Voda La Void
Ok, so Melodyne is out of my budget and is a non-starter for me at this time.  Maybe in a couple of months...  Really would like to know how it would improve my pitchy problems, but I'm just going to have to wait.

I strongly recommend the old school approach....
Re-record it until you you get it right!
 
It worked for 70+ years.... then autotune and melodyne came around giving everyone the impression they could "fix it in the mix"! It's always better to get it right to begin with.

codamedia

Voda La Void
Ok, so Melodyne is out of my budget and is a non-starter for me at this time.  Maybe in a couple of months...  Really would like to know how it would improve my pitchy problems, but I'm just going to have to wait.

I strongly recommend the old school approach....
Re-record it until you you get it right!
 
It worked for 70+ years.... then autotune and melodyne came around giving everyone the impression they could "fix it in the mix"! It's always better to get it right to begin with.

That *is* as right as it gets with me.  Remember, I'm not hearing the pitch problems - you are, and others.  That's as good as I can sing it.  That was take after take after take after take...then on to the next line...rinse and repeat. Overwhelmingly self conscious, looking out the window every two minutes wondering if the neighbors are listening...
 
I'm just not a singer and I don't enjoy doing it.  Maybe if I'd started when I was 13 like I did drums and guitar then I would be.  I play instruments and write arrangements and dream up melodies.  That's what I do.  I only sing because no one else is going to come over here and do it.  
 
I'm 44 years old, I'm a fecund writer and I have songs stacking up in the hopper...I don't have years to take a time out and spend becoming a singer.  I've lost enough time already trying to do what you hear right now.  
 
I need to move on.  I'm floundering on old material and it's costing me new ideas and fresh thoughts.  I'm not on the radio.  I don't sell CD's to anybody.  I'm not on iTunes.  I'm not heard by anybody outside of Cakewalk and couple friends on Facebook.  Vocal performance purity is not my priority - instrument performance purity, arrangement and melodic creativity is.  
 
Sorry to disappoint you.  I do respect your opinion, I just can't live up to it.   
 
 

Have you tried using the speedcomping feature in Sonar? I'm not much of a singer myself, but I've found that if I sing six or eight takes all the way through, consecutively, I learn how to sing the song as I'm going, using ideas that happen in take three, for example, to make take four better, and so on. Doing it this way -- and not taking vocal lessons -- I find I can usually piece together a pretty good composite track which requires very little or no Melodyne enhancement. Sometimes I still have to punch in a phrase or two, but not always. I think that knowing I am going to sing a bunch of takes all the way through and back-to-back sort of takes the pressure off and lets me be more natural, because in this scenario mistakes are OK -- I'm sure there will always be at least one acceptable take of every phrase, so I'm free to play around, which can lead to a better performance. You seem to have the raw material. If you haven't tried this technique, I suggest you give it a shot.

Craig Anderton did a video showing how he treats his vocal, and it was impressive.  Can't remember what the video was, but I will have a look and post back, when I get a chance.
 
I am not saying that Craig can't sing, he can, but the results/improvement were remakable.

Not because I really need to, but because I'm a noob, I depend on Izotope Nectar 2 for vocal tracks. The preset gets me in the ball park, and i tweak and turn on/off the various modules. Then, when John(singer/songwriter/guitarist) and I are happy, we save it as John's "whatever" preset. I use one for the ballady type things and one for rock. It's now a done deal for him, and I need to see if my pitch problems can be fixed. I can match tones no problem, but to find the note whilst just hearing a chord is, well.......like rocket science.
 

Voda La Void
Ok, so Melodyne is out of my budget and is a non-starter for me at this time.  Maybe in a couple of months...  Really would like to know how it would improve my pitchy problems, but I'm just going to have to wait.
 
ValhallaDSP Uber Mod - wow, way cool and I could really get into this.  At 50 bucks, this seems like a great deal and I can afford it now.  Come on payday....
 
Fabfilter Timeless 2 - another wow, and I could really enjoy this one too.  A bit more at 129 bucks, but hey, it sounds worth it.  I'll wait until I'm acclimated to Valhalla first before I dive into this.  
 
The others were neat too, but those two really stood out to me.  Of course, I'm beholden to the demos I could find online.  
 
These effects are really over my head.  It's going to take a bit of time to *understand* what I'm doing and what's going on.  But all of it sounds very promising.  
 
Thanks ya'll!  
 
 
 
 

Melodyne Essential comes with Sonar Professional and Platinum. It was also included with Sonar X* Producer. It's the mono version. Melodyne is pretty intuitive and transparent once you get to playing around with it. Celemony has a lot of great Melodyne tutorial videos on youtube.
 
Rocky

Try melodyne.Can't hurt. I recently did a vocal track in an uncomfortable key, and I found that adding a little of the tube emulation in pro channel really smoothed it out without actually adding real distortion.  Judicious use of these two worked great.I went one further and added some T-rax white opto compressor (the 2A one) helped strengthen it.

Voda La Void
......
 
I need to move on.  I'm floundering on old material and it's costing me new ideas and fresh thoughts.  I'm not on the radio.  I don't sell CD's to anybody.  I'm not on iTunes.  I'm not heard by anybody outside of Cakewalk and couple friends on Facebook.  Vocal performance purity is not my priority - instrument performance purity, arrangement and melodic creativity is.  
 
Sorry to disappoint you.  I do respect your opinion, I just can't live up to it.   
 

Tim,
Have you considered finding an online collaborator? Someone who sings your style of music? There are sites all over the net for musicians who want to hook up with other musicians. Perhaps you could find someone who needs what you do well and you could help each other out. Might be a perfect solution and fun at the same time!

My advice: Embrace your voice. Write the melodies to your voice's strengths.
 
Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Tiny Tim (lol) and many more can't all be wrong...
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Lots of advice here at Cakewalk.  And the effects advice on here is great.  I just haven't the money to play with any of them yet.  But I will, after Christmas.  
 
I have gone through the typical Cakewalk Home Studio effects and played with the EQ'ing and all that to find a unique FX signature and I just keep gravitating to distortion "amp sims".  The distortion or overdrive sound really hides the "ugly" in my voice, quite nicely and also buries those pitchy transients that bite my ass so much.  
 
But distortion and overdrive is not unique.  It's perty darn popular.  I wish I could get the same effect...out of a different effect....yeah....something like that.  I need an effect combination that achieves the same result....but isn't simply distorto-magic.