Along with various other improvements, version 6 of this labour‑saving plug‑in brings ARA2 support to Pro Tools users.

Originally conceived for the AV post‑production world, VocAlign soon became popular in music production because its ability to automatically align vocal and instrument takes could save hours of manual editing. In recent years, it’s been given more music‑friendly features, derived from Synchro Arts’ flagship software Revoice Pro, including the ability to match the tuning of tracks as well as their timing. Sam Inglis’ review of the last major version (SOS February 2021: sosm.ag/synchro-arts-vocalign-ultra) details VocAlign’s core functionality, and rather than repeat that I’ll focus here on the new features.

App Renaming

With the release of version 6, VocAlign Project and Ultra are now known as Standard and Pro, respectively, but the key differences between them remain. The former, the entry‑level version, is capable of automatically applying time‑alignment across multiple audio tracks. The latter also offers pitch‑matching, along with formant‑shifting and transposition effects. Both sport a newly designed ‘dark theme’ user interface, and the ARA2 version of the plug‑in is now compatible with the latest version of Avid Pro Tools (2024.6). They’ve also both gained undo and redo buttons, and a convenient Arm Capture All function that makes it possible to capture all a session’s tracks with a single click. New features exclusive to Pro include Process Groups that allow you to quickly apply identical settings to groups of tracks; SmartPitch, a tool that defines how the plug‑in handles unison and non‑unison parts; and general improvements to the accuracy of the Sync Points.

Sync’ing Feeling

Shortly after VocAlign 6 was announced, an artist with whom I work regularly informed me they were recording a song that featured a piano and lead vocal, accompanied by a 21‑track backing vocal ensemble. The ensemble included a selection of doubles of the main vocal, octave‑down parts, harmonies and an array of choral ‘ohhs’ and ‘ahhs’, so it was a perfect candidate to test out the plug‑in’s new capabilities. And, as a Pro Tools user, I was particularly keen to check out the new ARA2 compatibility, so installed the latest Pro Tools update, loaded the multitracks, and then set about seeing what VocAlign 6 had to offer.

An ARA2 instance of VocAlign can be added to individual clips (using their right‑click menu or...