Antares AUTO-TUNE 4 User Manual

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Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA

voice: (831) 461 7800 fax: (831) 461 7801 service: (831) 461 7800 (Option 3) web: www.antarestech.com

Printed in USA Rev 1.1 PN 24001-0304-M01

The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo

The Antares Auto-Tune 4 software and this User’s Manual are protected by copyright law. Making copies, adaptations, or derivative works without the prior written authorization of Antares Audio Technologies, is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law.

Antares Audio Technologies retains all ownership rights to the Auto-Tune 4 software and its documentation. Use of Auto-Tune 4 is limited by the following license agreement.

Please carefully read all the terms and conditions of this license agreement. At the time of installation of the Auto-Tune 4 software you will be presented with a copy of the agreement and asked whether or not you agree to it. Continuing with the installation process beyond that point constitutes such agreement.

AUTO-TUNE 4 LICENSE AGREEMENT

Antares Audio Technologies grants you a non-transferable, non-exclusive license to use Auto-Tune 4 under the terms and conditions stated in this agreement. Use of Auto-Tune 4 indicates your agreement to the following terms and conditions.

LICENSE

You may:

1. Use Auto-Tune 4 on only one computer.

You may not:

1. Make copies of Auto-Tune 4 or of the user manual in whole or in part except as expressly provided for in this agreement. Your right to copy Auto-Tune 4 and the user manual is limited by copyright law. Making copies, verbal or media translations, adaptations, derivative works, or telecommunication data transmission of Auto-Tune 4 without prior written authorization of Antares, is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law.

2. Make alteration or modifications to Auto-Tune 4 (or any copy) or disassemble or de-compile Auto-Tune 4 (or any copy), or attempt to discover the source code of Auto-Tune 4.

3. Sub-license, lease, lend, rent, or grant other rights in all or any portion of Auto-Tune 4 (or any copy) to others.

TERM OF THE AGREEMENT

This agreement is effective until terminated by you or Antares. You may terminate the agreement at any time by notifying Antares and destroying all copies of the manual, and erasing Auto-Tune 4 from all machinereadable media, whether on-line or on archival copies.

In the event of breach of any of the terms of this agreement, you shall pay the attorney’s fees of Antares that are reasonably necessary to enforce the agreement plus resulting damages.

LIMITED WARRANTY AND DISCLAIMER

AUTO-TUNE 4 AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Antares Audio Technologies does not warrant that the functions contained in the program will meet your requirements. The entire risk as to the use, quality, and performance of Auto-Tune 4 is with you.

SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRANTY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC LEGAL RIGHTS. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM JURISDICTION TO JURISDICTION.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT WILL ANTARES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING LOSS OF DATA, LOST PROFITS OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INDIRECT DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OF AUTO-TUNE 4 OR ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS. THIS LIMITATION WILL APPLY EVEN IF ANTARES OR ITS AUTHORIZED AGENT HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE LICENSE FEE REFLECTS THIS ALLOCATION OF RISK. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Whew! Now that that’s over, let’s get on to the good stuff.

Getting Started Chapter 1

What’s New in Auto-Tune 4 2

Installing and Authorizing 4 Technical Support 4

Introducing Auto-Tune 4 Chapter 2

Some background 5

A little bit about pitch 6 How Auto-Tune 4 detects pitch 8 How Auto-Tune 4 corrects pitch 8 Automatic Mode 9

Graphical Mode 11

Auto-Tune 4 Controls Chapter 3

Common Controls 13 Automatic Mode Controls 17 MIDI Functions 25 Graphical Mode Controls 33

Auto-Tune 4 Tutorial Chapter 4

Tutorial 1: Automatic Mode Basics 40 Tutorial 2: Improved Targeting Function 47 Tutorial 3: MIDI Functions 48 Tutorial 4: Graphical Mode Basics 49 Tutorial 5: Precision 52 Tutorial 6: Make Curve Function 53 Tutorial 7: Make Auto Function 56

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New Features Chapter 5 61 Creative Applications Chapter 6 69

Index 70

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Welcome!

On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase AutoTune 4, the most powerful intonation correction tool in the world. Before you proceed any farther, we’d like to strongly encourage you to register and authorize your copy of Auto-Tune 4. (You can skip ahead to the Authorization and Installation instructions on page 4. We’ll wait.) Also, if you’re planning on discarding that lovely Auto-Tune 4 box, it’s probably a

good idea to write down the serial number that appears on the bottom of the box for future reference. (The inside cover of this manual would be a good place.)

As an Auto-Tune 4 owner, you are entitled to receive notification of any software upgrades, technical support, and advance announcements of upcoming products. But we can’t send you stuff unless we know who and where you are. So please, register.

At Antares, we are committed to excellence in quality, customer service, and technological innovation. With your purchase of Auto-Tune 4, you have created a relationship with Antares which we hope will be long and gratifying. Let us know what you think. You can count on us to listen.

Again, thanks. Dr. Sturgeon and The Whole Antares Crew

Chapter 1: Getting Started

If you are new to Auto-Tune, we encourage you to read this manual and work through the tutorials in Chapter 4. It's the quickest way to become familiar with what Auto-Tune 4 does and how it does it.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Auto-Tune, you will find that most of what you’re already doing will continue to work in Auto-Tune 4, only better. To get up to speed quickly, just check out the new feature

overview below and then refer to the detailed New Feature Quick Start Guide in Chapter 5, which will tell you everything you need to know to make use of Auto-Tune 4's new capabilities.

What’s New in Auto-Tune 4

The following are the key new features that have been added in Auto-T une 4:

GENERAL FEATURES

• Support of sampling rates up to 192kHz (assuming your host and audio hardware support it)

•A new Options dialog that includes a variety of configuration options

• Selectable knob control

•A sleek new interface

AUTOMATIC MODE FEATURES

• The ability to specify target note behaviors (Scale Note, Remove, Bypass) in individual octaves

•A virtual keyboard for realtime detected pitch display and target note control

• Improved Targeting option for problem vibratos

• Enhanced Vibrato functions for more realistic (or wacky) vibratos

•A Hold function to help analyze pitch errors in Auto Mode

• Other niceties (Dual Detune display, new Scale Edit buttons)

GRAPHICAL MODE FEATURES

• Larger Pitch Edit Display

• Seriously expanded and reworked Graphical Editing Tools

• Multi-level Undo/Redo (up to 20 levels)

•Vibrato Scaling for modifying the depth of vibrato while maintaining its shape and character

• Streamlined navigation controls

• Cursor Pitch Display (back again by popular demand)

• Selectable Edit Display color schemes

How To Use This Manual

If this is your first experience of Auto-Tune, you will find that Auto-Tune 4 has a very friendly user-interface and is extraordinarily easy to use. However, because Auto-Tune 4 does things that have never been done before, a few aspects of the user-interface may not be immediately obvious. You should at least read either Chapter 3, Auto-Tune 4 Controls, or Chapter 4, Auto-Tune 4 Tutorial, to learn the essential information you will need to operate Auto-Tune 4.

And as we mentioned above, if you are upgrading from Auto-Tune 3, go straight to Chapter 5, the New Feature Quick Start Guide, to learn everything you need to know (about Auto-Tune's new features, anyway).

THE CONTENTS OF THIS MANUAL

Chapter 1: Getting Started

The chapter you are reading.

Chapter 2: Introducing Auto-Tune 4

This chapter explains basic facts about pitch and how Auto-Tune 4 functions to correct pitch errors. The basic functionality of Auto-Tune 4 is discussed, and information you need in order to use it effectively is provided.

Chapter 3: Auto-Tune 4 Controls

This chapter is reference information for all of the controls used in the Auto-Tune 4 interface.

Chapter 4: Auto-Tune 4 Tutorial

This chapter introduces you to details of how Auto-Tune 4 works by guiding you through several tutorials. The tutorials will give you insight into how and when to use each of Auto-Tune 4’s key functions.

Chapter 5: New Feature Quick Start Guide

This chapter contains detailed information about each of Auto-Tune 4's new features. All of this information is also included in Chapter 3, but is presented here to allow experienced Auto-Tune 3 users to quickly come up to speed on the enhancements and new capabilities in Auto-Tune 4.

Chapter 6: Creative Applications for Auto-Tune 4

Some cool, but not-so-obvious stuff you can do with Auto-Tune 4.

Installing Auto-Tune 4

Any unique instructions for installing Auto-Tune 4 for your specific plug-in format are located in the Auto-Tune 4 Read Me file that accompanies the plug-in. This file may also contain any last-minute Auto-Tune 4 information that didn’t make it into this manual.

Auto-Tune 4 is designed to work with a wide variety of digital audio applications. Please refer to your host application’s user manual for more information on installing and using plug-ins.

Authorizing Auto-Tune 4

Authorization is the process by which this software is allowed to run on your computer. Detailed instructions covering the available authorization options will be found in the the file “Authorization Read Me” which is included on the installation CD ROM or with your software download.

NOTE: When initially installed, this software will run for ten days without authorization.

So even if you can‘t authorize it right away you can still use your software in the meantime. (During this period, click the “Try It” button whenever you are presented with the Trial Period screen at launch.) But don’t procrastinate too long. After those ten days are up, you will no longer be able to launch this software until it’s authorized.

Technical Support

In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using Auto-Tune 4, try the following:

1. Make another quick scan through this manual. Who knows? You may have stumbled onto some feature that you didn’t notice the first time through.

2. Check our web page for tips, techniques, or any late-breaking information:

http://www.antarestech.com

3. Call your local Antares dealer.

4. Email our tech support department by pointing your web browser to:

http://www.antarestech.com/support/etech.shtml

and filling in the form there.

5. Call us at (831) 461-7814 Monday through Friday between 9am and 5pm USA Pacific Standard Time.

For options 3, 4, or 5, please be prepared to provide the Registration Code of your copy of Auto-Tune 4.

Chapter 2: Introducing Auto-Tune 4

Some background

In 1997, Antares Audio Technologies first introduced the ground-breaking Auto-Tune Pitch Correcting Plug-In. Auto-Tune was a tool that actually corrected the pitch of vocals and other solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all of the expressive nuance of the original performance. Recording Magazine called Auto-Tune a “holy grail of recording.” And went on to say, “Bottom line, Auto-Tune is amaz-

ing... Everyone with a Mac should have this program.” (In fact, we know of quite a few people back then who bought kilo-buck ProTools™ systems just to be able to run Auto-Tune. )

In 2001, Auto-Tune 3 was introduced and established itself as the worldwide standard in professional pitch correction. Today, it’s used daily by thousands of audio professionals to save studio and editing time, ease the frustration of endless retakes, save that otherwise once-in-a-lifetime performance, or even to create unique special effects.

Now, never content to leave a good thing alone, Antares has created Auto-Tune 4. Preserving the great sound quality, transparent processing, and ease of use of Auto-Tune, Auto-Tune 4 adds significant new features as well as a sleek new user interface.

So what exactly is Auto-Tune 4?

Auto-Tune 4 is a precision tool for correcting intonation errors or creatively modifying the intonation of a performance. Auto-Tune 4 employs state-ofthe-art digital signal processing algorithms (many, interestingly enough, drawn from the geophysical industry) 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 (defined by any of a number of userprogrammable scales or through the use of graphical editing tools.).

To take maximum advantage of the power of Auto-Tune 4, you should have a basic understanding of pitch and how Auto-Tune 4 functions to correct pitch errors. This chapter presents basic terminology and introduces AutoTune 4’s operating paradigm, giving you information you need to use it effectively.

A little bit about pitch

Pitch is typically associated with our perception of the “highness” or “lowness” of a particular sound. Our perception of pitch ranges from the very general (the high pitch of hissing steam, the low pitch of the rumble of an earthquake) to the very specific (the exact pitch of a solo singer or violinist). There is, of course, a wide range of variation in the middle. A symphony orchestra playing a scale in unison, for example, results in an extremely complex waveform, yet you are still able to easily sense the pitch.

