Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 and Standalone User Manual

Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 Plug-In - Getting started

Vocal Tune Studio Standalone/AUv3 is primarily meant to be used as an AUv3 plug-in within your favorite host apps. It should be loaded as an AUv3 processor/effect into an insert effect slot on a track within the host being used. To ensure that bar lines are drawn in the correct place when audio is captured into Vocal Tune Studio, please make sure that your host's tempo and time signature are set correctly for your piece of music.

Once you have loaded the Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 plug-in onto a track in your chosen host (specific details on how to do this for popular host apps can be found in the following section here), presuming you have previously gone through the first use setup process as detailed here, the first thing you'll see is the following pop-up which allows you to select between Vocal Tune Studio's two modes: Pitch and Time Correction or Time Correction only. Pitch and Time Correction mode is designed to be used with solo vocals and other monophonic recordings as discussed here. Time Correction only mode can be used with all types of audio. If you have selected Always start in Pitch and Time mode in the Settings available via the Three Dot Button , then this dialog will not be shown.

Select the mode you require and press Ok. 

Vocal Tune Studio then opens in the selected mode. Below is Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 opened in Pitch and time correction mode.

As with the standalone version, the interface is initially empty. This is because Vocal Tune Studio first needs some audio data to analyze and process.

Though the option to import audio into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 is there, it is strongly recommended that (for the reasons detailed below, here) you record audio present on the host track into Vocal Tune Studio. Likewise, you can set up your host application to allow you to record directly into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 using the device microphone (remember to use headphones to avoid feedback) but in most cases it is almost certainly going to be easier to first record (or import) to the host track and then carry out an audio capture to record that audio into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3. Please read the advice here which will guide you towards making recordings most suitable for Vocal Tune Studio: in short, Pitch and time correction mode will only work correctly with monophonic sound sources (sources which make only one note at a time such as the solo human voice) and ideally prefers monophonic recordings (only one audio channel present) as well though if given a stereo signal it will just use the left hand channel for analysis and apply any processing identically to both channels.

NOTE. Please be aware that Vocal Tune Studio Time correction only mode (in both the standalone and AUv3 versions) can be used with any audio file at all, containing any type of sound source, monophonic or polyphonic.

To capture the audio from the track in the host (onto which Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 is loaded as an insert effect) into the plug-in itself, first press the Record button within the Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 interface and then press Play (not Record) in the host application. Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 will then internally (without any loss in quality) record the audio from the track into its own storage space on the device as it is played back which will allow it to have direct access to the audio for processing. For more information on why this needs to happen, please see here.

Press the Record button in the AUv3 plug-in again or the Stop button in the host to stop audio capture.

NOTE. Audio capture can be done multiple times at different points within the duration on the original audio on the host track and there can be gaps between these recordings. During any gaps where no audio is present within the Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 plug-in, the original, unprocessed audio from the track will be seamlessly heard instead. As such, if you only want to pitch and time correct specific parts of your vocal performance, this can be easily done. Simply position the playback marker in your host application at the desired location to start playback from before starting the audio capture process in Vocal Tune Studio AUv3. Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 will follow the time code information from the host so the audio captured will be at the correct position in relation to any other audio captured from the host track within Vocal Tune Studio AUv3.

Once you stop audio capture, Vocal Tune Studio will analyze the audio to identify the pitch data it contains. If you have Estimate key/scale selected in Vocal Tune Studio's Settings (as is selected by default) AND Vocal Tune Studio has been able to estimate the key and scale, you will be shown the following dialog.

As can be seen, the accuracy of the key and scale estimation is dependent on the number of notes sung reasonably in tune available for such a judgment to be made. If the wrong key and scale has been estimated, you can use the drop-down selections to enter the correct key and scale. The key and scale can also be changed from within the Vocal Tune Studio interface. You can also choose to Ignore the identified key and scale, which will open your clip in chromatic (all notes) mode. If you would also rather Vocal Tune Studio to open in chromatic mode in the future, rather than estimating a key and scale, you can check the box for Don't show this dialog again. This option can also be selected/deselected as Estimate key/scale in Vocal Tune Studio's Settings available via its Three Dot Button . If Vocal Tune Studio has not found enough notes in reasonable pitch to be able to estimate the key and pitch, the above dialog will not be shown and it will open in chromatic mode automatically.

Once you have selected your desired options in the above dialog your clip will be opened in Vocal Tune Studio Pitch and Time correction mode.

If you initially selected Time correction only mode, your audio clip will have been opened without the last step being necessary.

Once completed, to export your corrected audio, use your host's usual methods for rendering the individual track or complete song. Alternatively, select Save to audio file from the Three Dot Button options. This will render the corrected audio within the Vocal Tune Studio plug-in and allow you to select the location for the file to be saved to.  

To export the notes from the piano roll within Vocal Tune Studio as MIDI data, select Export as MIDI from the Three Dot Button options. This will allow you to name and select the location for the exported file to be saved to.

Importing audio directly into the Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 plug-in

The option to Import audio file is available in the AUv3 plug-in version of Vocal Tune Studio via the Three Dot Button and this option might be a time saver for some users when used in certain host applications. However, generally speaking, using this function is not advisable. It is not the way Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 was designed to be used as it can cause various problems which the user needs to be aware of first. This is why the following warning text is shown when the option is selected.

The potential problems arise from the fact that Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 is an AUv3 effect. As far as the host application is concerned, the way in which it can interact with it is no different from any other AUv3 effect plug-in. This means that if you import audio directly into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3, it will have no direct relationship to any audio which may or may not be present on the host track onto which Vocal Tune Studio is loaded. Depending on the host application, playback of the audio imported into Vocal Tune Studio might only be heard at points at which an actual (presumably different) clip is present on the host track. Likewise, exporting the audio from the track or mixing down the host project might only include an output from Vocal Tune Studio at points at which an actual clip is present on the host track. If you import audio into Vocal Tune Studio, hosted on an empty track with no clips, you might find that export/mixdown from that track fails altogether or is silent. 

Some hosts may allow you to create an empty pattern of the required length for the duration of the imported audio to possibly get around this problem and others may not use a traditional timeline approach meaning importing audio can be a pertinent approach within those applications but this is not the way Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 was designed to be used and obviously we cannot make any guarantees as to how host apps will handle the playback and rendering/export of audio imported into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3.

It is strongly recommended that you avoid directly importing audio into Vocal Tune Studio AUv3 unless you are fully aware of the implications and are fully comfortable with the steps you may need to take to use Vocal Tune Studio successfully in such a scenario within your host app. Instead, to avoid all such possible problems, please follow the instructions given within this manual to capture/record audio present on the host track into Vocal Tune Studio  AUv3 before making your pitch and time corrections. If you want to correct previously recorded audio, first import it to the host track and then record it into Vocal Tune Studio. Alternatively, import your audio directly into the standalone version of Vocal Tune Studio where these potential problems between host and plug-in do not exist.

Should you decide to use this feature by selecting I understand in the above dialog, you will then be asked at which bar number you'd like the audio to be imported at, the default being bar one.