:13 I make sure that the files are parked
in the same folder as my session.
00:01:17 To do so, you have to do... this!
You go into Settings.
00:01:22 You have to Move/record Files to...
00:01:25 And then you have to navigate your drive
to where your session's gonna be.
00:01:30 In this case, it's Internal Audio /
Puremix / Puremix Sources /
Might as well be Spring tuning.
00:01:36 What I do is I create a folder called,
you guessed it...
00:01:39 Melodyne!
Create... Choose... Ok.
00:01:44 Now I'm in a safe environment.
No matter what happens...
00:01:47 every single file that Melodyne creates
will be in that folder.
00:01:51 When you switch songs, if you're tuning
several songs at once...
00:01:54 you must make sure that it goes
into the same folder as the song.
00:01:58 Every single time. I promise
it's worth the grief.
00:02:01 Second. Set yourself up
for success.
00:02:04 Here's the workflow that I think
works best.
00:02:06 You can tweak it for yourself,
but this is a good basis.
00:02:08 If you see the window the way it is
right now, it's enormous.
00:02:11 I don't need all this. So I'm gonna
set up the track I wanna tune...
00:02:15 and a reference track, and Melodyne,
all in the screen.
00:02:18 To do so, you go to Preferences
and you enter a User size.
00:02:23 In this case, I like the Width,
but I don't like the Height
because I wanna be able to see
the whole height.
00:02:28 So I'm gonna set up 600,
for example. Press Enter.
00:02:31 For you to see the FX, you have
to close the plug-in and reopen it.
00:02:34 Boom! There you have it.
00:02:36 So now, you have...
your ref track...
00:02:39 your tuned track...
and Melodyne.
00:02:42 The reason for this is very simple.
00:02:44 You cannot locate in Melodyne.
00:02:46 You can click here in Melodyne,
and Pro Tools won't go there.
00:02:50 You can only click in Pro Tools.
00:02:52 So now, you can have
your location area here
and then you'll always know
where you are.
00:02:56 Then, you have your tuning area here.
00:02:58 It works best this way,
as far as I'm concerned.
00:03:01 I strongly urge you to transfer the whole
track you wanna tune into Melodyne...
00:03:05 even if you only plan to tune
one or two notes, for several reasons.
00:03:10 First, transferring everything
into Melodyne
will keep your brain from having
to keep track
of what's coming
from the original Pro Tools track...
00:03:17 and what's coming
from the Melodyne memory.
00:03:19 Why does it matter?
Because you might find yourself
editing one word for 10 minutes...
00:03:24 moving it left,
moving it right...
00:03:26 and wondering why Pro Tools is not
playing back what you're doing.
00:03:30 Most of the time,
the reason why that happens
is you tuned that one word in Melodyne
last week, and forgot.
00:03:35 Transfer everything into Melodyne,
so you won't be able to do that anymore.
00:03:39 Second. Your singer will ask you to recall
this and tune another note next week
it's a guarantee.
00:03:46 If you only catch some parts
of the signal...
00:03:48 and your singer wants you to capture,
say the word after the word you just tuned...
00:03:53 you may erase what you just did.
00:03:55 Might as well just take everything through
and not have that problem.
00:03:58 Because your singer WILL ask you
to tune another note...
00:04:01 even if he already asked you to tune
another note...
00:04:03 after he asked you to tune another note.
It's a guarantee.
00:04:07 Third. Transferring everything
into Melodyne...
00:04:09 will force you to capture everything,
including opening breaths...
00:04:13 closing breaths, and little noises...
00:04:15 and make sure that the sound
is consistent throughout.
00:04:18 At this time, you press Play
and transfer.
00:04:20 Don't just press Play,
press Play and listen.
00:04:23 This is your chance to get a bird's-eye
view of what needs to be done.
00:04:27 Looking at the tuning job note by note
is guaranteed doom.
00:04:30 If you look at it
as a note by note thing...