The vocalists and the solo instruments that Auto-Tune 4 is designed to process have a very clearly defined quality of pitch. The sound-generating mechanism of these sources is a vibrating element (vocal chords, a string, an air column, etc.). The sound that is thus generated can be graphically represented as a waveform (a graph of the sound’s pressure over time) that is periodic. This means that each cycle of waveform repeats itself fairly exactly, as in the periodic waveform shown in the diagram below:

Because of its periodic nature, this sound’s pitch can be easily identified and processed by Auto-Tune 4.

Other sounds are more complex. This waveform:

is of a violin section playing a single note in unison. Our ears still sense a specific pitch, but the waveform does not repeat itself. This waveform is a summation of a number of individually periodic violins. The summation is non-periodic because the individual violins are slightly out of tune with respect to one another. Because of this lack of periodicity, Auto-Tune 4 would not be able to process this sound.

Some pitch terminology

The pitch of a periodic waveform is defined as the number of times the periodic element repeats in one second. This is measured in Hertz (abbreviated Hz.). For example, the pitch of A3 (the A above middle C on a piano) is traditionally 440Hz (although that standard varies by a few Hz. in various parts of the world).

Pitches are often described relative to one another as intervals, or ratios of frequency. For example, two pitches are said to be one octave apart if their frequencies differ by a factor of two. Pitch ratios are measured in units called cents. There are 1200 cents per octave. For example, two tones that are 2400 cents apart are two octaves apart. The traditional twelve-tone Equal Tempered Scale that is used (or rather approximated) in 99.9% of all Western tonal music consists of tones that are, by definition, 100 cents apart. This interval of 100 cents is called a semitone.

The twelve equally-spaced tones of the Equal Tempered Scale happen to contain a number of intervals that approximate integer ratios in pitch. The following table shows these approximations:

INTERVAL CENTS NEARBY RATIO IN

RATIO CENTS

minor second 100 16/15 111.75 major second 200 9/8 203.91 minor third 300 6/5 315.64 major third 400 5/4 386.31 perfect fourth 500 4/3 498.04 tritone 600 perfect fifth 700 3/2 701.65 minor sixth 800 8/5 813.69 major sixth 900 5/3 884.36 minor seventh 1000 16/9 996.09 major seventh 1100 15/8 1088.27 octave 1200 2 1200.00

As you can see, the intervals in the Equal Tempered Scale are NOT equal to the harmonious integer ratios. Rather, the Equal Tempered Scale is a compromise. It became widely used because once a harpsichord or piano is tuned to that scale, any composition in any key could be played and no one chord would sound better or worse than that same chord in another key.

How Auto-Tune 4 detects pitch

In order for Auto-Tune 4 to automatically correct pitch, it must first detect the pitch of the input sound. Calculating the pitch of a periodic waveform is a straighforward process. Simply measure the time between repetitions of the waveform. Divide this time into one, and you have the frequency in Hertz. Auto-Tune 4 does exactly this: It looks for a periodically repeating waveform and calculates the time interval between repetitions.

The pitch detection algorithm in Auto-Tune 4 is virtually instantaneous. It can recognize the repetition in a periodic sound within a few cycles. This usually occurs before the sound has sufficient amplitude to be heard. Used in combination with a slight processing delay (typically about 1 to 10 milliseconds), the output pitch can be detected and corrected without artifacts in a seamless and continuous fashion. (Although it must be kept in mind that some plug-in protocols introduce a certain amount of inherent and unpredictable delay that depends largely on what else your CPU is doing at the time.)

Auto-Tune 4 was designed to detect and correct pitches up to the pitch C6. (If the input pitch is higher than C6, Auto-Tune 4 will occasionally interpret the pitch an octave lower. This is because it interprets a two cycle repetition as a one cycle repetition.) On the low end, Auto-Tune 4 will detect pitches as low as 25Hz (when the Bass Instrument Input Type is selected). This range of pitches allows intonation correction to be performed on virtually all vocals and instruments.

Of course, Auto-Tune 4 will not detect pitch when the input waveform is not periodic. As demonstrated above, Auto-Tune 4 will fail to tune up even a unison violin section. But this can also occasionally be a problem with solo voice and solo instruments as well. Consider, for example, an exceptionally breathy voice, or a voice recorded in an unavoidably noisy environment. The added signal is non-periodic, and Auto-Tune 4 will have difficulty determining the pitch of the composite (voice + noise) sound. Luckily, there is a control (the Tracking control, discussed in Chapter 3) that will let AutoTune 4 be a bit more casual about what it considers “periodic.” Experimenting with this setting will often allow Auto-Tune 4 to track even noisy signals.

How Auto-Tune 4 corrects pitch

Auto-Tune 4 provides two separate and distinct ways to approach pitch correction: Automatic Mode and Graphical Mode. The basic functionality of each is described below.

Automatic Mode

Auto-Tune 4’s Automatic Mode 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 tone, an output pitch is generated which is closer to the scale tone than the input pitch. (The exact amount of correction is controlled by the Retune Speed parameter, described below and in Chapter 3.)

SCALES

The heart of Automatic Mode pitch correction is the Scale. Auto-Tune 4 lets you choose from major, minor, chromatic or 26 historical, ethnic and microtonal scales. Individual scale notes can be bypassed, resulting in no pitch correction when the input is near those notes. Individual scale notes can also be removed, allowing a wider range of pitch correction for neighboring pitches. The scale can be detuned, allowing pitch correction to any pitch center.

For added flexibility, you can also select the target pitches in real time via MIDI from a MIDI keyboard or a pre-recorded sequencer track.

RETUNE SPEED

Auto-Tune 4 also gives you control over how rapidly, in time, the pitch adjustment is made toward the scale tone. This is set with the Retune Speed control (see Chapter 3 for more details).

• Fast Speed settings are appropriate for short duration notes and for mechanical instruments, like an oboe or clarinet, whose pitch typically changes almost instantly. A fast enough setting will also minimize or completely remove a vibrato, as well as produce the infamous “Cher effect.”

• Slow Speed settings, on the other hand, are appropriate 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 (portamento) between pitches. An appropriately selected slow setting can leave expressive gestures intact while moving the average pitch to the correct tonal center.

VIBRATO

Auto-Tune 4 can also apply a vibrato to the input sound. You can program the vibrato rate along with individual vibrato depths for pitch, amplitude (loudness) and formant (resonant frequencies). You can also specify delayed vibrato with independently programmable onset delay and onset rate.

By combining a fast Retune Speed setting with Auto-Tune 4’s Vibrato settings, you can even remove a performer’s own vibrato and replace it with Auto-Tune 4’s programmed vibrato, all in real time. Also, unusual combinations of Vibrato Waveform, Rate and Depth settings can be used for some interesting special effects.

AN EXAMPLE OF AUTOMATIC MODE CORRECTION

As an example, consider this before-and-after graphic representation of the pitch of a vocal phrase that contains both vibrato and expressive gestures.

CORRECTED BY AUTO-TUNE 4

C#3

ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE

10.0 10.5 11.0

In the original performance, we can see that although the final note should be centered around D, the vocalist allowed the tail of the note to fall nearly three semitones flat. The “after” plot is the result of passing this phrase through Auto-Tune 4’s Automatic Mode programmed to a D Major Scale (with C # and B set to ”Remove”) and a Retune Speed setting of 25. That Retune Speed causes the pitch center to be moved to D, while still retaining the vibrato and expressive gestures. (Setting C # and B to ”Remove” is necessary to keep Auto-Tune 4 from trying to correct the seriously flat tail of the last note to those pitches. See Chapter 3 for more details.)

Graphical Mode

The Graphical Mode is similar to the Automatic Mode in that it also continuously tracks the pitch of the incoming sound and modifies the output pitch to be closer to a desired pitch. But in the Graphical Mode, the desired pitch is not a predefined scale tone, but rather is a graphical representation of your desired pitch.

As in Automatic Mode, the rate of change towards the desired pitch is controlled by the Retune control.

The key feature of Graphical Mode is the Pitch Graph display. On this display, the vertical axis represents pitch (with higher notes towards the top) while the horizontal axis represents time.

The red curve represents the original pitch contour of the input track, while the desired target pitch or pitch contour is indicated in yellow.

The horizontal grid lines represent scale pitches. The key annotation, scale name, scale pitches and Scale Detune value are those defined in the Automatic Mode. They do not affect the computations of the Graphical Mode in any way. They are merely a reference to guide you in setting the target pitches. If you wish to change them, you can select the Automatic Mode and change the Key pop-up, Scale pop-up, or the Scale Detune setting, respectively. (Changing the Scale Detune setting will also result in the scale pitch graph lines moving up or down relative to the tracked pitch.) Then, return to Graphical Mode.

The Graphical Mode also includes the Envelope Graph, which displays the amplitude (loudness) envelope of the sound whose pitch is shown in the Pitch Graph. The horizontal scale of this graph will either 1) show the envelope of the entire extent of the pitch-detected sound or 2) align with the horizontal scale and position of the Pitch Graph above it.

In Graphical Mode, you can draw the desired target pitches using line and curve drawing tools. Complete image scaling and scrolling controls are provided. A graphical editor allows easy editing, including cut, copy and paste functions.

The basic steps you will perform in Graphical Mode are:

• In your host application, select some sound for processing.

• Bring up Auto-Tune 4. Set the buffer length for at least the number of seconds from the beginning of the track to the end of the audio you are going to tune. Press the Track Pitch button, then play back the sound. The pitch will be detected and then displayed in the Pitch Graph as a red curve.

• Create a target pitch function using the graphical tools and adjust the Retune Speed for the desired effect.

• Press Correct Pitch and play back the sound. The pitch will be corrected as specified.

Chapter 3: Auto-Tune 4 Controls

This chapter is a reference for all of the controls used in the Auto-Tune 4 interface. How these controls are used together for intonation correction is demonstrated in Chapter 4, Auto-Tune 4 Tutorial.

If you are upgrading from Auto-Tune 3, you can probably skip ahead to Chapter 5, New Feature Quick Start Guide.

Common Controls

The following controls and displays are visible regardless of which operating mode is selected. Their settings affect both Automatic and Graphical Modes.

SAMPLE RATE DISPLAY

This display indicates the sample rate of the current audio file as reported to Auto-Tune 4 by the host application.

NOTE: Auto-Tune 4 is high sample rate compatible. If your host application and audio hardware are capable of dealing with up to 192 kHz files, Auto-Tune 4 will process them correctly. However, it’s important to remember that high sample rate files require substantially more DSP power than 44.1 kHz and 48 kHz files, so the number of possible simultaneous Auto-Tune 4 instantiations will be decreased.

ANOTHER NOTE: If you are using external A/D converters with independently selectable sample rates, it can be possible to establish a mismatch between the actual conversion sample rate and what the host application thinks is the sample rate. If this happens, Auto-Tune 4 will appear to be correcting pitch to the “wrong” key. If this seems to be happening, check to be sure that your converter sample rate and your host application sample rate (as displayed by Auto-Tune 4) match.

INPUT TYPE

As a result of Antares research into the unique characteristics of various types of audio signals, Auto-Tune 4 offers a selection of optimized processing algorithms for the most

commonly pitch-corrected inputs. Choices include Soprano Voice, Alto/Tenor Voice, Low Male Voice, Instrument, and Bass Instrument. Matching the appropriate algorithm to the input results in even faster and more accurate pitch detection and correction.

To select the desired Input Type, click on the Input Type pop-up and then select the desired type from the pop-up list.

NOTE: Choosing the wrong Input Type (or just forgetting to set it at all) can result in compromised performance. Pay attention.

ANOTHER NOTE: When any Input Type other than Bass Instrument is selected, Auto-Tune 4 is reliably able to detect pitches down to A0 (55Hz). Selecting Bass Instrument lowers the lowest detectable frequency by about one octave to 25Hz. Since the lowest E string on a bass guitar is approximately 41Hz, Bass Instrument (as its name so ably implies) allows you to apply pitch correction to those pesky fretless bass lines as well as other low bass range instruments. However, when Bass Instrument is selected, pitches above A4 may be incorrectly tuned by a perfect fifth, so be sure to select Bass Instrument only when correcting bass range tracks.

