Numero Siete

Between yesterday and today, another somewhat final track emerged from the churn. The portfolio of Redline Project compositions is steadily thickening.

If you are not into techno-speak, these next paragraphs are not for you. Consider yourself warned.

As I press on towards the project's goals, some essential tips in Logic software have emerged. For example, the stacking order of effects makes all the difference in the final sound of an individual track. If vocals have a condenser, a delay, a unison, and a phaser, it is helpful to place the condenser first and the unison next, followed by the delay and phaser.

In the case of outside units such as Melodyne (about which I can not sing enough praise), I find the plug-in only works in the first slot, with every processed effect following behind it. Otherwise, the sound renders unpredictably, often with distorted tone.

On an uber-specific note that will help virtually nobody, I have discovered a quirk of Melodyne that has allowed me to achieve greater clarity of tone. When a vocal is inputted into the powerful software, certain consonant sounds, especially those made with the letter 's', sound fuzzy and buzzy when they are corrected or moved to new pitch levels.

The remedy? Anytime the troubled letter occurs, I simply divide the blob (Melodyne's term for a note on a pitch center) into sections, leaving the 's' sound wherever it may fall naturally and adjusting the rest of the blob remnants as needed. This is a tedious process that yields a superior audio quality.

I have just bored myself. It is astonishing to gander soberly at the extent of my own nerdiness. Has anyone even made it to this paragraph?

With that, I am stopping for now. I promise tomorrow's topic of discussion will cease to be snoozeworthy.

Silver Bullet

I will skip the story of how our neighborhood postal worker did not bother to ring my bell yesterday. I won't mention that I was home the entire time. I'll leave out the details about having to wait nearly an hour at our dysfunctional post office just to pick up the package he should have handed to me in all of five seconds. Instead of telling the world what a zoo this government institution is and what a strong resemblance its excuses for employees have to molasses, I will take the high road and bite my tongue.

The diamond in all this rough is more of a silver bullet. I am pleased to announce that as of four o'clock this afternoon, the Celemony Melodyne Editor software has dug its digital footprint into my iMac's hard disk. A longer review is in order and will be posted soon. At a glance, Melodyne is a powerful, intuitive engine that transforms impotent, scrawny vocals into solid sound perched squarely on tonal centers. Unlike other plug-ins like Autotune, Melodyne maintains a much more natural sound. I have the giggles over this.

In the quick scratch recording below, you will here two instances of the same recording. There are no effects applied other than the Melodyne Editor, and it is only utilized in the second half. The latter portion was adjusted in a matter of minutes with a handful of mouse clicks.

I spent most of the evening tweaking a melody for the actual Redline Project recording, and for once I actually like how my (altered) voice sounds. Though I am tempted to post that song here, it is going to stay in the vault until the final project is released.

Molton Blobs of Glorious Bliss

No later than 48 hours after discovering the Logic's supposedly blessed Pitch Correction plug-in, I had to acknowledge a dissatisfaction with its shortcomings. Another 24 past before I tripped over another fine discovery, this time on YouTube.

Like a sip of merlot after a month of grape juice, Celemony's Melodyne plug-in is a dynamic analog workstation that makes patty-cake out of even the most daunting of vocal editing tasks. How do I know? They offer a free test drive of the product, available for download from their website.

Though users of this demo are unable to save their edits, it allows a taste of all functions, including the amazing pitch shifter. This technology analyzes any inputted track, slices it up, and places a visual representation of the audio onto a piano-based grid. The resulting red and yellow daubs of sound, nicknamed 'blobs' by Celemony, may be individually slid onto the right pitch, or any other pitch for that matter, yielding on-key audio with virtually unprocessed sound.

So the company claims anyway; I had to see the magic for myself. I loaded the 75 megabytes onto my hard drive and popped in the chorus from a recent recording - one that I know has blatant pitch issues. About thirty mouse clicks later, my jaw hit the desk. There were vocals coming through the headphones that sounded a lot like my voice, only each note it sang was strong and perfectly perched on the notes of the song's key. Marvelous.

The demo of Melodyne presents a strong case for its hefty purchase price of $299. I wish today's test run would save so the readers of this blog could experience the miracle of Melodyne for themselves. For now, you can either take my word for it, or you can visit YouTube and type in Melodyne for a sample.

I only spent $80 for a used copy of Logic Express (yes, it is original software with serial numbers and install discs), so nearly $300 for a vocal editor workstation sends a few shivers down my cheap spine. As meaningful lyrics begin to emerge from the thin end of my pencil, I shudder increasingly at the thought of ravaging these songs with the destructive weapon of my sad little voice. A big purchase like Melodyne sure is tempting; I will have to think it over.

What you will hear below developed out of my excitement over the Melodyne plug-in, though it is completely raw, unedited vocals, as I am sure will be obvious as you listen through. The music is a simple, catchy groove and an extensive amount of nonsense vocalizing. The scratch recording also shows my first attempt at laying down any sort of live percussion: a Remo version of a djembe drum makes a cameo on this frigid February evening.