Ok, so I have a question, this guy did a mashup with pop vocals (repitched them) and put them on a generic track he made:

This leads me to ask about pitch: How do you get a singer to sound "right" on a song? Do they need to sing in the same progression/key compared to the song? Do they stay in the same scale? I understand that its diatonic, and most songs can be changed around to "sound" correct, Im just not sure how to learn what sounds right without having to listen by ear and "find" the right compliment for a song.

 

Well, I think you'll find the answer in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2A7qdm3HE

 

They might need to sing in the same key, but not necessarily in the same progression. I will link an example/s

Here's the original:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SYIUPKdySbw#t=119s

Here's a remix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vFkeYVbCQeo#t=188s

(I like the remix better, although I herd the remix before the original ┐(￣ー￣)┌

The key lies in knowing what sounds right when mashed together, and I also do this by ear.

 

It's exactly the same thing when you're writing a lead guitar on the rhythm one. The lead guitar works like a singer ! There no particular rules as there's a lot of rules

I don't know enough in theory but you can sing in the same key, scale, third notes, fifth etc... Or something totally different can fit sometimes.

I'm not sure my message can help, but if it does, that's cool ! lol :dancing:

 

Ok, well how did he understand how to know where to re-do the pitch on the voices? He just fit it to ear? I think this is one of the harder concepts for me to understand..

 

they leads can be whatever! the singer has to match the beat/drums. The singer only has to match the drums harmonically... What I do is: make my singer sing from their stomach not their throat. I sidechain their vocals to the drums. Re-record it according to the sidechained version. Then record a regular. If your working in ableton its easy to change the pitch if you'd like :P

 

can you show me a demo or example of what you mean? I understand the concept but not the difference it makes...

 

A pretty easy approach is to have the main chord structure/melody be the carrier for a vocoder on the vocal track. Fine tune it w/ Melodyne, VariAudio, Elastique, etc.