Antares Auto Tune 3

[Michael Fontenot]

I just bought Antares Auto Tune 3 from Sweetwater and am waiting for its arrival. In the meantime, I downloaded the free trial offer from Antares. I run it on Windows 98/Cubase 5 using the Direct X plug-in. I tried to tune a somewhat painful three-part background harmony (no painful notes but a lot of variation that shows up in a three-part ). I spent about three hours on this one minute segment and felt like I was making progress along the way. I used both the "automated" and "graphical" functions. I created a mix both pre and post tuning and now can't tell the difference! Maybe my expectations were too high -- but I was hoping for an end result that would sound quite tight. I still hear the same warble around my pitch. Unless I can get a better result, I am inclined to send back the unopened software. Has anyone else used this product and what sorts of results have you gotten? -- Michael

[michaelhoddy]

Auto-Tune has worked well for me to tune singers who go sharp or flat, but who are consistent with pitch. If you have a singer who can't maintain a single pitch without variation (even if it's sharp or flat), you'll need to find a new singer before it will sound good. Also, passages with a lot of melismatic runs are difficult to follow or to have Auto-Tune follow with success.

If you hear it "hunting" on the sharp and flat sides of a given pitch, you may want to modify the speed and threshold parameters, as even a subtle inflection change or vibrato will throw the thing into fits at the less forgiving settings.

Remember, you can't polish a turd. Auto-Tune will not suddenly turn bad singers into good singers. It can help tighten things up, but you shouldn't feel the need to compensate for people's lack of talent by becoming a miracle-worker. :)

[DAS]

As michaelhoddy says, there are parameters that enable you to let more or less of the singer's "warblyness" through. I have found AutoTune (every version) to be an utterly indispensable tool in my studio. It takes more work on some parts than others, but in every single case I have always been able to make the track "much better" than it started.

[DAS]

One more thing:

Even on complex runs, where the singer doesn't stay on one note very long I am still able to fix pitch problems with AutoTune. My main instrument is guitar so when I hear a problem I begin to follow along on guitar, which gives me a pretty good pitch reference. As soon as I find the offending note or notes in the run I simply define punch in and out points in Pro Tools by highlighting them. I set AutoTune to a fixed pitch at the desired pitch and let it go. The whole process is automatic and very simple (once you figure out how to set it up).

[Michael Fontenot]

DAS -Thanks for your input. I also spoke to one of the technical support people at Antares (very quick to respond also and got right on the phone!). It seems that when I work in graphical mode, I need to re-record (bounce or export the file) PRIOR TO CLOSING OUT THE SESSION OF AUTO TUNE 3. If this is true then it makes sense what was happening -- I was not saving that wave file after the corrections were made, consequently the finished product sounds essentially unchanged (because it was). I'm going to give this a try tonight to see if I get better results. If this does not make sense to you, let me know. I appreciate your quick responses -- Michael

[DAS]

That may be true with the DirectX version. I use the TDM version in Pro Tools and I can either leave it inserted on a track doing what it does without saving it (which I never do) or I can record it's output to another track, or punch in over the existing track (this is what I usually do). I think this is mostly a semantical difference that pertains to the environment in which it is being used.