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STRATEGY FOR THE DAY: Say so.

I've been playing around with the pitch edit capability in Digital Performer. I've never used one of these pitch correction tools and I'm finding it's a very handy thing. The trick is to maintain the original feel and sound of the vocal while nudging the pitch closer to the center of the note. Pitch, in my opinion, is a fairly personal thing anyway. It's part of a singer's unique sound. It could tend toward the low side of a note or the high side. The pitch tool in Digital Performer is pretty easy to use and certainly it's intuitive - very obvious what you need to do to get what you want. There's a pitch reference line (the note the software thinks you meant to sing) and there another line that represents the actual vocal. You can point and move or draw a new vocal line. It's non-destructive so you can go back and delete the changes at any time. Changes become permanent only when you bounce or merge the audio. I have the luxury (and torment) of re-singing things until I get them the way I want but there are times when I have the performance with the emotional feel I'm aiming for but the pitch is bothering me. This seems like the time to call for Pitch Correction. Since I'm generally not changing the vocal pitch by more than a few percent, it's not noticeable and I get to keep the take I like.

I'm still having software problems running DP 5 with Reason in OS X. I haven't heard anything back since my last post to the Tech Support gang at DP. Guess they got sick of me. Ultimately I think there's a chase-lock problem between DP 5 (also DP 4) and Reason. The problem probably lies within Rewire and OS X. Not a good thing. There's nothing I can do about it so I continue to record in DP 3.1/OS 9.2 (where there is no problem) and do final mixes in DP 5 where I can get much better sonic quality thanks to the PCI 424 card. Enough of that.

I'm keeping this one posted from last week:

It has just been brought to my attention that NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL SOLO ALBUM MONTH! The gauntlet has been thrown down. Anyone up for the challenge? You write and record a complete album during the month of November! It's not a contest; it's a personal challenge. Here's the web site with the rules and info: NaSoAlMo. Could be fun. Could be hell. I'm tempted! I really am but I'm not crazy.

The album must be at least as long as Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" at 28:22. (This is from the web site, honest.) Thanks to Evan Shurak for passing along the info.

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Read A Brief History Of Love Songs by Robin Frederick at the Sound Experience Music web site.

Copyright 2006 Robin Frederick. All rights reserved.