Burnish Vocal Chain

Quick start

1. Insert Burnish Vocal Chain on your lead vocal. If the chip at the bottom left reads LOCKED, Burnish stays silent until you activate it or start a trial (see Installation and activation).
2. Open PRESETS and pick a chain: First Take is a restrained start, Glass Lead a brighter pop treatment. A chain replaces your edits, so pick it first.
3. Recording through the plugin? Click TRACK for the lowest latency. Mixing? Leave it on MIX.
4. Open DESIGN and select TUNE. Set the song's KEY and SCALE (or leave Chromatic), and check the note keyboard.
5. Back in PLAY, finish by ear with the six macros. 12 o'clock (50 %) leaves the chain as it is; turn left for less, right for more.
6. Compare with MATCH A/B, which plays the dry voice at the chain's loudness. If the vocal is too loud or quiet in your mix, turn OUT on the LEVEL station.

What's new in 1.2.2

• With BYPASS on, the face shows only what reaches the output.
• LUFS S is a true measurement in every state.
• The SPACE scope draws the wet level in dB.
• Clearer OPTO AMOUNT and DE-ESS tooltips.
• A reopened session shows its preset's name.
• The license chip tells you when an update is out.
• Security improvements to license file handling.

What's new in 1.2.0

What changed since 1.1.11:

• A new voicing. The input high-pass, breath control, compressor timing, delay and reverb ducking, reverb tail length, rider level and macro response were re-tuned. Sessions saved with 1.1.11 or earlier keep their original sound, even after you save them again. New instances, factory chains and your recalled presets use the new voicing.
• LEARN measures your voice, so MATCH fits tone, dynamics and de-essing from your voice toward the reference.
• Fixes, in old sessions too: the de-esser could boost esses; clicks, ghost sounds and crashes; results that changed with the buffer size.

The window

The window has the header, the screen with the station rail, and the deck along the bottom. Drag the corner to resize it, from 1000 x 610 up to 1770 x 1080 pixels; it opens at 1180 x 720 and keeps its proportions.

The header

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1. TRACK and MIX. Recording or mixing.
2. PLAY and DESIGN. The two views.
3. PRESETS. Factory chains and your own.
4. ... (Options). Tooltips, updates, effects and shortcuts.
5. Latency readout. The mode and its delay right now.

Markers 1 to 3 sit just left of their controls; 4 and 5 sit just right of theirs.

Latency

• The readout at the right of the header always shows the current mode and latency.
• TRACK: 4 samples (0.08 ms at 48 kHz; the header reads TRACK 0.1 MS). TRACK forces the Classic tune path and removes the gate's lookahead.
• MIX: 12.5 ms at 48 kHz with the Natural tune path, or 4 samples with Classic; plus 5 ms with the gate on.
• Mode switches fade over 10 ms, and your DAW is told the new latency at once. With the gate on, switching TRACK and MIX is click-free on a steady voice, but the reported delay moves by 5 ms.

PLAY: the screen and the macros

The screen in PLAY

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1. Note and cents. The sung note and how far off it is, in cents (hundredths of a semitone); dashes between notes.
2. GR and LUFS S. How much the compressors turn the voice down, and its loudness over the last 3 seconds.
3. Note lanes. The legal notes, named on the right.
4. Pitch trace. Your voice after correction.
5. De-ess sparks. Esses the de-esser reduced.
6. Time axis. The last six seconds.
7. Station rail. The eight stations in signal order.
8. Station meters. Each station's work.

The bright white line is your voice after correction; the faint line under it is the pitch you sang; the lanes are the legal notes. Each station has its own color, and the trace borrows them: mint sparks mark de-essed esses, the line splits magenta when the doubler runs, and the trace dims as the compressors work. Each rail key carries a small meter of that station's work.

The deck

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1. BYPASS. The dry input.
2. MATCH A/B. The dry voice at the chain's level.
3. Macros. Six broad moves.
4. REFERENCE tray. Drop or click to load a reference.
5. LEARN. Measure your voice.
6. Reference jewel. Lit while your reference drives the match.
7. MATCH. How far the chain moves toward the reference.
8. License chip. LICENSED, TRIAL or LOCKED.

How the macros work. Each macro scales its part of the chain around the stored settings. The value under it reads 50 % at 12 o'clock, which leaves those settings as they are; 0 % takes them to zero and 100 % doubles them, up to each control's limit. The stored settings are not rewritten. A macro whose units are all off reads OFF beside its name.

