Manual

Because you can choose exactly which harmony notes you want, Manual mode is excellent for creating unusual harmony treatments. Where the SmartKey and SmartChord control modes follow the ascending and descending direction of your voice, Manual mode allows you to play a descending harmony line over an ascending melody line, for example. You can combine this aspect with the ability to play dense chord voicings with lots of sixths, sevenths, and ninth color notes to create harmony parts that are truly unique.

When using Manual or SmartChord modes (the

keyboard control modes), you can save time by using a MIDI sequencer to play any or all of the instrumental parts in your composition. As there are often pad chords on a synth or piano track, these can also be used to trigger harmonies.

When you choose Manual mode in this situation, the harmony parts won’t follow the melody lines you sing; they’ll stay on the notes played on the instrument track. Because you’ll probably want to add notes here and there to your control track, it’s often a good idea to copy the instrument track to another open track in your sequencer and use the copy as your starting point.

In manual mode there is an editing parameter

called “Envelope.” You can use “Envelope” to shape the entrances and exits of harmony notes triggered through MIDI.

The graph in the Envelope window represents volume against time. Adjusting the Attack time with the spin dial will vary the slope on the leading edge of the graph. A shallow slope will fade-in the harmony notes after Vocal Studio is triggered through MIDI. Adjusting the release time will vary the slope on the trailing edge of the graph. A shallow slope will fade the harmony notes out after the MIDI trigger is released. Steep slopes will make instantaneous attacks and releases.

SmartChord

SmartChord uses the intelligent harmonies of the Vocal Studio in conjunction with a MIDI keyboard hooked up to the D8B. On the keyboard, you would play the chords of a song in real time with the lead vocal. IVL Vocal Studio recognizes the chords and creates correct harmonies. SmartChord mode will follow the melody of your voice while staying musically related to the chords on the MIDI control track.

To get harmonies in SmartChord mode you first need to select intervals for one to four of the harmony voices. You can select the intervals from the “Interval” edit window. See the previous section on Intervals.

SmartChord mode, on the other hand, will follow the melody of your voice while staying musically related to the chords on the MIDI control track.

SmartKey

With the right combination of input vocal melody and underlying chord structure, the SmartKey mode can produce harmonies that sound unbelievably real. When you have a song that has a simple chord structure like those found in country and blues, you can dial up SmartKey mode and be on your way to a killer harmony line in mere moments.

The “key” to making SmartKey work properly is to set the key and scale correctly. While it sounds like you’d need some music theory background to do this, don’t despair—if you can lean over and tell a fellow musician what key you’re going to play the next song in, you can set up SmartKey mode effectively.

Let’s break it down into the two components of key and scale. Determining the key is easy; it’s often the first chord in a song. However, some songs are in a different key than the first chord (such as “Sweet Home Alabama,” which is in G but starts with a D chord). Scale can be either major or minor, and depends on the notes that make up the scale.

.

D8B Manual • Appendices • page 149