He does a good job doing what he is doing, sound engineering and offering clear explanation to guys like me who want to get better results mixing tracks.
First, as a Berklee-trained vocalist, I don’t really have a huge problem with the way the unedited audio sounded. Much more interested in the how you wrote and arranged this given that you got this kind of Billy Joel thing going on. I would love a vocal arranging follow-up video.
I’m a Theoretically Trained Forensic Astronomer with a degree in Fully Semi Automatic Cosmotology and I agree... errr disagree... uhhhh... you know, the thing!
I wish more people understood what you said: 1 - If you miss the note by more than half step, you'r probably not a singer 2 - Tune correction programs works if you know how to sing decently, they're not magic tools.
This comment and this video here: th-cam.com/video/05hTQC1CZko/w-d-xo.html Are Really The Best Starting Guide to not only using autotune, but Also to Knowing Knowledge Of Autotune In General. Wish more people had seen this. 👍
@@myoriginalname an really true musician would also know that, not like the others comments I seen on this topic, thanks kind sir of this quote to set the table. 👍🏻🎶
No it ain't, bedroom music is supposed to be unique, honest and real. This is just teaching a bunch of younger bedroom musicians that it's "better" to have your music sound like a cheap disney rip-off, and anyone with an ear can HEAR this shit is going on. Take the knowledge from this video and use it to get better at singing, use melodyne to observe your notes and use THAT knowledge to figure out what can be improved. ESPECIALLY if you're making pop/ rnb/ lofi shit.
EDIT* if you're going for that intentional autotune sound, then that's fuckin sick. fuck it up! that's an aesthetic choice. but doing this faked good singing bullshit just sounds so transparently bullshit to anyone who knows better.
Jake, you have an amazing ability to explain and demonstrate the concepts you are trying to get across. I have learned so much from you. I am 60 years old and have been playing music all my life but have never been in a band. I was going to say that you bridge the gap - but really you fill in the void for people like me who are self taught experienced players who are really yearning to learn more but are too old or self conscious to get more advanced training. You obviously have a full grasp of theory and the gift of breaking it down into manageable chunks that people like me can understand and digest. You have certainly opened up my mind and expanded my abilities. You are a down to earth learning experience and I sincerely thank you for all your hard work. I hope to make you proud someday!
Dude... you sound WAY BETTER using no modifications and your own natural and beautiful voice. Software modification to make a voice sound better is not what makes a singer. The natural ebb and flow of an organic voice makes a singer true.
I’m totally all for pitch correction and will use it, but I’ve loved so many “amateurish” performances with so much character, like the unedited part of that intro, that I wish the average modern ear was more used to that raw sound. Not even just unedited vocals, but vocalists who aren’t world class...I just like that shit sometimes idk
Agreed- sometimes, I must tune the note. Other times, it would be a sin to remove the humanity. There is no "one size fits all" rule to pitch correction, it can be wielded for good or evil.
I think is different when the vocalist go off pitch in a emotional track i hear the error as an emotion and when the vocalist sing all over the place and just dance to pretend he/she isnt singing that bad.
Just a quick note about that "gonna bust out a song in the cafeteria." So I went to a music oriented highschool in germany (musisches gymnasium) and one year we were doing the musical my fair lady. We basically involved the entire school our orchestra, choir and theater group all working together none stop on that musical. And yes it actually happened quite often that we would just bust out singing one of the songs and the entire cafeteria sang along. It was pretty cool tbh.
FYI, classical voice leading rules for “figured bass” don’t really apply to most actual melodies. the voices in basso continuo tend to mostly move by stepwise motion and never really range more than a fifth (unless its the bass); this excludes so many pieces of even classical music. In practice classical composers tend to think about voice leading rules vertically (e.g. chord movements) rather than for each voice, and even then they commonly break these rules. so feel free to orchestrate how you want!
"sometimes good enough is good enough" unironically good words to live by. Our own perfectionism sometimes really gets in the way of learning, improving and - most importantly - getting shit done
I can't tell you how many times I get stuck or give up because my performance isn't up to my standard. It gives me so much anxiety. Your confidence to show your "pretty bad" performance to the audience and confidently walk through how to make it sound better is SO encouraging to me. Thank you!
This proved my point I was explaining a couple days ago to my colleague. Auto tune isn’t necessarily what makes someone that can’t sing sound amazing, it’s more about layering a bunch of tracks of a certain vocal 🤯 cuz it sounded fine without pitch correction, especially to someone’s untrained ear 👂
After reading through the comments, I realized that most people don't have the ear to tell if the vocals are off pitch. While simultaneously others are horrified by the slightest off note. (I've got a friend like that.) This method ensures that everyone is happy. Thanks so much for making this video, I really learned a lot.
This took me the longest to understand! I make beats and I would’ve a mate with perfect pitch tell me there’s something out of key and it would frustrate me so much because i could’ve never hear what he was hearing...over time my ears have gotten better that I’m still bad at hearing singers ahahah
I can clearly hear it's off pitch, yet I weirdly like it, except for a few horrible moments. Maybe I've been listening to too much jazz haha When everything is too perfect, it loses a bit of character.
This is unbelievably spot on time wise. Promised one of my coworkers that I’d write and record a song. Using Ableton for the first time in 10 years, and my voice has gone south in that time. Needed this video right now. You actually sound good without the processing, and sound even better with it. Thanks.
I’ve just learned more about producing music in the last hour of watching your content than I have in the last 23 years of being alive, you are amazing
Great video Jake. As a lead singer in my much younger days, back in the early 80s, your voice is what set you apart from everyone else. Today, wow! So many possibilities and options. You actually have a decent voice when you stay in your natural range. Unfortunately, your range is like halfway between most natural melody lines, but I'm sure you already know that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this process because you encourage people to expand their potential and try new things. Your descriptions are hilarious and true, yes most people will notice, but unless they are expecting a professional performance they will usually be more optimistic. Lol
Hey, I've watched the "same type" of videos from many other big youtubers and you always do the best job. With this video, and others. You are super knowledgeable.
