HELP - Need good ears.

[rayc]

Hello Folks,
I'm nearing completion of this track - I have the backing sorted, someone has offered to play the solo and I have vocals too.
I THINK the vocals are pitchy in spots but I don't trust my ears.
Would someone/s please have a listen, write down &let me know the time of the notes that are annoyingly pitchy please?
There was a fair bit of background noise so I had to do some ReaFir cleaning which may have thrown in some artefacts that increase the pitchiness. I've also done some gentle tweaking with ReaTune for the notes I'm certain were in need of "consolidation".

JAN272020STNCc.mp3

Mix with untreated main vocal bvox removed as well.
The vocal are raw except for some compression which I added because the levels are all over the place.

JAN272020REvox.mp3

Thanks, I've used all the reference pints to tweak the vocal tracks.
Here's MY original guide vocal/melody (it is awful)

27Jan2020guidegd.mp3

This is the OTHER version sung by Misha and using my melodic idea

27Jan2020MishaBgd.mp3

This is the Trudy version based on suggestions

27Jan2020RevoxBgd.mp3

[Armistice]

Just ran through it once on my laptop over dinner - not the best listening environment. If you really want to track it down perhaps post just the main vocal with the guitars - there's a lot of stuff going on there that obscures things a little.

0.14 - second half of "nothing"

0.58 & 1.00 sound pitchy

1.20 - 1.22 - the interim note is perhaps not one I'd have chosen but I don't think it's pitchy.

Bit flat at 1.53 then 1.55

"like" at about 2.14 but it's in passing so probably it'll be OK.

TBH, it's not great singing, but the voice is one of those worn, down and out voices where you don't so much concentrate on pitch - I think if you can iron it out in a few spots it'll do.

See what the others say - I could be way off beam. It's been a day.

[rayc]

Just ran through it once on my laptop over dinner - not the best listening environment. If you really want to track it down perhaps post just the main vocal with the guitars - there's a lot of stuff going on there that obscures things a little.

Thanks David,
I had thought to run off just the vocal and a guitar but I feared that would expose things a little too much.

What you've outlined is a good start for me and I'll get to it tomorrow.
She didn't spend much time on it and isn't interested in a retrack so it's up to me I fear.
I was quite worried with the note at the end of the very 1st phrase on one vocal she's singing a D and the other a B and neither fit well but I've manipulated it so that it doesn't sound as bad as it did.
I've spent a few hours de-essing and smoothing very hard edged phrase beginnings too. Trudy uses a nice Rode mic but the room and noise complicate things.
I tried to deal with some of the vibrato that goes wayward but that's nearly impossible.
Your guide is great and I'll surely have the track in a better place once I've gone to those spots you've pointed out.
I hope tomorrow is a better day for you.

[Greg_L]

Honestly, I don't think any of it works. To me it sounds like she's singing a melody to a different song. It's off in more spots than it's on. Sorry bud, that's just how I'm hearing it. It sounds disjointed.

[JD01]

Ray, it is pitchy in places... but its sounds like she's singing the harmony line not the lead line throughout - you know what I mean?

[vomitHatSteve]

I'm hearing a ton of tuning (reafir?) artifacts. Especially starting at 1:32 when you go to hard-panned vox. I'd try to go back to a much cleaner chain on the vox.

1:19 on "foooor" One of the voices is landing on distinctly the wrong note

I'd also focus on the timing of the lead vs bgvox. There are a number of spots where they hit consonants at different times, and it sounds sloppy.

[Armistice]

I think it works as a melody - unusual in places, but not wrong.

[TripleM]

There are a lot of pitchy spots. The vocal level is quite a bit too low. To me the vocal on a song like this should have just a bit of mid-range bite. The vocal sound here is real mellow. Long way of saying I think you need to really rethink the vocal.

To me the jangle guitars are too clean. I'd like to hear them juuuusssstt breaking up. But they're super clean.

The bass tone is really good. Drum sound is good too.

[paulman]

All I can focus on is the pitch correction. It's super obvious that this vocal was way off before you doctored it. This is just me, but if a vocal needs enough correction that I can hear the correction, then I don't use the vocal. Or to put it more accurately, I always insist on enough takes that I can cut and paste. I'm very anti-pitch correction though, so again that's just how I do it. The only time I ever used it on anything was when my douchey neighbor wanted me to record him singing Tennessee Whiskey for his girlfriend, and I couldn't have cared less what the final product sounded like. I just cranked up the auto-tune and let it fly.

Pitch aside, there's no life in the vocal. It doesn't hold up to the fullness of the music, which sounds really good. I would agree with TripleM on the clean guitars, though. A little more texture in the tone would be nice.