CORRECTION MODE

Click the appropriate button to select either Automatic or Graphical Mode.

SELECT PITCH REFERENCE

Auto-Tune 4 provides the ability to pitch correct stereo tracks while maintaining the tracks’ phase coherence. (Refer to your host application’s manual for instructions on assigning a plug-in to a stereo track.) Click the appropriate button to select which of the two stereo

tracks (left or right) Auto-Tune 4 will use as a pitch reference.

NOTE: If there is a marked difference in the two tracks, pick the cleanest, most isolated track. For example, if one track is a close mic’d vocal while the other is mic’d from farther away for ambience, or is heavily processed, select the close mic’d track.

ANOTHER NOTE: Auto-Tune 4 will only pitch correct true stereo tracks. If the second track (i.e., the track not selected as a pitch reference) is simply an independent unrelated track, unpredictable (and potentially unpleasant) sounds may result. On the other hand, something interesting might happen. You never know.

When Auto-Tune 4 is instantiated on a mono track, this control is inactive (grayed out).

BYPASS

Auto-Tune 4 does not include a dedicated Bypass control as that function is typically provided by the host application’s plug-in interface. However, it is worth noting that Auto-Tune 4 is designed such that switching the bypass state will not cause any audio artifacts. It can safely be used in performance or in the middle of a recorded track.

OPTIONS

Clicking the Options button will bring up a window containing a number of settings that fall into the “set and forget” category. They are:

BUFFER SIZE This controls

the number of seconds of memory buffer space that are permanently reserved for pitch tracking and pitch correction data in Graphical Mode. (There is a separate buffer for each plug-in occurrence.) To change the buffer allocation, click in the data field and enter the required number of seconds.

NOTE: As buffer memory is typically allocated from within your host application, for large buffers, it may be necessary to increase the memory allocation of your host.

ANOTHER NOTE: Some host applications allow Auto-Tune 4 to display all tracked pitch information at their correct times within the track. If your application supports this capability, setting the buffer to the length of the entire song and tracking the pitch in one pass will allow you to quickly and easily move to each section of audio to be corrected as necessary.

GRAPHICAL MODE COLOR SCHEME This setting lets you select one of

three color scheme options for the Graphical Mode Pitch and Envelope Display:

CLASSIC: Just like Auto-Tune 3. A dark green background with red detected pitch curves and yellow target pitch curves.

ALTERNATE: The same background color as Classic, but with blue detected pitch curves and bright green target pitch curves (selected for readability by people with the most common types of Red/Green color blindness).

BLACK AND WHITE: A white background with red detected pitch curves and black target pitch curves. Not too pretty, but the ultimate high contrast display (as in the original Auto-Tune)

KNOB CONTROL Lets you select how you want to control the “knobs”

in the Auto-Tune 4 interface:

VERTICAL: Position the cursor over a knob, press and hold the left mouse button (or the only mouse button, if you’re using a onebutton mouse) and move the cursor up to turn the knob clockwise or down to turn the knob counterclockwise. The current value of the knob’s parameter appears in its associated numeric display.

HORIZONTAL: Position the cursor over a knob, press and hold the left mouse button and move the cursor to the right to turn the knob clockwise or to the left to turn the knob counterclockwise. The current value of the knob’s parameter appears in its associated numeric display.

RADIAL: Click anywhere around the circumference of the knob, press and hold the left mouse button and “rotate” the knob in the desired direction. The current value of the knob’s parameter appears in its associated numeric display.

CUSTOM CURSORS Click the check box to use Custom Cursors in

Graphical Mode. Normally, Auto-Tune 4 displays different cursor shapes in the Pitch

Graph Display to help you grab and drag objects (e.g., the object cursor, the anchor point cursor, etc.). However, some host applications mistakenly think that they own the cursor when it is in a plug-in window. This may cause the cursor to flash as the host and Auto-Tune 4 alternately try to set the cursor shape. If this annoys you, unclick this check box. It will stop the flashing, but you will no longer see AutoTune 4’s custom cursors.

NUMBER OF UNDOS Auto-Tune 4 provides multiple Undo/Redo

capability in Graphical Mode. Select the maximum allowable number here (up to 20). Choosing a higher number allocates more memory for saving intermediate states.

Automatic Mode Controls

KNOBS

All of Auto-Tune 4’s continuous parameters are represented as knobs. Depending on your preference, you can control knobs by vertical, horizontal or radial mouse movement. Set your preference in the Options dialog described above.

Double-clicking on a knob will return it to its default value. In some host applications, Command/Control clicking on a knob will also reset it to default (see the Auto-Tune 4 Read Me and/or your host application manual for details).

KEY SELECTION

To select the desired key, click on the Key pop-up and then select the desired note from the pop-up list. This determines the pitch of the first note of the scale according to the standard A3 = 440 Hertz.

SCALE SELECTION

To select a scale, click on the Scale pop-up and then select the desired scale from the pop-up list.

NOTE: To avoid having to deal with scales containing those annoying double flats, double sharps and notes like Cb, E#, Fb and B#, Auto-Tune 4 will automatically choose the simpler of two enharmonically equivalent scales. For example, if you select Db Major, the Edit Scale Display will duly display the Db Major scale. However, if you then go to the Scale selection pop-up and select Minor, the Key will automatically be changed to C# and the Edit Scale Display will, in fact, display the much friendlier C# Minor scale. This will also be reflected on the Pitch Graph Display in the Graphical Mode.

THE SCALES

Auto-Tune 4 comes with 29 preprogrammed scales. The first three scales are equal tempered. These are the ubiquitous scales typically found in Western tonal music. The other scales are historical, ethnic, and microtonal scales. An in-depth discussion of these scales and their history is beyond the scope of this manual. The interested reader will find more information in Tuning In — Microtonality In Electronic Music by Scott R. Wilkinson, published by Hal Leonard Books.

The following is a brief synopsis of the scales:

MODERN EQUAL TEMPERAMENT:

• major: a seven-tone equal tempered major scale.

• minor: a seven-tone equal tempered minor scale.

• Equal Tempered chrom.: a twelve-tone equal tempered chromatic scale.

HISTORICAL TUNINGS:

• Ling Lun: a twelve-tone scale dating from 2700 B.C. China.

• Scholar’s Lute: a seven-tone scale dating from 300 B.C. China.

• Greek diatonic genus: a seven-tone scale from ancient Greece.

• Greek chromatic genus: a seven-tone scale from ancient Greece.

• Greek enharmonic genus: a seven-tone scale from ancient Greece.

• Pythagorean: a twelve-tone scale dating from 600 B.C. Greece. This scale is derived by tuning twelve pure perfect fifths upward and adjusting the octaves downward. This leads to some pure intervals and some very impure intervals.

• Just (major chromatic): a twelve-tone scale. Just intonation tunes the most frequently used intervals to be pure (integer ratios in frequency). These tunings depend on the mode (major or minor) and the key. This scale is tuned for major mode.

• Just (minor chromatic): (See Just (major chromatic), above)

• Meantone chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. This tuning is a combination of Pythagorean and just tunings so that music in a wider variety of keys could be usable.

•Werckmeister III chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. This scale was a first attempt (about Bach’s time) to allow an instrument to be played in any scale. It was in response to this scale that Bach wrote WellTempered Clavier.

•Vallotti & Young chrom.: a twelve-tone scale. Another derivative of the Pythagorean scale designed to allow arbitrary keys.

• Barnes-Bach (chromatic): a twelve-tone scale. A variation of the Vallotti & Young scale designed to optimize the performance of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

ETHNIC TUNINGS:

• Indian: This 22 tone scale is used in India to perform ragas.

• Slendro: This five-tone Indonesian scale is played by ensembles called gamelans.

• Pelog: This seven-tone Indonesian scale is more interesting than Slendro and is now the primary scale in Balinese music.

• Arabic 1: This 17 tone scale is the original Arabic scale adopted from the Pythagorean scale.

• Arabic 2 (chromatic): This twelve-tone scale is the modern version of the Arabic scale popular in Arabic music today.

CONTEMPORARY TUNINGS:

Equal tempered scales with a large number of tones are typically used to play common tonal harmony with greater purity of intervals and chords. The typical approach is to analyze a passage (or less) of music and select tones from a scale that will best approximate the desired pure intervals.

• 19 Tone: This scale has greater purity of minor thirds and major thirds (and conversely, minor and major sixths) than twelve-tone equal temperament. A disadvantage is that perfect fifths are narrower than those found in twelve-tone equal temperament.

• 24 Tone: Also know as the quarter tone scale, this scale is used for variety but has no advantage in terms of ratios that better approximate pure intervals.

• 31 Tone: In addition to intervals that better approximate pure intervals, this scale also contains good approximations to Indonesian pelog and slendro scales.

• 53 Tone: Related mathematically to the cycle of fifths, the 53-tone scale has very pure major and minor thirds, and fifths and fourths.

• Partch: Harry Partch is considered the father of modern microtonality. This scale was devised by him and used in instrument building and performances.

• Carlos Alpha: Wendy Carlos performed extensive computer analysis to devise a number of equal tempered scales with good approximations for the primary harmonic intervals and their inversions. This scale is good at approximating the primary intervals including 7/4. This scale divides the octave into 15.385 steps forming intervals of

78.0 cents.

• Carlos Beta: This scale divides the octave into 18.809 steps forming intervals of 63.8 cents.

• Carlos Gamma: This scale achieves perfect purity of the primary intervals 3/2, 4/3 and 5/4. This scale divides the octave into 34.188 steps forming intervals of 35.1 cents.

• Harmonic (chromatic): This twelve-tone scale is created in the partials in the fifth octave of the harmonic series. The scale degrees that correspond to the classic just intervals are the major second, major third, perfect fifth and major seventh.

THE EDIT SCALE DISPLAY

The Edit Scale Display is used to create custom scales or to modify any of the preset scales. Edits made using this display are associated with each scale. That is, each scale retains its own edits independent of the other scales. For example, if you select C Major and Remove or Bypass certain notes and then change to C Minor and make other edits, when you return to C Major your previous edits associated with C Major will be restored.

The Edit Scale window displays each note of the currently selected scale in the currently selected key. If the selected scale includes more than twelve notes, Up and Down arrows will appear to allow scrolling through all of the available notes.

Beside each note name are two buttons: a Bypass button and a Remove button. Click on a button to toggle its state. The button will light to indicate that its mode is active.

If neither of these buttons are lit, Auto-Tune 4 treats this note as a normal scale note, i.e., when the input pitch is close to this note, Auto-Tune 4 will correct the pitch to this note at the rate set by the Retune Speed control.

If the scale selected in the Scale popup contains exactly 12 notes (e.g., Chromatic, Pythagorean, Meantone Chromatic, Just, etc.), the Virtual Keyboard (see below) will be active and any edits to the scale notes made in the Edit Scale Display will also be reflected on the Virtual Keyboard.

NOTE: Although Auto-Tune 4 allows setting scale note behaviors in individual octaves, any edits made via the Edit Scale Display will affect all octaves. To edit notes in individual octaves, use the Virtual Keyboard.

BYPASS

If the Bypass button is lit, when the input pitch is close to this note the input will be passed through with no correction.

Why set Scale notes to “Bypass?” There are two main reasons to set one or more scale

notes to “Bypass.”

1. If a performance includes pitch gestures around one or more specific notes that you want to preserve with no modification whatsoever, you can set just those notes to Bypass. This lets Auto-Tune 4 correct any pitch problems elsewhere in the scale but passes everything near the bypassed notes completely unprocessed.

2. If a performance contains only a single error, you can set all notes to Bypass except the one “sour” note. Auto-Tune 4 will then pass the entire performance through unprocessed except for the sour note, which will be corrected.

REMOVE

If the Remove button is lit, then the note is simply removed from the current scale. For example, selecting the Chromatic scale and then setting C#, D#, F#, G#, A# to Remove would cause a C Major scale to remain. In that case Auto-Tune 4 would always retune the input to the closest note of the C Major scale.

