Background Information:
I purchase my backing tracks from “backingtrackscustom.com”. I currently have 150 songs from them.
All songs come loaded in session view with each song as a scene.
I copy each scene (song) to arrangement view and add a midi track to control the bpm (studio to stage method)
I Copy the scene name in session view to a locator at the beginning of the song in arrangement view. The scene name has the Key of the song in the name.
I add a track for lyrics and also one for song sections per your instructions.
backingtrackcustom already has included a Count-in track for cues and a Click track included.
Audio tracks are: Other , Drums/other, Percussion/other, Bass, Keys, Horns/other, Guitar,
BK Vox/Other, Lead Vox, Guitar/Other, Other
My Problem with Pitch Adjustment:
I have several singers that sing in my group and each person has a different ideal pitch setttings. eg(0 for no adjustment), (+3 for higher pitch, (-4 for lower pitch) for each song.
Currently in Ableton, when a singer wants to sing a particular song, I select all of the audio tracks listed above (except drum tracks) and adjust the pitch together for that particular song for the singer’s voice. This takes some time when switching songs and I need a list of each song with the Singer’s pitch. Additionally, the song is changed in the track to that new pitch. This works OK, but not ideal.
In the Locator title, I add a note for each song showing the ideal pitch for each singer for documentation (eg: Some Beach - Blake Sheldon {original Key: C (0) Gary (-3), Bruce (+2)} so I can adjust as quickly as possible.
My Suggestion for Ableset:
Add a Key mode in the Locator title (eg [basekey C]
In the names of all of the audio tracks that need selected to adjust pitch, add a keyword (eg. [pitchadjust} to tell Able set that this track can be adjusted.
In Performance mode settings, add an option “Adjust Audio Track Pitches” where you can select to adjust the track pitches up or down, say +/- 12 half tones. This would making the change of pitch very fast on the fly.
Song would then play the song normally with the new selected tone, but the original tones of the song remain the original values after playing.
In case I record a singer’s voice, I would just add a note in the track title the pitch value for the track recorded eg. (Recorded at adjusted pitch of +4) for reference.
Might need an option to “Reset pitch to original setting”
You could also use this to individually adjust the chord keys if you wanted to so that each song could be adjusted accordingly.
This would also be great for a Karaoke setting and/or switching bands that want to play in different keys.