[rayc]

[mention]paulman[/mention] , [mention]TripleM[/mention] , [mention]Armistice[/mention] , [mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] , @[mention]JD01[/mention] & [mention]Greg_L[/mention] ,
Thanks folks,
It is an oddity, Trudy used some of my melody and phrasing and then by the 2nd verse was pushing 7 pulling timing, melody & phrasing all over the place. There's not much for me in terms of options because she asked to sing it and delivered a three part vocal as you've heard. I did suggest a retrack but she wasn't interested. My Russian connection also asked to sing it and delivered a much less troubled performance and quite close to my original three note melody but it doesn't make the song fly.
I've placed a mix in the O.P. that has just the raw main vocal against the backing so that you might have a better idea of the vocal & melody. The harmonies seem to have some sort of artefact in them prior to correction and, well you can hear the original - not as artefact laden now and I didn't use ReaFir to clean it, ( even when lightly used that thing leaves artefacts), and maybe all the better for it. Lots of vibrato and very few notes seem to sit for more than a nanosecond on the right spot with LOTS of flying up to and from the note stuff.
I'm not, at this point, interested in the guitar tone, (other than maintaining the sense that it's a 12 string & to be honest I'm not uncomfortable with the clean Marshall tone I managed to mic.) as I can retrack or manipulate as suits the voice.
If you can mantain interest & focus to listen to this version, (in OP), and let me now any new pitch points I'd be appreciative.

[vomitHatSteve]

Oh weird. Her voice sounds kinda glitchy in the original even. (see "died" around 1:09)

That said, I prefer the untreated version. If someone is gonna go hard on the vibrato, you can't really "fix" that in post.

[WhiskeyJack]

it may not be any help but i can have a listen tonight. My right ear bud is now completely toast at work. Sorry Ray.

[einstein magoo]

How many takes to get to this one?
Just sounds like she needs to sing it a few more times to zero in on the notes she wants to hit.

[rayc]

[mention]vomitHatSteve[/mention] , yes, it is odd. I've asked if anything was "tweaked" before it was sent but I'm told no. It was recorded into Garageband at 24bits so ought to be sweet.
[mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention] , if & when Shan. if & when, don't sweat it but all thoughts & ideas arewelcome.
[mention]einstein magoo[/mention] , I think it's just the one - and possibly the 1st. I did request a retracking but didn't get anywhere.
New mix in the OP using the times and comments above.
I've also added the original guide vocal and the version done by a fellow who volunteered to just do a version - he hoped I'd get a volunteer to do a better one.

[WhiskeyJack]

Hey ray. Finally getting a go at listening to this. I don't have anything that hans't already been said. I picked up on the pitchy spots not sure what can be done about that. I agree with [mention]einstein magoo[/mention] maybe a few more practice runs and a do over? Maybe?

What is causing the robotic and flangey kind of sound i am hearing? Is that the reatune or the reafir you guys are talking about. I've no idea what reafir is is it similar to reatune?

[Armistice]

Reafir madness...

images (2).jpeg

[rayc]

[mention]WhiskeyJack[/mention] ,

What is causing the robotic and flangey kind of sound i am hearing? Is that the reatune or the reafir you guys are talking about. I've no idea what reafir is is it similar to reatune?

Shan, thanks for taking the time.
On the last mix, (Revox bgd), there's no ReaFir and very little ReaTune, (in about six spots only), but there's some glitchiness in the original vocal stuff.
The main vocal was sent as a .wav but the BVox were sent as MP3s. Some MP3 algorithms do damage as do other things. I was assured that there's no processing on the original files but it does, in spots, have an auto tune glitchiness to it.
There's a LOT of vibrato going on which, when on the bvox as well as main vox gets a bit chorus/flangey too. ReaTune doesn't manage vibrato at all.
I did ask for a retrack but was knocked back.
One of the functions of Reafir is to read the "noise" from a "quiet" passage & then remove those frequencies and amounts from the rest of the track. It does leave artefacts and, whilst it can be moderated, it's not the best at that particular job.

[Armistice]

I read the blurb on ReaFir, because I didn't don't know what it did.

I still don't know what it does.

[rayc]

I read the blurb on ReaFir, because I didn't don't know what it did.
I still don't know what it does.

[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31phzT7pxkk[/BBvideo]
&
https://wiki.cockos.com/wiki/index.php/ReaFIR

[vomitHatSteve]

I use Reafir a lot. It's good for amp buzz or other noise floors. But the better your signal-to-noise, the better it performs.