Working with accapellas.

xal54x · Post by **xal54x** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:33 pm

Anyone got any tips? I've never really tried it before, and any time I do I can't get anywhere.

What's the best way to figure out the tempo? After that I guess you'd just stretch it to fit the tempo you wanted?

In fact, and tips for working with vocal samples etc. would be sweet...

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 7:47 pm

I try to find the original tune the acapella came from. Load the original up in an audio track. Find the tempo. Load up the acapella and nudge it till the vocals line up with the original. Take the original out. You should be all lined up ready to go. I would also use the original to find the key and whatever chord progs are going on for use with your new instrumental. That is how I do it. It generally is easier said than done. You just have to piss with it till you get it right.

FSTZ1 · Post by **FSTZ1** » Tue Sep 30, 2008 8:54 pm

abZ wrote:I try to find the original tune the acapella came from. Load the original up in an audio track. Find the tempo. Load up the acapella and nudge it till the vocals line up with the original. Take the original out. You should be all lined up ready to go. I would also use the original to find the key and whatever chord progs are going on for use with your new instrumental. That is how I do it. It generally is easier said than done. You just have to piss with it till you get it right.

exactly

Friendly Editing · Post by **Friendly Editing** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:26 pm

abZ wrote:I try to find the original tune the acapella came from. Load the original up in an audio track. Find the tempo.

This can be a helpful tool to find the right tempo:

http://download.chip.eu/en/Sample-Calcu ... 43541.html

abZ · Post by **abZ** » Wed Oct 01, 2008 11:18 pm

REFLUX wrote:
abZ wrote:I try to find the original tune the acapella came from. Load the original up in an audio track. Find the tempo.
This can be a helpful tool to find the right tempo:

http://download.chip.eu/en/Sample-Calcu ... 43541.html

Don't need it. Ableton is the win when it comes to these types of things

Friendly Editing · Post by **Friendly Editing** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:20 am

I'm no Ableton-user myself so I love this little thing from time to time.

So out to all people not using Ableton: check it if you wanna know the tempo of your loops/acapellas/instrumentals...!

thesis · Post by **thesis** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 9:29 am

Agreed about Ableton Live, its perfect for chopping and re-arranging vocals (if thats what you want to do)

Just import your vocal file, adjust the tempo as best you can. 9 times out of 10, it'll never match your beat perfectly, just get it as close as you can while keeping it as one slice of audio.

Then you can start moving parts around to match your tune. if you're just sampling and looping a small part of the acapella like I usually do, you can make things really tight by fine tuning the positions of each word. Ableton is perfect for this as you visually see the waveform and how it matches your tempo. you only have to select the part you want to move, then do a copy/paste. It becomes a seperate clip which can be moved without affecting the rest of the vocal. turn off the snap (apple-4 on a mac) so you can move the parts around freely.

dekar · Post by **dekar** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 11:17 am

i found dis video earlia..helped me alot on acapellas n its real eazy aswell..

check it:- http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Z51Gpr3zg

stenchman · Post by **stenchman** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:13 pm

i use reason so its literally a long drawn out process of putting a click track on and listening all the way thru to check if its still in time. it can be fucking long (esp if u have to end up messing around with cents of pitch to get it in) but once u have been doin it a while it gets more intuitive, i can normally get somethin in after bout 3-4 attempts. also make sure ur start point is spot on, otherwise it will b out all the way thru, or be slightly out at the beginin, then go into time but end up comin out the other side dodgy again after a while.

little boh peep · Post by **little boh peep** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:01 pm

Figure out the tempo, timestretch as nescessary, and chop into smaller sections for further fine tuning.

It's fiddly, but you can arrange vocals word by word in Renoise using command line edits - 09xx to jump to specific places in your vocal sample.

xal54x · Post by **xal54x** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 11:32 am

Thanks guys! I think the tempo part is what's causing me the problems, finding a decent sample etc. that fits without too much work... All the good ones are taken lol

little boh peep · Post by **little boh peep** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:48 pm

xal54x wrote:All the good ones are taken lol

So? Put your own spin on it.

