UST Tutorial?

[shinami]

Didn't put this in the Q&A section because I'm moreso asking for opinions than asking for help.

So I've been seeing a LOT of "How do you make USTs?" and "I can't time my UST right" threads lately. So I was thinking of making a video of my style of UST making. There are a small/good handful out there that deal with making USTs from MIDIs, but that doesn't work for everyone (me, for instance). Mine would moreso deal with concrete numbers, basic music knowledge, and be full of small little tips and ideas for making the process easier and making USTs higher quality.

So, would people be interested in such a tutorial on making USTs from scratch? Or do you think it's something the community doesn't really need currently? Really I'm just trying to gauge a level of interest because I'd probably end up making a 20-30 minute video like I always do for tutorials.

 

[OngakuCD]

Yes!! I would love a tutorial (and one on pitchbends too >.<!!)

 

[PKLpikachu]

A tutorial would be nice.

 

[SakisCookie]

Yesss! My history of UST making is...kinda  awful.

 

[TaiyoProwerz]

Yes.
Just YEEES.
But seriously. It'd be so helpful if you could make a tutorial, a lot of the ones I see don't really go into much detail on it and stuff.. And are just overall impossible to follow. I'd really appreciate a tut if you wouldn't mind!

 

[shinami]

Ah, I'll probably do it tomorrow then.

Is there anything in particular I might miss...? I don't want to skip anything that I might think everyone knows while it's not so. Throw things at me that are your biggest problems with making USTs.

 

[SakisCookie]

My biggest problem is figuring out how to make the beats match up. Timing and what-not. :\

ALSO HARMONIES. How the heck do people figure out what the harmony notes are?

 

[TaiyoProwerz]

My biggest problem is figuring out how to make the beats match up. Timing and what-not. :\

ALSO HARMONIES. How the heck do people figure out what the harmony notes are?

Definitely these, if you wouldn't mind ^^
Something on pitchbending would be super cool as well. :O
Maybe a little bit about resamplers too..?

 

[dCatharsis]

That would be great! Can't wait to see it...
and yeah, I was going to say harmonies too xD

 

[Ant]

Yeah, totally harmonies. I've never made a UST with harmonies, I'd like to know how people do it.

 

[shinami]

Woah, so gotta do huge emphasis on harmonies. I tried to record one today, but Camtasia is bugging up so I gotta fix it first - though I'm glad it didn't work because I really played down harmoines. explaining them will be so so hard orz because it's more of a built up skill than something statistical you can pick up in a second ;;

 

[IrisFlower]

Yeah, totally harmonies. I've never made a UST with harmonies, I'd like to know how people do it.

There are unfortunately so many ways to make/find harmonies ;; You could use Audacity to find them, apply music theory to making them...it takes a bit of practice OTL

 

[Ant]

[quote author=Ant link=topic=4224.msg30528#msg30528 date=1354059451]
Yeah, totally harmonies. I've never made a UST with harmonies, I'd like to know how people do it.

There are unfortunately so many ways to make/find harmonies ;; You could use Audacity to find them, apply music theory to making them...it takes a bit of practice OTL
[/quote]

You can use audacity? How so? When I tried I just listened really closely and tried to map out the harmonies manually.

 

[IrisFlower]

Do you know to make an off vocal in Audacity? Depending on how a song is mixed you can use that method to isolate the harmonies. For further help you can use wavetone to see the notes a little better. Myst made a tutorial on it: http://mystsaphyr.tumblr.com/post/35439230687/sometimes-harmonies-can-be-really-hard-to-get-by

Like stated, this doesn't always work but when it does it's VERY helpful. Another tip would be to look out for off vocals that have the harmonies in them. Some producers do this, not a lot though.

And even if the Audacity trick doesn't work, sometimes wavetone picks up on the harmonies when you load in the original mp3 so you can see the harmonies along with the main vocal. Another trick someone told me is to try moving the main vocals up or down 3-5 octaves and sometimes that'll work but everytime I try this I always end up adjusting them, still it's a nice starting point when all else fails.

I recommend having the plugins that play and stop multiple windows of UTAU to test how harmonies sound. You can find them here: http://utaforum.net/index.php?topic=2459.0

And...just in case you don't have it wavetone can be found here: http://ackiesound.ifdef.jp/

Like I said...different ways and in the end it still takes practice to get them to sound right ;;

 

[shinami]

I didn't know anyone else did the Audacity off-vocal trick. @o@ I do that for certain Ps that I know mix their harmonies on the sides.


Anyways, since there are so many ways for harmonies I think I'll make two videos, one for USTs in general and a second for every way I can think of to find harmonies and test them and such. I'm bombarded by AP Art right now so I'll probably do these on Saturday.

 

[Ant]

Do you know to make an off vocal in Audacity? Depending on how a song is mixed you can use that method to isolate the harmonies. For further help you can use wavetone to see the notes a little better. Myst made a tutorial on it: http://mystsaphyr.tumblr.com/post/35439230687/sometimes-harmonies-can-be-really-hard-to-get-by

Like stated, this doesn't always work but when it does it's VERY helpful. Another tip would be to look out for off vocals that have the harmonies in them. Some producers do this, not a lot though.

And even if the Audacity trick doesn't work, sometimes wavetone picks up on the harmonies when you load in the original mp3 so you can see the harmonies along with the main vocal. Another trick someone told me is to try moving the main vocals up or down 3-5 octaves and sometimes that'll work but everytime I try this I always end up adjusting them, still it's a nice starting point when all else fails.

I recommend having the plugins that play and stop multiple windows of UTAU to test how harmonies sound. You can find them here: http://utaforum.net/index.php?topic=2459.0

And...just in case you don't have it wavetone can be found here: http://ackiesound.ifdef.jp/

Like I said...different ways and in the end it still takes practice to get them to sound right ;;

Thanks! Never knew about this.