Hi,

I came across a situation.
I want to mix :
1. vocals a capella from a song
with
1. synth instrumental sample

Now, if I just put these 2 together, they sound off key from each other.
So is there any way to determine the key or pitch of the vocals sample? anything in cubase? or just "use your ears"?
And, once I know the key, how can I change the pitch of them to fit?

Thanks a lot!
NY

 

The following are the general vocal ranges associated with each voice type using scientific pitch notation where middle C=C4. Some singers within these voice types may be able to sing somewhat higher or lower[1]:
Soprano: C4 – C6
Mezzo-soprano: A3 – A5
Contralto: F3 – F5
Tenor: C3 – C5
Baritone: F2 – F4
Bass: E2 – E4
In terms of frequency, human voices are roughly in the range of 80 Hz to 1100 Hz (that is, E2 to C6) for normal male and female voices together.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocal_range

 

Vari audio ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2I20yePL70

 

@ Timothy,

For this, programs like the 'famous' "Celemony Melodyne" or "Antares AutoTune" (among others), can greatly help you in this way, but as with all these kind of programs that can change the pitch of audio material, the less you have to change the variation of the pitch (the difference between the original tone and your desired one), the better is... this avoid eventual and undesired 'unnatural' sounds with some artifacts,...

Within these same programs, you can load your audio part(s) (Vocals,... ), then get a first glance of which is the main tone of your audio material. Then, you can make further adjustments to match the more exactly possible what you're looking for...


Just a little notice about a previous comment :

As it's generally stated that the 'famous' 440 Hz (that's the commonly reference used in 'Modern' or 'Western' music), and which corresponds to the note 'A3', I fear that the 'C6' is far more higher than only '1100 Hz' as written within this comment...

Effectively, if you take this 'A3' (440 Hz) and that you transpose it up to the next octave, you'll end with a logical 'A4' at 880 Hz, and in this case the 'C6' is still more than 1 octave higher (1 Octave + 1 Minor Third, to be exact). Then, if you take this 'A4' (880 Hz) and that you transpose it up 1 octave higher, you get an 'A5' at '1760 Hz', and you still need to add a 'Minor Third' to get this 'C6', that must be then somewhere around 2000-2200 Hz... far more beyond the '1100 Hz' !

 

for free:

http://www.ibrahimshaath.co.uk/keyfinder/

 

Using your ears first and foremost. Maybe use an instrument of choice to determine key and root of the sample. Then just transpose them so they are both in same key. If one is minor and the other is major (in the same root key) then you can go the Melodyne way.

 

The edit mode of Adobe Audition has a frequency spectrum analyzer that tells you what note dominates the wave file at that moment, plus how close or far away it is from true pitch in plus or minus cents. But yeah, the easiest thing is to just sing the dominant note you hear from the instrument or vocal and play along on a piano. Or just shift the pitch of one or the other until they match up.

 

ive taken to heart all the good vibes here at Ausiosex and i feel like there are some areas i need to brush up on to be a better producer,

and kick tuning is something i dont really do, and i feel bad and embarrassed i am not doing it


so i need to learn how to find the key my kicks are in, so i can add in some wavetable sinewaves to beef up my kicks that are tuned correctly..


i will try some of the programs listed in this thread!


i will post back my findings, there are also lots of good tuts on youtube

 

frito most of the programs mentioned are not going to help you tune a kick. Because it is a transient sound and in effect pitch modulation it can fool the program. The best way to go about determining the note of a kick is to use an application like Voxengo's GlissEQ (or SPAN which is free) and find the largest frequency hump which will be the fundamental frequency. If you move the cursor over the middle point of the hump GlissEQ will tell you the corresponding note. Really if all these drum samplers and sample packs actually labelled the kick with the note name it would be so fucking easy. It just doesn't make sense to me why they don't do that. You know what else doesn't make sense to me? Why does the note length in Battery and most other drum samplers not effect the length of the sample? That has to be the stupidest thing to overlook in my honest opinion. Then there's the question of why there aren't sample packs with layered kicks. Too stupid to wrap my head around.

 

thanks for the suggestions, i DL'd GLiss but never got around to installing it, now it seems to be a good time, eh?

when i make my own kicks with massive or fm8 or Sytrus or one of the several FM and wavetable synthesis modules i am currently playing with its no problem, but when i do find a loop i like and want to use, i usually replace the kicks and just use the surrounding audio, so in that scenario i will try out your advice!

cheers maestro!

 

Glad I could help. Voxengo plug-ins are really good and I like that GlissEQ makes it easy on you by providing the note at the location of the pointer. Otherwise you have to bust out a frequency chart and look up the note which is a pain in the ass.

 

Melda AutoEQ also shows the notes/freqs (automatically).

 

Sound Radix surfer EQ

 

I just open up the pella and piano on kontakt and start playing along. Usually it does not take that long to figure out the right key.