I read a lot of preferences for both parts. Eventually, you trade in naturalness for correctness, and both have value. But what makes this song so fresh and special, is that you did both of them back to back. That contrast between the two parts is what makes it so fun.
On top of all content you've put in here, I can't imagine how much more was in order to first plan all of it and wrap it all in this fantastically holistic video, with the final perspective(s) in mind. You're my bridge to what really can be done from home, and yet reach out to what comes out the professional studios. Maybe I joined too late, but ever since I did, I'm endlessly grateful, and will remain forever one (maybe not most invested, yet) of your patrons exactly for that humility you bring out with, all this so valuable content, in its rightful context. Much love and respect from a Bulgarian fan in London. Thank you, and keep remaining you 🙏🤘🤗💓
I am a formally trained music major that helps direct an a cappella ensemble, and this is how I arrange my vocal arrangements. Notation is the very last thing I do so people can actually learn it. This very much helped me with mixing virtual ensembles! Thank you!!!
Super interesting. I picked up singing while under house arrest, but I didn't think about recording anything yet (my tone is horrendous). Your video gave me a good overview of the pitch correction process. Thanks dude.
"You can't Melodyne a cracked voice." NICE. Bruh I wish I had some kind of Melodyne-ish plugin for the software I use. (I probably do but haven't been able to find it yet.) On the other hand though I've really had to figure out how to sing SO! :D If I ever do find a plugin for it, I'll have less work to do. Thankfully all I'm singing right now is Skyrim bard songs so as long as I sound better-or-equal-to the vanilla performers, I'm doing okayish.
Man... There is this good energy, not just in this particular video or any other one, but in your whole channel that resonates within me. The content of your channel really is next level. And your personality is the cherry on top of it all. You're pretty much the one friend we've always had since childhood that we trust and turn to when we need advice.
Two little things! 1- If you honestly think I sound better without pitch correction, then you probably won't make it far as a choir director, producer or, acapella member. Being that out of tune and wonky with pitch does NOT OCCUR at professional levels of vocal performance. There's a reason why, it's because most people don't like the sound. If you do, congrats- you're special! But sadly the rest of the world wants to hear well performed vocals. 2- At parts of this video, the file i'm working with looks like a STEREO file. This is because I actually rendered out the stems and imported them into a new project in order to mix and make this video. In practice, I recorded in MONO and panned everything to stereo. Also, melodyne won't play with time changes like the slow down I automated at the end, so I was pretty much forced to take my recorded tracks and render them into a brand new set.
Well, some people just want to hear mistakes. I think sometimes with things that are too perfect, they can sound boring. I think that's why Ritchie Blackmore criticized Joe Satriani's playing in an interview. I find your chord progression very interesting. Can you do a video explaining your choice of chords?
@@potatosan4250 This is a version of melodyne that came bundled with one of my old interfaces - it isn't new at all but does have the polyphonic feature. I'm pretty sure the newest versions WAY MORE capable than what I demonstrated here
Love your videos man, you've helped me make sense of theory like no one else ever could. I have a question you might could make another video on. How do you intentionally sing in a certain key? I can tell if I'm singing in key with what I'm playing but that's from adjusting my voice to sound good with my music. I've always wrote my music first and then vocals later. Wich I realise now that's probably why I struggle writing vocals because I'm not writing the melody first. How do I know and intentionally sing in a certain key?
This is brilliant! And it shows how much of a gift that computers are to us! This is acapella, but the same principle goes into almost all of music production. The computer makes it possible for everyone to express themselves through music if they want! Technology is amazing! Saying this while teaching my nephew Blender, so it's not just music! My theory is that art is the very essence of.. well.. life!
One observation. You didn't need to record stereo files, mono would work exactly the same in your example. It saves resources and processing overhead. A stereo file from a mono Mic source is basically two copies of the same thing. As you go on to double and then pan hard left and right effectively only one half of the stereo file is used making the other half redundant.
Huh I agree 100% - I don't know why it defaulted to the stereo view when I recorded in Mono. I think my preferences changed when I updated ableton and I didn't realize it!
oh wait i solved it lol! I actaully DID record in MONO like I suspect, but I rendered out the individual stems in stereo to place into a new setlist for mixing/filming/etc. I didn't mention it but I had to automate a time change at the end for the slowdown, and melodyne won't work with timechanges so I basically imported everything into a new set, and thats where the stereo tracks came from :P
Man once again just a great vid great topic, ur not boring! I just find it easy to watch listen and learn, quite often I watch videos and leave scratching my head even after several watches. U really get the message across thanx for sharing ur wealth of knowledge I'm a self taught player but iv used you tube for the past year or 2 I didn't even knw about scales when I first got into you tube. You and many others hav been such a privilege to all us who gain so much from ur experience and wisdom thank you for sharing this video and taking the time to help others.
That intro song was fire!! 🔥 🔥 🔥 Also, I kind of liked the unedited part as an out of tune bridge section, building tension with the slight imperfections which make that final super in tune E major sound so sweet!
13:07 "If my bass part sounds louder than the rest of the voices, imagine how weird that would sound" Yeah that'd just be Kokomo or any other Beach Boys song led by Mike Love
There's people like you saying their harmonies and vocals are horrible, then there's tons and tons and tons of latin artists who heavily rely on melodyne/autotune to sing their songs. With only the intro you got me, that's awesome! All the intro helps me see that I'm not that bad at singing and fixing the tune a bit is not a sin in the music industry, lol.
