VocAlign 6 Pro User Guide Publication v1.1

Quick Start Guide for Logic Pro X Real-time AU

Quick Start for Logic Pro X and DAWs using AU Plug-ins

Overview

In this Quick Start Guide you will learn how to set up Logic Pro X and VocAlign 6 Pro to transfer audio into VocAlign 6 Pro, process the audio, and have the processed output returned to Logic Pro. Other DAWs using AU plug-ins should have similar workflows.

Ableton Live users: Do NOT use the AU version of VocAlign 6 Pro, use the VST3 Real-Time Capture Version. Click here to go to instructions.

The procedure might seem a little complex at first because you have to tell the plug-in which track contains the Guide and which track(s) need their timing and/or pitch adjusted by VocAlign 6 Pro to match the Guide's.

In this Quick Start Guide, we won’t go into details about the control panels or displays, since those are described in the "Using VocAlign 6 Pro" sections.

One last note - because we started long ago in the film industry, we call the audio to be modified a “Dub”.

Two Plug-in Versions

VocAlign 6 Pro installs two versions of the Audio Unit (AU) plugin used by Logic Pro X (and some other DAWs):

VocAlign 6 Pro AU (ARA) - which only runs in Logic Pro X 10.7 or later. Please note that ARA is not supported by Logic on Apple Silicon MAC computers.

VocAlign 6 Pro AU (Real-time capture) - which runs in Logic Pro 10.5 and later.

These plug-ins both feature the same processing controls, presets and parameters, and are identical in terms of the end results they deliver.

The versions only differ in the way audio signals are brought into VocAlign 6 Pro and how the Output is returned to the DAW.

The AU (ARA) plug-in is applied to the track and the user “Captures” the digital audio directly as the designated Guide or Dub in an instant transfer process.
- The main advantages of this approach are that the capture is faster and you can bounce the processed audio to disc.
- The main disadvantage is that in Logic Pro you must press the space bar regularly to update the ARA audio data base.
- It's important to understand that the ARA version loads as a single 'extension' in Logic Pro, and although it might appear that you're adding the plugin to each discrete region being processed, you are in fact adding those regions to the same single instance of VocAlign 6 Pro ARA.

The AU (Real-time capture) plug-in version is also a track insert plug-in and involves making a real-time playback to capture both the Guide (as a side chain input) and the Dub simultaneously.
- The main advantage of this approach is that you can start and stop the capture of the Guide and Dub at any points in your session.
- The main disadvantage is that if you export the Output to replace the input Dub it removes the plug in, and there is no undo to restore the plugin to modify the processing.

Installation and Initial Setup

You should have already downloaded, installed and authorised the VocAlign 6 Pro plug-in on your Mac computer.
See Installation and Authorization if you haven't done this.

It’s also necessary to make Logic's track selection automatically follow the selection of audio regions.
- This may already be set up, but if not, in Logic Pro, open Preferences > General, and select the Editing tab at the top.
- In the Editing page, enable ‘Select tracks on Region/Marquee selection’.

Using the real-time AU version of VocAlign 6 Pro in Logic Pro X

The ‘regular’ AU (Audio Units) version of VocAlign 6 Pro captures the Guide and Dub in real time in two specified tracks, but only requires one instance of the plugin to be loaded on the Dub track, and the Guide is captured at the same time via the plug-ins Side Chain input.

This might seem strange, but it is the Dub track that is being processed and the processed audio is returned to the Dub track when the processing is finished.

Adding Vocalign 6 Pro to your Dub track

In Logic Pro, we will add VocAlign 6 Pro as an insert on the track that contains the Dub audio that we would like to work with. For this guide, we have two tracks to work with:

Lead Vocal GUIDE: our main vocal track, referred to as our Guide
Double Vocal DUB: our vocal double, or Dub, that we would like to tune and align to our Guide track

To add VocAlign to our Dub track, we will click the 'Audio FX' slot in the inspector on the left side of the Logic Pro interface. If you do not see the inspector, you can go to 'Help' and type 'inspector' in the search bar. Select 'Show Inspector' from the results.

