I was referring to vocals. Personally, I don't use pitch correction for anything else although I suppose I should give it a try...

RexRed
Great point. I agree. I like to dance around the pitch and at certain points nail it. That gives the lines a calculated human feel and intelligence. At that point being off tune does not tire the listener but it continues to interest the listener over and over.

My favorite example of that is B. B. King. If he ever bends the flatted seventh all the way up to the tonic, the world might come to an end. He always seems to bend up to where it's just a teeny bit flat...you keep waiting for it to resolve, but then he launches into the next note.
 
Quick sidebar - I was doing a cover version of a song that involved multiple harmonies. It kept sounding "wrong," so I looked at the parts in V-Vocal (as well as the lead) with the intention of fixing the pitch problems. But presumably because I recorded each vocal in isolation, somehow I'd managed to nail the pitch perfectly. Long story short is I ended up using V-Vocal to "untune" some of the harmonies. Then they sounded the way I wanted. 

Anderton
 
My favorite example of that is B. B. King.

I like that example. :-)
 
I enjoyed the privilege, one night several years ago, of lending him one my Fender Amps on an occasion when the Twin that traveled with his band showed up D.O.A. at a local venue.
 
Good times!

Use someone else's voice.
 
Sort of like the way Nash and Crosby/Stills did it.

RexRed
I usually only have one vocal in my song other than harmonies but I am experimenting with adding other unison vocal dubs during the non harmony parts. Can anyone give me some tips on how to make the vocals blend better without overpowering the main vocal and being a distraction rather than a subtle augmentation?

Fast Automatic Double Tracking is actually one of the functions that Melodyne does better than V-Vocal, and it works with the Essential version. Please refer to this article for details.
 
As to not overpowering, obviously levels are one option but so is EQ. How to set the EQ depends on what effect you want to create. If you want the additional vocal to add more "body," then trim the highs a bit...maybe even a subtle lower mid boost. If you want the additional vocal to "frame" the main vocal, drop the mids to create more space for the main vocal, leaving more of the highs and lows.
 
I almost always match a doubled vocal's pan position to the main vocal so they blend more seamlessly. OTOH if you want to draw more attention to the doubled vocal, offset it somewhat from the main vocal. To avoid unbalancing the track, considering copying the doubled vocal so that the two doubled vocals are offset equally and oppositely from the main vocal. In that case you'll need to reduce the levels of the two vocals compared to using a single vocal panned under the main vocal.

Apart from using another's voice, if you have reasonable technique, you can get a few different sounds yourself. Varying breath, twang and chest voice vs falsetto (I hope those are the right words in English) can make a big difference. You can really exaggerate especially if you blend a couple together.

mike_mccue
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...omatic_double_tracking
 
 
edit to add; I see Craig beat me to the answer while I got distracting by listening to John Lennon songs.
 
:-)

I believe if i am not mistaken it was John Lennon who first thought up the practice of vocal doubling because he did not like the screechy quality of his raw voice. :)
 
I think it was Les Paul who originally thought up multi-tracking vocals, he experimented with multi-tracking vocals on his wife Mary Ford... 
 
Please correct me if i am wrong. :)
 
Do you compress the main vocal with the vocal double or do you compress them separately or both? Would it not be better to sing three unison vocals instead of just two? With V-vocal I can make the secondary vocals nearly perfectly line up with ease. But I am still not happy with the effect, i was panning them far left and right and that was probably what was wrong. I was cutting out the bass on the secondary vocals but not some of the highs thanks for the tip I will try that. :) 
 
With three vocals they could be panned slightly left right and center? I do not really like the doubling effect with most effects processors because of the phase cancellation problems, it sounds hollow. 
 
I heard that a vocal double needs to have different harmonics than the main vocal or they will phase and cancel out each other. This is why I would opt not to use melodyne on such a task, perhaps I am wrong. This is the same reason why I would opt to sing my own harmonies. In my opinion, Formant can only be stretched so a far.
 
I am going now to study the links you have posted thanks!

mike_mccue
FWIW,
 I did not look for evidence of timing issues until listening to the timing issues started driving me crazy.
 
I use pitch correction tools to fix stuff that is off by a few "cents" in an effort to make the "mix" sound "glued". That's what I am looking for in pitch correction tool.
 
 It seems to me that Melodyne has gotten less satisfactory at doing that basic task as it has expanded it's capabilities....

 

mike_mccue 
 I have further frustrations with Melodyne Editor and its Melodic Algorithm's implementation of Pitch Drift Correction, but I see that there is an embedded idea that people that make these observations are assumed to be incapable or unwilling to learn how to make use of all the functionality available.
 
 The melodic pitch drift correction functionality has become quirky, the hand edit pitch drift tools do not provide an effective sounding solution, and the over all sound of the correction/drift melodic algorithm processes sound dead and lifeless compared to the results you can obtain with the older Melodyne Plugin math....

 
Very interesting assessments, Mike. Although many would say that the time shift you refer to would be imperceptible, I can't help but wonder if it nonetheless has an effect on the "feel" of the track, something alluded to by both you and RexRed.
 
So with this timing issue in Melodyne, how do you deal with it? Manually sliding the rack? Do you find yourself using V-Vocal more than Melodyne?

mike_mccue
Use someone else's voice.

 
Oh I could tell you a few stories about that... But I have to protect the innocent :).

I had good results with V-Vocal but I use Melodyne exclusively now.  I find that Melodyne is better for pitch and timing correction and it automatically adjusts formants well.  However, if I need to change formants manually, V-Vocal seems to sound better.  In other words, if I let Melodyne default the formants it sounds good; but if I need to adjust formants manually with Melodyne, I am usually not happy.
 
I also liked V-Vocal's vibrato tool.
 
The thing that tipped me over to Melodyne is that I find the interface easier to use and it is easier for me to visualize pitch and timing in musical terms.
 
Melodyne definitely has a more modern look than the V-Vocal Tomorrowland space ship display.  (Not that the GUI is that big a deal--just saying.)
 
 

mike_mccue
In most cases I time align with Audio Snap or Elastic Audio warping after tuning.

Do you ever use Synchro Arts Vocalign? I realize at $600 it's hellishly expensive, but it seems like it would be a good complement to pitch correction.

konradh
Craig, Your cover is great.  It's much ballsier than the Animals version and has better vocals.  I also liked your chord changes on the chorus better.  (I am not slamming the Animals who were awesome, but we have moved on quite a ways since they cut their version.)

Mickie Most and RAK would be pleased. RIP Mickie :(
 

Yesterday, despite normally using Melodyne for pitch correction, I used V Vocal on something, as it was the better tool for that particular job.
 
I hereby submit myself to be burned at the cake stake for this dalliance with filthy polytheism.

I think it may be 'Ballyhoo', not 'Polly who' :)
 
Bob Bone
 

John T
Yesterday, despite normally using Melodyne for pitch correction, I used V Vocal on something, as it was the better tool for that particular job.
 
I hereby submit myself to be burned at the cake stake for this dalliance with filthy polytheism.

SINNER!!!!! :)