Hey Jake, I'd love to see an analysis video on "I'm going slightly mad" from queen. This song is really interesting and has a beautiful weirdness going on. :)
You sir, and I mean this with the utmost respect and compliments due, are the Bob Ross of music instruction. I have been making and producing music for decades and have learned more from your vids than any college class I've sat through. Good job, and don't ever stop. :)
In 1966 when Brian created Pet Sounds, technology like this hadn't even been dreamed of. Just demonstrates his production capabilities and what great singers the Beach Boys were.
The beach boys are not always in tune. Quite the contrary. There not great singers individually (except maybe Carl), but together it's magic and the little off notes aren't noticeable too much. Plus: Brian's used a lot of pitch correction on his recent work.
Reassuring to see methods I arrived at myself being used here - I too often set it up with an instrument in piano roll first. Pro tip - avoid wind instrument sounds in your VST's for this -- most wind instrument sounds incorporate a fade-in that creates a delay vs the metronome. Creates timing problems when you sing along when tracking. In real life, a wind instrument player adjusts for any delay in producing sound to match the metronome but your typical VST won't adjust for this. Sometimes I will do several unison takes, put them in Melodyne, move around notes to create harmony parts, then track the real vocals using the modified harmony as a guide. VERY useful to be able to move vocal notes around in melodyne as if it were a VST instrument in piano roll to experiment with different harmonies when arranging. I recommend AGAINST hard R/L pan to try to avoid tuning issues - put it in mono and hidden problems become obvious - just like they do when playing from speakers in a room. Unless the listener is expected to NEVER listen any other way than headphones. If it sounds bad in mono, it WILL sound bad playing from speakers in a room. Doing hard, HARD pitch correction on scratch guide vocals in Melodyne to follow along with when tracking the keeper vocals can be helpful as a lifeline when tracking. Incidentally, when I changed from my beloved M50's to a cheap set of earbuds, I found I could cut out a lot of metronome and other bleedthrough. Moving monitoring playback to ONLY L or ONLY R when moving one earcup off my ear for recording helped prevent bleedthrough and better vocal control pitch and otherwise. PERFECT intonation in melodyne can sound robotic, but tuning within the range of what a good reasonably accurate singer would do does NOT need to be perfect! Don't try to be perfect with Melodyne! This is the ADVANTAGE of using melodyne, that you can pick and choose in way more detail and exercise restraint in editing! I actually go back and undo some of my tuning as a final step when using melodyne... the tendency is to OVER tune and increase overtuning over time as you work on something. and always, if you can do a good take where you concentrate on intonation that you can acceptably keep without any melodyne editing is always going to sound BEST as compared to an edited take. Second best is merely nudging a really good take out of any unacceptable imperfections into ACCEPTABLE imperfections. For morale-lowering and inspiration, ha, pull up Naturally by Huey Lewis & The News. That's the BAND singing acapella, not even just the lead vocalist multitracking. And yeah, that's right, periodz at the end of sentancez, millenialz!!! Full stop.
Thank you for making this accessible and beginner friendly. There are so many people who want you to follow strict rules and know all the musical jargon. This is much less intimidating.
Melodyne isnt automatic, you have to actually drag each note to the correct place, which is why it is so superior to autotune. It also preserves the natural sound of the singer instead of making it sounds all robotic like autotune
"When it tries to average the tone, it ends up dividing by zero." I don't have the writing skills to express my laughter when I read that. Programmers and math nerds will get it. I'm not sure about anybody else. :-)
@@DodgaOfficial autotune has knobs that let you control the human feel (flatness, vibrato, etc) and there’s even the option to do it manually so there’s no sense to what you said...
Oh...Incredible,,sliders,,Notches,,Lecture,,Reasoning,,EQ,caution,,Compress,,Depress,,ALL blown out,,,YOU HAVE FILLED THE MINDS OF NOVICES WITH practicals,,SO MUCH with SO LITTLE MOVES,,Lovablae and Laudable VID,,wonderous Guidelines,,
dear friend it's because of you I now have found how to correct my horrible singing problems and have put out one if not two radio ready amateur songs thank you so much
Absolutely!! 6:59 some times "good enough" ends up with more mojo than redoing it pristine. All of this writing, producing then performing the video must have taken so much time. Great video. Clever writing too.
Hi Jake.......Really great and really useful video very well presented ! I like the fact that you are showing that Home Studio Musicians can sound almost as good as the Pro Studio guys with Mega Budgets and very expensive studio gear. Speaking as a retired Sound Recording Engineer I applaud you and your approach - especially with regard to the vocal recording plus warts and whistles ! Well done and thank you. Keep up the great videos Jake. Best Regards . . . Eddie ( UK Musician )
Honestly I consider that F# to be a II but I thought calling it V/V would placate the academic types out there. If it resolves to the primary chord, I'll parse it as a secondary dominant, but if it doesn't like in this case, I'll prolly just call it a borrowed chord.
Exactly. Guitars dont sound distorted or loud when played naturally. And we have zero issues with guitarists using different tools to get a cool sounding tone. Stop pretending that there are different rules for vocalists. I do agree with doing your best to practice getting the vocals as close to pitch perfect as possible. However,- Nobody is perfect everytime. Its our jobs as producers to make everything in the final production sound great. So we will continue to use tools that are available to us to achieve that goal.
@@lionsdenstudio4934 Sounds a little like an excuse bringing in guitar into this. You change the tone of the electric guitar, not the actual note being played. The note will always be the same. Tone, effects can't save you if you can't play in tune. You're making it sound that guitarists just put on an effect that keeps them in tune. I know you probably didn't mean that but it sounds like that.
Thank you kind sir. It's nice to know that you don't have to be absolutely perfect, close, but not absolutely. I'll be doing more harmonies now that I can get over the stigma of take after take to get it perfect and ending up frustrated or just removing the part that could ultimately make or break a song.