Why set Scale notes to “Remove?” To understand why it is sometimes necessary to set even

correct scale notes to ”Remove,“ let’s look again at the example from Chapter 1.

C#3

CORRECTED BY AUTO-TUNE 4

ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE

10.0 10.5 11.0

CENTS

The number in the Cents column is the associated note’s interval, in cents, from the root note of the scale. It’s provided for reference purposes and to help you choose which notes of a microtonal scale to include or remove.

This phrase is in D Major and, if all the pitch errors were no greater than about 49 cents, would work fine with a standard D Major scale (D, E, F#, G, A, B, C# ). However, the pitch error of three semitones at the end of the last note is so large that with B and C # present in the Scale, as the pitch fell, AutoTune 4 would see first C# and then B as the target pitch and therefore allow the error to remain. With C# and B removed from the Scale, Auto-Tune 4 continues to see D as the target pitch for the entire duration of the note and therefore pulls the phrase up to the correct pitch.

SET ALL

Clicking this button sets all notes in the current scale to Scale Notes in all octaves.

This function is useful as a Reset button to instantly erase all previous Remove and/or Bypass settings and reset an edited scale to its default state.

REMOVE ALL

Clicking this button sets all notes in the current scale to Remove in all octaves.

BYPASS ALL

Clicking this button sets all notes in the current scale to Bypass in all octaves.

SET MAJOR SCALE/SET MINOR SCALE

When any scale that includes more than seven notes (i.e., any non-diatonic scale) is selected, the Set Major Scale and Set Minor Scale buttons will appear. Clicking on either of these buttons will “Remove” all notes from the scale except for those notes closest to the notes of a traditional diatonic major or minor scale (depending, of course, on which button you clicked).

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

The Virtual Keyboard displays Auto-Tune 4’s pitch detection range and acts as a realtime display of the currently detected pitch, a display of the current Scale settings, and as a tool for setting target note behaviors in specific octaves.

NOTE: The keyboard is only active for scales with exactly twelve notes. It will be grayed out (hence inactive) when any other scale is selected.

“But wait!” you might be thinking, “I want to edit Major and Minor scales in individual octaves and the keyboard is grayed out when I select either one.”

No problem. Simply select Chromatic, then use the Set Major or Set Minor button to set up the scale of your choice and edit away.

KEY COLORS The color of the keys of the Virtual Keyboard indicate

their current state as follows:

COLOR STATE

Blue The currently detected input pitch White or Black Scale Note Invisible Remove Brown Bypass

KEYBOARD EDIT These

buttons are used to select which state (Remove or Bypass) will be toggled when you click on a key.

When Remove is selected, clicking on any key that is not currently set to Remove will set that key to Remove. Clicking on any key that is currently set to Remove will set that key to a Scale Note.

When Bypass is selected, clicking on any key that is not currently set to Bypass will set that key to Bypass. Clicking on any key that is currently set to Bypass will set that key to a Scale Note.

NOTE: In the descriptions above, “clicking” on a key refers to pressing the mouse button down and then releasing it. The edit action is executed when the mouse button is released. Therefore, if the Momentary button is Off (see below), dragging across the keyboard highlights each key in turn, but it is only when you release the mouse button that the resulting key will change state.

MOMENTARY When this button is not On (i.e., its LED

is not lit), any edits made to the keyboard will latch i.e., clicking a key will change its state and the key will retain that state until some other action causes it to change.

When the button is On (i.e., its LED is lit), keyboard edits are only active for as long as the mouse is held down on a key.

NOTE: Pressing and holding the Shift key on your keyboard will temporarily toggle the state of the Momentary button.

A TIP: The main purpose of the Momentary function is to allow you to deal easily with specific individual events in a performance. However, you can also use it to “play” the target melody notes in real time. To do this, set the scale to Chromatic and use the Scale Edit window Remove All button to remove all notes from the scale. Set Keyboard Edit to Remove and Momentary to On. Now use your mouse to play the target melody on the keyboard. It’s not as easy as Target Notes via MIDI, but if you don’t have a MIDI controller handy, it’ll do in a pinch.

Auto-Tune 4 MIDI Functions

Auto-Tune 4 provides two functions that require it to receive MIDI data from the host application. Depending on your intent, this data could come in real time from a MIDI controller (typically a keyboard) or from a prerecorded MIDI sequencer track. Refer to your host application’s manual for details on how to route MIDI to Auto-Tune 4.

Please note that some host applications may not support the routing of MIDI information to plug-ins. In that case the following two functions will not be selectable.

TARGET NOTES VIA MIDI

To use the Target Notes Via MIDI function, ensure that the desired MIDI source is routed to Auto-Tune 4, then click the Target Notes Via MIDI button. Its associated LED will light and the Edit Scale display will automatically be set to a chromatic scale with all of the notes set to

Remove. While in this mode, Auto-Tune 4 continuously monitors its MIDI input for Note On messages. At any instant, the scale used for correction is defined by all MIDI notes that are on. For example, if MIDI notes A, C and E are held, AutoTune 4’s input will be retuned to an A, C or E, whichever is closest to the input pitch.

The source of the MIDI input would typically be a MIDI keyboard or sequencer track, and could consist of chords, scales, or, most powerfully, the exact melody that the input should be corrected to.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you will not be defining Auto-Tune 4’s target pitches via MIDI, be sure that the Target Notes Via MIDI button is off. If it is left on and no MIDI note data is present, Auto-Tune 4 will pass through all audio unprocessed — giving the impression that Auto-Tune 4 is not functioning.

LEARN SCALE FROM MIDI

In most cases, you will probably tell Auto-Tune 4 which notes to correct to using the Edit Scale Display and/or the Virtual Keyboard. However, there may be occasions when it is not clear exactly what key a melody line is in, or where the line has too many accidentals to fit comfortably into a conventional scale. For those occasions, the Learn Scale From MIDI function allows you to simply play the line into Auto-Tune 4 from a MIDI keyboard or sequencer track and let Auto-Tune 4 construct a custom scale containing only those notes that appear in the line.

To use the Learn Scale From MIDI function, ensure that the desired MIDI source is routed to Auto-Tune 4 and then click the Learn Scale From MIDI button. Its associated LED will light and the Edit Scale display will automatically be set to a chromatic scale with all of the notes set to Remove.

Now simply play the melody to be corrected from your keyboard or sequencer. Tempo and rhythm don’t matter, so take your time and make sure you don’t play any wrong notes. As each note is played, the corresponding Remove button in the Edit Scale Display is turned off (adding that note to the scale as a Scale Note). Assume, for example, that your melody starts with D, B, and then A. After playing those notes the display would look like this:

When you have played the entire melody, press the Learn Scale From MIDI button again to end the process. The Edit Scale Display will now contain a scale containing only those notes that appeared in your melody.

If you happen to make an error during note entry, or want to try again for any other reason, simply click the Learn Scale From MIDI button and start the process again.

NOTE: When you start the process by pressing the Learn Scale From MIDI button, all notes are first Removed from the chromatic scale in preparation for adding just the notes you play. If you then press the Learn Scale From MIDI button again without playing any notes, you will be left with a chromatic scale with all notes removed. In this state, Auto-Tune 4 will pass all notes with no correction applied. So don’t do that.

ANOTHER NOTE: We realize that there is some possibility of confusion between the Learn Scale From MIDI function and Target Notes Via MIDI function described above. To clarify: Target Notes Via MIDI is used to specify target pitches in real time while pitch correction is occurring, while Learn Scale From MIDI is used in advance of correction to create a custom scale.

OCTAVE AS PLAYED/ ALL OCTAVES

For both of the MIDI functions (Learn Scale from MIDI and Target Notes via MIDI), you can

now choose whether you want incoming MIDI notes to affect all octaves or just the notes in the specific octaves in which they are played.

Simply click the desired button. The associated LED will light to indicate your choice.

SCALE DETUNE

The Detune parameter allows you to change the pitch standard of Auto-Tune 4 from the default A = 440Hz. The value is set in cents (100 cents = 1 semitone). The range of adjustment is from -100 to +100 cents. For convenience, the detune amount is also displayed in Hertz relative to A440.

The Detune function can be used to tune a vocal performance to some irreparably out-of-tune instrument (a piano or organ, for example), or to allow correction to other than the conventional 440Hz standard.

If you have a tone that you want to use as the pitch standard, select that tone and play it in a loop. Adjust Scale Detune until the Change meter reads zero. (You may be required to use the Edit Scale Display to remove adjacent notes so that Auto-Tune 4 doesn’t tune to the wrong note.)

The default Scale Detune setting is 0 cents. Double-clicking the Scale Detune knob will reset it to that value.

RETUNE SPEED

Retune Speed controls how rapidly the pitch correction is applied to the incoming sound. The units are milliseconds. A value of zero will cause instantaneous changes from one tone to another and will completely suppress a vibrato (note that any related

volume changes will remain). Values from 10 to 50 are typical for vocals (unless you’re going for the nowinfamous “Cher effect,” in which case use 0). Larger values let through more vibrato and other interpretative pitch gestures but also slow down how rapidly pitch corrections are made.

Although the above suggestions can be used as starting points, finding the correct Speed setting for a particular performance is largely a matter of trial-and-error and depends on such attributes as song tempo, note duration and vocal style, among others. As always, let you ears be your guide.

The default Retune Speed is 20. Double-clicking the Retune Speed knob will reset it to that value.

TRACKING

In order to accurately identify the pitch of the input, Auto-Tune 4 requires a periodically repeating waveform, characteristic of a voice or solo instrument. The Tracking control determines how much variation is allowed in the incoming waveform for Auto-Tune 4 to still consider it periodic.

If you are working with a well-isolated solo signal (e.g., tracking in a studio or off of a multi-track tape) you can typically set the Tracking control to 25 and forget it.

If, on the other hand, your signal is noisy or not well-isolated (as might be more common in a live performance situation) or you are dealing with a particularly breathy or guttural voice, it may be necessary to allow more signal variation (higher Tracking numbers). However, under these circumstances tracking is not guaranteed and a too “relaxed” setting may introduce distortion and popping.

The default Tracking setting is 25. Double-clicking the Tracking knob will reset it to that value.

NOTE: The improved pitch detection algorithm in Auto-Tune 4 (in combination with the Input Type selection described above) results in noticeably more reliable pitch detection compared to previous versions of Auto-Tune. If you have used older versions of Auto-Tune, you may find that situations that previously required constant modifications of the Tracking control now track perfectly at the default setting.

IMPROVED TARGETING

This feature is designed to help with target note identification when the performance includes vibrato so wide that it approaches adjacent scale notes.

With Improved Targeting, Auto-Tune 4 uses the impressively named Stochastic Optimal Linear

Estimation Theory to attempt to recognize vibrato and differentiate between it and intended note changes. Our testing has shown that it works a lot of the time — but not always (it depends a great deal on the actual performance). When it works, Auto-Tune 4 ignores the wide vibrato as far as target note selection is concerned. When it doesn’t, it works pretty much like Auto-Tune 3.

The default state of this control is Off. When you’ve got a vibrato problem, try turning it on and see if it helps.

THE VIBRATO SECTION

While vibrato is typically perceived to be a variation solely in pitch, careful analysis shows that, depending on the voice or instrument and the style of the individual performer, variations in amplitude (loudness) and formant resonances are also involved. Reflecting this, Auto-Tune 4 includes a plethora of new vibrato functions to allow the creation of much more convincing vibratos. (And for the adventuresome, they can be abused to create some “interesting” effects.)

The controls are:

SHAPE MENU

Selects the shape of the vibrato. The choices are:

NO VIBRATO Pretty self-explanatory SINE WAVE Changes smoothly from minimum to maximum and

back again. The most common choice for a conventional vibrato. SQUARE Jumps to maximum where it spends 50% of the cycle and

then jumps to minimum for the remaining 50% of the cycle. SAWTOOTH Gradually rises from minimum to maximum and then

drops instantaneously to minimum to start the cycle again.

