Revoice Pro 4 - Beat - December 2021

Synchro Arts has made a name for itself with its innovative VocAlign software. With this software, the timing of one audio track can be quickly and easily transferred to another audio track. Anyone who has ever tried to manually bring several vocal takes or guitar recordings into synchronous harmony will undoubtedly appreciate this enormous reduction in workload thanks to artificial intelligence. With their flagship Revoice Pro 4, the editing possibilities go even further.

Timing, pitch and more

In addition to the extensively customizable synchronization of the timing of multiple tracks, Revoice Pro 4 also lets you edit pitches in detail and correct wrong notes manually or automatically. The APT (Audio Performance Transfer) technique makes it possible to copy the timing, pitch, vibrato and level functions of an audio performance and apply them to several other tracks. As a pleasant side effect, this also allows realistic doubling of a single vocal or instrument track for wide stereo sound or full background voicing. When doubling, natural-looking variations in pitch and timing create the impression of a second recording being sung or played. Thoughtful details, such as Vibrato Warp, add realism. Thanks to this function, the character of a sung vibrato is not lost, even when the timing and pitch are changed. Scale Detection and Formant Shifting are also very helpful for creative and fast editing.

DAW integration

Unlike VocAlign, Revoice Pro is not a plug-in for the DAW, but a stand-alone program. Accordingly, the integration and workflow differs depending on the DAW used. DAWs with ARA2 support, such as Cubase, Logic Pro and Studio One, allow the direct export and import of audio tracks; after editing, the tracks sit again in exactly the right places in the arrangement. Unfortunately, users of Ableton Live are once again left out in the cold, as this DAW does not support the universal ARA2 interface or time-related metadata (timestamps) in audio files in general. The tracks must, therefore, first be converted into suitable audio files, loaded into Revoice Pro Standalone, saved there after editing, and then inserted back into Ableton Live at the appropriate point in the arrangement. This cumber- some handling, however, is to be blamed on Ableton and not Synchro Arts; other DAWs such as Cubase even offer ARA2 support; although, unlike Live, they have integrated alignment techniques

Quick and easy

Thanks to the tutorials integrated into the software, the basic operation is quick to learn. Many well-tuned presets allow uncomplicated adjustment of the audio tracks. Even the automatic equalization of complete complex multitrack vocal arrangements is quickly done, because Revoice Pro can recognize matching subranges across tracks. Just as with doubling tracks, the quality of the results obtained is usually convincing right away, even without individual adjustment, but, if necessary, you can make detailed adjustments afterwards. This can also be interesting if you use Revoice Pro as a creative tool and want to create over-the-top artificial effects. Changes to parameters are automatically applied to the output track, so the editing process doesn‘t have to be restarted every time, which also makes it easier to experiment with different settings. When manually correcting individual vocal notes in Warp mode, however, we found the big competitor Melodyne to be somewhat more intuitive to use in a direct comparison, and the results also sounded more natural with larger pitch changes.

Verdict

If your primary concern is manual pitch adjustment and you also want to adjust polyphonic audio signals in convincing quality, Melodyne, in particular, is a tough competitor. However, when it comes to quality in the automatic synchronization of multiple tracks, including and especially in timing, Revoice Pro is hard to beat. The fast and uncomplicated voice doubling also sounds impressively realistic and almost justifies the purchase of the software alone. The operation is uncomplicated and is supported by numerous good presets, and integration via the ARA2 interface allows for fast and lossless exchange with compatible DAWs.