BYPASS and MATCH A/B keep the chain running, so a bypassed Burnish uses about as much CPU as an active one.

DESIGN and the stations

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1. Station scope. What this station is doing to your voice.
2. Pages. Some stations have more than one.
3. STORED. A value kept for another mode.
4. AUTO readout. A value the automatic control is choosing.
5. Selected station. Click a rail key to select it.
6. Relit deck. The knobs now set this station.
7. Asleep knob. Not used by this station.
8. Cell. A station control on the screen; click its value to type one.

In DESIGN the six deck knobs become the selected station's main controls, and the engraving under them relights to say so; a dark knob is asleep for this station. The station's other controls appear on the screen as cells, with its own scope. The signal runs through the stations in a fixed order:

Some names appear twice: TUNE, SPACE and LEVEL are both a macro and a station, and TONE, BODY and CLEAN are also a COLOR knob, an EQ band and an IN switch. This manual says "the TUNE macro" for the PLAY knob and "the TUNE station" for the DESIGN page.

• Select a station on the rail, with keys 1 to 8 (from PLAY this opens DESIGN), or with ← and → when the rail has focus.
• Double-click a rail key to switch every unit in that station off, and again to bring back what was running. TUNE and DOUBLE use their ENGAGE switch; IN has no station switch. With the rail focused, Return does the same. Switches fade over about 10 ms.
• Type exact values: click a deck value or a cell's value. Return applies and Esc cancels. Values accept the unit shown (Hz or kHz, dB, ms, s, cents, ratio, percent); a wrong value stays in the field and changes nothing. Changing view, station or page drops an unfinished entry.
• Step a cell with the mouse wheel (Shift for fine). Click a choice cell to pick from a list, or step it with the wheel or the arrow keys.
• STORED after a name means the value is saved but not driving the sound in the current mode, so you can prepare it. AUTO shows a value the automatic control is choosing.
• Moving an EQ band's gain knob on the deck switches that band on first, as a separate step in your DAW's undo. A knob that cannot act says why beside its name (for example LOW / OFF) and keeps its value.

In each station shot below, a marker sits at the right end of its own cell.

IN

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1. HP. The high-pass on or off.
2. GATE. The gate on or off.
3. REL. Gate release.
4. BREATH. Breath control on or off.
5. SENS. How readily breath control engages.
6. CLEAN. Cleanup on or off.

On the deck: IN GAIN, HP FREQ, THRESH, RANGE, BREATH, FLOOR.

TUNE

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1. ENGAGE. Pitch correction on or off.
2. PATH. Classic or Natural.
3. KEY. The song's key.
4. SCALE. Which notes are legal targets.
5. NOTES. Allow or remove single notes.

On the deck: AMOUNT, SPEED, HUMANIZE, THROAT (the last two knobs sleep).

Clicking cannot remove the last lit note. If a KEY or SCALE change leaves none lit, the tuner lets the voice through uncorrected instead of dragging it to one note. On the Classic path, the delay while correcting can reach one pitch period plus 2 ms on low voices. If a phrase lands on the wrong note, check KEY, SCALE and the note keyboard before raising AMOUNT.

SHAPE

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1. Pages. MAIN and one per EQ band.
2. DE-HARSH. On or off.
3. DH SPEED. How fast it reacts.
4. DE-ESS. On or off.
5. DE FREQ. Where the ess band starts.
6. LISTEN. Solo what the de-esser hears.
7. MID. The 1.2 kHz band's gain.
8. LOW TYPE. Band 1's shape.
9. TOP TYPE. Band 5's shape.

On the deck: DE-HARSH, DE-ESS, LOW, BODY, PRESENCE, TOP.

In the audio path the five EQ bands come first, then the de-harsh, then the de-esser; the de-harsh and the de-esser listen to the voice as it enters SHAPE, before the EQ. Each band has a page (BAND 1 to BAND 5) with ENGAGE, FREQUENCY, Q and GAIN; bands 1 and 5 also have TYPE.

A shelf lifts or cuts everything below (LOW) or above (TOP) its frequency; a bell lifts or cuts a hump around its frequency, and Q sets how wide it is (higher is narrower). Cut is a filter that removes everything below (LOW) or above (TOP) its frequency, at 12 dB per octave. A band's gain reads STORED while that band is off; switch it on with ENGAGE on its BAND page.

