VocAlign Ultra, from Synchro Arts, is an incredible tool for aligning either or both time and pitch across multiple vocal tracks. It really is magic when working with stacked vocals. It is a practical, easy-to-use tool. Like all tools, it began its life essentially as a problem-solving device. In this case, aligning multiple vocals effectively and easily. But as with other well-designed tools, creative applications come about using the tool in possibly unintended ways.
One of VocAlign Ultra's great features is the ability to isolate or protect specific ranges within the audio file from alignment. It is often useful to exclude certain specific areas from processing to achieve the best result. Another fantastic feature is the ability to transpose, in cents, +/- 12 semitones. Small offsets are essential for the sort of realistic double-tracking Vocalign Ultra is used on. Another of Vocalign Ultra's great features is formant shifting, which can offset the formants of processed audio to change the timbre and color of the audio subtly.
Shifting Pitch And Formant
So, I asked myself, forget about aligning pitch and time between multiple tracks, why not take all of these features and use them on already aligned vocals for creative effect? The ability to protect multiple ranges within the audio file from processing, combined with transposition and formant shifting, means I can transpose and formant shift only selected words or phrases within the larger vocal.
So, I've taken an already good-sounding double-tracked vocal and harmonized specific words or phrases so that the second vocal moves back and forth between straight doubling and harmonizing. The added formant shifting adds even more interest to the harmonized sections.
Moving Away From Natural-Sounding
With the fantastic Synchro Arts pitch-shifting algorithms, the harmonies sound natural, full, and lush. I then decided to try shifting the harmonized tones down an octave instead of specific harmonies. Now, this is not a natural-sounding thing to do. Vocalists doubling parts an octave lower generally work at the lower end of their register, which is not usually their strongest range. So, to deliberately make it even more unnatural, I shifted the formants down for creative effect as well.
The result is a fascinating vocoder-style effect. Adding to the interest, it also moves back and forth with the natural "same octave" doubling due to the existing protected ranges.
See and hear how this all comes together in this video. Unconventional use of VocAlign Ultra with unconventional results is far more interesting than a simple well-aligned double-tracked vocal!
Eli Krantzberg’s greatest loves, beside his wife Mariam are drumming, his vibraphone, Logic Pro, and jazz. Leader of a commercial band for three decades, Eli has been demystifying and simplifying music software since 2008.