Smart Align technology from Synchro Arts Revoice Pro 4 is a lifesaver in post-production,  but there’s nothing to stop music mixers from getting a slice of some Smart Align action as well. In this article and video, Luke Goddard investigates…

How Do I Get My Vocals Tight?

The polish that well-tracked stacks of harmonies and background vocals (BVs) lend to the right production is unbeatable when done properly. Throw in the time-honored technique of double-tracking lead and other vocals, and there’s a lot of potentials for ragged consonants to go unchecked until it’s too late. 

While artist precision at the mic is always the aim, sometimes having the ability to tighten up vocals in the box is the only way, especially when the genre itself demands ‘perfection’. Until recently, pitch correction and editing with the DAW’s available tools were our only options. Until now…

How Does Revoice Pro 4.3 Do It?

In the 4.3 updates, Revoice Pro gets Synchro Arts’ SmartAlign technology, which determines the timing relationship between key features of a Guide and a Dub to decide when alignments start and end. This introduces a powerful Post Production workflow as demonstrated in Mike Thornton’s article and video where he uses SmartAlign for ADR.

Revoice Pro is a standalone program, but Synchro Arts have developed the Revoice Pro 4 Link plugin that bridges the gap between RVP and the DAW. Pro Tools users get the Quick APT (Audio Performance Transfer) and Quick Doubler Audiosuite plugins, as well as Revoice Pro Link Audiosuite plugin that I focus on in the video.

For music mixers, this is also an extremely powerful tool for tightening up BVs or double tracks for all those times where the “energy” is good but the accuracy is not. The key to using Revoice Pro 4.3 for music is understanding the Guide and Dub terminology. In all cases, we are aligning the Dub to the Guide. In a stack, we would use the tightest harmony track as the Guide and align the others to that as Dubs. 

How Does Revoice Pro with SmartAlign Sound?

In a word, pretty flawless. The APT modes for tightening have no significant artifacts when tightening stacks, and it must be said that once you use it it will make any historical coarseness or warbliness that you might associate with time-stretching seem like a very distant memory. What also really impressed me was the doubling which produces some great double-tracked effects that can hold their own on front-and-centre vocals without giving the game away. It cannot quite match the organic gentle phasing of the real thing, but beyond that it really is very good indeed. Both Doubler and APT modes also let you select varying levels of tightness to retain some imperfections where needed.

Final Thoughts

Revoice Pro with Smart Align is an incredibly powerful one-stop solution for music, making flawless stacks or doubles a reality long after the artist has left the studio. Can you really kiss goodbye to ragged vocal stacks or get convincing double tracks with a plugin? If you have Revoice Pro, the answer is yes you can. 

Head over to our friends at Synchro Arts to find out more about Revoice Pro 4.3 with SmartAlign