Ok, how many people have ears good enough to notice that Jake's singing wasn't the most pristine? I couldn't, though I will admit I have a tin ear. Even when the effects were turned off I found it quite passable.
It's a bit more distinguishable when you wear earphones in a quiet room. But yeah, I think most untrained people who don't have perfect pitch will probably not find it that bad.
I think this video might have finally given me that little nudge I needed to even ATTEMPT to record music. So much insight from this video (and just about every other music theory video you've put out, really). Thank you! You're a real one!
I'm curious, if you'd like to share, how often you pitch correct the vocals on songs you create for this channel. The Metallica scale song? The various modes videos with vocal songs? I ask because I'm an instrumentalist with a not-great voice trying to get into singing so I can create "complete" tracks with vocals on my own. But I'd like to know how and if pitch correction can be used with something that's more rock or metal or any other genres that are less vocal-oriented than acapella.
Every single time you've heard me sing on this channel in a finished mix, I've used melodyne. Except for the times were I'm singing/playing at the same time to demo, like I often do in my Perfect Progression videos. I even use melodyne for good singers like Kerry Devine just to clean up little annoyances and carve out some interesting nuances.
Jake - what a great lesson in Vocal Production that is so accessible for everyone to try. There is one thing missing in my understanding. Once you harmonise the main melody with chords, how do you decide how each voice moves within the parts from chord to chord. I hope that makes sense. If anyone else cares to comment or point me in the write direction, please feel free to do so.
My favorite Reverb-No Reverb song is the ending of Shining Star by Earth, Wind, & Fire. I thought I loved the song when hearing it the first time, but that ending sealed the deal. Great demo and explanation. Thanks!
I use that CFL light in your umbrella ☂️ for my plants during the winter 😁👍 Great value, great temp for the low wattage ✌️😋 Also, reverb on everything! Reverb the world! I love it 😎 Great video, thanks for sharing your process 🙌
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lol the unedited audio isnt that bad
Sounds like that group of people who are on their way to a party and started singing on the way.
just a little off-pitch, but for me it's okay
Preferable even.
I was hoping for something terrible so I could have hope for mixing my voice. Instead, this dude turned out to be a solid karaoke singer.
you are not hearing the soprano part
Dude you sound way better unedited than like 3/4 of every local band ever.
True THAT!
I expected way worse honestly, and the song itself is really really cool, great job :D
ahaha yes me too!!
it was ok in human mode !
I though he was gonna sound like me 😂😂😢
Ahah agreed 100% and the song is great ahah
Yeah dude, self deprecate much 😜
Forget singing, go into announcing. You definitely have a radio voice.
I was thinking he auto tunes his voice lol
You're quite right
He does a good job doing what he is doing, sound engineering and offering clear explanation to guys like me who want to get better results mixing tracks.
That's what everyone tells me and I'm sick of it. He probably heard that comment a thousand times before in his life as well.
@@ImNotQualifiedToSayThisBut The closest i've gotten is getting told I have a great face for radio.
First, as a Berklee-trained vocalist, I don’t really have a huge problem with the way the unedited audio sounded. Much more interested in the how you wrote and arranged this given that you got this kind of Billy Joel thing going on. I would love a vocal arranging follow-up video.
I am a Churklee-trained vocalist and i disagree
i'm a completely shit vocalist and i do agree
I'm a vocally-trained Wendy's and I agree
I’m a Theoretically Trained Forensic Astronomer with a degree in Fully Semi Automatic Cosmotology and I agree... errr disagree... uhhhh... you know, the thing!
I'm a pharmaceutical - trained nuclear janitor from harvard and I agree.
I can't stress enough how well presented this video is. As a person who used to make "homemade" music covers, this is a masterclass.
I wish more people understood what you said:
1 - If you miss the note by more than half step, you'r probably not a singer
2 - Tune correction programs works if you know how to sing decently, they're not magic tools.
I guess I'll wait until they perfect the magic tool.
This comment and this video here: th-cam.com/video/05hTQC1CZko/w-d-xo.html
Are Really The Best Starting Guide to not only using autotune, but Also to Knowing Knowledge Of Autotune In General. Wish more people had seen this. 👍
It’s just like using the pen stabilizer in procreate. It will help with your line art but it won’t make your art good if your art sucks.
@@myoriginalname an really true musician would also know that, not like the others comments I seen on this topic, thanks kind sir of this quote to set the table. 👍🏻🎶
Even missing notes by a half step is considered really bad singing. Imagine more than that lol 😶😶
Jake: ...We can actually get rid of all these little modulations.
*dying modulations sounds*
16:43
NUUUᴜᴜᴜᵤᵤᵤᵤ
Lol
lol
LMAO
I was thinking the same exact thing lol that shit was hilarious
Jake, you are the greatest gift to bedroom musicians from all over the world. Great video as always.
Amen lol
No it ain't, bedroom music is supposed to be unique, honest and real. This is just teaching a bunch of younger bedroom musicians that it's "better" to have your music sound like a cheap disney rip-off, and anyone with an ear can HEAR this shit is going on.
Take the knowledge from this video and use it to get better at singing, use melodyne to observe your notes and use THAT knowledge to figure out what can be improved. ESPECIALLY if you're making pop/ rnb/ lofi shit.
EDIT* if you're going for that intentional autotune sound, then that's fuckin sick. fuck it up! that's an aesthetic choice. but doing this faked good singing bullshit just sounds so transparently bullshit to anyone who knows better.
@@AnotherWorldYT yo why are you so heated bro LOL
@@AnotherWorldYT L
Jake, you have an amazing ability to explain and demonstrate the concepts you are trying to get across. I have learned so much from you. I am 60 years old and have been playing music all my life but have never been in a band. I was going to say that you bridge the gap - but really you fill in the void for people like me who are self taught experienced players who are really yearning to learn more but are too old or self conscious to get more advanced training. You obviously have a full grasp of theory and the gift of breaking it down into manageable chunks that people like me can understand and digest. You have certainly opened up my mind and expanded my abilities. You are a down to earth learning experience and I sincerely thank you for all your hard work. I hope to make you proud someday!
