INT-Align
You recorded the vocal twice. Now make the second take land together with the first.
This one does not have an audio demo here yet: it needs two takes of the same line (the lead and the double) and we only have one test recording. We would rather not fake it. What you can see below is exactly how it looks and how it works.
What it looks like
What it looks like
How to use it, in a minute
It goes on the double
INT-Align sits on the track you want to move, not on the lead. The lead vocal reaches it through the sidechain input - the meter tells you when the routing is right.
Play it once
Press Listen and play the section from start to finish. It records both voices while they play, without touching the sound. Then press Align.
70 %, not 100 %
A double sounds fat precisely because the takes are not perfectly together. Glue them all the way and you get one voice with a metallic colour, not two.
Where it is unsure
An extra breath or a different word has nothing to match against. Those stretches are drawn in a different colour, and Nerve decides what happens there.
What it does, in one sentence
It listens to your lead vocal and your double, then nudges the double word by word until both start and end together. You decide how much it tightens them.
Why this exists
Doubling a vocal is what makes a chorus sound big. The problem is you never sing it exactly the same way twice: every word lands a fraction off, and instead of sounding fat it sounds smeared.
You can fix it by hand, but that means cutting and dragging every single word. The tools that do it for you cost between USD 50 and USD 300, and most of them either need a USB dongle or make the plugin phone home every few days to keep working.
This one is free and asks for nothing: no USB dongle, no account, no server that has to let you keep using it. The only thing it does online is tell you when a new version is out.
The most important thing to know
Tightening all the way ruins the double.
A double sounds fat *precisely because* the two takes are not perfectly together. Tighten to 100 % and you no longer have two voices: you have one voice with a strange metallic colour.
That is why the Amount knob ships at 70 % and not at 100. That is the point where the words land together but the double still sounds wide.
How to use it
Four steps, and only the first one takes any setting up.
1. Feed it the lead vocal
INT-Align goes on the double's track, not on the lead. And it needs to hear the lead to know what to align against.
In FL Studio:
1. In the mixer, right-click the arrow at the bottom of the lead vocal track. 2. Choose "Sidechain to this track" and pick the double's track. 3. Open INT-Align, go to Processing → VFX in the plugin's title bar, and select that input. 4. In the plugin window, the top meter should move when you play.
If the meter does not move, the plugin says so in plain words. There is no way for it to work badly in silence.
Important: bypass any reverbs and delays on the lead vocal while the plugin is learning. Otherwise it learns the effect tail instead of the voice.
2. Listen
Press Listen and play the section once, start to finish. The plugin records both voices as they play. It does not touch the sound: everything is heard exactly as before.
3. Align
Press Align. It takes a few seconds and shows you the picture: the lead on top, the double below, and the lines joining each word to its match.
4. Hear the result
From then on, every time you play you hear the double already moved. Ride the Amount knob while it plays until you like it.
The two knobs
Amount: how far the double travels towards the lead.
| Value | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0 % | Nothing moves. The sound comes out exactly as it went in. |
| 50-70 % | Words land together and the double still sounds wide. This is where you want to be. |
| 100 % | Fully glued. Sounds like a single voice with a metallic colour. Good for effects, not for doubling. |
Nerve: what the plugin does where it is not sure.
If the double has an extra breath, or you dropped a word, or you improvised differently, there is nothing to match that stretch against. This knob decides what happens there:
| Value | What happens |
|---|---|
| 0 % | Moves evenly everywhere, even where it is unsure. Tighter, but an odd stretch can sound wrong. |
| 50 % | The middle ground. |
| 100 % | Where it finds no match, it leaves the sound alone. Safer, less tight. |
In the picture, the stretches where the plugin is unsure are drawn in a different colour. You do not have to guess: you can see them.
Exporting the result
The Export button saves the aligned double as a 32-bit WAV file, with no loss of quality. You can drag it straight into the playlist from the plugin window.
The exported file comes out with more quality than what you hear live, not less: when exporting, the plugin is not in a hurry and can do the maths properly.
What material works well and what does not
| Material | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Your own voice doubled, same words | This is what it was built for. Works very well. |
| Doubled guitars or basses | Works. But careful: two guitars glued too tightly cancel each other and sound thinner, not fatter. Use Amount at 40-60 %. |
| Harmonies (same words, different melody) | Works less well: the notes differ, so the plugin can only follow the rhythm. |
| Two different people | The hardest case. Sometimes excellent, sometimes not. Look at the picture before trusting it. |
| A full mix, or chords | No. It is built for one voice or one instrument at a time. |
Tips
- The chorus sounds small. Double the vocal, align at 70 %, and pan the double to one side.
- The double sounds too "doubled". Drop Amount to 50 %. If it persists, the problem is not timing: the two takes have different energy.
- One stretch sounds odd. Raise Nerve. That is exactly what it is for.
- You changed the EQ on the lead vocal. Press Listen again: the plugin learned with the old sound. The screen tells you when the capture is stale.
- With the other plugins: INT-Align goes first, before INT-Tidy and INT-Even. Sort out the timing first, then treat the sound.
About latency
This plugin adds no latency at all, which is unusual: almost everything else that does this either adds delay or makes you render the track before you can hear the result.
It can do that because it plays back the recording it already took, instead of guessing on the fly about sound it has not heard yet.
Download
Get it with the pack
The six plugins come in a single installer, and you can untick the ones you do not want.
Download the packVersion 0.9.1 · 9.4 MB · Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
FAQ
If something isn't working
The lead vocal meter does not move.
The sidechain routing did not take. Repeat step 1.
It says "no match found".
The two takes do not say the same thing, or one of them got cut short. Try a shorter section: one phrase at a time.
I aligned and nothing changed.
Check that Amount is not at 0.
One section sounds odd.
Raise Nerve, or align that section on its own.
I changed something and now it sounds stale.
The plugin plays back what it recorded. Press Listen again.
It does not show up in FL Studio.
Options → Manage Plugins → Rescan. Look for "INT-Align".