00:04:33 what's gonna happen is you're gonna
try and make everything perfect
and take all the life out of the music
turning your singer, no matter who
your singer is, into Britney Spears
which is a bad thing to do.
00:04:43 The idea here is to listen to it
on the emotional level
and try and figure out
what's in the way.
00:04:49 If there's nothing in the way of you
enjoying the music, don't tune anything.
00:04:52 If something is in the way, and
kind of yanks you out of the emotion
then that you're gonna tune,
and only that.
00:04:59 So let's listen to Sara.
00:05:34 Three more basic principles...
00:05:36 Number 1: dont't look, listen.
00:05:39 The little cases, boxes, that Melodyne
lets you put the pitch in is evil.
00:05:44 It means nothing.
00:05:46 Number 2: don't use pitch or note snap,
and don't use the automatic mode
it will fail you miserably and
repeatedly every time.
00:05:54 Number 3: don't tune in solo.
00:05:56 Use a pitch reference, like the bass
or the piano of the song.
00:05:59 Why? Because you're not trying
to make the vocal perfect
you're trying to make the relationship
between the vocal and the band perfect.
00:06:06 And that's a much different thing.
00:06:08 So the first thing I'm doing, always,
is remove Pitch Snap.
00:06:12 So now, I'm on my own,
like a grown man.
00:06:14 I zoom a little bit, so I know
what I'm doing
and I zoom a little bit this way,
so I know what I'm doing.
00:06:19 Let's listen to the top
of the song again.
00:06:21 See, I'm able to locate here,
without having to close the plug-in.
00:06:25 Here you go.
Listen to this.
00:06:31 I'm gonna play that phrase again.
00:06:33 Try and figure out
what bothers you there.
00:06:40 As far as I'm concerned, the "Willow"
is a little approximative
and the "Wind" is a little sharp.
00:06:46 So the easy one to do
is the "Wind".
00:06:47 In Melodyne, all you have to do,
if you don't have Pitch Snap...
00:06:50 is just grab the word, and move it
to where you want it to be.
00:06:57 That's better. As a reminder,
this is the way it was.
00:07:04 Where am I gonna put this pitch?
I don't know. I'm gonna move it
a little bit
in the direction that I feel
it should go and listen to it.
00:07:10 If I like it, leave it there,
if I don't, try something else.
00:07:13 What I know is this:
most singers undershoot
even the best singers in the world.
00:07:19 Meaning, when they go up, they get
a little flat
and when they go down, they get
a little sharp...
00:07:25 especially for big intervals.
00:07:27 Why is that is a different discussion,
but that's the way it is.
00:07:29 So if I'm gonna tune a singer
who's good
I'm not gonna put that singer
exactly on...
00:07:35 I'm gonna put that singer where
that singer would have put it
if he had nailed it.
00:07:39 And that's not usually exactly on.
It's a little under, or a little over.
00:07:44 Check it out.
00:07:49 Let's pick one position for the word
"Wind", and listen to it.
00:07:59 Too flat...
00:08:05 A little more...
00:08:10 Now, I kinda like that!
Let's listen again.
00:08:16 It's a little sharp-ish still,
but here's the problem.
00:08:19 It's all about the relationships
between the notes.
00:08:21 So for example, say you have
this nailed
but this is a little bit
out of tune...
00:08:25 this will never feel good.
You're gonna want to tune this.
00:08:28 And that's the whole problem:
where do you stop?
If you start tuning this, then this is
gonna want to get tuned
and this one's gonna want to get tuned,
and this one too, and Pouf!
You're Britney Spears. So you have
to use lots of restraint.
00:08:39 In this particular case, I think
the big problem is "Willow".
00:08:42 The "Willow" is not quite
precise enough
and is the articulation of the phrase.
00:08:46 So I'm gonna fix "Willow" and see
how the rest feels after that.
00:08:49 If you look at the word "Willow" here...
00:08:51 and I'm gonna position...
00:09:00 She's not quite nailing both notes.
00:09:02 And Melodyne thinks
it's just one note.
