This past weekend was a whirlwind in the studio!
Over the past year I’ve been quietly writing and producing a hip hop record with my good friend. And after months and months of writing and arranging, it was time to finish up. So last weekend we shut ourselves in and tracks a TON of vocals.
When I say a ton, I really mean it. Saturday was a solid 10 hours of recording. And Sunday went from 10 am until 1:30 am Monday morning, for a whopping 15.5 hours.
And while there was plenty of rapping, there were also plenty of friends who sang on the record as well.
I love the vocalists who sang on this record, both for their friendship and immense talent on the mic. But I know in this modern era that people are very used to vocals that have been tuned to perfection.
(So much so, in fact, that it’s actually weird to hear vocals these days without any correction.)
AutoTune flipped the audio world on its head when it hit the scene. And then Melodyne came, which gave us an unprecedented tool kit for tuning vocals.
And although both are great tools, I much prefer Logic’s own Flex Pitch when it comes to editing vocals.
Why would I prefer Flex Pitch over Melodyne or AutoTune? Well, because:
- Flex Pitch is built right into Logic
- Flex Pitch’s interface is intuitive
- Flex Pitch uses all the same mouse tools and key commands
- Flex Pitch provides advanced editing features for no extra cost
For me, my favorite tools are the ones that keep my workflow fast and efficient. And Flex Pitch does exactly that.
In today’s video, I take you by the hand and walk you through the the brilliant editing features of Flex Pitch and what they can do.
On top of that, I share my personal workflow for tuning up vocals:
- How I use “Set to Perfect Pitch” to make the process of pitch correction super easy to take care of.
- How I use Pitch Drift and Vibrato to fix bad notes when regular Pitch correction isn’t working.
- How I use the “80% Philosophy” to fix my vocals while keeping their humanity.
- And how to fix vocals when Flex Pitch isn’t doing the trick.
Thanks man. Good stuff.
Hey Chris. Great video cutting straight to the chase. I have had a couple of issues with Flex-Pitch. When I bounce or export the audio file it doesn’t read the pitch correction. Have you ever had that? Basically, I’m trying to print an audio file that had FP on it so I can cut down the CPU and clean up the mix.
Hey Jack, thanks for the comment! I haven’t had the issue you’re describing. When you bounce, do you have Flex Mode open, and Flex Pitch enabled for that track? I find it important to have Flex Mode open and on when bouncing.
Hi Chris,
I’ve been using Flex Pitch here and there for a while but, as usual, you have managed to point out how to use it better. Thanks for all the good advice.
B
So glad I could help!
First, big Congrats on the new record. Very cool.
And, great info as usual. I don’t work with a lot of vocals (yet), but it’s def. on my list of must-know stuff. Thanks Chris.
Thanks so much Charles! It’s been a great undertaking. Definitely the most positive creative experience I’ve had to date 🙂
Definitely check out Flex Pitch when you do start working with vocals. Very underrated!
If you don’t have a Mac, is there any hope?
I badly need Flex-Pitch. I’ve been using Melodyne which is great if the pitch is only off by a couple semitones, but for anything that really needs adjusting, it just doesn’t sound natural.
I am HEAVILY invested in Windows machines and would love to know if there’s a way or a version for Windows, and if not is there anything in the Windows world that does the same job.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. I was worried about the perfect pitch sounding too sterile but I see you used it then brought it back to 75%. Is there a range of flatness that is acceptable? – 15 etc?