The quality of this content is unbelievable. I do not know why the algorithm isn't treating it better, but hope this comment & like helps.
Dude... you sound WAY BETTER using no modifications and your own natural and beautiful voice. Software modification to make a voice sound better is not what makes a singer. The natural ebb and flow of an organic voice makes a singer true.
I’m totally all for pitch correction and will use it, but I’ve loved so many “amateurish” performances with so much character, like the unedited part of that intro, that I wish the average modern ear was more used to that raw sound. Not even just unedited vocals, but vocalists who aren’t world class...I just like that shit sometimes idk
Agreed- sometimes, I must tune the note. Other times, it would be a sin to remove the humanity. There is no "one size fits all" rule to pitch correction, it can be wielded for good or evil.
@@SignalsMusicStudio the force is strong with this one...
@@zac3392 The force has a special affinity for an individual such as he.
Jake... I am your father
I think is different when the vocalist go off pitch in a emotional track i hear the error as an emotion and when the vocalist sing all over the place and just dance to pretend he/she isnt singing that bad.
Just a quick note about that "gonna bust out a song in the cafeteria." So I went to a music oriented highschool in germany (musisches gymnasium) and one year we were doing the musical my fair lady. We basically involved the entire school our orchestra, choir and theater group all working together none stop on that musical. And yes it actually happened quite often that we would just bust out singing one of the songs and the entire cafeteria sang along. It was pretty cool tbh.
FYI, classical voice leading rules for “figured bass” don’t really apply to most actual melodies. the voices in basso continuo tend to mostly move by stepwise motion and never really range more than a fifth (unless its the bass); this excludes so many pieces of even classical music. In practice classical composers tend to think about voice leading rules vertically (e.g. chord movements) rather than for each voice, and even then they commonly break these rules. so feel free to orchestrate how you want!
i came here to say this
"sometimes good enough is good enough" unironically good words to live by. Our own perfectionism sometimes really gets in the way of learning, improving and - most importantly - getting shit done
great content! thanks
ok
Why hello there, Mr. Legend!
Wow didn't expect to see you here! I just remember your name from journey which was a total bop haha
@k-391 Never stop learning!
@K-391 haha hey bro!
I can't tell you how many times I get stuck or give up because my performance isn't up to my standard. It gives me so much anxiety. Your confidence to show your "pretty bad" performance to the audience and confidently walk through how to make it sound better is SO encouraging to me. Thank you!
Epic intro!!
Watch the intro of his video about polymeters, It's amazing :D
I live for that “I have not been doing fine / I’ve relied on Melodyne” rhyme.
(and the little Broadway vibe at the end of it)
Rhyme
I love that you are doing more general and not guitar centered tutorials. Very helpful.
This proved my point I was explaining a couple days ago to my colleague. Auto tune isn’t necessarily what makes someone that can’t sing sound amazing, it’s more about layering a bunch of tracks of a certain vocal 🤯 cuz it sounded fine without pitch correction, especially to someone’s untrained ear 👂
After reading through the comments, I realized that most people don't have the ear to tell if the vocals are off pitch.
While simultaneously others are horrified by the slightest off note. (I've got a friend like that.)
This method ensures that everyone is happy.
Thanks so much for making this video, I really learned a lot.
I’ve got a good ear but not always good at singing what’s in my brain. It makes me feel like a jerk sometimes.
This took me the longest to understand! I make beats and I would’ve a mate with perfect pitch tell me there’s something out of key and it would frustrate me so much because i could’ve never hear what he was hearing...over time my ears have gotten better that I’m still bad at hearing singers ahahah
Music is about feeling
I can clearly hear it's off pitch, yet I weirdly like it, except for a few horrible moments. Maybe I've been listening to too much jazz haha
When everything is too perfect, it loses a bit of character.
I mean clearly the soprano and the low voice were not perfect. But it was still pretty overal and it still sounded okay.
This is unbelievably spot on time wise. Promised one of my coworkers that I’d write and record a song. Using Ableton for the first time in 10 years, and my voice has gone south in that time. Needed this video right now. You actually sound good without the processing, and sound even better with it. Thanks.
even without the pitch correction, just at the very beginning of the video, it still sounded really good
Yeah I agree
The higher voices were horrible though 🥺😢🤣
The very beginning of the video is already pitch corrected
@@augusto7681 yeah i know, but i was referring the part where he gets rid of the correction. i feel like that was obvious
I’ve just learned more about producing music in the last hour of watching your content than I have in the last 23 years of being alive, you are amazing
this was awesome!
I come back to this video every few days just to listen to the intro - it's so good and is permanently stuck in my head!
Great video Jake. As a lead singer in my much younger days, back in the early 80s, your voice is what set you apart from everyone else. Today, wow! So many possibilities and options. You actually have a decent voice when you stay in your natural range. Unfortunately, your range is like halfway between most natural melody lines, but I'm sure you already know that. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this process because you encourage people to expand their potential and try new things. Your descriptions are hilarious and true, yes most people will notice, but unless they are expecting a professional performance they will usually be more optimistic. Lol
Possibly the best tutorial I've ever watched -- well done, sir!
I woke up with this song stuck in my head for some reason, now I have to watch the video again
„Photoshopping your voice”... That’s brilliant! Awesome tutorial and a smart song. 👏
Hey, I've watched the "same type" of videos from many other big youtubers and you always do the best job. With this video, and others. You are super knowledgeable.
I read a lot of preferences for both parts. Eventually, you trade in naturalness for correctness, and both have value.
But what makes this song so fresh and special, is that you did both of them back to back. That contrast between the two parts is what makes it so fun.