00:09:05 This happens all the time.
00:09:07 This is how you deal with it.
00:09:08 With the Multi tool...
00:09:09 you can go right under the waveform
here and double-click.
00:09:12 If you don't have those skills, you can
use the Separation tool right here
and double-click on the note.
00:09:18 It's now two separate notes.
00:09:20 Switch back to your Select tool.
00:09:22 You can now move this
independently from this.
00:09:24 And it's gonna sound this way.
00:09:28 Ha ha! This brings a new perspective on life.
00:09:31 I like to listen to the whole phrase
to get the arch of it
and note just focus on one note.
00:09:39 All of a sudden, "Wind" sounds wrong,
so I'm gonna move it back up here.
00:09:47 That's good enough for me.
I'll play it again.
00:09:52 Could we massage this more?
Yeah!
Shall we try "Will" a little higher?
Mmm! Sounds nice!
So that's the process.
00:10:04 Look at it as a phrase,
not as a bunch of notes.
00:10:08 If you look at it as a bunch of notes,
every note is wrong.
00:10:11 And you're gonna spend 12 hours
doing this, and end up with Britney.
00:10:14 If you look at it as a phrase,
she sounds like a lovely singer to me.
00:10:22 I'm still not happy with "Wind"...
00:10:34 Hear the word "Have"?
I'll play that again.
00:10:46 "I'd say I have, have, have"!
That's a little flat.
That definitely needs love.
00:10:54 That's too much love.
A little less love.
00:10:59 I was sharp.
00:11:02 Nice!
Now, I noticed something...
00:11:08 Listen to the word "Have", compared
to the other words, now that we've tuned it.
00:11:12 See how it feels in the field.
00:11:14 Does it feel louder?
A little bit, weirdly?
She probably leaned
towards the mike.
00:11:23 Here's something else we can do
in Melodyne, that's kinda cool.
00:11:26 Melodyne is usually the first plug-in
in your stack.
00:11:30 Of course, dynamic things like this
can be done with a compressor.
00:11:33 Fair...
00:11:34 But what if you could do it
pre-compression
and basically do some quick
manual compression
that's non-destructive, and sounds
good. Check this out.
00:11:43 I can use the Amplitude tool
and just lower the waveform
a little bit here.
00:11:52 Much more natural, and I don't need
to compress.
00:11:54 Now, you don't wanna do
the whole track like this.
00:11:57 But those words that really stick out,
they're gonna force you to compress a lot
you can take care of in here
in a very transparent manner
and not have to compress so much.
That's a good trick.
00:12:07 Melodyne is fantastic, because
it gives you subtle tools
that let you salvage performances that
otherwise would have to be thrown out.
00:12:15 Two of those tools seem
to confuse people a lot.
00:12:18 They're the Pitch Modulation tool,
and the Pitch Drift tool.
00:12:21 If your singer hits the pitch "Baaah",
and then goes "Baaaaaah"...
00:12:26 and there's too much of that vibrato,
that's the Pitch Modulation tool.
00:12:29 It's also good for doing "Baaaah",
and fixing too much of a sway there.
00:12:35 If your singer hits the pitch, but then
kind of drifts and hovers like this, "Baaah"
there's no vibrato involved,
that's the Pitch Drift tool.
00:12:44 Drift... Pitch drift.
00:12:46 The combination of the two lets you fix
just about anything.
00:12:49 Let me show you.
00:12:50 Let's listen to this phrase.
00:12:54 "My Daaays...", I think "Daaays"
a little hover.
00:13:01 It's good, but, she wouldn't do that.
She would do a little less.
00:13:05 So you can right click,
and hit Pitch Modulation.
00:13:09 And make it less! Like this.
00:13:11 Be gentle now.
00:13:15 That's more like her.
00:13:17 Of course, you can add it back,
and it'll put more in.
00:13:20 Like this.
00:13:24 Which is in tremendously
bad taste.
00:13:26 So I'm gonna go back
where I was before.