COMP

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1. FET. The first compressor, on or off.
2. OPTO. The second compressor, on or off.
3. MANUAL. Unlocks the manual tier.
4. THRESH. Manual threshold.
5. RATIO. Manual ratio.
6. ATTACK. Shows AUTO times until MANUAL.
7. RELEASE. Shows AUTO times until MANUAL.
8. SC HP. Sidechain high-pass.
9. KNEE. Manual knee.

On the deck: FET AMT, FET SPEED, FET BLEND, OPTO AMT, OPTO BLEND.

FET is a fast compressor that catches peaks; OPTO is a slower, smoother one that evens out the level. The FET works first, then the OPTO. Each has its own page with its full set of controls; OPTO SPEED is on the OPTO page.

Until MANUAL is on, the manual values read STORED; on the FET page, ATTACK and RELEASE show the times FET SPEED is choosing, marked AUTO. With MANUAL off, Burnish adds back a set amount of level for each AMT setting, not the amount actually taken, so harder compression sounds a little quieter. With MANUAL on it adds none. The rider on LEVEL brings the level back up.

COLOR

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1. SAT. Saturation on or off.
2. CHARACTER. Tape, Tube or Present.
3. AIR. The air shelf on or off.

On the deck: DRIVE, TONE, MIX, AIR, AIR FREQ.

Recheck sibilance after adding air or drive: the de-esser comes earlier in the chain.

DOUBLE

12

1. ENGAGE. The doubler on or off.
2. VOICES. Two or four.

On the deck: DETUNE, TIME, FORMANT, WIDTH, LEVEL.

On a mono track in Cubase, Nuendo or Studio One the track stays mono after the insert, so the doubler's width collapses; use a stereo track.

SPACE

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1. DELAY. On or off.
2. SYNC. Slap times or note values.
3. DLY TONE. Darker or brighter repeats.
4. PING PONG. Repeats alternate sides.
5. REVERB. On or off.
6. SPACE. Booth to Air.
7. PRE. The gap before the room.
8. REV TONE. Darker or brighter tail.
9. WIDTH. The reverb's stereo size.

On the deck: DLY MIX, FEEDBACK, DLY DUCK, REV MIX, DECAY, REV DUCK.

Delay and reverb both duck under your voice, so tails bloom between phrases instead of on top of them. DUCK from 0 to 100 % is 0 to 15 dB under the voice, whatever level you recorded at. The DELAY page adds FREE TIME; the REVERB page repeats the reverb's settings.

LEVEL

12

1. RIDER. The rider on or off.
2. LIMIT. The limiter on or off.

On the deck: TARGET, SPEED, RANGE, CEILING, OUT.

The rider target is a level inside the vocal chain, not a target for your finished mix. -18 LUFS suits most sessions; set the vocal's place in the mix with your DAW fader.

The reference, LEARN and MATCH

To fit the chain to a record:

1. Pick a style chain close to the record (not a Learn chain).
2. Drop a reference on the REFERENCE tray, click the tray, or press O. An acapella (a vocal-only file) works best.
3. Click LEARN and play about 10 seconds of your vocal. The tray reads VOICE LEARNED when it is done.
4. Set MATCH: 100 % moves the chain to the reference, 0 % gives back the chain you had, and up to 150 % goes past it.
5. Finish by ear with the macros, and compare with MATCH A/B.

With no reference loaded, a style chain's own built-in target takes its place, so LEARN alone lets MATCH fit the chain to your voice. When a fit runs, a reference card opens on the screen with what Burnish read; click it to collapse it to a chip, and again to open it.

Load a reference. Burnish reads WAV, AIFF, FLAC and MP3 (plus M4A, AAC and CAF on macOS), and the analysis runs on your computer. A reference needs at least 3 seconds of sound with a voice in it. Noise, a tone or a drum loop is refused with a message ("NO VOICE FOUND"), a file that is too short reads "TOO SHORT", and a refused file leaves your chain as it was.

Acapella or full mix. Burnish decides from the audio itself; only in a borderline case does the file name tip it (a name containing acap, vocal, vox or stem reads as an acapella). The tray and the reference card say which it found. A full mix is read through its center and a 90 Hz to 14 kHz band-pass, which is a rough vocal emphasis, not a separation: piano, bass and drums stay in the measurement. So a mix moves tone only, and only after LEARN. Use an acapella if you can.

LEARN measures your voice. Click LEARN (or press L) and play your take through the track. The tray shows LISTENING and counts up to 10 seconds of singing, then MEASURING and VOICE LEARNED. It needs 4 seconds of voice (otherwise it reads NOT ENOUGH VOICE) and stops by itself after 45 seconds. Press LEARN again to cancel. Your audio is never stored, only the measurements. Until a take is measured the tray says NO TAKE MEASURED, and a reference sets only how hard the tuning is (natural, tight or hard).

