How to tune vocals with Melodyne

Tutorials

How to tune vocals with Melodyne

w/ Fab Dupont

17 min • 2013

German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese

Vocals are the heart & soul of a song. Because if this, it is essential that you learn to treat them with the detailed attention they deserve.

Melodyne is a powerful tool that allows you to tweak a singer's (or instrument) performance to a tasteful amount of perfection. But like any powerful tool, it can be confusing and overwhelming. No need to worry, Fab’s got your back.

Follow along as he shares his refined approach to using Melodyne in the most musical way possible.

You’ll learn:

Melodyne best practices and workflow tips
The importance of retaining the integrity of a singer’s performance
How to avoid making a vocal sound sterile and lifeless
Why tuning in solo is a bad idea
What to listen for when deciding what to edit
How to effectively use things like note separation, amplitude tool, pitch modulation, pitch drift, and more!

Addendum: as of Melodyne 2.X+, files are now stored in the session folder.

4.8

26 reviews

caesarjamesaugustus • Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Since Antares AutoTune is known for its smooth transitions in tuning vocals would it be wise or logical to send a Melodyne tuned vocal into Antares AutoTune to get a final polish? In other words does combing the best assets of multiple vocal tuning software offer any advantages from your experience?

benlindell • Tuesday, August 15, 2017

@punsapops, it's the old fashioned way to commit tracks pre-PT12. I use commit to print Melodyne these days.

punsapops • Sunday, August 6, 2017

Great video. Question. Is printing to a new track better than committing the tuned track? Or just different?

offslip • Friday, January 6, 2017

I enjoyed the video, however I do think $1 a minute charge is quite expensive ($17 = 17mins playtime)

lux7luther • Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Definitely a great perspective on tuning vocals, I find with some projects I have to tune everything, others I try to leave almost completely natural. Has some cool effects you can do with the formant

oks_omer • Monday, November 21, 2016

Hello Fab, Thank you very much for the video. But please some more (about Melodyne)... Videos by Celemony are bullshit, teaching is not for everybody... They are making a new melody from the recording. But if I change a note by 3rd (or even a 2nd) sound gets unnatural. So waiting...

smallstonefan • Saturday, August 13, 2016

This is the best Melodyne tutorial I've seen from anyone yet. Thanks for actually applying the techniques while explaining them. That's what makes your tutorials so awesome and most others just animated product manuals.

Fabulous Fab • Monday, January 18, 2016

@shzlgsngar: Technology can only do so much. It;s a miracle it does what it does frankly. It your vocal is so out/weird/special that Melodyne can't fix it/make it good without artifacts then you may need to re-track. The formant tool is sometimes helpful in compensating for weirdness but it;s more a special effect thing.

shzlgsngar • Sunday, December 20, 2015

I would love to see a video on coping with other melodyne-typical problems. What especially comes to mind, is formant problems. Sometimes, even pitching not too much, will result in a note that doesn't seem to fit into the context. I have yet to come to a good solution for that problem. The formant tool seems to be quite fragile. I usually stick to not touch that tool at all for those reasons, except fancy effects. Fab, do you use this tool at all when it comes to achieve a clean, not too fancy sounding vocal?

CCHorton • Saturday, April 11, 2015

I H A T E Melodyne!!! Okay, not really, I love it actually. I just hate falling into Melodyne's evil trap!! Okay, ultimately I just hate myself because I wield the power of Melodyne without restraint, or consideration. There, I said it. Seriously Fab, you have helped to save me from myself. Your tips on initial set up and looking at the phrases instead of the individual notes have made a big impact. This lesson was supremely helpful. Thank you!

mansy • Saturday, October 4, 2014

Awsome stuff. Money well spent :)

musicmaster • Tuesday, July 15, 2014

I've had so many problems with Melodyne! An you give me the answers in two minutes!!!! thank you!!

soundgroove • Friday, July 4, 2014

Although I'm working with autotune 7 I find this tutorial very helpful. Printing the autotunetrack to a new track is something I will certainly do next time! Thx!