Exclude notes from Pitch Correction in MainStage
You can use the Pitch Correction effect onscreen keyboard to exclude notes from the pitch quantization grid.
When you first open the effect, all notes of the chromatic scale are selected. This means that every incoming note is altered to fit the next semitone step of the chromatic scale. If the intonation of the singer is poor, this might lead to notes being incorrectly identified and corrected to an unwanted pitch. For example, the singer may have intended to sing an E, but the note is actually closer to a D#. If you do not want the D# in the song, the D# key can be disabled on the keyboard. Because the original pitch was sung closer to an E than a D, it is corrected to an E.
Note: The settings made with the Pitch Correction effect onscreen keyboard are valid for all octave ranges. Individual settings for different octaves are not provided.
Bypass individual notes in a scale in the Pitch Correction effect
In the majority of working situations, you choose a scale from the Scale/Chord menu. You can also bypass individual notes by activating the Bypass Notes button, but this is a less common use case scenario.
In MainStage, click the Bypass Notes button.
Bypassed notes are orange.
This is particularly useful for “blue” notes. Blue notes are notes that slide between pitches, making the major and minor status of the keys difficult to identify. As you may know, one of the major differences between C minor and C major is the Eb (E flat) and Bb (B flat), instead of the E and B. Blues singers glide between these notes, creating an uncertainty or tension between the scales. Use of the bypass buttons allows you to exclude particular keys from changes, leaving them as they were.
Tip: It’s often best to correct only the notes with the most harmonic gravity. For example, choose “sus4” from the Scale/Chord pop-up menu, and set the Root note to match the project key. This limits correction to the root note, the fourth, and the fifth of the key scale. Turn on the bypass buttons for all other notes and only the most important and sensitive notes are corrected, while all other singing remains untouched.