EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Miller is off on a brief, though well-deserved vacation and will return next issue (or so he says . . .)

Some people just should not sing. Me, for example. I guess I just never quite got the hang of it, or maybe there’s some missing chromosome. Whatever the case, I admit that vocals are not my thing.

Some people have beautiful voices and can sing for hours without ever hitting a bad note.

Then there’s those other people (I won’t name names, but you know who you are). Some are very talented and often they write great songs. And most of the time, given enough tracks, takes and punch-ins, they can put down a pretty fine vocal track. But that can take hours or sometimes even days!

Knowing that not everyone has perfect pitch, a company called Antares introduced a remarkable plug-in for Pro Tools users. It was called Auto-Tune and it did exactly what the name implied: Here was a tool that could actually correct the pitch of vocals (and even other solo instru-ments) in real time, without weird distor-tion or other annoying artifacts, yet still preserved all of the expressiveness of the original performance.

Not surprisingly, industry publications like Recording maga-zine called the Auto-Tune plug-in a “Holy Grail of recording.” They went on to say, “Bottom line, Auto-Tune is amazing . . . Everyone with a Mac should have this program.”

This was amazing! Here was a tool so powerful that it could in effect guarantee a perfect performance. No wonder that tons of people went out and bought big buck Pro Tools systems just so they could have access to Auto-Tune. Not surprisingly, when word got around on just how well this plug-in did its job and how many hundreds of hours of studio time it was saving musicians, the Antares folks were inundated with requests for a self-contained “Auto-Tune-in-a-box.”

Well, you don’t just get a metal case and throw in some software, so it took a little while, but darned if they didn’t actually succeed. The result is the ATR-1, a rack-mountable hardware implementation of Antares’ Auto-Tune pitch correcting software. Like Auto-Tune, the ATR-1 employs state-of-the-art digital signal processing algorithms to continuously detect the pitch of a periodic input signal (typically a solo voice or instrument) and instantly and seamlessly change it to a desired pitch (which is defined by user-programmable scales).

What’s more, the ATR-1 includes a number of new features that make it particularly powerful in live performance situations. These include a new Song Mode that lets the ATR-1 follow even the most complex harmonic song structures, foot switch control of Scale selection and a Bypass Mode, as well as full MIDI control of every parameter. By anyone’s standard, that is an impressive achievement!

Sounds cool, you say, but how does this work? In order for the ATR-1 to automatically correct pitch, it must first detect the pitch of the input sound. Calculating the pitch of a periodic waveform is a straightforward process. The ATR-1 looks for a periodically repeating waveform and calculates the time interval between repetitions. The pitch detection algorithm in the ATR-1 is virtually instantaneous. It can recognize the repetition in a periodic sound within a few cycles, usually before the sound has sufficient amplitude to be heard by any listener. Combined with a slight processing delay (about 1 to 10 milliseconds), the output pitch can be detected and corrected in a totally seamless fashion. The ATR-1 was designed to detect and correct pitches as low as A0 (55Hz) up to the pitch C6. This range allows correction to be performed on all vocals and almost all instruments.

The ATR-1 works by continuously tracking the pitch of an input sound and comparing it to a user-defined scale. The scale tone closest to the input is continuously identified. If the input pitch exactly matches the scale tone, no correction is applied. If the input pitch varies from the desired scale pitch, an output pitch is generated which is closer to the scale tone than the input pitch. The ATR-1 allows you to program 50 different Scales. For each, you can define which notes will sound and which won’t. And for each note that will sound, you can decide whether the ATR-1 will apply pitch correction to input pitches near that note or leave those pitches uncorrected.

You also have control over how rapidly the pitch adjustment is made toward the scale tone via the SPEED control: Fast Speed settings are more appropriate for short duration notes and for mechanical instruments, like an oboe or clarinet, whose pitch typically changes almost instantly. Slow Speed settings are better for longer notes where you want expressive pitch gestures (like vibrato) to come through at the output and for vocal and instrumental styles that are typified by gradual slides between pitches. A slow setting can leave a vibrato unmodified while the average pitch is accurately adjusted to be in-tune.

The ATR-1 can even apply a vibrato to the input sound. You can program the depth, rate and delay or even control it in realtime via MIDI. You can also choose the shape of the pitch variation in the vibrato (sine, ramp or square). By combining a fast Speed setting with the ATR-1 Vibrato settings, you can even remove a performer’s own vibrato and replace it with the ATR-1’s programmed vibrato.

At its top level, the ATR-1 operates in one of two modes, Program Mode or Song Mode. Which mode you use depends upon your application and just how radical the required corrections might be. Unfortunately, space prevents me from going into detail on this, but it’s all fairly simple and straightforward and you don’t need some specialized degree from a four-year university to understand it. Heck, I can figure this thing out and, as those who know me can attest, I’m no rocket scientist.

Our own David Stewart just sent back a report from the AES Show where he put the ATR-1 through its paces and confirmed that the unit actually made his vocals sound good.

Antares’ ATR-1 module is a terrific piece of equipment that no serious studio should be without. What’s more, it carries a list price of just $1199. Considering what this module can do, that’s a small investment for a very big return. Want to know more? Just pick up the phone and talk to your Sweetwater Sales Engineer. They can fill you in on all the details we don’t have room for here, and get you a great low Sweetwater price on your own ATR-1!