Anyone use a 3rd party vocal effect or tuning software besides X1's features?

I'm looking into a 3rd party vocal effect or tuning software and want to know if anyone here use them or just rely on X1's vocal effects and tuning. Which one would you recommend and why?

Melodyne

V-Vocal works fine for me. Quickly and easily. I can fix a few off notes or tune up a phrase. I can even get that autotune sound if I want, but unless I'm doing a song parody, that's not my style.

Now, if you just flat out can't sing, then no amount of money is going to fix that. 

Who needs software when you can have the I Am T-Pain Mic for only $40?

CakeAlexS


Sold - no Walmart in the UK though :(

Yes there is, it's called Asda!  100% subsidiary.
Pity though, you can't buy .38 special ammo in Asda, (well not the last time I looked..) 

If I can't get V-Vocal to make the corrections I need in my projects, it's a good indication that the part needs to be re-recorded.

Interesting Benjaminfrog - I have exactly the opposite experience

To me, Melodyne is far superior to Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune has an audible effect to me, even in graphical mode. So Melodyne is my go-to for subtle note adjustment. although the polyphonic algorithm seems to be very unstable. For monophonic stuff it works great! 

However, if I want t a nice Auto-Tune effect, iZotope Nectar is my preferred weapon of choice

what works beautifully-  inn most situations anyway-  use autotune or other plugin in automatic mode and anytime there is something it cant fix, use vvocal on that spot.  i find vvocal to be an awesome companion to a pitch correction plugins set to auto-correct.      as far as artifacts go, anytime you hhave to make extreme corrections, they all have artifacts.  

I understand that I have V-Vocal now that I have X1 but I have never used it. I need to pull it out and give it a shake down run to see how well it does vocals. 

I bought Melodyne some time back and Celemony upgraded me to Editor for free and recently sent me an upgraded Editor.  (That's customer service IMHO!!) 

If the singer or instrument is very close to pitch to start with...and really now.... shouldn't they be? Melodyne when used properly is transparent. If there are artifacts in the final result, it's because you are using it wrong or asking it to make a major pitch change, or intentionally placing the artifacts in the music to get that overused autotune sound effect.  

I have experienced some crashes with melodyne but I attribute that to the heavy processing it has to do. Most of my crashes occur when I am listening to a playback with melodyne active in a track and in my haste to prepare for what I'm gonna do next, I decide to insert another instance of Melodyne into the harmony track..... during playback. That usually causes the audio engine to "crash" or stop. Sometimes an error occurs and I have to restart X1. Since moving to me new custom DAW this has been reduced in frequency but still occurs when I'm in a hurry and don't think to pause playback first.

On the plus side, if I do pause playback, I can run 2 instances of melodyne live in the project while still running multiple FX and a few synths too. I have not tried to run more than 2 melodynes at a time. I always get one track right and bounce it, then check it, and remove melodyne. 

Even with major pitch changes.... I took a female vocal singing the melody and used melodyne to create a harmony from that vocal ( from a cloned track of the melody) and the harmony sounded amazing with no discernible artifacts. 

My choice is Melodyne. 

Generally... IMHO.... FX for vocals are not something I use beside reverb, and some EQ and compression. Beyond that.... I have little use for FX like chorusing and doubling and stuff like that. Often, if those FX are not used properly, the result is a ruined vocal track.

Using autotune gives an effect that seems to be popular. Melodyne can do that but it's primary purpose IMO is to tweeze out of tune vocals with out leaving evidence behind in the form of artifacts.