Those Were The Days

Technology has given us the ability to do some amazing things, but what we don’t realize is that sometimes it paints us into a corner. Back in the days of analogue tape, and when people would actually record in a studio together, (I promise, this actually happened for a period of time) players would typically tune to the piano, each other, or whatever else was in arms length before cutting the song. Inherently, what is or isn’t in tune at that point became a lot “looser”. Nowadays, everyone is using sampled pianos, sampled drums, sampled guitars, electronic tuners, so on and so forth. I’ll be the first to admit that all of these can be great things, but if you’re not careful, you might leave your vocalist with the uphill battle of being 100% dead on 100% of the time, hence making the call on whether to tune most of the vocal track a decision that has already been made for us.

So What Do You Do?

Well, aside from running out and buying a two-inch twenty four track tape machine, and throwing your DAW off of a pier, (just kidding–however, ADAT machines would be a different story) I suggest the age old wisdom of: Using Your Ears. Despite how your session came to be be, be it loops or real players, be judicial in your vocal editing. Just because a vocal editing program has a grid that illustrates what is and isn’t in pitch, that doesn’t mean it’s right all the time. Use your ears, don’t tune every note just because the almighty program shows a note or two that’s not right on the sacred line. Instead, spend your time getting performances from your singers that both of you agree feels good. Then, go in and tweak the notes that you have decided beforehand need it. Don’t just open the tuning program and start moving notes around. Sometimes it’s not what you tune, it’s what you don’t tune.