9

Excluding Notes from Pitch Correction
You can use the Pitch Correction effect’s onscreen keyboard to exclude notes from the
pitch quantization grid. When you first open the effect, all notes of the chromatic scale
are selected. This means that every incoming note will be altered to fit the next semitone
step of the chromatic scale. If the intonation of the singer is poor, this might lead to notes
being incorrectly identified and corrected to an unwanted pitch. For example, the singer
may have intended to sing an E, but the note is actually closer to a D#. If you don’t want
the D# in the song, the D# key can be disabled on the keyboard. Because the original
pitch was sung closer to an E than a D, it will be corrected to an E.
Note: The settings are valid for all octave ranges. Individual settings for different octaves
aren’t provided.
Use of the small bypass buttons (byp) above the green (black) and below the blue (white)
keys excludes notes from correction. This is useful for blue notes. Blue notes are notes
that slide between pitches, making the major and minor status of the keys difficult to
identify. As you may know, one of the major differences between C minor and C major
is the Eb (E flat) and Bb (B flat), instead of the E and B. Blues singers glide between these
notes, creating an uncertainty or tension between the scales. Use of the bypass buttons
allows you to exclude particular keys from changes, leaving them as they were.
If you enable the Bypass All button, the input signal is passed through unprocessed and
uncorrected. This is useful for spot corrections to pitch through use of automation. Bypass
All is optimized for seamless bypass enabling or disabling in all situations.
Tip: You’ll often find that it’s best to correct only the notes with the most harmonic
gravity. For example, choose “sus4” from the Scale pop-up menu, and set the Root note
to match the project key. This will limit correction to the root note, the fourth, and the
fifth of the key scale. Activate the bypass buttons for all other notes and only the most
important and sensitive notes will be corrected, while all other singing remains untouched.
Setting the Pitch Correction Reference Tuning
In Logic Express, the settings that appear when you choose File > Project Settings >
Tuning determine the tuning reference for all software instruments. In MainStage, choose
MainStage > Preferences > Tuning (in the General tab).
If you turn on the Use Global Tuning button in the Pitch Correction window, the host
application Tuning settings will be used for the pitch correction process. If this parameter
is turned off, you can use the Ref. Pitch field to freely set the desired reference tuning (to
the root key/note).
For example, the intonation of a vocal line is often slightly sharp or flat throughout an
entire song. Use the Reference Pitch parameter to address this issue at the input of the
pitch detection process. Set the Reference Pitch to reflect the constant pitch deviation
in cent values. This allows the pitch correction to perform more accurately.
160 Chapter 10 Pitch Effects