RATE

Sets the rate of the vibrato over a range of 0.1 Hz to 10 Hz. The default Rate setting is 5.5 Hz. Double-clicking the Rate knob will reset it to that value.

VARIATION

Sets the amount of random variation that will be applied to the Rate and Amount parameters on a note to note basis. Useful for humanizing the vibrato by adding random“errors.”

The range is from 0 (no variation) to 100 (maximum variation). The default Variation setting is 20. Double-clicking the Variation knob will reset it to that value.

ONSET DELAY

Sets the amount of time (in msec) between the beginning of a note and the beginning of the onset of vibrato. The range is from 0 to 1500ms (1.5 seconds). The default value is 500ms. Double-clicking the knob will reset it to that value.

ONSET RATE

Sets the amount of time (in msec) between the end of the Onset Delay set above and the point at which the vibrato reaches the full Amounts set in the Pitch, Amplitude and Formant Amount settings. The range is from 0 to 1500ms (1.5 seconds). The default value is 500ms. Doubleclicking the knob will reset it to that value.

Onset Example: As an example of the above parameters, assume an Onset Delay of 1000ms and an Onset Rate of 750ms. In that case, each time a new note started there would be no vibrato at all for the first second (1000ms) followed by a 3/4 second (750ms) period during which the vibrato depths would increase from none to the full amounts set in the various Amount parameters - for a total of 1.75 seconds from the beginning of the note to the time full vibrato depth was reached.

PITCH AMOUNT

Sets the amount that the pitch changes. The range is from 0 (no change) to 100 (maximum change). The default setting is 18. Doubleclicking the knob will reset it to that value.

AMPLITUDE AMOUNT

Sets the amount that the loudness changes. For the most realistic vibrato, the amount of amplitude change should be substantially less than pitch change, although for special effects, anything goes.

The range is from 0 (no change) to 30 (maximum change). The default setting is 10. Double-clicking the knob will reset it to that value.

FORMANT AMOUNT

Sets the amount that the resonant timbre changes. The range is from 0 (no change) to 100 (maximum change). The default setting is 70. Double-clicking the knob will reset it to that value

The vibrato is re-started every time the Auto-Tune 4 matches the incoming pitch to a different scale tone. Also, the vibrato is applied after the effects of the Retune Speed control. Hence, even with a slow retune value of 50, a square wave vibrato will make instantaneous changes in pitch.

NOTE: As mentioned above, although we perceive vibrato primarily as a variation in pitch, in most cases there is also matching (though more subtle) variations in amplitude and timbre. Setting Auto-Tune 4’s Retune Speed to 0 will remove an existing vibrato’s pitch variation, but the amplitude and timbral variation will remain. If you then apply a new vibrato using Auto-Tune 4’s Vibrato section, the results may be less than convincing. Auto-Tune 4’s Vibrato section is more often useful for adding a vibrato to an input that originally had none, or for various special effects.

THE PITCH CHANGE INDICATOR

The Pitch Change Indicator shows you how much the pitch is being changed, measured in cents (100 cents = one semitone). For example, if the indicator bar has moved to the left to -50, it indicates that the input pitch is 50 cents too sharp and Auto-Tune 4 is lowering the pitch by 66 cents to bring the input back to the desired pitch.

HOLD BUTTON

Clicking and holding the Hold button while Auto-Tune 4 is processing audio will freeze both the Pitch Tuning display and the blue Detected Pitch indication on the keyboard for as long as you hold down the mouse button. This is useful for figuring out exactly what’s going on with a particular note in a performance that would otherwise pass too quickly to see.

Graphical Mode Controls

The Playback Controls

TRACK PITCH

The Track Pitch function is used to detect the pitch of the audio to be processed so that it can be displayed on the Pitch Graph Display.

Locate the desired audio and press the Track Pitch button. Its LED will flash to indicate that Auto-Tune is waiting for audio. Next, start playback of the audio. (The Track Pitch LED will light steadily.) When all of the

audio you want to correct has played, stop playback. Track Pitch is automatically deactivated and the detected pitch is displayed on Pitch Graph Display.

NOTE: After tracking, the pitch display will automatically scale in such a way as to include all of the tracked audio.

ANOTHER NOTE: If the length of the audio to be processed exceeds the currently set size of the buffer as set in the Options dialog, playback will stop when the buffer is full. If this happens, increase the buffer size as necessary.

CORRECT PITCH

After you have used the graphical tools (as described below) to create a target pitch contour, this button is used to apply the pitch correction to the audio.

In all cases, pressing the Correct Pitch button and then starting playback will cause the pitch correction to be applied to the audio. In some host applications, starting

playback when the Pitch Graph contains any yellow pitch correction contour will automatically engage the Correct Pitch function. Check your Auto-Tune 4 Read Me file for details.

THE PITCH GRAPH DISPLAY

The Pitch Graph displays the pitch contour of the audio to be processed as well as the target pitch contour objects that you create. On this display, the vertical axis represents pitch (with higher notes towards the top) while the horizontal axis represents time.

NOTE: As explained in the Options section, you can select from three different color schemes for the Pitch Graph Display. In the descriptions below we will refer to the colors that appear in the Classic scheme.

The red curve represents the original pitch contour of the input track, while the desired target pitch or pitch contour is indicated in yellow.

The horizontal grid lines represent scale pitches. The key annotation, scale name, scale pitches and Scale Detune value are those defined in the Automatic Mode. They do not affect the computations of the Graphical Mode in any way. They are merely a reference to guide you in drawing the target pitches. If you wish to change them, select the Automatic Mode and change the Key pop-up, Scale pop-up, or the Scale Detune setting, respectively. (Changing the Scale Detune setting will also result in the scale pitch graph lines moving up or down relative to the tracked pitch.) Then, return to Graphical Mode.

PITCH GRAPH SCALE

The Pitch Graph Scale Buttons control the horizontal (time) and vertical (pitch) scaling of the graph. Clicking the appropriate “+” button causes the view to zoom in, while clicking a “-” button causes it to zoom out.

NOTE: The horizontal scale buttons always control the Pitch Graph. They also control the Envelope Graph when it is set to “Tie” (see below).

CURSOR PITCH DISPLAY

The exact pitch value of the cursor position on the Pitch Graph is constantly displayed as a note name +/- cents. This display is always relative to the currently selected scale (i.e., only scale notes will appear in the pitch display).

THE ENVELOPE GRAPH DISPLAY

The Envelope Graph displays the amplitude (loudness) envelope of the sound whose pitch is shown in the Pitch Graph.

ALL/TIE BUTTONS

The Envelope Graph’s horizontal (time) scale is controlled by the “All” and “Tie” buttons.

Clicking the All button causes the envelope graph to display the entire time scale represented by the current buffer setting. This is useful for locating and selecting various portions of audio spread over the duration of a song.

Clicking the Tie button slaves the position of the Envelope Graph to that of the Pitch Graph. When this setting is selected, the horizontal scale of the Envelope Graph is controlled by the Pitch Graph horizontal scale buttons.

The Graphical Tools

The graphical tools are used in conjunction with the edit buttons to create the desired target pitch contour.

NOTE: In addition to clicking on the various tools, if your host passes key presses to plug-ins, you can also select the various tools by pressing the number keys 1-7*.

* NOTE ALSO: Some hosts reserve the numeric keypad for host keyboard shortcuts even when a plug-in window is active. For that reason, the tool selection shortcuts mentioned above are specifically assigned only to the number keys that appear above the letter keys on the QWERTY portion of your keyboard.

THE LINE TOOL (1)

The Line Tool is used to draw multi-segment straight lines on the Pitch Graph.

Start the process by selecting the Line Tool and clicking anywhere on the Pitch Graph to set an anchor point. As you move the cursor, a line will extend from the anchor point to the cursor position. Click again to set a second anchor point and define the first segment of your pitch contour. Continue clicking and defining lines until your contour is complete. End the process by double-clicking on the final anchor point or pressing <esc> on your keyboard.

Pressing Option/Alt on your keyboard during line entry will force the current segment to be perfectly horizontal.

Pressing the Shift key on your keyboard while drawing a line causes the line to snap to the nearest semitone.

If you move the cursor outside the Pitch Graph during point entry, the graph will automatically scroll.

To delete the last anchor point entered, press <delete> on your keyboard (you can do this repeatedly back to the very first anchor point).

Only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at any time point on the Pitch Graph. When you complete the entry of a line object, any object(s) that previously existed at the same time will be deleted.

THE CURVE TOOL (2)

The Curve Tool is used to draw arbitrary curves on the Pitch Graph.

Start the process by selecting the Curve Tool and clicking anywhere on the Pitch Graph to set an anchor point. Hold down your mouse button and move the cursor to draw the desired pitch contour curve. End the process by releasing your mouse button.

Unlike the Line Tool, the Pitch Graph will not scroll if you attempt to move the Curve Tool cursor outside the current display area.

Only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at any time point on the Pitch Graph. When you complete the entry of a curve object, any object(s) that previously existed at the same time will be deleted.

THE ARROW TOOL (3)

The Arrow Tool is used to select and drag existing target pitch

contour objects (yellow lines and curves) as well as to add or

delete anchor points to existing lines. The Arrow Tool behaves as follows:

MANIPULATING LINES AND CURVES

• Clicking on the background of the Pitch Graph and dragging horizontally selects objects’ anchor points. Shift-clicking extends the selection.

• Dragging beyond the Pitch Graph boundaries automatically scrolls the graph.

• Moving the Pointer Tool over a pitch contour object causes the

cursor to change to the object cursor (a horizontal bar). Clicking on an unselected curve or line segment with the object cursor causes the curve or segment and its anchor points to become selected and allows that object to be dragged. Clicking on an already selected curve or line segment with the object cursor allows that object, along with all other selected objects, to be dragged.

• Moving the Arrow Tool over a pitch contour object anchor

point (whether that point is currently selected or not) causes the cursor to change into the anchor point cursor (four diagonal arrows). Clicking on an anchor point with the anchor point cursor deselects all other objects and anchor points and selects that anchor point so that it can be dragged. Dragging an anchor point stretches or compresses the pitch contour object relative to the nearest unselected anchor point(s).

• The extent to which you can drag selected objects is constrained by the position of neighboring unselected objects.

• In some host applications, holding down the Option/Alt key and then clicking to drag will restrict the cursor to vertical movements only (the cursor will change to indicate this state). The effect of this is to allow you to modify the pitch contour while preserving the object’s location in time. This is particularly handy after using the “Make Curve” button, discussed below.

• Clicking on the background of the Pitch Graph deselects all selected

objects.

ADDING AND DELETING ANCHOR POINTS

• Moving the Arrow Tool over an existing line segment and double-

clicking will add an intermediate anchor point at that point. The cursor will change to the anchor point cursor and the new anchor point can then be dragged.

• Moving the Arrow Tool over an existing anchor point (except for

end points) and double-clicking will remove that anchor point and cause a straight line to be drawn between the now adjacent anchor points.

• The Arrow Tool will not add or delete anchor points on curves, only

on lines created with the Line Tool.

The Arrow Tool has no function in the Envelope Display

While the above may seem a bit mind-boggling on first reading, in practice it’s quite intuitive. Spend a minute or two playing with the Arrow Tool and all will become clear.

SCISSORS TOOL (4):

Moving the Scissors Tool over an existing curve or line segment and clicking will break the line segment or curve in two at the point clicked. Although it will look like there is only one anchor

point created at the break point, there are actually two (one for each of the two newly created line or curve segments). Simply use the Arrow Tool to move the top anchor point to reveal the other one.

MAGNIFYING GLASS (5)

In the Pitch Graph, use the Magnifying Glass to click and drag a

box around an area of interest. Dragging off the Pitch Graph

automatically scrolls the graph. When you release the mouse

button, the scale and position of the Pitch Graph will be changed to display the area enclosed by the box.

When the Magnifying Glass cursor is displaying the default “+”, clicking the Magnifying Glass anywhere in the pitch display will increase the display’s horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible).

