How To Tune And Edit Pop Vocals (LIKE A PRO!) | Make Pop Music

In this video, Austin shows you how to manually tune vocals, correct timing mistakes, and align background vocals to a lead vocal. Tuning and editing vocals can separate a professional sounding record from something that feels like a quick demo. Watch as Austin takes you through his entire tuning and timing process to get professional level vocal recordings.
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DAW / Program I Use:
new.steinberg.net/cubase​​​​​​
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My Gear:
DAW: Cubase 11 Pro
Desk: AZ Studio Workstations
Main Microphone: Lewitt LCT1040
Monitors: Focal Shape 65s with Focal Sub6
Interface: UAD Apollo Twin USB
MIDI Keyboard: M-Audio Code 61
Keyboards: Roland Juno DS88, Roland Juno 106, Arturia PolyBrute
Guitars: Fender American Professional Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Taylor 214 CE Plus
Preamps: Heritage Audio HA81A & Audient ASP800
Microphones: Advanced Audio 251, Slate ML-1, Shure SM7B, JZ BH-1, JZ V67, Lauten Audio LA-320, Lauten Audio LA-220, Lauten Audio LA-120, AKG P170, Sterling ST59
Camera: Panasonic G7
Lens: Rokinon 12mm f2
Camera Lights: Neewer LED Light Panels
Timestamps:
Intro 0:00
Raw Vocal 1:30
Manually Tuning Vocals On A Grid 1:50
First Pass On Tuning 2:19
Over-Tuning To Get The Vocal In The Right Place 3:30
Smoothing Vocal Tuning Artifacts 6:22
Final Manual Vocal Tuning 8:25
Manually Tuned Vocals In The Mix 9:20
Adding Auto-Tune Pro For That PRO Sound 9:40
Manually Editing Timing Issues 11:40
Tuned and Timed Vocals In The Mix 14:38
Adding Vocal Stacks 15:07
Tuning Vocal Stacks 16:36
Time Aligning Vocal Stacks 19:00
Vocal Stacks In The Mix 20:14
Cutting Breaths and Cross Fades 20:26
Minor Tuning Tweaks 20:54
Tune and Timed Vocals Vs. Raw Vocals 21:23
Background Vocal Tuning Tip 22:45
Outro 23:15

[@SergiOrtiz]

This is literally the best channel on pop production specially vocals! Every other video I've watched through the years is either for hip hop R&B or corrects without minding it sounding natural

[@mystikcid]

I saw you miss that curve on anything when you were adjusting slope and maxed the DB and was eager to watch you find that small mistake, and you did! Didn’t skip over it and I knew you wouldn’t. Extremely thankful for Austin, I’ve come along way due to the content you put out, you are extraordinary human being for the quality videos you make man. Passion really really shows.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@jitendradewangan9485]

I really need that. thanks, Austin

[@aleksamrkela831]

Aw, man. And all this time, I was time-aligning my doubles and harmonies manually. That aligner is gonna come in handy!

[@taiebcyril413]

Same bro ✊

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@kiliankraus]

this is just the video I need, excited to see if you have any cool timesavers with workflow, I have been doing so much on vocals it gets hella long

[@HunterReeceVEVO]

Another great one. Thanks Austin!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@AndiNovaOfficial]

Lovely video! Didnt know about the built-in align feature, mindblowing!

[@SJMusixx]

Please don't stop making videos🥺. You've helped me a lot really. Thank you so much ❤️

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@bradleyaffolter8052]

What a great track. I’d love to see the breakdown.

[@RhyceRecords]

Thanks for these incredible videos Austin!!! I've been learning so much from you! and the Poptopia Serum pack is incredible from a production standpoint. Thank you!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@OSdahl]

Thank Austin you are the man! May God Bless you!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@thebasspapa]

very good explained, thanks and a great tune also

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@cornbone]

I know this video wasn't intended to be promotion for cubase but I'm absolutely sold on it after watching and I'm strongly thinking about saving up for cubase instead of ableton now lol. I'm so impressed with how the pitch editing sounds. it sounds even cleaner than some melodyne examples I've seen!

[@MakePopMusic]

Cubase has it alllll. I’m telling you, I could never see myself swapping DAWs!

[@haystixxbeats9225]

This is really helpful. Thank you

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@darrelcameron3932]

Thank you!!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@ProducerStefanSchnabel]

A BIG THANK YOU! For this Tutorial! Best musical regards from Germany.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@Byron101_]

Cubase Vari Audio is a real weapon - and has same sound as Melodyne. a big plus: direct integration and workflow of VA is in Cubase muuuch better...

[@MakePopMusic]

Exactly!!!

[@peeweegee]

Excellent walkthrough, Austin! Really well done. You need to host a production weekend in ORL!!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@Aviorrok]

Great video!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@shubhamkoli4127]

how is this even possible? I have just completed my track and I was just about to search a tutorial for tuning vocals! xO xO damn you Austin

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@ErnestPaulRavi]

Great💯

[@kiliankraus]

congrats on the podcast dude, excited to see where it goes

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@danirosesaleh4377]

Great 👍🏽

[@timothyforry2222]

Gold Content

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@ryouichi4164]

I actually am fine with the raw vocals, it give some form of emotion, fixing the slight cracks in between of course is fine but like, those raw vocals were surprisingly very clean.

