Vocal Lab Manual

Vocal Lab User Manual Vocal Lab helps you train to sing on key. It listens while you sing and displays the pitch of your voice on a graph, in real time. All you have to do is watch the graph while you sing and try to stay near the lines. With a little practice you can greatly improve your intonation. Vocal Lab can identify problem areas in your singing, and can also help improve your intonation on various instruments - Violin, Brass, and Woodwinds. Laidman & Katsura thank you for your interest in our products. We have an entire line of tuning products, and we hope that one will suit your needs. Requirements: Mac OS X 10.2 or later. Audio input device. GETTING STARTED Inspect the Volume Indicator Talk or play something while watching the volume indicator. Several lighted blue bars (4-7) should appear then vanish again. If no bars appear, too few bars, or the red bar appears often, please read the section entitled, 'Selecting the Microphone'. Inspect the Tracking Indicator Sing or play a note and hold it. The tracking indicator should advance steadily while you hold the note. The tracking indicator advances one (very small) unit every time a successful pitch determination is made. A smooth procession indicates great success. Now you're ready to begin. Your results should be nothing short of spectacular! If you're having trouble or feel your results are less than ideal, please read the sections entitled, 'Selecting the Microphone', and 'Best Results'. Microphone placement is very important for Vocal Lab. This topic is covered in 'Best Results'. SELECTING THE MICROPHONE Laidman & Katsura tuning programs work by 'listening' through your Microphone. Because your Mac may support more than one sound input device (Microphone, Line Input, etc.) you may need to choose one. From the Tuner Microphone Menu, select "Configure..." and then choose a device for sound input; generally this will be 'Internal microphone'. You may also be able to use 'Line In' for direct instrument connections, such as a guitar or keyboard. Verify that the Input level indicator is active. As you talk (or play) the bars should light up and vanish again. Adjust the Input volume slider so that most of the bars light up when you talk the loudest. (You don't want all the bars to light up, just most of them, then you know you have the Input level set correctly.) BEST RESULTS Once you're certain the Microphone is working, here is how you can obtain best results... Microphone placement Place the microphone near you, or position yourself near the microphone. The microphone should generally be located as near to the sound source as possible. However, singing too close too a microphone may create "popping" effects. A good starting point is about 2 feet distance. A little experimentation may improve results. Avoid handling the microphone because it introduces rattling noises. If you have an external microphone, try making con…