00:13:28 By the way, in Melodyne, you can
always go back to the beginning...
00:13:32 reset everything to 0,
so you don't have to freak out
that you're screwing up
the performance.
00:13:36 You do that in Edit / Edit Pitch /
Reset Pitch Center to Original
Reset Pitch Modulation to Original,
and Reset Pitch Drift to Original.
00:13:44 So you can always go back
to your source material.
00:13:46 I like this probably a little less.
00:13:49 Pitch Modulation, less of it,
like this.
00:13:55 Ok! Now, listen to the last word...
"Be".
00:14:05 There's a lot of stuff going on there.
00:14:07 It's going up, it's going down,
it's a little in and out.
00:14:10 So I'm gonna switch to the
Drift tool.
00:14:13 And tell it not to drift so much.
00:14:16 And it sounds like this.
00:14:23 Lovely!
Again, with less piano, so you can
really focus on the pitch of the singer.
00:14:28 This is the original pitch.
00:14:35 And this is the pitch with a little bit
of the Pitch Drift action.
00:14:44 Much better.
00:14:45 So, the combination of Pitch Modulation
for this part
and Pitch Drift for this part
lets you really get every note
where you want it to be
like painting the pitch on.
00:14:56 One last thing.
00:14:57 You must, absolutely must, no matter
what, print your Melodyne work to a track.
00:15:04 Don't expect the plug-in to recall,
a year from now.
00:15:07 This stuff doesn't travel well,
just make it in stone.
00:15:11 To do so, I'm gonna create
a new track...
00:15:14 in this case I need a Mono track /
Audio Track / Samples.
00:15:17 I'm gonna call it
"mel Lead Vox"
so that I know this is
the printed Melodyne. Create...
00:15:24 Make sure I sent it to
the proper output...
00:15:27 which, in my case,
is the SUM output.
00:15:31 Put it in Input, and make sure
it's getting sound.
00:15:41 Alright, so "Willow" is sharp.
00:15:43 Why was I thinking?
That's the other problem
with Melodyne...
00:15:46 You have to do in passes.
00:15:48 Any tuning, with any plug-in,
you have to do in passes
if you're gonna do it with your brain,
not with the automatic system.
00:15:55 After listening to the same phrase
for 5 minutes
you will no longer have
any reference.
00:15:59 Keep going. Go to the end of the song.
When you come back at the beginning...
00:16:03 you'll have a fresh view on it,
and you can adjust it.
00:16:05 I think "Willow" is too sharp,
I'm gonna bring it down.
00:16:12 "Willow" can be a little sharper...
00:16:18 That's good enough for Jazz.
00:16:20 I'm gonna go here, put my new track
in record...
00:16:23 Hit Record.
00:16:41 That's it!
Now, go Melodyne something!
Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
Since Antares AutoTune is known for its smooth transitions in tuning vocals would it be wise or logical to send a Melodyne tuned vocal into Antares AutoTune to get a final polish? In other words does combing the best assets of multiple vocal tuning software offer any advantages from your experience?
benlindell
2017 Aug 15
@punsapops, it's the old fashioned way to commit tracks pre-PT12. I use commit to print Melodyne these days.
punsapops
2017 Aug 06
Great video. Question. Is printing to a new track better than committing the tuned track? Or just different?
lux7luther
2016 Nov 22
Definitely a great perspective on tuning vocals, I find with some projects I have to tune everything, others I try to leave almost completely natural. Has some cool effects you can do with the formant
oks_omer
2016 Nov 21
Hello Fab,
Thank you very much for the video. But please some more (about Melodyne)... Videos by Celemony are bullshit, teaching is not for everybody... They are making a new melody from the recording. But if I change a note by 3rd (or even a 2nd) sound gets unnatural. So waiting...
smallstonefan
2016 Aug 13
This is the best Melodyne tutorial I've seen from anyone yet. Thanks for actually applying the techniques while explaining them. That's what makes your tutorials so awesome and most others just animated product manuals.