On top of all content you've put in here, I can't imagine how much more was in order to first plan all of it and wrap it all in this fantastically holistic video, with the final perspective(s) in mind. You're my bridge to what really can be done from home, and yet reach out to what comes out the professional studios. Maybe I joined too late, but ever since I did, I'm endlessly grateful, and will remain forever one (maybe not most invested, yet) of your patrons exactly for that humility you bring out with, all this so valuable content, in its rightful context. Much love and respect from a Bulgarian fan in London. Thank you, and keep remaining you 🙏🤘🤗💓
thank you 🙏🙏
@@SignalsMusicStudio only stating the obvious broski! We thank you right back, for remaining yourself 🙌🙏😊
I always come back to listen to that intro. I like it. You should make a full song of it!
The difference in the beginning is that of a pro choir and a high school choir.
I am a formally trained music major that helps direct an a cappella ensemble, and this is how I arrange my vocal arrangements. Notation is the very last thing I do so people can actually learn it. This very much helped me with mixing virtual ensembles! Thank you!!!
Man I died of laughter on the opening sequence. I love it.
Lyric writing on point, and your raw vocals are better than my tuned vocals...
The C diminished seventh chord made me cry 😢😍
Bro...you realise I had to watch the intro 8 times just to fully appreciate your facial expressions!!
The highest harmony shouting in the unedited version made me crack up, great video!
This is a man who knows what he's doing and what he's talking about. Suddenly 2020 makes a lot of sense.
I vote yes on the reverb, though maybe a little less. I'd also love to hear what happens with some delay.
The quality of this video is unbelievable. Thanks for the content, such a huge help
Super interesting. I picked up singing while under house arrest, but I didn't think about recording anything yet (my tone is horrendous). Your video gave me a good overview of the pitch correction process. Thanks dude.
u changed my whole disposition on music production thank you
"You can't Melodyne a cracked voice." NICE.
Bruh I wish I had some kind of Melodyne-ish plugin for the software I use. (I probably do but haven't been able to find it yet.) On the other hand though I've really had to figure out how to sing SO! :D If I ever do find a plugin for it, I'll have less work to do. Thankfully all I'm singing right now is Skyrim bard songs so as long as I sound better-or-equal-to the vanilla performers, I'm doing okayish.
Man... There is this good energy, not just in this particular video or any other one, but in your whole channel that resonates within me. The content of your channel really is next level. And your personality is the cherry on top of it all. You're pretty much the one friend we've always had since childhood that we trust and turn to when we need advice.
Two little things!
1- If you honestly think I sound better without pitch correction, then you probably won't make it far as a choir director, producer or, acapella member. Being that out of tune and wonky with pitch does NOT OCCUR at professional levels of vocal performance. There's a reason why, it's because most people don't like the sound. If you do, congrats- you're special! But sadly the rest of the world wants to hear well performed vocals.
2- At parts of this video, the file i'm working with looks like a STEREO file. This is because I actually rendered out the stems and imported them into a new project in order to mix and make this video. In practice, I recorded in MONO and panned everything to stereo. Also, melodyne won't play with time changes like the slow down I automated at the end, so I was pretty much forced to take my recorded tracks and render them into a brand new set.
Is this the full version of melodyne? Thanks for putting in so much work once again!
P.s.Also love how you used omnipresent in there too!
Well, some people just want to hear mistakes. I think sometimes with things that are too perfect, they can sound boring. I think that's why Ritchie Blackmore criticized Joe Satriani's playing in an interview.
I find your chord progression very interesting. Can you do a video explaining your choice of chords?
@@potatosan4250 This is a version of melodyne that came bundled with one of my old interfaces - it isn't new at all but does have the polyphonic feature. I'm pretty sure the newest versions WAY MORE capable than what I demonstrated here
Love your videos man, you've helped me make sense of theory like no one else ever could. I have a question you might could make another video on. How do you intentionally sing in a certain key? I can tell if I'm singing in key with what I'm playing but that's from adjusting my voice to sound good with my music. I've always wrote my music first and then vocals later. Wich I realise now that's probably why I struggle writing vocals because I'm not writing the melody first. How do I know and intentionally sing in a certain key?
@@SignalsMusicStudio Sweet! I got one that came for free with nectar 3 when It first came out so ima see what I can do. Thanks!
This is brilliant! And it shows how much of a gift that computers are to us! This is acapella, but the same principle goes into almost all of music production. The computer makes it possible for everyone to express themselves through music if they want! Technology is amazing! Saying this while teaching my nephew Blender, so it's not just music! My theory is that art is the very essence of.. well.. life!
One observation. You didn't need to record stereo files, mono would work exactly the same in your example. It saves resources and processing overhead. A stereo file from a mono Mic source is basically two copies of the same thing. As you go on to double and then pan hard left and right effectively only one half of the stereo file is used making the other half redundant.
Huh I agree 100% - I don't know why it defaulted to the stereo view when I recorded in Mono. I think my preferences changed when I updated ableton and I didn't realize it!
@@SignalsMusicStudio Well it still sounds good and it worked. Personally I find it visually easier to look at, especially in large projects.
oh wait i solved it lol! I actaully DID record in MONO like I suspect, but I rendered out the individual stems in stereo to place into a new setlist for mixing/filming/etc. I didn't mention it but I had to automate a time change at the end for the slowdown, and melodyne won't work with timechanges so I basically imported everything into a new set, and thats where the stereo tracks came from :P
@@SignalsMusicStudio lol, that would do it too ;)
Man once again just a great vid great topic, ur not boring! I just find it easy to watch listen and learn, quite often I watch videos and leave scratching my head even after several watches. U really get the message across thanx for sharing ur wealth of knowledge I'm a self taught player but iv used you tube for the past year or 2 I didn't even knw about scales when I first got into you tube. You and many others hav been such a privilege to all us who gain so much from ur experience and wisdom thank you for sharing this video and taking the time to help others.
