Let's take a listen, this is an audio file. [MUSIC] And I've already detected the correct tempo for this audio file. The correct tempo for this audio file will be 92 beats per minute. And that's indicated in our Tempo window in our transport. I can verify that by turning on our Click and listening to the audio file along with the click. I just turn down the audio file on the left. [MUSIC] I'm clicking along in tempo. And I will now show you some of the parameters that will allow me to flex this vocal. I'm going to open up my Global window. And it's going to show me my Tempo window, my Arrangement, my Marker, my Signature. I've got my Flex window up here. And I can use these things in conjunction with each other to do some interesting things. If I turn my Flex window on, A Select Flex Mode pull-down menu appears on my track. Before I do that, I need to make sure that my vocal will be married to bars and beats if I start to do any global tempo changes. In Logic, the way to do that would be to select Tempo > Remove Tempo Information from Audio File. Now this audio file is looking for tempo information, there's nothing there. And I will Export Tempo Information to the Audio File. I've just embedded the 92 beats per minute positions into this file. So bar 21 will always be bar 21, no matter what happens to the tempo. In order for the audio to follow tempo, it has to be flexed. I'll turn the Global window on, and I'll select my Flex mode. Monophonic is what I would use for a vocal. Slicing is what I might use for drums because it can look at very short algorithms. Rhythmic is what I might use for drums, also. The difference between Slicing and Rhythmic is that Slicing, in theory, does not elasticize audio. It does not stretch audio or does not use time compression or expansion. Rhythmic does, Polyphonic does, Monophonic does, Speed does, also. So we'll use Monophonic for our vocal. And once we do that, we should have some transients that are detecting in our vocal. We'll go take a look, there are the transients. Those are the same transients that I found when I was using Pro Tools, using the elastic audio algorithm. Those transients are now embedded at the bar beat positions that they are currently at. And if I zoom in to bar 20, you'll see that even though this is not on 20, it's still going to stay relative to bar 20 at any tempo that I change this file to. So now here comes some of the magic, let's go change our tempo. Listen to the click at the new tempo, and listen to our audio at the new tempo. We'll open up our Tempo list, Change our tempo to our dance tempo, 126, and take a listen. [MUSIC] Let's change it to 200 beats per minute. [MUSIC] We'll change it to 60 beats per minute. [MUSIC] And you can hear what it does to the vocal itself as I conform it beyond what might be comfortable for that vocal. You start to introduce some artifacts, but once again, [MUSIC] I would say get used to working with manipulating audio in as many interesting ways as you feel works for your creativity. Because these tools will just get better and better as time goes on. Now let's go back to our original tempo of 92 beats per minute. And let's change one of these phrases on a micro level. So I'll go to bar 21, we'll close this window, and we'll take a listen. [MUSIC] So I'll change the much more. And we'll put the much on the downbeat and the more on the upbeat. [MUSIC] And you can see that my bars and beats are right here. Here this bar 22 beat 1, beat 2, beat 3, and beat 4. And I want to put the much on beat 2 of bar 22. And the upbeat of beat 2 will be where the more will go. So let me see a little bit more of this file. Flex gives you the ability to create anchors. I created anchors the last time you saw me do this in Pro Tools. And I can create an anchor by creating a single anchor, On that side, and another single anchor, let's put it right here. And now if I move any of these information, it will move around in between two anchor points. If I didn't have those anchors, and I'm going to eliminate this one, will erase it. If I didn't have those anchors, And I went in to move my audio around. It's moving the entire file, that's not a good thing. Cmd+Z, we're back to where we were. And let's go in and place an anchor here, an anchor here. And put the much on the downbeat, and the more is on the upbeat, and listen to our phrase. [MUSIC] I love these tools, especially for remixing. I can conform any composition from any era and turn it into something that's more modern. Let's go back and give it one more listen. [MUSIC] And these anchors will stay in place in their new position even if I adjust the tempo. Let's go in and adjust our tempo to our dance tempo, go back to bar 21, and take a listen. [MUSIC] Let's adjust to our extremely slow tempo. And follow along as the click beats with us. [MUSIC] And that's the conformed tempo with the conformed vocal placement that I created, that that singer did not create. One more time. [MUSIC] And I'll go and erase those so we can get back to the original performance of our singer. This is considered non-destructive editing. And this is how it used to sound. [MUSIC] As I said, I love these tools. If you get a chance to get into your DAW and work with these tools, you can tighten up the timing of your performances, the execution of your performances, and the lock of your performances against other rhythms and other beats that might be in your song. I hope you've enjoyed this look at elastic audio and flex. I'm sure for many of you, there are questions. When do we use it, why do we use it? Even if we have the how to use it down, is this the best use for a vocal? Well, these are the questions that I have to leave to the creativity of each vocal producer in his or her products. I don't really look at these tools as crutches. I don't look at these tools as something that can make a person that doesn't have natural talent better. I look at these tools as an extension of our 21st century toolbox. And in the 21st century, I want to be prepared for whatever might be needed in my compositions. So knowing them is better than not knowing them. Using them is up to your discretion.
