Mackie 8-BUS Series, Owner'S Manual

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E-6
D i g i t a l 8 • B u s
IVL Vocal Studio
2. Intelligent Harmonies: IVL Vocal
Studio uses intelligence to help create natural
harmonies.
Smart Smart Pitch
Action Manual Chord Key Shift
Requires MIDI Input yes yes no no
Use intelligent harmonies no yes yes no
Manual
Because you can choose exactly which
harmony notes you want, Manual mode is
excellent for creating unusual harmony treat-
ments. 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 composi-
tion. 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 situ-
ation, 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 param-
eter 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 har-
mony 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 key-
board 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 inter-
vals 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 prop-
erly 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.