If a vocal is slightly off-measure, do your best to get it tight, then try using an echo plug-in synced with the bpm of your project file to flesh out the extra space, and make it sound better in time. I really, REALLY like Mykrasound Stereo Echo for this. Tip of the day...

xal54x · Post by **xal54x** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 2:36 pm

Little Boh Peep wrote:
xal54x wrote:All the good ones are taken lol
So? Put your own spin on it.

If a vocal is slightly off-measure, do your best to get it tight, then try using an echo plug-in synced with the bpm of your project file to flesh out the extra space, and make it sound better in time. I really, REALLY like Mykrasound Stereo Echo for this. Tip of the day...

Yeah, think I'll have to! Was working with something the other day, sounded a bit off, so yeah I used some delay to make it sound more in time...

Get's to the gym a few days later, new mix i've downloaded... and there's the bloody sample getting used in some new tune lol...

Think I'll just get my mic out and start making my own! haha

tsunami · Post by **tsunami** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:14 pm

Need some help with this topic using FL.

When sampling from a verse, do you sample the first 4 beats or 8 beats of the verse, what is easier when working with the sample

-i was told to sample 4 beats or less, easier to work with the sample pitching etc

Im also caught between the ganulizer/sampler/slicer

I was able to sample the vocal (4beats), then find the bpm (around 110), and then i would re pitch using the sample tuner. But it either sounds out of time with the click/tempo, or its off pitch. The closest i got was using the slicer, but its choppy and doesnt flow like the original.

Should i use another program to do this then import into FL

mondays child · Post by **mondays child** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:37 pm

This can be done really easily in Logic, import an audion file of the accapella into the arrange window. Use the 'strip silence' function on the audio. rearrange your cut up pieces to fit your track. you can of course, adjust the tempo accordingly. I like to mess around with the tempo because it gives a different and more natural feel sometimes not to have it bang on the beat, move the parts around untill the whole thing works.

or record into logic from an exernal hardware sampler and do the same thing. i do both.

I realise your using FL, so appologies!

rhynofive · Post by **rhynofive** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:25 pm

Stenchman wrote:i use reason so its literally a long drawn out process of putting a click track on and listening all the way thru to check if its still in time. it can be fucking long (esp if u have to end up messing around with cents of pitch to get it in) but once u have been doin it a while it gets more intuitive, i can normally get somethin in after bout 3-4 attempts. also make sure ur start point is spot on, otherwise it will b out all the way thru, or be slightly out at the beginin, then go into time but end up comin out the other side dodgy again after a while.

Yes it can be really tricky in Reason. I prefer to get the tempo sorted out in another program and then importing the time stretched vocals into Reason.

scooterjack · Post by **scooterjack** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:31 pm

Stenchman wrote:i use reason so its literally a long drawn out process of putting a click track on and listening all the way thru to check if its still in time.

do this in something like Acid or Reaper first

abZ wrote:I try to find the original tune the acapella came from. Load the original up in an audio track. Find the tempo. Load up the acapella and nudge it till the vocals line up with the original. Take the original out. You should be all lined up ready to go.

then from there, render out sections that are a measured length in beats, ie: 1-4 beats or 2+ bars. Load up in Recycle and set some slices. Drop into the REX, or NNXT for more control, and have a good ole time.

coi · Post by **coi** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:22 am

Don't forget about the amazing feature of ableton which allows you to slice to midi by right clicking on the audio file in the clip view. This lets you take all the warp points you made on the audio to transfer into audio slices in a drum rack. It can be very inspirational when it comes to chopping up vocal samples.

Hope that was of some use.

coi

tsunami · Post by **tsunami** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:34 am

Thanks for the tips. I can use the same ideas in FL. This seems like a longer process than i thought. I will try the slicer i think in a piano roll to get the 1/8 notes or hits.

Thanks for answering the length part. Easier for small parts due to re arrangement if necessary, makes sense.

Working with accapellas.

Working with accapellas.

ableton slice to midi

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