VocAlign comes in two different forms in the most recent Digital Performer: A realtime insert, and an ARA effect.
Setting up the realtime insert:
The realtime plugin captures Dub audio (the audio that will be edited) from the track that the plug-in has been placed on, and captures Guide audio from a Side Chain input.
Both signals are captured at the same time by arming the Dub capture button and then playing back audio in Digital Performer's Sequence.
1) Place VocAlign in the first insert slot on your Dub track.
Make sure the plugin you're inserting matches the channel layout of your vocal soundbites - most often, this will mean selecting the Mono plugin.
2) At the top of the plugin interface, you will find some of Digital Performer's own settings, including the Side Chain menu which we will be using to set up a bundle/bus.
When you click the Side Chain dropdown menu, there will be a "New ___ Bundle" option which you can use to create a new bus — creating it from here instead of from Digital Performer's Bundle window helps ensure that the channel layout matches.
If you have a bundle/bus that doesn't match, it won't appear correctly in the following steps.
3) Once you have your new bundle set up, set the Bus that you've chosen as a Send on your Guide track:
4) Arm the Capture button on the lefthand side of the Dub lane so that it turns red and displays "stop":
5) Play back the section of audio you want to capture using Digital Performer's own transport controls.
6) When you play back audio in Digital Performer, VocALign's aligned Output will play back in place of the audio on your Sequence timeline.
Setting up the ARA effect:
The ARA (Audio Random Access) VST3 has tighter plugin>DAW integration than a normal VST3 plug-in, allowing for exchange of more kinds of information like audio file paths and soundbite start/end times.
We use this to instantly capture audio into the plugin, getting around the need for realtime capture through audio inputs.
On macOS, this will only be available if you have the VST3 enabled in Digital Performer's preferences; If you only have the AU enabled, the ARA effect will not be available.
1) Select a soundbite in the Sequence and navigate to the Audio menu > ARA
There you will have the option to place the ARA version of the plugin on the track, or on soundbites directly:
The ARA plug-in needs to be added to each track or individual soundbite that you want to work with - it can only see soundbites (or soundbites on tracks) where it has been added.
Trying to capture a soundbite which does not have the plugin available to it will result in errors.
The ARA plugin will be docked at the bottom of your DAW window by default.
Only one ARA plugin can be present at a time, because they work directly with the original audio file and can't be used as a normal effect chain.
2) Select your Guide soundbite in the Sequence and click the Guide capture button,
Then select your Dub(s) in the Sequence and click the Dub capture button.
Each piece of audio will be instantly captured into the appropriate lane in the plug-in.
As in the realtime plugin, VocAlign's Output will play back in place of the Dub audio in the Sequence.
Rendering plug-in audio into new Soundbites
Rendering audio into a new soundbite (in the case you want a soundbite to work with, and not rely on plug-in playback) involves the use of Digital Performer's own Bounce utility.
1) Head to the File menu and choose the Bounce to Disk option
2) Switch the Source setting to Tracks instead of Outputs (de-select Outputs), and select your dub track(s) in the list on the right:
- Setting Import to Add to Sequence is helpful — it imports the bounced audio right back into your session so that you don't have to find and drag/drop any audio back in manually.
- If you're only bouncing a single Track, the resulting track/file will be named as the File Name only.
- In the case that you're Bouncing multiple Dub tracks, the File Name will be appended to the original name, making it clear which new soundbite is which:
3) After bouncing, you will need to clean up your tracks/effects a touch to make sure you're not playing back multiple copies of the same audio.
Mute or remove the original Dubs — whichever workflow works best for you.