Pressing Option(Mac)/Alt(PC) will cause the cursor to change to “-”. In this state, clicking anywhere in the pitch display will decrease the display’s horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible).

Dragging the Magnifying Glass in the Envelope display will cause the selected time range to appear in the pitch display (most useful for navigating when the Envelope display is in “All” mode). The pitch range of the pitch display will be automatically scaled such that all of pitch information in that time range is visible on the screen.

I-BEAM TOOL (6)

Drag the I-beam Tool in either the pitch or Envelope display to select an area for Make Curve or Make Auto or Vibrato Scaling (see below). The selection area will be reflected in both displays.

HAND TOOL (7)

Drag the Hand Tool in any direction in the pitch display to move the area displayed.

If the Envelope display is set to “Tie”, you can drag the Hand Tool in the Envelope display to move the area displayed horizontally. If the Envelope display is set to “All”, the Hand Tool icon will have an “X” through it to indicate that movement is not possible.

THE EDIT BUTTONS

Once some audio has been tracked and/or pitch contour objects created, they can be affected or edited in various ways with the Edit Buttons.

The Edit Buttons are context sensitive, i.e., only the buttons that are applicable to the current state of the pitch display are active. If a particular button does not have a valid function relative to the current pitch display state, it will be “grayed out.”

THE UNDO BUTTON

The Undo button becomes active whenever you move or modify a target pitch contour object. Clicking the Undo

button once will undo the most recent change. If you have made multiple changes, you can continue to click Undo to undo additional changes up to the limit that you set in the Options dialog.

THE REDO BUTTON

The Redo button becomes active whenever you have executed at least one Undo. Clicking the Redo button once

will redo the most recent undone change. If you have executed multiple undos, you can continue to click Redo to redo additional changes up to the limit that you set in the Options dialog.

THE CUT AND COPY BUTTONS

The Cut and Copy buttons become active whenever a pitch

contour object is selected. Cut removes selected objects.

Both Cut and Copy copy selected objects to the Auto-Tune

4 clipboard. You can then paste the objects elsewhere in

the Pitch Graph display.

THE PASTE BUTTON

The Paste button becomes active whenever an object has

been Cut or Copied to the clipboard. Clicking Paste places

the contents of the clipboard in the center of the current

Pitch Graph view.

NOTE: Since only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at any time point on the Pitch Graph, any object(s) that previously existed at the time where an object is Pasted will be deleted. Hence, before you press Paste, be sure that the Pitch Graph view does not contain any pitch contour object(s) that you want to keep.

THE SELECT ALL BUTTON

The Select All button causes all pitch contour objects,

whether currently visible on the Pitch Graph view or not, to

become selected.

KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS

Some host applications support the following keyboard command equivalents for the above Edit Buttons. Others reserve these commands for their own use. Consult your host application’s manual for details (or just try them and see if they work).

Command/Control-Z undo Command/Control-X cut Command/Control-C copy Command/Control-V paste Command/Control-A select all

THE MAKE CURVE BUTTON

The Make Curve button is enabled whenever there is any red input pitch contour data present in the Pitch Graph

(whether it is displayed in the current Pitch Graph view or not). Pressing the Make Curve button causes yellow target pitch contour objects (curves for short) to be created from the input pitch contour data. These curve objects can then be dragged and stretched for very meticulous pitch correction. This is the central technique of Auto-Tune 4’s Graphical Mode and is described in more detail in Chapter 4.

NOTE: If a range of time has been selected by using the I-beam Tool, the Make Curve button works only in the selected time range. Otherwise it works on all red pitch data.

THE MAKE AUTO BUTTON

The Make Auto button is enabled whenever there is any red

input pitch contour data present in the Pitch Graph (whether

it is displayed in the current Pitch Graph view or not). Pressing the Make Auto button causes yellow target pitch contour objects

(curves for short) to be created from the red input pitch contour data. The yellow curve(s) created by the Make Auto function is a precise representation of the pitch correction that would result from processing the tracked input pitch through the current settings of Auto-Tune 4’s Automatic Mode. These include the Automatic Mode’s Key and Scale selections, the Edit Scale settings, the Improved Targeting mode (if selected), and the Scale Detune, Retune Speed and Vibrato settings.

NOTE: If a range of time has been selected by using the I-beam Tool, the Make Auto button works only in the selected time range. Otherwise it works on all red pitch data.

ANOTHER NOTE: If you are adding pitch variation using the Automatic Mode’s Vibrato function, the variation in pitch will be visually reflected in the yellow curve when you Make Auto.

However, since there is no easy way to visually represent specific changes in amplitude or formant, if you have used the Automatic Mode’s Vibrato function to introduce amplitude and/or formant variation, the Make Auto curve will be blue rather than yellow to remind you that these elements will be introduced into your Graphical Mode output.

YET ANOTHER NOTE: The Automatic Mode Tracking control is not involved in the Make Auto function. In Graphical Mode, the input pitch has already been determined, (i.e., the red input pitch contour), hence the Automatic Mode Tracking setting is not needed for the Make Auto computation.

Once you have used the Make Auto function to create a yellow (or blue) target pitch curve, setting the Graphical Mode Retune Speed to 0 and clicking Correct Pitch will result in exactly the same output as you would have gotten by processing the audio through Automatic Mode. Alternatively, you can adjust the Retune Speed or further edit the yellow curve using any of the Graphical Mode tools to get precisely the effect you want.

If you aren’t satisfied with the results of the Make Auto function, simply switch to Automatic Mode, modify any of the settings as desired, and then return to Graphical Mode and click Make Auto again.

NOTE: In addition to its use as a Graphical Mode correction tool, the Make Auto function can also be used to provide an informative visual representation of the results of Automatic Mode settings. If there are times when you’d prefer to use Automatic Mode, but can’t quite zero in on the ideal settings, examining the results of various settings with the Make Auto function can give you a visual picture of exactly what’s going on. This will often make it readily apparent which Automatic Mode settings need to be changed to give your desired results.

STILL ANOTHER NOTE: One potentially confusing aspect of the Make Auto function is the relationship between the Automatic Mode Retune Speed setting and the Graphical Mode Retune Speed setting. To summarize:

• The Automatic Mode Retune Speed controls how the input audio would be processed in Automatic Mode. Changing this setting will change the shape of the yellow curve that will be created by the Make Auto function.

• The Graphical Mode Retune Speed controls how quickly the pitch of the input audio will be changed to that of the yellow target pitch curve by the Correct Pitch function. As mentioned above, to precisely duplicate the results of Automatic Mode, set the Graphical Mode Retune Speed to 0.

VIBRATO SCALING

The purpose of this function is to quickly and easily change (either increasing or decreasing) the amount of an existing vibrato, while preserving the original shape and character of the vibrato.

To use this function, select the I-beam tool and highlight the range of audio you’d like to edit. When a range of audio is selected, the Make Vibrato Curve button becomes active. Set the

desired amount of change using the Scale Vibrato Amount knob and then click the Make Vibrato Curve button to create a correction curve. Audition the result. If it’s not exactly what you wanted, click Undo and try again.

NOTE: This function uses the same Stochastic Optimal Linear Estimation Theory as the Auto Mode’s Improved Targeting function to attempt to differentiate between vibrato and intended pitch changes. Therefore, you can typically select a portion of your audio containing both vibrato and intended pitch change and the Scale Vibrato function will scale the vibrato while leaving the intended pitch changes alone. But again, depending on the actual performance, sometimes this will work better than others. If Scale Vibrato seems to be making changes to parts of the audio you’d like to leave alone, simply Undo the scaling and use the I-beam to select only the vibrato portions you wish to edit.

TRACKING

The Graphical Mode Tracking control is similar in function but separate from the Tracking control in Automatic Mode.

incoming waveform for Auto-Tune 4 to still consider it periodic. If you are working with a well-isolated solo signal (e.g., tracking in a studio

or off of a multi-track tape) you can typically set the Tracking control to 25 and forget it.

The default Tracking value is 25. Double-clicking the Tracking knob will reset it to that value.

NOTE: Be cautious about changing the Tracking value after performing the Track Pitch function. Auto-Tune 4 uses the Tracking setting during both the Track Pitch and the Correct Pitch functions. Changing the Tracking setting after Tracking Pitch, but before Pitch Correction, may result in unpredictable pitch modifications or strange (though possibly interesting) artifacts.

RETUNE SPEED

The Retune setting is used only during the Correct Pitch process. It’s similar in function but separate from the Retune control in Automatic Mode.

In Graphical Mode, the target pitch is not the scale tone nearest to the input,

but rather the yellow target pitch curve. The Retune Speed control allows you to specify how quickly AutoTune 4 will change the pitch of the input to that of the target pitch curve. A value of zero will cause the output pitch to precisely track the target pitch curve. Depending on the target pitch curve, this may or may not provide the desired results. Slower values will have the effect of “smoothing out” the target pitch curve. As ever, you should let your ears be your guide to selecting the proper value for a particular performance.

The default Retune Speed is 20. Double-clicking the Retune Speed knob will reset it to that value.

NOTE: Slower Retune Speed values may also allow you to use simple horizontal line segments to define the target pitches while still preserving the natural pitch gestures of the original performance. See Chapter 4 for details.

Chapter 4: Auto-Tune 4 Tutorial

This chapter introduces you to how Auto-Tune 4 works by guiding you through a number of brief tutorials.

These tutorials make use of a number of audio and MIDI files. (We will assume that you are familiar with loading audio and MIDI files into your host application.)

If you purchased a packaged version of Auto-Tune 4, your will find the

required files in the “Tutorial Audio” folder on the installation CD ROM. If you purchased your copy of Auto-Tune 4 via download, you will have to

separately download the Tutorial Audio files from the same web page that you downloaded Auto-Tune 4.

Tutorial 1: Automatic Mode Basics

This tutorial will guide you through the basic Automatic Mode functions using the file “A2-A3-A2 sweep.” This is a simple synthesized waveform sweeping slowly from A2 up to A3 and back to A2. While it is unlikely that you’d ever need to process such an input with Auto-Tune 4, it provides a very clear example of what each of the main Auto-Tune 4 controls do.

Begin the tutorial by doing the following:

1. Load or import “A2-A3-A2 sweep” into a track of your host program. Play the track so that you are familiar with the original audio.

2. Set up Auto-Tune 4 to be an insert effect on that track.

3. Set Auto-Tune 4 to Automatic Mode.

4. Set the Key to “A” and the Scale to “Major.”

5. Set the Retune Speed to zero.

6. Set “A2-A3-A2 sweep” to loop continuously and put your host program into Play mode.

What you will hear is an A major scale. This is because Auto-Tune 4 is continuously comparing the input pitch to the notes of the A major scale and instantaneously correcting the output pitch to the nearest of the scale tones.

Now do the following:

1. In the Edit Scale Display, click the Remove buttons next to the notes B, D, F# and G#.

2. Play “A2-A3-A2 sweep” again.

You will now hear an arpeggiated A Major triad because you have removed all the other notes from the scale.

To continue:

1. In the Edit Scale Display, click the Bypass button next to E.

2. Play “A2-A3-A2 sweep” again.

You will now hear the effect of not correcting the E. During the time that Auto-Tune 4 would normally be tuning the input to E, Auto-Tune 4 instead enters bypass mode and passes the input through uncorrected.

To continue:

1. Set the Retune Speed to about 30.

2. Play “A2-A3-A2 sweep” again. Compare the 30 setting to the 0 setting.

3. Try various other Speed settings.

The setting of 0 is fast: Auto-Tune 4 makes instantaneous pitch changes. The setting of 30 is slower. Auto-Tune 4 makes gradual pitch changes. This parameter controls how rapidly the pitch correction is applied to the incoming pitch. The units are milliseconds. A value of zero will cause instantaneous changes from one tone to another and will completely suppress a vibrato (note that related volume changes will remain). Retune values from 10 to 50 are typical for vocals.