The unedited sounded like something from a theatrical music album something like a pirateship sea shanty
I love how your explanations are so straight and uncut. Always say just the right words. You are a great teacher!
That intro song was fire!! 🔥 🔥 🔥 Also, I kind of liked the unedited part as an out of tune bridge section, building tension with the slight imperfections which make that final super in tune E major sound so sweet!
As a fan of a lot of old style punk rock, I love the unedited vocals sound when they’re all added up
Tbh even if you using pitch corection/autotune you still have to learn vocal technique.
Just don't out of tune or tempo too far
Are there TH-cam awards? This channel should definitely get one.
13:07 "If my bass part sounds louder than the rest of the voices, imagine how weird that would sound"
Yeah that'd just be Kokomo or any other Beach Boys song led by Mike Love
I don't care how much you fixed it in post, that V/V gets me everytime.
Pentatonix wants to know your location.
Okay you got me. 2 months later you made me laugh in the bathroom so hard the stall next to me asked if I was okay
@@Tacospaceman Glad to have contributed to such a biblical laughter!
Don't they know? It's...HERE. How dumb ARE these guys?? :)
Pentatonix does not need it...............yet.
Pentatonix uses melodyne and autotune.
There's people like you saying their harmonies and vocals are horrible, then there's tons and tons and tons of latin artists who heavily rely on melodyne/autotune to sing their songs.
With only the intro you got me, that's awesome! All the intro helps me see that I'm not that bad at singing and fixing the tune a bit is not a sin in the music industry, lol.
Hey Jake, I'd love to see an analysis video on "I'm going slightly mad" from queen. This song is really interesting and has a beautiful weirdness going on. :)
You sir, and I mean this with the utmost respect and compliments due, are the Bob Ross of music instruction. I have been making and producing music for decades and have learned more from your vids than any college class I've sat through.
Good job, and don't ever stop. :)
Brian Wilson did all of this with 1 working ear.
In 1966 when Brian created Pet Sounds, technology like this hadn't even been dreamed of. Just demonstrates his production capabilities and what great singers the Beach Boys were.
The beach boys are not always in tune. Quite the contrary. There not great singers individually (except maybe Carl), but together it's magic and the little off notes aren't noticeable too much.
Plus: Brian's used a lot of pitch correction on his recent work.
@@StatusQuonald they’re all pretty decent singers, Carl and Brian would be the best out of them all. Brian didn’t use any pitch correction back then.
This is one of the best well spent 29 mins video lecture on TH-cam. We presented.
Without melodyne it ain't bad either
Reassuring to see methods I arrived at myself being used here - I too often set it up with an instrument in piano roll first.
Pro tip - avoid wind instrument sounds in your VST's for this -- most wind instrument sounds incorporate a fade-in that creates a delay vs the metronome. Creates timing problems when you sing along when tracking. In real life, a wind instrument player adjusts for any delay in producing sound to match the metronome but your typical VST won't adjust for this.
Sometimes I will do several unison takes, put them in Melodyne, move around notes to create harmony parts, then track the real vocals using the modified harmony as a guide. VERY useful to be able to move vocal notes around in melodyne as if it were a VST instrument in piano roll to experiment with different harmonies when arranging.
I recommend AGAINST hard R/L pan to try to avoid tuning issues - put it in mono and hidden problems become obvious - just like they do when playing from speakers in a room. Unless the listener is expected to NEVER listen any other way than headphones. If it sounds bad in mono, it WILL sound bad playing from speakers in a room.
Doing hard, HARD pitch correction on scratch guide vocals in Melodyne to follow along with when tracking the keeper vocals can be helpful as a lifeline when tracking. Incidentally, when I changed from my beloved M50's to a cheap set of earbuds, I found I could cut out a lot of metronome and other bleedthrough. Moving monitoring playback to ONLY L or ONLY R when moving one earcup off my ear for recording helped prevent bleedthrough and better vocal control pitch and otherwise.
PERFECT intonation in melodyne can sound robotic, but tuning within the range of what a good reasonably accurate singer would do does NOT need to be perfect! Don't try to be perfect with Melodyne! This is the ADVANTAGE of using melodyne, that you can pick and choose in way more detail and exercise restraint in editing! I actually go back and undo some of my tuning as a final step when using melodyne... the tendency is to OVER tune and increase overtuning over time as you work on something.
and always, if you can do a good take where you concentrate on intonation that you can acceptably keep without any melodyne editing is always going to sound BEST as compared to an edited take. Second best is merely nudging a really good take out of any unacceptable imperfections into ACCEPTABLE imperfections.
For morale-lowering and inspiration, ha, pull up Naturally by Huey Lewis & The News. That's the BAND singing acapella, not even just the lead vocalist multitracking.
And yeah, that's right, periodz at the end of sentancez, millenialz!!! Full stop.
Don't mind me just gonna listen to the intro song for the 12th time in a row
it's SO catchy
Yeah man, he should make a full song out of it xD
It got stuck in my head :(
your comments are so true about the amount of work this takes...thank you!
"I can take my main vocals and listen to them all on their own"
12:50 *"OOOOO"*
Thank you for making this accessible and beginner friendly. There are so many people who want you to follow strict rules and know all the musical jargon. This is much less intimidating.
I sing so poorly that even the pitch corrector gives up.
When it tries to average the tone, it ends up dividing by zero.
Well, I sure as hell hopes that it knows how and when to divide by zero if it's doing it.
