Craig Anderton
Well-known member
(Note: Anything titled “Craig’s Tip” would have appeared in the PreSonus Blog if I was still posting there, and will be included in future updates of The Huge Book of Studio One Tips and Tricks.)
This tip is for parts where you use the slide to play a chord, then slide it up and down the guitar neck (for example, sliding among A major, B Major and E major). Melodyne Editor and Studio can deal with problematic tuning issues because they offer polyphonic processing. Amazingly, this technique also works with Melodyne Essential although there are some limitations.
The Ground Rules
Because slide guitar isn’t quantized by frets, it might seem like this application makes no sense. However, in an ideal world, the chord where you start and end the slide should be at the desired tuning. For example, if you slide up from B major to E major, you don’t want either one to be sharp or flat. That’s what this tip is all about.
Slide Guitar Tuning with Essential
If all the notes within the chord are tuned correctly with respect to each other (i.e., the slide wasn’t at an angle), Melodyne Essential can do tuning correction. The chords appear as individual blobs (fig. 1). Select the blob that represents the chord you want to tune. Adjust the pitch center to 100% (or to taste), but leave Pitch Drift at 0%. “Correcting” Pitch Drift will alter the slide between the chords, and you almost certainly don’t want this.
Figure 1: Although the blob looks like an individual note, you’re actually tuning the entire underlying chord.
Polyphonic Tuning Correction
With the Editor and Studio versions, use the Polyphonic Sustain algorithm. In addition to tuning the slide start and slide end chords, this algorithm can correct for mistunings within the chord if the slide was at an angle. However, you must select what needs to be corrected carefully (fig. 2).
Figure 2: Using the Polyphonic Sustain algorithm. Apply correction only to blobs that actually sound out of tune, not just look out of tune.
To retain a part that sounds natural, select only the note blobs for chords where the slide starts or ends. These will typically be the longest blobs (note the selected blobs in fig. 2). Set Pitch Center to 100% (or to taste) but leave Pitch Drift at 0%. Because this tunes the chord’s notes, if the slide was at an angle the notes will be tuned to the proper chord notes. Do not “correct” any of the smaller blobs between the start and end chords of a slide. You simply want to make sure that where the slide ends up (and usually, where it starts) is tuned properly.
Listen carefully after tuning a set of blobs. If a correction compromises the slide effect, tuning only a few of the blobs in the chord may help.
To hear an audio example of this, because you’ve subscribed to my YouTube channel (What?!? You haven’t? Let’s fix that!), you’ll know when my song “There’s Nothing Like a Southern Belle” goes online. The slide guitar parts sound very cool, thanks to this trick. I’ll also post a song link in “Made in Studio One,” but since there’s no category for “Kraftwerk Meets Country,” look for it under "Rock."
This tip is for parts where you use the slide to play a chord, then slide it up and down the guitar neck (for example, sliding among A major, B Major and E major). Melodyne Editor and Studio can deal with problematic tuning issues because they offer polyphonic processing. Amazingly, this technique also works with Melodyne Essential although there are some limitations.
The Ground Rules
Because slide guitar isn’t quantized by frets, it might seem like this application makes no sense. However, in an ideal world, the chord where you start and end the slide should be at the desired tuning. For example, if you slide up from B major to E major, you don’t want either one to be sharp or flat. That’s what this tip is all about.
Slide Guitar Tuning with Essential
If all the notes within the chord are tuned correctly with respect to each other (i.e., the slide wasn’t at an angle), Melodyne Essential can do tuning correction. The chords appear as individual blobs (fig. 1). Select the blob that represents the chord you want to tune. Adjust the pitch center to 100% (or to taste), but leave Pitch Drift at 0%. “Correcting” Pitch Drift will alter the slide between the chords, and you almost certainly don’t want this.
Figure 1: Although the blob looks like an individual note, you’re actually tuning the entire underlying chord.
Polyphonic Tuning Correction
With the Editor and Studio versions, use the Polyphonic Sustain algorithm. In addition to tuning the slide start and slide end chords, this algorithm can correct for mistunings within the chord if the slide was at an angle. However, you must select what needs to be corrected carefully (fig. 2).
Figure 2: Using the Polyphonic Sustain algorithm. Apply correction only to blobs that actually sound out of tune, not just look out of tune.
To retain a part that sounds natural, select only the note blobs for chords where the slide starts or ends. These will typically be the longest blobs (note the selected blobs in fig. 2). Set Pitch Center to 100% (or to taste) but leave Pitch Drift at 0%. Because this tunes the chord’s notes, if the slide was at an angle the notes will be tuned to the proper chord notes. Do not “correct” any of the smaller blobs between the start and end chords of a slide. You simply want to make sure that where the slide ends up (and usually, where it starts) is tuned properly.
Listen carefully after tuning a set of blobs. If a correction compromises the slide effect, tuning only a few of the blobs in the chord may help.
To hear an audio example of this, because you’ve subscribed to my YouTube channel (What?!? You haven’t? Let’s fix that!), you’ll know when my song “There’s Nothing Like a Southern Belle” goes online. The slide guitar parts sound very cool, thanks to this trick. I’ll also post a song link in “Made in Studio One,” but since there’s no category for “Kraftwerk Meets Country,” look for it under "Rock."