Can't sing so tried GSnap however.....

[hardlock]

Anyone familiar with the auto-tune effect GSnap in Audacity? To work correctly with a vocal track, it appears to need the proper key of the song?

Since I don't know theory, tried to use the online key charts with no luck. IE: real simple chorus consisting of C, D, and E majors. That's 2 sharps being F# and A# so what key is that? I'm guessing from the chart it would be A?

The main song uses Am, C, D, F, G giving one sharp so assume it is in the key of G then? I only use the G as a ending transition chord to return to the Am. I've manually entered just the notes I play into the effect and hear some notes being "fixed" but other mistakes seem to be either skipped or corrected wrong? What am I missing? Thanks!

[Hilary]

IE: real simple chorus consisting of C, D, and E majors. That's 2 sharps being F# and A# so what key is that? I'm guessing from the chart it would be A?

There's no C# so it's not A - the A# could be a Bb - can you send me the chords progression and I'll have a look.

[T.C. Elliott]

Try G - It sounds like your in G with a major third (E instead of Eminor) but without the whole progression or the song it is hard to tell.

So try the key of G and you *might* have to manually add or adjust for a G# if you happen to sing that note.

Also, I could be wrong.

[hardlock]

Thanks for the quick replies!

The entire song is just Am,, C,, D,, F, G, repeat (commas indicate chord spacing.)

Chorus (bridge?) breaks are C,,D,,C,,D,,C,,D,,E,, repeat

Will post as a backing track as soon as I can fit the breaks in and post link here.

G major makes sense for the settings as TC mentions since I don't sing the E so will give that a try!

Seems that GSnap has potential to not only make vocals sound like a robot but may actually make someone's whinny voice like mine sound a little better. 

[Hilary]

I really easy way of working it out is the basic formation of a lot of songs is

I IV V

In your song there are lots of Cs and Ds (likely to be IVs and Vs) so the key would be in G.

All good songs have anomalies - but this is a quick way to find the key.

I'm always happy to sing something if you need it.

[T.C. Elliott]

Thanks for the quick replies!

Let us know how it goes?

[hardlock]

Thanks much Hilary! Still putting the musical pieces together on the song but would love to have your fine voice complete the mix!

T.C. - After hours of trial and error with the GSnap effect with different keys & options, I get some notes corrected but not what's needed for a smooth flow of vocal tuning. I'll try to post some examples here for comments. Thanks!

[T.C. Elliott]

I know you didn't ask for advice, but if you get a vocal track then hard tune it (even if it has that robotic feel) and then use that as a guide track to re-record your vocal you may find usable takes. And/or make multiple recordings then comp them together into one good take. I'll often record one verse at a time then go and do multiple takes of the chorus and then multiple takes of the bridge (if I have one.) I'll then comp the best bits together into one track and then fix any obviously out of tune notes from there.

Reatune in Reaper works okay. But I've found it's worth the time to go in and tune each wrong note individually instead of trying to get it to automatically tune everything. It takes longer but the results are vastly better.

At any rate, I hope you find something that works well for you.

[hardlock]

Wow T.C. we think a lot alike! Doing what you describe is why I call myself a "hack" since I was only ever a performer playing drums but have to take tons of takes to piece together anything else worth listening to.

Here's the break (chorus? bridge?) from the song after putting the best of the many takes I recorded together without any pitch correcting or auto-tune. Please laugh heatedly as I do every time I hear it.... 

[T.C. Elliott]

Far from terrible. Maybe not perfect, but I've enjoyed much worse. Layering vocals can be a bit tricky, too.  But you shouldn't be ashamed of this.