MATCH sets how far the chain moves from where it stood toward the reference. The same MATCH gives the same chain however you got there, and MATCH 0 gives back the chain you had before the fit. Changing MATCH runs the fit again; a control you moved by hand afterwards is left alone. Set MATCH first, then finish by ear. It is not a wet and dry knob.

What a reference does not change: Burnish reports the space it reads in a reference but leaves your reverb as you set it, so set the reverb by ear. The chain aims to sit like the record; no tool can make one voice sound identical to another.

Keyboard and mouse

Keys work when the Burnish window has keyboard focus: click an empty part of the window once. While you type in a value field, the field keeps the keys. Space always reaches your DAW's transport; use Return to operate a focused control.

In Pro Tools, fine drag is Cmd + drag (Ctrl on Windows) and reset is Option + click (Alt on Windows).

Recipes

These are starting points from the factory chains. Every voice and room is different, so adjust by ear and compare with MATCH A/B.

Start a pop lead

Hard-tune a vocal

Tame esses

Track through the chain

The singer hears the chain with no noticeable delay; switch to MIX later for the Natural tune path.

Record a voice-over

Learn one station at a time

Each Learn chain turns on a single station (all keep the input high-pass on, and Learn 01 and 12 also keep the safety limiter on), so you hear exactly what that station does.

Match a record

Presets

66 factory chains, by style:

A chain plays exactly as authored.

• MATCH: each style chain carries a measured target, so once LEARN has measured your voice, MATCH can adapt the chain to it; MATCH 0 gives the authored chain back. Learn chains carry no target, so MATCH does nothing on them.
• What a chain keeps: TRACK or MIX, BYPASS and MATCH A/B. The trims and macros go back to 12 o'clock (Learn 01 The Trim sets IN GAIN to +3 dB).
• During playback: picking a chain dips briefly to the level-matched dry voice (10 ms down, held for the chain's latency, 10 ms back up; about 35 ms on the Natural path at 48 kHz), so it never clicks.

Your own presets

1. Open PRESETS and choose Save preset..., then type a name.
2. Your presets appear under User in the same menu, after the factory chains. Choose one to recall it; the PRESETS button shows its name.
3. Rename preset and Delete preset manage the list; Show preset folder opens the folder on disk.

• What it holds: the whole chain, including the tune path, key and macros, but not TRACK or MIX, BYPASS or MATCH A/B; recalling one keeps those as they are.
• A reference: the preset keeps its analysis (not the audio), and recalling it does not run the fit again.
• Where: ~/Library/Application Support/Vitric Audio/Presets/Burnish Vocal Chain on macOS and %APPDATA%\Vitric Audio\Presets\Burnish Vocal Chain on Windows. [ and ] step through the factory chains only.
• Saving and loading your own presets needs an active license or trial; factory chains always work.

Specifications

• Stations: IN, TUNE, SHAPE, COMP, COLOR, DOUBLE, SPACE, LEVEL, in that fixed order.
• Tuning: Classic and Natural paths, 12 keys, 8 scales, per-note targets.
• EQ: 5 bands (±15 dB, 20 Hz to 20 kHz), de-harsh, de-ess (3 to 12 kHz).
• Compression: FET into OPTO, automatic or manual, with parallel blend and sidechain high-pass.
• Space: delay (7 sync settings, free 30 to 1200 ms) and 6 reverb spaces (0.3 to 8 s), both ducked.
• Level: rider (-30 to -12 LUFS, up to 12 dB) and a sample-peak limiter (-6 to 0 dB).
• Reference: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 (plus M4A, AAC and CAF on macOS); MATCH 0 to 150 %.
• Latency: TRACK 4 samples. MIX at 48 kHz: 12.5 ms with the Natural path or 4 samples with Classic, plus 5 ms with the gate.
• Channels: mono or stereo in, stereo out.
• Window: 1000 x 610 to 1770 x 1080.
• Formats: VST3 and AAX on macOS and Windows; AU on macOS; an optional standalone app on Windows.
• Systems: macOS 10.15 or later on Intel, macOS 11 or later on Apple Silicon; Windows 10 or later, 64-bit.

Not included

• The tuner follows one vocal line; it is not for chords or groups.
• A full-mix reference is not separated; it moves tone only.
• There is no external sidechain.
• Burnish works on mono and stereo tracks. It does not support surround or Atmos formats.

