MUnison Questions

[wagtunes]

Hi:

Long time owner of MPowersynth. One of my favorites. Even did a sound library for it that sold fairly well.

Years ago, when I was all hardware, I had a vocal processor by Digitech called the Vocalist. Essentially, you sang into a mic and held down chords on the keyboard at the same time and it would create harmony on the fly. So if I hit a C chord, it would produce a C major harmony in 4 voices. If I hit an A minor chord, it would product an A minor harmony in 4 voices and so on. It was the one thing I used in every vocal song I did.

Fast forward to 2013 and going all ITB and my Vocalist is gone and I haven't been able to find anything that has been able to replace it in software.

Then today I saw an add at KVR for MUnison. It looked interesting. So I watched the video. It appears to be able to do what my Vocalist did. But I'm not exactly sure how it works.

Therefor, would you mind clarifying some operational issues for me before I make my purchase, just to make sure it's going to do what I need it to do and that it will be as relatively easy to use as my Vocalist was.

First off, i no longer do live vocals as my voice is shot. So I use Vocaloid to generate them.

You can hear an example below

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... va-on-lead

Now Vocaloid itself is a VST that produces vocals instead of synth sounds. So I assume, for starters, that I would insert MUnison as an FX insert. Correct?

Okay, after doing that, how exactly would I generate harmonies at various parts of the vocal line?

For example, say JUST at the chorus, I want to play C for line one, Am for line two, F for line 3 and G for line 4, with each line starting at say 1:15 through the song and each line about 7 seconds long. So the C would trigger at 1:15, the Am at 1:22, the F at 1:29 and the G at 1:36.

What are the steps I would need to take to pull this off?

Once I understand that essential basic operation (at least to me this should be pretty standard stuff for a vocalizer) I'll know whether or not it's easier for me to get MUnison or simply copy the Vocaloid tracks and move the harmony track notes manually. I have to believe MUnison makes the process much simpler.

Finally, I know your plugins have weekly 50% off sales. Is MUnison one of the ones eligible for these sales.

Thank you for your time in getting back to me on this.

[MeldaProduction]

Hi,

thank you!
Now, it actually depends on what you want:

- MUnison - it generates automatically as many voices as you want in the specified scale with the voicing scheme. For example if you play in C major, you just select it, sing something, it will detect the pitch and generate voices in such a way that for example one is +5 semitones and another is +9, both +- so that it is correct in C major. That's called smart harmonization.

- MMultiBandHarmonizer - from what you described it seems that this one would be better for you - There are several modes, but the relevant one will be Harmonizer. In that one you basically play what you want it to play, literally. So you connect MIDI to it (band 1 == midi channel 1 etc., you'll probably need just one band) and change the tones it should play - it will be visible in the piano editor in the bottom.

And all plugins get discounted from time to time .

[ZentralmassivSound]

My gutfeeling though is that MUnison sounds better when doing pitch shifting / chords. I didn't do serious testing, just by playing around I got the impression that MUnison is superior to MMBHarmonizer. Could it be true?

[MeldaProduction]

The engine is the same actually . But it could depend on FFT settings.

[wagtunes]

Hi,

thank you!
Now, it actually depends on what you want:

- MUnison - it generates automatically as many voices as you want in the specified scale with the voicing scheme. For example if you play in C major, you just select it, sing something, it will detect the pitch and generate voices in such a way that for example one is +5 semitones and another is +9, both +- so that it is correct in C major. That's called smart harmonization.

- MMultiBandHarmonizer - from what you described it seems that this one would be better for you - There are several modes, but the relevant one will be Harmonizer. In that one you basically play what you want it to play, literally. So you connect MIDI to it (band 1 == midi channel 1 etc., you'll probably need just one band) and change the tones it should play - it will be visible in the piano editor in the bottom.

And all plugins get discounted from time to time .

If I'm understanding you correctly, MUnison has no way of changing from playing, say a C chord harmony (c bass, c, e, g) at 1:25 of the song and then switch to playing an A minor chord harmony (a bass, e, a, c) at say 1:32 into the song whereas the harmonizer can because of MIDI control?

Or, is there a way to accomplish what I want to do with MUnison through another method, such as automation changing the setting at various parts of the song?

I haven't checked out any Harmonizer videos yet but I did watch a couple of MUnison ones and I really liked what I heard as far as the quality of the harmonies. I'd like to get that to work the way I'm looking for it to work if possible, even if it takes a little automation to do it. Naturally, MIDI control would be easiest.

Ultimately, I may end up getting both someday but am deciding on one for now.

Thanks again for all your help.

[MeldaProduction]

Not really - MUnison does that all automatically, which means you cannot really say, now play C, E and G. Well, you can, but it will all depend on the number of voices. MUnison is designed to be simple to use, even live. You can use MIDI to control the harmonies, but in a much more simple way. On the other hand MMultiBandHarmonizer lets you literally play what you want it to sing and there's no hidden intelligence.

[wagtunes]

Not really - MUnison does that all automatically, which means you cannot really say, now play C, E and G. Well, you can, but it will all depend on the number of voices. MUnison is designed to be simple to use, even live. You can use MIDI to control the harmonies, but in a much more simple way. On the other hand MMultiBandHarmonizer lets you literally play what you want it to sing and there's no hidden intelligence.

Ah, so in other words, Harmonizer is more flexible. If I hit say, C3, F#3, G#3 and B3 on my keyboard, that's exactly what it will play, whereas to do that with MUnison there is maybe a little more work involved?

Is that pretty much the gist? MUnison is more simple harmony done simply. Correct?

[MeldaProduction]

Still not really. They are just different. MUnison does everything automatically, hence if you want something specific manually, then it may be hard. It also creates several voices potentially at the same tone, hence the name unison. MMultiBandHarmonizer doesn't do anything automatically, so you need to play what you want.

[wagtunes]

Still not really. They are just different. MUnison does everything automatically, hence if you want something specific manually, then it may be hard. It also creates several voices potentially at the same tone, hence the name unison. MMultiBandHarmonizer doesn't do anything automatically, so you need to play what you want.

Got it. Thanks. So depending on what it is I want to do, I may actually need both. Sometimes I want something automatic and at the same tone. Other times I will want something more complex.

Both sound great. So will probably be picking up both.

[MeldaProduction]

That's the best option!

[wagtunes]

Hi:

Me again.

Saw MUnison was on sale so downloaded the demo and started playing around with it.

Setup a rather jazzy vocal line. Then went into custom and set the notes to play at C, F# and A. Then turned on automation and started playback. Harmony started on D. Just before last note of the line, clicked on E with my mouse. Played back line and automation switched from D to E just at that point in time. Resulting vocal line super cool and I didn't even get super fancy with the changes. I could have gone into custom and actually changed the notes played at that point to something different as well.

In short, super cool plugin and a must have for background vocals. It even sounds great on Vocaloid synthetic vocals.

So I've logged into my account and will be picking this up tonight. It is exactly what I need it to do even if there's a bit of work involved to get there. With this kind of control, nothing I can't pull off.

Thanks for all your help. Love your stuff.

[MeldaProduction]

Very well, thank you!