Once you've clicked the 'Audio FX' slot circled in red below, choose VocAlign from the menu as indicated by the red arrows in the below image. VocAlign is available under 'Audio Units -> Synchro Arts -> VocAlign 6 Pro AU -> Mono'. VocAlign may also be available in the 'Recent' section of the menu.

... then ...

The plugin window and Link/Side chain settings

Now that the plugin window is open, you should see something similar to the below image.

Before continuing, we will make sure to set our Link and Side Chain settings.

The 'Link' setting in our plugin window is available in the top right corner of the plugin window and looks like to chain links, circled in red in the below image. The button should be purple, indicating Multi mode. If it is not, click it to change the Link setting.

We must also set the Side Chain input to be our Guide track.

... then ...

If you cannot see these controls, click the small icon in the top right corner of your plugin window, indicated below.

Removing Vocalign

If you need to remove VocAlign from a track, click the Audio FX slot that contains VocAlign, and select 'No Plugin' from the menu.

Selecting a Preset

Before capturing our audio, we will select a preset. Once the Dub and Guide are captured, VocAlign will immediately process and output it with whatever preset is currently selected. The preset menu is at the centre-top of the VocAlign interface, shown below.

Click the preset to open a dropdown menu. Our Dub track is a vocal in a high range, so we will select 'Vocal -> Double -> High Pitch Dub -> Slightly Loose Timing & Pitch' as indicated below.

Processing your Guide and Dub

We will now Capture our Guide and Dub into VocAlign.

First, set your loop to cover the section of audio we would like to work with.

In VocAlign, we can now click the orange Capture button underneath Dub as indicated below. This will arm VocAlign.

In the below image, we have clicked the Capture button. It has turned red and now shows 'Stop', and two red 'Record' lights are present beside Guide and Dub. This indicates VocAlign is ready to receive or capture our audio.

To begin capturing audio, click Play or hit spacebar in Logic. While playback occurs, you will hear your audio, and we can see the playhead advancing within VocAlign, while grey waveforms are drawn in behind it, indicating our audio is being captured.

The capture happens in real time. Once it is complete, VocAlign immediately processes the Dub with our selected preset, and creates a new purple waveform in the Output section.

Rendering your output

If you would like to render and commit your changes, you can use Logic's Bounce In Place command. Right click the region you would like to render, and select 'Bounce and Join -> Bounce In Place' from the menu. You can also use Ctrl + B.

This will open the below dialogue box, where you can choose what you would like Logic to do with the resulting audio.

Further controls

Vocalign also provides in-depth control via the Pitch, Timing, and Other control panels available on the right side of the UI. These controls are discussed in detail here.

To open these panels, click the three icons on the right side of the interface, circled in red below.

You can adjust the Max Difference controls in the Match Timing and Match Pitch sections to tighten or loosen the timing and pitch alignment applied by the preset. With each change, the Output is reprocessed and the Output waveform redrawn, and the audio is synched to Pro Tools via the ARA connection.

Processing a Harmony Track

When working with harmonies, Vocalign provides Smart Pitch. The Smart Pitch options are accessed in the 'Match Pitch' control panel, discussed in detail here.

Fixing Problems

Protected Areas

There will be times when you want to exclude certain sections in the Dub from processing – when your Guide vocal jumps up an octave, or gets raspy and lower, but your Dub doesn't, for example. Or when there are different words or syllables in the Guide and Dub, which can throw the time alignment off, resulting in unnatural distortion of the Output timing. VocAlign 6 Pro's Protected Areas enable pitch, time or both to be kept unprocessed over any specified range within the Dub.

Protected areas are covered in detail here.

Sync Points

If you're getting small differences in timing caused by different words, sounds or delivery, you can correct them using Sync Points. These let you assign pairs of pointers to events in the Guide and Dub that should be time aligned if they are not. Click here for more details on Sync Points and how to use them.