Fabulous Fab
2016 Jan 18
@shzlgsngar: Technology can only do so much. It;s a miracle it does what it does frankly. It your vocal is so out/weird/special that Melodyne can't fix it/make it good without artifacts then you may need to re-track. The formant tool is sometimes helpful in compensating for weirdness but it;s more a special effect thing.
shzlgsngar
2015 Dec 20
I would love to see a video on coping with other melodyne-typical problems. What especially comes to mind, is formant problems. Sometimes, even pitching not too much, will result in a note that doesn't seem to fit into the context. I have yet to come to a good solution for that problem. The formant tool seems to be quite fragile.
I usually stick to not touch that tool at all for those reasons, except fancy effects. Fab, do you use this tool at all when it comes to achieve a clean, not too fancy sounding vocal?
CCHorton
2015 Apr 11
I H A T E Melodyne!!!
Okay, not really, I love it actually. I just hate falling into Melodyne's evil trap!! Okay, ultimately I just hate myself because I wield the power of Melodyne without restraint, or consideration. There, I said it. Seriously Fab, you have helped to save me from myself. Your tips on initial set up and looking at the phrases instead of the individual notes have made a big impact. This lesson was supremely helpful. Thank you!
mansy
2014 Oct 04
Awsome stuff. Money well spent :)
musicmaster
2014 Jul 15
I've had so many problems with Melodyne! An you give me the answers in two minutes!!!!
thank you!!
soundgroove
2014 Jul 04
Although I'm working with autotune 7 I find this tutorial very helpful. Printing the autotunetrack to a new track is something I will certainly do next time! Thx!
carter1210
2014 Jan 19
Too good!!! Absolutely amazing.
horriblymean
2013 Apr 08
You've saved me countless hours of agony and headaches. FABulous!!!
mhammond@cdassembly.com
2013 Mar 20
Great video. Favorite quote from the video: "If you tweak every note, you will turn your signer into Britney Spears, which is a bad thing to do." LOL
jaenlle
2013 Feb 18
Fab! Awesome video!... I have a question, I can't seem to be able to get past the first part. It seems like my Protools 10 takes control of where Melodyne saves. Could you direct me as to how you made yours flexible. Maybe we are running different versions of Melodyne?... Please help, Thanks!
shisho
2013 Feb 10
Fab is not only a good audio engineer and producer but the funniest one around on the net. I enjoyed this video very much! Looking forward for the harmony video. I use revoice pro for ADT, melodyne and revoice pro make a nice combo!
davidcurry
2013 Feb 09
Just love it ! Great video. You have demystified the Melodyne plug-in for me in a 17 minute video, and now it doesn't seem as intimidating. I am going to check it out. Thank you. Melodyne are you watching this?
Fabulous Fab
2013 Jan 29
@BobRogers: The Studio One/ Melodyne workflow is awesome. Coming soon to other daws near you too. This workflow is useful still we feel and also great to develop coping mechanism with DAW limitations.
Fabulous Fab
2013 Jan 29
@juancopro-flow: Melodyne is great for harmonies. We'll do a video on that too. A good combo of pitch, formant and modulation gives great results.
getjjg
2013 Jan 27
Greetings Fab. Very insightful and amusing. The manner in which you presented Melodyne I found appreciative. Thank you for want you do.
Take care and by the way I"m the child in the back roll. :)
BobRogers
2013 Jan 26
Great tutorial Fab! Wish I had this two years ago. Would have saved a lot of trouble scaling the learning curve. I've been using Studio One rather than PT lately, so a lot of those workflow lessons aren't necessary anymore. I love the integration of both the workflow and the interface.
5Lives
2013 Jan 26
Best vocal tuning video I've seen! Very nicely done! I like that PureMix and you don't treat us like recording beginners - all other sites are very basic :)
Brahiam15
2013 Jan 23
nice
kelu
2013 Jan 23
cool as usual , always learnin something thx tonton fab