Total newb: Can I do Autotune LIVE easily?

[pprior]

I would like to understand if I can (especially with macbook pro laptop rather than desktop/pro) use autotune on a live performance. My son plays keyboard and would like to be able to do this performing at church and elsewhere.

Also, can such a thing be done with multiple users at once? I.e. if my son and daughter were to sing a duet (or maybe 3-4 people) can they each be pitch corrected?

I know nothing about audio software, etc on the mac. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to answer my query.

 

[a1rflow]

If you are able to get hold of Audio Software such as Pro Tools or Logic, AND the Antares Auto Tune Plugin, I believe you would be able to do auto-tune live, but in my opinion that wouldn't be a very good setup and you would have to rely heavily on your computer's performance. This would also require some investment into studio gear such as an interface, software, a microphone, and a good pair of monitors.

I would suggest looking into a Pitch Correction pedal such as those made by TC-Helicon for live performance. The VoiceTon Synth vocoder looks particularly interesting, you might want to look into it.

http://www.tc-helicon.com/products/voicetone-synth/

 

[Snoggin]

I just have to say if the problem requires autotune perhaps they need to find vocalists that do not require it.

Snoggin

I would like to understand if I can (especially with macbook pro laptop rather than desktop/pro) use autotune on a live performance. My son plays keyboard and would like to be able to do this performing at church and elsewhere.

Also, can such a thing be done with multiple users at once? I.e. if my son and daughter were to sing a duet (or maybe 3-4 people) can they each be pitch corrected?

I know nothing about audio software, etc on the mac. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to answer my query.

 

[pprior]

I just have to say if the problem requires autotune perhaps they need to find vocalists that do not require it.

Snoggin

Well we are a very small church and our talent base is what it is. I understand the negativity in the professional world but I'm looking to try to improve on what we have to work with, rather than to pretend we're professional quality singers. My kids are also very young and their voices (although they are attending voice lessons) have a lot to grow yet. In short, we need the help and no professional is going to come do it for us.


I haven't had time yet to follow up on the above suggestion, but I appreciate it very much and plan to look into it, perhaps this weekend.

 

[paolo-]

Auto-tune on the fly will be hard. It will either sound robotic or worse, if you sing more than a half step off, it will pitch correct to a blatantly wrong note. So, you'd need to to tell it the key in witch you're signing and change it for every song, for that not to happen.

Also, the settings you would use for a live performance would be very subtle for live use. In studio, once the recording is done, you can tell it witch part to tune and all. But for live it doesn't really know what is the beginning of a note, a new note and just the vibrato of your voice so you would tone down the effect to keep the humanness of the voice versus to correct pitch.

Basically, it can, arguably, help a very good performance (constant small errors), but ruin a so-so one. As soon as you can hear it's autotune, you've just ruined everything so you need to use very soft settings, at witch point I'd say it's not really worth it.

But yes, it can be done quite simply, a mbp could handle it. You'd need an audio interface (hardware) and a digital audio workstation (apple logic and ableton live come to mind)

 

[pprior]

Auto-tune on the fly will be hard. It will either sound robotic or worse, if you sing more than a half step off, it will pitch correct to a blatantly wrong note. So, you'd need to to tell it the key in witch you're signing and change it for every song, for that not to happen.

Also, the settings you would use for a live performance would be very subtle for live use. In studio, once the recording is done, you can tell it witch part to tune and all. But for live it doesn't really know what is the beginning of a note, a new note and just the vibrato of your voice so you would tone down the effect to keep the humanness of the voice versus to correct pitch.

Basically, it can, arguably, help a very good performance (constant small errors), but ruin a so-so one. As soon as you can hear it's autotune, you've just ruined everything so you need to use very soft settings, at witch point I'd say it's not really worth it.

But yes, it can be done quite simply, a mbp could handle it. You'd need an audio interface (hardware) and a digital audio workstation (apple logic and ableton live come to mind)

Thank you for that excellent explanation. I guess I was expecting more than it can do, and from what you describe it's not going to be able to do what we need it to. This is coming from a non-musician, so I know those of you in-the-know find it silly, but again I appreciate your help.

 

[pprior]

A year later, I just bought this product: voicelive 2 and am looking forward to seeing what my son can do with it.

From what I see it will take any guitar or keyboard chord structure and on the fly calculate what is needed for tuning and harmonies, or it can use a microphone to also sample music (or mp3 inputs)

Will update later.

 

[markarman]

Can We get an update

Hi,

How did you get on with the autotuner?

Do you have any videos on youtube?

I would love to see before and after example videos to see just what this can really do.

I am thinking of buying one of these myself but need more info/demo's first.

It's a big investment for me.

Thanks

 

[pprior]

No we don't have any videos - had planned on a performance specifically last year but that fell through. We have used it for karaoke type stuff at home quite a bit, it's a hobby piece for us.

We did see a guy on vacation last year use it to put on a one-man show that was amazing. There are videos as well on the site that show what someone with talent can do with it and looping, etc.

It's a nice unit and I recommend it, but whether it fits your individual needs I'm not sure. If you have any specific questions I'd be happy to try to answer them.

 

[c-Row]

As for the piano part, Ableton Live offers a MIDI effect called Scale which "restricts all MIDI notes to a defined scale" for example, and I am sure there are other VST plugins which allow something similar. You will still be able to play wrong keys, but this might take care of the most obvious slipups.

 

[SimonUK5]

Auto tuning is a very very fine art, and either sounds terrible, or you can't tell its on there.


You will NOT find a good solution without spending thousands of dollars, unless you have a very good ear/are a very good sound engineer.

Auto tuning on the fly is going to be even harder, you will also on the fly have to adjust for key changes etc, as most auto tuners work to a key or mode.