To continue:

1. Set the Retune Speed to 0

2. In the Edit Scale Display, click the Remove buttons next to to all the notes except F#.

3. Play “A2-A3-A2 sweep” again. As the sound is playing, move Scale Detune knob.

The output pitch will be locked to F#, however, you will hear the output pitch change with the Detune slider movement. This is because the Detune knob is changing the pitch standard of the scale.

Finally:

1. Select “sine wave” from the Vibrato Type pop-up.

2. Play “A2-A3-A2 sweep” again.

3. Experiment with the various vibrato controls to hear their effects.

Tutorial 2: The Improved Targeting Function

This tutorial will demonstrate the purpose and use of the Automatic Mode's Improved Targeting function.

Begin the tutorial by doing the following:

1. Load or import “wide_vibrato” into a track of your host program. This is a recording of a male voice singing a sustained "G" with a pronounced vibrato. Play the track so that you are familiar with the original audio. Despite the wide vibrato, you will notice that the singer's pitch drifts alternately sharp and flat.

2. Set up Auto-Tune 4 to be an insert effect on that track.

3. Set Auto-Tune 4 to Automatic Mode.

4. Set the Key to “C” and the Scale to “Chromatic.”

5. Set the Input Type to Low Male Voice

6. Set Retune Speed to a value of 24.

7. Use your host program's controls to Bypass Auto-Tune 4. Set “wide_vibrato” to loop continuously and put your host program into Play mode. Watch the blue Detected Pitch indication on Auto-Tune 4's Virtual Keyboard. As you will see, the singer's vibrato is so wide that it consistently gets closer to G# and F# than G, causing Auto-Tune to intermittently select those notes as target pitches.

8. Check that Improved Targeting is not selected and remove Auto-Tune 4 from Bypass. Watch the Detected Pitch indication and listen to the result. As you will hear, whenever Auto-Tune 4 thinks G# or F# is the target pitch, it will move the input closer to those notes, in effect making the situation worse.

9. Now, leaving all other settings the same, click Improved Targeting. With Improved Targeting engaged, Auto-Tune 4’s vibrato identification algorithm recognizes the pitch excursions as vibrato and continues to use "G" as the target pitch.

Next, we'll use Graphical Mode for a dramatic graphic demonstration of the effect of Improved Targeting:

1. Still using "wide_vibrato," set up Auto-Tune 4 as described in Steps 1-5 above.

2. Set Retune Speed to 0.

3. Make sure Improved Targeting is Off.

4. Set Auto-Tune 4 to Graphical Mode.

5. Click the Track Pitch button and play wide_vibrato through Auto-T une 4.

6. Stop playback (depending on your host application, you may also have to click the Track Pitch button again to stop the tracking function).

A red curve will appear in the Pitch Graph. This is the pitch contour of wide_vibrato.

7. Click the Make Auto button. A yellow curve will appear. This curve represents the pitch correction that would result from processing the audio with the current Automatic Mode settings. Note all the instances in which Auto-Tune 4 identifies G# or F#as the target pitch.

8. Set Auto-Tune 4 back to Automatic Mode.

9. Set Improved Targeting to On.

10. Return once again to Graphical Mode.

11. Click Make Auto (there is no need to track pitch again, as the red pitch curve is still present in the Pitch Graph).

12. Notice that the yellow curve is now a straight line on "G," indicating that the Improved Targeting algorithm has accurately identified the pitch excursions as vibrato as has therefore ignored it as far as target pitch selection is concerned.

Tutorial 3: Using the Automatic Mode MIDI Functions

This tutorial will introduce you to Auto-Tune 4’s two Automatic Mode MIDI functions: Learn Scale From MIDI and Target Notes Via MIDI.

With Learn Scale From MIDI, you can create the correct scale for a particular melody without knowing a G-sharp from a B-flat. Simply play with the melody on a MIDI keyboard which is patched through your host application to Auto-Tune 4 or play an existing MIDI file with contains the MIDI notes of the melody to be processed.

Begin the tutorial by doing the following:

1. Load or import the audio file “somewhere” into a track of your host program. This is a recording of Somewhere Over the Rainbow sung with fairly extreme pitch errors. (Our very talented singer made us promise to tell you that she did this on purpose at our request.)

2. Set up Auto-Tune 4 to be an insert effect on that track.

3. Import the MIDI file “somewhere.mid” into your host program’s MIDI sequencer.

4. Select Auto-Tune 4 as the target for the MIDI track.

5. Select Automatic Mode and click the “Learn Scale from MIDI” button so that its LED lights.

6. Click the All Octaves button so that its associated LED lights.

7. Play the MIDI file through once and watch as the scale develops on Auto-Tune 4’s virtual keyboard and in the Scale Edit window. As each note is sung, it is added to the scale until the scale incudes every note that appears in the melody.

8. Set the Retune control to 20 and play the audio track using this scale.

NOTE: You can also instantaneously define a scale by playing all of the notes of the scale as a chord (i.e., all scale notes played on the same beat) and recording that into a MIDI track. This is an ideal way to use Auto-Tune 4 in music with many key (scale) changes.

With Target Notes Via MIDI, Auto-Tune 4 looks at its MIDI input in real time to determine its current target note(s). Try the following with the provided audio and MIDI files:

1. Set up your host program and load or import the “somewhere” audio and MIDI files as described in steps 1–4 above.

2. Select Automatic Mode and click the “Target Note Via MIDI” button so that its LED lights.

3. Click the Octaves as Played button so that its associated LED lights.

4. Play the audio and MIDI track together and watch the current target note change in real time on the Virtual Keyboard — and listen to the results.

The most interesting part of the Target Notes Via MIDI feature is that it only operates for the duration of the MIDI note — that is, when there is no current MIDI Note On value, Auto-Tune 4 is effectively in Bypass mode. This means that if you delay the MIDI notes, then the audio performs its attacks as performed and then corrects to pitch when the MIDI note occurs (of course, at whatever Speed is set). In the case of the ‘Somewhere’ vocal performance, most of the intonation problems happen during the notes’ sustain portions. Try moving the notes in the MIDI file around and listen to the results. This gives far more subtle control than Automatic Mode alone, while not being quite as tweaky as operating in Graphical Mode.

NOTE: The MIDI functions look only at MIDI note values. Controller data such as Pitch Bend or Mod Wheel do not affect Auto-Tune 4’s performance.

Long live MIDI!

Tutorial 4: Graphical Mode Basics

This tutorial will introduce you to the basic Graphical Mode functions, again using the “A2-A3-A2 sweep” file from Tutorial 1.

Begin the tutorial by doing the following:

1. Load or import “A2-A3-A2 sweep” into a track of your host program. Play the track so that you are familiar with the original audio.

2. Set up Auto-Tune 4 to be an insert effect on that track.

3. Set Auto-Tune 4 to Automatic Mode.

4. Set the Key to “A” and the Scale to “Major.”

5. Set Auto-Tune 4 to Graphical Mode.

6. Click the Track Pitch button.

7. Play the sweep signal through Auto-Tune 4.

8. Stop playback (depending on your host application, you may also have to click the Track Pitch button again to stop the tracking function).

A red curve will appear in the Pitch Graph. This is the pitch contour of the sweep signal.

To continue:

1. Select the Magnifying Glass tool and drag out a box on the Pitch Graph that encloses the red curve. The result will be something like the following:

2. Select the Line tool and enter a line similar to that below. By clicking multiple anchor points on the Pitch Graph, line segments joining the points will be drawn.

When done, double-click the last point or press <esc> on the keyboard.

To erase the last point entered, press <delete> on the keyboard (you can press <delete> repeatedly to erase back to the first anchor point).

3. Set the Retune Speed to 0. Click the Correct Pitch button and play back the sound to hear the effect.

4. Select the Curve tool and create a curve similar to the one shown below. Click and hold the mouse button and drag to draw the curve. When done, release the mouse button.

5. Press Correct Pitch and play back the sound to hear the effect.

6. Vary the Retune Speed between 0 and 50 and note the effect.

Now that we have some yellow lines and curves on the Pitch Graph Display, this would be a good time to become familiar with the functions of the Arrow and Scissors Tools. (Refer back to Chapter 3 for detailed descriptions of the Arrow and Scissors Tools' behaviors.)

As you experiment in the following steps, press Correct Pitch and play back the file to hear the effect of each action.

7. Select the Arrow Tool.

8. Drag the Arrow Tool across the Pitch Graph to select objects.

9. Move the cursor over curves and anchor points. Practice selecting entire curves and individual anchor points.

10. Use the Arrow Tool to drag selected curves and individual anchor points.

11. Use the Arrow Tool to double-click anywhere on one of the existing line (not curve) segments to create a new anchor point. Use the Arrow Tool to drag the new point to a new position.

12. Still using the Arrow Tool, double-click on the new anchor point you created in Step 11 to delete it and return the line to its initial state.

13. Select the Scissors Tool and click on an existing line or curve to break it in two at that point. A stacked pair of anchor points will be created at the point you click. Select the Arrow Tool again and use it to drag each of the new end points in turn to new positions.

14. Select one or more objects and play with the Edit Buttons (Undo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Select All).

This would also be a good time to see if the Edit Button keyboard equivalents work in your host application:

Command/Control-Z undo Command/Control-X cut Command/Control-C copy Command/Control-V paste Command/Control-A select all

Tutorial 5: Precision

This tutorial is actually more of a demonstration to show the extraordinary precision with which Auto-Tune 4 can track and correct intonation problems. If this doesn’t sound interesting, feel free to proceed to Tutorial 6 below.

(By this time, we’ll assume you’re comfortable loading files and calling up Auto-Tune 4.)

1. Arrange the files “C2 Ahhh v3” and “C2 Ohhh v1” so that they are on separate tracks and can be played simultaneously.

2. Assign a separate instance of Auto-Tune 4 to each of the two tracks and select Automatic Mode for each of them.

3. In each Auto-Tune 4, set the Retune slider to 0.

4. In each Auto-Tune 4, set the Key pop-up to B-flat.

5. Do whatever your host application requires to bypass both instances of Auto-Tune 4.

6. Play back the files so you can hear them together without processing. Believe it or not, these vocal samples from a sample CD are supposed to

be the same pitch. Yikes!

7. Now enable Auto-Tune 4 on each of the tracks and play the files again.

If you’ve done everything right, you will hear the samples so well in tune that they sound like one voice.

Tutorial 6: The Make Curve Function

This tutorial will introduce you to the Make Curve function. The Make Curve function gives you by far the most precise control over pitch accuracy and inflection.

1. Setup to process the file “Crowd All” through Auto-Tune 4.

2. Select Graphical Mode.

3. Press the Track Pitch button.

4. Play the “Crowd All” file.

5. Select the Magnifying Glass Tool and drag out a box on the Pitch Graph that encloses the red curve for the “-gether” part of the last word, “together.” You will see something like the following:

6. Use the I-beam Tool to drag a selection of “-gether” in the Pitch or Envelope Display. The result will be something like the following:

7. Click the Make Curve button. Auto-Tune 4 will compute a new yellow curve object from the existing pitch data. (The new curve may be difficult to see at first because it will exactly overlay the red curve.) Click the I-beam Tool on the background of the Pitch Graph to cancel the area selection.

8. Both anchor points of the new curve will be selected. Select the Arrow Tool and click precisely on the left end of the curve to select only the left anchor point (you’ll know you’re over the anchor point when the cursor changes to the four-pointed arrow cursor). Drag this straight up, stretching the curve so it is centered around the D3 graph line. (If you press Option/Alt on your keyboard before clicking the anchor point, your movement will be constrained to the vertical, assuring that you maintain the time relationship of the curve.)

9. Move the Arrow Tool over the body of the yellow curve so that the cursor changes to the horizontal bar. Press and hold Option/Alt on your keyboard (to constrain movement to the vertical) and click and drag the curve straight down so it is centered on the C3 graph line. The Pitch Graph should now appear as follows:

10. Set the Retune Speed to 0 and play back the sound. Note that the errant note is now in tune.

To continue, here is an alternative approach to the same pitch problem using the Line Tool.

