# INT-Align > INT-Align | Free vocal alignment You recorded the vocal twice. Now make the second take **land together** with the first. ## 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 โ†’ 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. ## Si algo no anda ### 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 โ†’ Manage Plugins โ†’ Rescan. Look for "INT-Align". ## Facts - Version: 0.9.1 - Formats: VST3 y CLAP - Platform: Windows 10 / 11, 64 bits - Price: free - Your DAW lists it under: Fx ยท Pitch/Time - Download: https://github.com/luchobz268-dotcom/int-updates/releases/download/plugins-v0.9.1/INT-Plugins-Setup.exe --- HTML version of this page: https://vst.ineedtime.com.ar/en/plugins/int-align Site summary for machines: https://vst.ineedtime.com.ar/llms.txt Made by I.N.T., an independent project based in Argentina.