[@ianmusicc]

do i do all this already? yes. did I still watch the whole video? absolutely yes.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@LarissaSimpson]

Great video! The harp in this song is really beautiful too :o)

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@aaronpanganiban4827]

Cubase coming in clutch with 3 plugins for free like that 😂. Thank you for this video! I mainly work on ProTools and Melodyne for manual tuning (still learning how to use AutoTune Pro’s graph mode. Feels difficult for me to navigate and get any grid/time needed things correct on there). Great to know the trick of overtuning and then adjusting! Will totally put that into workflow

[@Quant-Beat]

And Pro Tools was and is dependent upon having Melodyne as the DAW itself has no such a tool. Cubase has fortunately.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@scottnelle]

Dang, I've never seen Variaudio used in depth before. That's super powerful, and sounds good. I'm starting to consider a switch to Cubase!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@KordTaylor]

"half-assing" 😂 Way to keep us on our game Austin. 👏

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@imayushsharmaa]

We'll meet soon my friend 💜

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@nikhilmusiq]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@jocelynjosssheehy2970]

Tremendous work on the vocals! You are fast and so efficient! But why the disconnected and vague music behind sounds like something we heard in a shopping mall during Christmas time?

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@yangwang1133]

Hi Austin. Could you make a tutorial for this song elements? that was sound so good. thanks.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@Magicprinze]

could you a mixing vocals tutorial as well? for example vocal chain and how to eq vocals to sit on the mix with compressor. this are fire tutorials. great job!

[@HunterReeceVEVO]

On his channel he has a lot of vocal mixing help. Very in depth

[@OSdahl]

He has done that. Go into channel and youll find it

[@Magicprinze]

@@OSdahl thanks for the info

[@Magicprinze]

@@HunterReeceVEVO thanks for letting me know

[@newemotionfm]

Hey Austin, do you feel like if you're starting out as a vocalist, is it more efficient to edit timings or continue to practice takes until it's super tight? Obviously improving is always the goal but trying to keep a reasonable workflow where it's not just sucking up all your production time. How do you feel about it? Great work as always, long-time subscriber!

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@musicviolamusician4392]

what app or program are you using??

[@Quant-Beat]

Regarding VariAudio vs Melodyne, could a Cubase-user skip Melodyne without missing out the slightest? I must be honest with that I just love VariAudio as it always there, from start to finish, whenever I want, maybe just look later on.

[@MakePopMusic]

Absolutely! I literally only manually tune in Vari!

[@avishaibadinOfficial]

hi there austin yor great.. realy. say why dont i have the scale assistant part in my veri audio?

[@MakePopMusic]

It’s a Cubase 12 feature. It wasn’t on 11 or before

[@avishaibadinOfficial]

@@MakePopMusic ok . thanks .:)

[@NoProblemoStudio]

It's been a while since i work on my "music". This video really get me all pumped out. Hopefully i can find the time to mess around with my DAW🥲🥲🥲

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@Magicprinze]

was wondering if you sell vocal chains as well? so we can just pop it in

[@bl6628]

He's shown his vocal chain of effects for main and background vocals in a lot of videos and also discussed their settings. Unfortunately, you can't just add his VSTS and copy their settings because every song and vocal performance is different. The best you can do is find one of his chains, load all the equivalent VSTS and save it as a preset. Then when you go to use it, disable everything but the first one. Find the setting for the first one that works, enable the second in the effect chain, and then repeat until the end. You could find some info on "one size fits all" effect chains that work amazing on a few tracks but when it comes down to it there's currently no way to get these results without manually going in and getting things right on a per song basis.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@prajwal_bagewadi]

sir need a tutorial on pop drum pattern

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@Mr.j996]

Next’s videos on gaining stage vocals

[@MakePopMusic]

Nah. I don’t even fuck with gain staging in a digital workflow like that

[@OSdahl]

@@MakePopMusic why not does it destroy the sound?

[@tommeSVK]

is there full song?

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@YuvProd]

I like to do vocal aligning by hand rather then using cubase aligner

[@maximkomov]

Agree. Cubase aligning never worked properly for me…

[@YuvProd]

@@maximkomov and, its more fun lol.. the is a plugin that called vocalign its doing a very good job

[@OSdahl]

Use bend markers, or use melodyne.

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@cayxine]

22

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆..

[@radostinmihaylov9180]

I cant faint my scale asistent i use 11 pro 😢

[@dustingriffith3572]

This tune out yet'????

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@ramseysounds2086]

Personally I never use autotune. I always tune everything manually. I think it sounds more human. Takes longer but better results. IMO

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.

[@mikeabatzidis]

Feels like a play needs to be adjusted a little

[@MakePopMusic]

Everything could use different tweaks but I was just running through for the video 😂

[@mikeabatzidis]

I know I just hate auto tune I rather have the singer retake the take - keep it up buddy 👍

[@rjjrdq]

How great were old school singers? No autotune.

[@MakePopMusic]

Idk, I hear old shit all the time that sounds awful and could’ve used some editing honestly

[@rjjrdq]

@@MakePopMusic No doubt. Autotune is an awesome tool for sure. Just in this case it seemed like the vox required quite a bit of editing.

[@willfly8650]

f(x)=x^2+1 vocals 😂

[@user-wl8md1gk9f]

👆👆Thanks for watching and commenting I have something for you 🎁🎁👆.