Melodyne isnt automatic, you have to actually drag each note to the correct place, which is why it is so superior to autotune. It also preserves the natural sound of the singer instead of making it sounds all robotic like autotune
"When it tries to average the tone, it ends up dividing by zero." I don't have the writing skills to express my laughter when I read that. Programmers and math nerds will get it. I'm not sure about anybody else. :-)
@@DodgaOfficial autotune has knobs that let you control the human feel (flatness, vibrato, etc) and there’s even the option to do it manually so there’s no sense to what you said...
@@phillipzx3754 I read the original comment and was chuckling so much I had to "rewind" the video. (|
Oh...Incredible,,sliders,,Notches,,Lecture,,Reasoning,,EQ,caution,,Compress,,Depress,,ALL blown out,,,YOU HAVE FILLED THE MINDS OF NOVICES WITH practicals,,SO MUCH with SO LITTLE MOVES,,Lovablae and Laudable VID,,wonderous Guidelines,,
It was Cyberdyne at first but it became Melodyne after the "pitch" was corrected.. :-D
😆
I never used Melodyne, just Cubase's integrated pitch correction software. This tutorial was a game changer for me. Thank you for that.
2:37 I love it when a pinch of humour is added here and there where I don’t expect it...😂
dear friend it's because of you I now have found how to correct my horrible singing problems and have put out one if not two radio ready amateur songs thank you so much
Gates....
After editing all of those lip smacks out with automation I feel relieved and stupefied at the same time 😅
Absolutely!! 6:59 some times "good enough" ends up with more mojo than redoing it pristine. All of this writing, producing then performing the video must have taken so much time. Great video. Clever writing too.
The unedited version sounds actually really good and reminds me of weezer without instruments
Hi Jake.......Really great and really useful video very well presented ! I like the fact that you are showing that Home Studio Musicians can sound almost as good as the Pro Studio guys with Mega Budgets and very expensive studio gear. Speaking as a retired Sound Recording Engineer I applaud you and your approach - especially with regard to the vocal recording plus warts and whistles !
Well done and thank you. Keep up the great videos Jake.
Best Regards . . . Eddie ( UK Musician )
16:08 did he actually say... No he didn't. Oops
The beginning is a bop, better than most of the stuff on the radio, and I keep coming back!
When would you call it a V/V or a II chord?
@TacoTacoTacoTaco I mean a V/V as opposed to a II chord. I'm talking about borrowed chords vs secondary dominants.
Honestly I consider that F# to be a II but I thought calling it V/V would placate the academic types out there. If it resolves to the primary chord, I'll parse it as a secondary dominant, but if it doesn't like in this case, I'll prolly just call it a borrowed chord.
Call it Jorge, gives more personality.
Best song I've heard all year. Serioulsy.
Melodyne is a tool. If a tool can help you achieve a brilliant finished project, I don't see how it matters. That is why tools exist
Exactly. Guitars dont sound distorted or loud when played naturally. And we have zero issues with guitarists using different tools to get a cool sounding tone. Stop pretending that there are different rules for vocalists. I do agree with doing your best to practice getting the vocals as close to pitch perfect as possible. However,- Nobody is perfect everytime. Its our jobs as producers to make everything in the final production sound great. So we will continue to use tools that are available to us to achieve that goal.
@@lionsdenstudio4934 Sounds a little like an excuse bringing in guitar into this.
You change the tone of the electric guitar, not the actual note being played. The note will always be the same. Tone, effects can't save you if you can't play in tune.
You're making it sound that guitarists just put on an effect that keeps them in tune. I know you probably didn't mean that but it sounds like that.
Thank you kind sir. It's nice to know that you don't have to be absolutely perfect, close, but not absolutely. I'll be doing more harmonies now that I can get over the stigma of take after take to get it perfect and ending up frustrated or just removing the part that could ultimately make or break a song.
Ok, how many people have ears good enough to notice that Jake's singing wasn't the most pristine? I couldn't, though I will admit I have a tin ear. Even when the effects were turned off I found it quite passable.
It's a bit more distinguishable when you wear earphones in a quiet room. But yeah, I think most untrained people who don't have perfect pitch will probably not find it that bad.
I think this video might have finally given me that little nudge I needed to even ATTEMPT to record music. So much insight from this video (and just about every other music theory video you've put out, really). Thank you! You're a real one!
I'm curious, if you'd like to share, how often you pitch correct the vocals on songs you create for this channel. The Metallica scale song? The various modes videos with vocal songs? I ask because I'm an instrumentalist with a not-great voice trying to get into singing so I can create "complete" tracks with vocals on my own. But I'd like to know how and if pitch correction can be used with something that's more rock or metal or any other genres that are less vocal-oriented than acapella.
Every single time you've heard me sing on this channel in a finished mix, I've used melodyne. Except for the times were I'm singing/playing at the same time to demo, like I often do in my Perfect Progression videos. I even use melodyne for good singers like Kerry Devine just to clean up little annoyances and carve out some interesting nuances.
Jake - what a great lesson in Vocal Production that is so accessible for everyone to try. There is one thing missing in my understanding. Once you harmonise the main melody with chords, how do you decide how each voice moves within the parts from chord to chord. I hope that makes sense. If anyone else cares to comment or point me in the write direction, please feel free to do so.
Him: If I'm writing on the page... I'm not good enough to keep all those harmonies on track in my head.
Mozart: hehe
Beethoven: Hehehehe
My favorite Reverb-No Reverb song is the ending of Shining Star by Earth, Wind, & Fire.
I thought I loved the song when hearing it the first time, but that ending sealed the deal.
Great demo and explanation. Thanks!
Well, at least you have a great speaking voice!
Panning them left and right is so simple, but it was like magic how it erased some of the glaringly obvious issues.
lmfao when the effects went out he sounded like Jacksfilms
I use that CFL light in your umbrella ☂️ for my plants during the winter 😁👍 Great value, great temp for the low wattage ✌️😋
Also, reverb on everything! Reverb the world! I love it 😎 Great video, thanks for sharing your process 🙌