Installation and activation

Install

1. Download the installer from vitricaudio.com/downloads or your account at vitricaudio.com/account.
2. Save your work and quit your DAW.
3. Run the .pkg (Mac) or .exe (Windows).
4. Open your DAW. If Burnish Vocal Chain is not listed, rescan plugins.

Use AU in Logic Pro, AAX in Pro Tools and VST3 in other DAWs. The Mac installer puts the plugins in the standard folders:

• AU: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components
• VST3: /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3
• AAX: /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins

On Windows:

• VST3: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3
• AAX: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins
• Standalone app (optional in the installer): C:\Program Files\Vitric Audio\Burnish Vocal Chain

Activate your license

Until you activate a license or start a trial, Burnish passes no sound, the chip reads LOCKED and a large LOCKED mark sits over the window. The license card opens by itself once each time you open the window.

1. Click the license chip to open the license card.
2. Paste the VT-... key from your purchase email or account page. Lost it? vitricaudio.com/license can resend your keys.
3. Click Apply license. The chip changes to LICENSED.

A full license works offline after activation and runs on up to three computers at a time.

Activate a computer that is offline

1. On the offline computer, open the license card and click Copy code to copy its machine code (it starts with VTM1-).
2. On any computer that is online, open vitricaudio.com/license, enter your key and the machine code, and download the license file.
3. Copy the file to the offline computer, open the license card and click Load file.

Try it free for 72 hours

1. Open the license card and click Start free trial. The trial page opens with the product and machine code filled in.
2. Sign in with the emailed link and click Start my 72-hour trial.
3. Click Copy trial key, paste it into the license card and click Apply license. Or click Download license file and use Load file. A backup copy is emailed to you.

The trial has every feature, runs 72 hours from issue and needs an internet connection while you use it. There is one trial per product, person and computer, and no payment details are needed. When it ends, Burnish goes silent but keeps every setting in your projects.

Updates

Burnish asks vitricaudio.com once a day, while its window is open, whether a newer version exists, and sends only the product, your version and your platform.

1. Click the license chip. When a new version is out, the license card shows UPDATE AVAILABLE with the new version and yours.
2. Click Download (the button shows the new version number) to open the product page and get the installer. The notice stays on the card until you install the new version.
3. Quit your DAW and run the new installer over the old one. Your sessions reopen as saved.

Turn off Check for updates in Options to stop the checks.

Troubleshooting

Burnish does not appear in my DAW

Rescan plugins and restart the DAW. In Logic Pro, use Logic Pro > Settings > Plug-in Manager and Reset & Rescan Selection. On Windows, make sure your DAW scans C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3.

It went silent, or I hear no change

• The license chip reads LOCKED: Burnish has not been activated, the trial ended, or the license needs attention. Click it. A trial needs an internet connection while you use it.
• BYPASS or MATCH A/B is on. Turn it off.
• The station's switch is off: check the cell, or in DESIGN double-click the rail key to bring its units back.

The vocal sounds thin

LISTEN is on in SHAPE: you hear only the band the de-esser listens to. Turn it off.

MATCH does nothing

LEARN has not measured your voice yet (the tray says NO TAKE MEASURED), or a Learn chain is loaded; Learn chains carry no target. Click LEARN and play 10 seconds of your vocal, or pick a style chain.

The tuning sounds robotic or picks wrong notes

Set KEY and SCALE on the TUNE station and check the note keyboard. Then lower SPEED, raise HUMANIZE, or turn the TUNE macro down.

The singer hears a delay while recording

Click TRACK in the header. Switch back to MIX to mix.

A control does nothing

It may read STORED (waiting for another mode) or its unit may be off; the name says why. An EQ gain works once its band is on.

The reference was refused

It needs at least 3 seconds of sound with a voice in it. Try an acapella or a section with singing.

Shortcuts do nothing

Click an empty part of the Burnish window once so it has keyboard focus. Some DAWs keep certain keys for themselves; use the mouse for those.

The presets menu says "User (unlock to use)"

Your own presets need an active license or trial. Activate Burnish, and the menu items come back.

I lost my license key

Enter your email at vitricaudio.com/license to have your keys sent again, or find them in your account at vitricaudio.com/account.

Support

Write to support@vitricaudio.com with your Burnish version, operating system, DAW and version, plugin format and the exact error if there is one.

Every purchase comes with a 14-day refund, no questions asked.