1. Click the Select All button and then the Cut button to delete the yellow curve created above.

2. Use the Line Tool to draw a horizontal line as shown below (press the Option/Alt key to constrain the line to horizontal):

3. Set the Retune Speed to 20 and play back the sound. Experiment with other Retune Speeds to hear their effects.

Vibratos and other pitch gestures typically occur with related loudness gestures. Specifically, with vibratos, some vocalists produce mostly pitch variations and little loudness variations while others produce small pitch variations and a lot of loudness variations (the latter is often called tremolo). Nonetheless, almost all voices seem to produce a combination of both pitch and related loudness variations. Therefore, trying to take an existing vibrato and change it (say speed it up) often sounds unnatural because the new pitch variation does not correspond to the original (and still present) loudness variation.

These considerations are also important when correcting pitch. It’s rarely effective to draw in a new pitch gesture at the desired pitch, even though that gesture may have worked well in another performance.

As this tutorial has demonstrated, the following two techniques are the most commonly successful approaches to Graphical Mode pitch correction:

• The first technique uses the Make Curve button to create a curve of the existing pitch, allowing you to drag that curve up or down, or stretch it by dragging one end vertically. The Retune slider can then be set very fast (0 to 5). This will force a precise re-tuning, but will sound extremely natural since the target pitch curve will precisely synchronize with the original loudness gestures of the voice.

• The second technique is to draw a flat line segment across the duration of a tone at the desired pitch and then set the Retune Speed in the range of 20 to 40. This has the effect of gently moving the input pitch towards the desired pitch. The slower values of 20 to 40 will let through a vibrato but still draw the overall pitch closer to being in tune. The average pitch will eventually settle to the given line and the pitch gestures will occur both sharper and flatter relative to that line. The settling time is about twice the Retune Speed setting (in milliseconds). 20 to 40 will let through about one-half of a typical vibrato. Slower settings will let through more vibrato but will cause the new pitch to be reached more slowly.

Tutorial 7: The Make Auto Function

The Make Auto function allows you to display and edit the pitch corrections that would result from specific Automatic Mode settings.

1. Setup to process the file “Crowd All” through Auto-Tune 4.

2. Select Automatic Mode and set the Key and Scale to C Major and the Retune Speed to the default of 20.

3. Select Graphical Mode.

4. Press the Track Pitch button.

5. Play the “Crowd All” file.

6. Select the Magnifying Glass Tool and drag out a box on the Pitch Graph that encloses the red curve for the words “crowd all rushed.” You will see something like the following:

7. Use the I-beam Tool to drag a selection in the Pitch or Envelope Graph as shown:

PITCH DRAWN TO

NEIGHBORING

TONE

Assuming that this entire phrase should be centered around E3, there are several problem spots, indicated above, where the pitch is being incorrectly adjusted towards neighboring tones.

10. Switch to the Automatic Mode and click the Remove buttons next to C,

11. Return to the Graphical Mode and use the Zoom/Select tool to drag out

12. Press the Make Auto button. Auto-Tune 4 will compute a new yellow

8. Click the Make Auto button. Auto-Tune 4 will compute a new yellow curve object from the existing pitch data:

9. To hear the pitch corrections that would be produced in Automatic Mode, set the Graphical Mode Retune Slider to 0, (fast) and play back the file.

D and F.

a selection in the Envelope Graph, as in Step 7.

curve from the existing pitch data:

RAISED PITCH

Note how the pitch errors from the previous curve have been removed. Also, note the “raised pitch” indicated above. This occurs because the Automatic Mode Retune slider value of 20 is slow compared to the rapidly increasing pitch that is occurring at that point in time. But even with the raised pitch, the average output pitch is centered on E3 and the phrase sounds in tune.

Chapter 5: New Feature Quick Start Guide

This chapter brings all of the new Auto-Tune 4 features together in one place to help experienced Auto-Tune 3 users learn the new features without having to slog through all of the stuff they already know.

With the exception of the seriously reworked graphical editing tools (described in detail below), most of the new features in Auto-Tune 4 are additions to the current Auto-Tune 3 functionality. In other words, pretty much everything that isn’t a new feature works pretty much the same as it

did in Auto-Tune 3. The exceptions are noted below.

Common Mode Features

(i.e., the stuff at the top that stays the same in both modes)

MAXIMUM SAMPLING RATE

Auto-Tune 4 supports sampling rates up to 192kHz (assuming your host and audio hardware support it).

OPTION DIALOG

A new Option Dialog has been added which includes the following:

BUFFER SIZE This controls the amount

of memory allocated to the tracking buffer in Graphical Mode. This is the same control that used to appear on the Graphical Mode screen.

GRAPHICAL MODE COLOR SCHEME Lets you select one of three

color scheme options for the Graphical Mode Pitch and Envelope Display:

CLASSIC: Just like Auto-Tune 3 — A dark green background with red detected pitch curves and yellow target pitch curves.

BLACK AND WHITE: A white background with red detected pitch curves and black target pitch curves. Not too pretty, but the ultimate in high contrast (as in the original Auto-Tune).

KNOB CONTROL Select how you want to control the “knobs” in the

Auto-Tune 4 interface:

RADIAL: Click anywhere around the circumference of the knob, press and hold the left mouse button and and “rotate” the knob in the desired direction.The current value of the knob’s parameter appears in its associated numeric display.

CUSTOM CURSORS Check to use Custom Cursors in Graphical Mode.

With the new graphical editing tools, the custom cursors are extremely useful. You should only uncheck this if your host is interfering with the Auto-Tune 4 cursors (the typical symptom of this is a rapid flashing back and forth between the default cursor and Auto-Tune 4’s custom cursor).

NUMBER OF UNDOS Auto-Tune 4 provides multiple Undo/Redo

capability in Graphical Mode. Select the maximum allowable number here (up to 20). Choosing a higher number allocates more memory for saving intermediate states.

Automatic Mode Features

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS

•You can now specify target note behaviors (Scale Note, Remove, Bypass) in individual octaves.

•Virtual keyboard for realtime detected pitch display and target note control

• Improved Targeting option for problem vibratos (described below)

• Seriously enhanced Vibrato functions

• Other niceties (Hold button, dual Detune display, new Scale Edit buttons)

DETAILS

OCTAVE AS PLAYED/ALL OCTAVES For both of the MIDI functions

(Learn Scale from MIDI and Target Notes via MIDI), you can now choose whether you want incoming MIDI notes to affect all octaves (that’s how it worked in Auto-Tune 3) or just the notes in the specific octaves in which they are played.

DUAL DETUNE DISPLAY The Detune control now includes dual displays

that simultaneously show the amount of detuning in cents and in Hz. relative to A440.

IMPROVED TARGETING This feature is designed to help with target

note identification when the performance includes vibrato so wide that it approaches adjacent scale notes.

Say, for example that the scale is C Major and the singer is singing G, but with a vibrato that alternately approaches F and A. In Auto-Tune 3, Auto Mode would alternately pick F and A as target notes whenever the vibrato was less than 50 cents away from those notes. You could, of course, remove F and A from the scale, but then you’d have a problem whenever the singer actually sang F or A.

With Improved Targeting, Auto-Tune 4 uses a new algorithm that attempts to recognize vibrato and differentiate between it and intended note changes. Our testing has shown that it works a lot of the time — but not always (it depends a great deal on the actual performance). When it works, Auto-Tune 4 ignores the wide vibrato as far as target note selection is concerned. When it doesn’t, it works pretty much like Auto-Tune 3.

The default state of this control is Off. When you’ve got a vibrato problem, try turning it on and see if it helps.

SCALE EDIT WINDOW In addition to the previous Set Major and Set

Minor buttons that appear for any scale with twelve or more notes, three buttons have been added — primarily to simplify dealing with the multi-octave keyboard:

SET ALL: Sets all notes in the current scale to Scale Notes in all octaves. Useful as a Reset button to instantly erase all previous Remove and/or Bypass settings.

REMOVE ALL: Sets all notes in the current scale to Remove in all octaves.

BYPASS ALL: Sets all notes in the current scale to Bypass in all octaves.

Additionally, clicking any of the Remove or Bypass buttons in the Scale Edit window is reflected in all octaves of the keyboard.

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD The Virtual Keyboard displays Auto-Tune 4’s pitch

detection range and acts both as a display of the current Scale settings and as a tool for setting target note behaviors.

NOTE: The keyboard is only active for the Major, Minor and Chromatic scales.

KEY COLORS: The color of the keys of the Virtual Keyboard indicate their current state as follows:

Blue: The currently detected input pitch White or Black: Scale Note Brown: Bypass Invisible: Remove

KEYBOARD EDIT: These buttons are used to select which state (Remove or Bypass) will be toggled when you click on a key.

When Remove is selected, clicking on any key that is not currently set to Remove will set that key to Remove. Clicking on any key that is currently set to Remove will set that key to a Scale Note.

When Bypass is selected, clicking on any key that is not currently set to Bypass will set that key to Bypass. Clicking on any key that is currently set to Bypass will set that key to a Scale Note.

MOMENTARY: When this button is not On (i.e., its “LED” is not lit), any edits made to the keyboard will latch - i.e., clicking a key will change its state and the key will retain that state until some other action causes it to change.

When the button is On (i.e., its “LED” is lit), keyboard edits are only active for as long as the mouse is held down on a key.

Pressing and holding the Shift key on your keyboard will temporarily toggle the state of the Momentary button.

HOLD BUTTON Clicking and holding the Hold button while Auto-Tune

4 is processing audio will freeze both the Pitch Tuning display and the blue Detected Pitch indication on the keyboard for as long as you hold down the button. This is useful for figuring out exactly what’s going on with a particular note in a performance that would otherwise pass too quickly to see.

VIBRATO Auto-Tune 4 includes a plethora of new vibrato functions to

allow the creation of much more convincing vibratos. And for the adventuresome, they can be abused to create some “interesting” effects. The controls are:

SHAPE: Selects the shape of the vibrato. RATE: Sets the rate of the vibrato. VARIATION: Sets the amount of random variation that will be

applied to the Rate and Amount parameters on a note to note basis. ONSET DELAY: Sets the amount of time (in msec) between the onset

of a note and the beginning of the onset of vibrato. ONSET RATE: Sets the amount of time (in msec) between the end of

the Onset Delay set above and the point at which the vibrato reaches the Amounts set in the Pitch, Amplitude and Formant Amount settings.

PITCH AMOUNT: Sets the amount of pitch change. AMPLITUDE AMOUNT: Sets the amount of change in loudness. FORMANT AMOUNT: Sets the amount of formant variation.

Graphical Mode Features

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS

• Larger Pitch Edit Display

• Seriously reworked Graphical Editing Tools

• Multi-level Undo/Redo

•Vibrato Scaling

• Cursor Pitch Display (back again by popular demand)

• Streamlined navigation controls

DETAILS

PITCH EDIT DISPLAY The larger size should be pretty evident. And, as

mentioned above in the Options Dialog section, you can choose three different color schemes. Other new features of the display include:

STREAMLINED NAVIGATION: We have rearranged the various scrolling and scaling controls such that they all cluster around the lower lefthand corner of the display. This should result in less mousing.

The Envelope amplitude display is now auto-scaling, allowing us to eliminate its previous scaling controls.

The scroll handles now size proportionally to the current display scale.

AUTO-SCALING: After tracking, the pitch display will automatically scale in such a way as to include all of the tracked audio. No more hunting around looking for your pitch curves.

Auto Mode Vibrato Settings Reflected in Make Auto Curves: If you are adding pitch variation using the Automatic Mode’s Vibrato function, the variation in pitch will be visually reflected in the yellow curve when you Make Auto.

However, since ther e is no easy way to visually represent specific changes in amplitude or formant, if you have used the Automatic Mode’s Vibrato function to introduce amplitude and/or formant variation, the Make Auto curve will be blue rather than yellow to remind you that these elements will be introduced into your Graphical Mode output

CURSOR PITCH DISPLAY: The exact pitch value of the cursor position is constantly displayed as a note name +/- cents. This display is always relative to the currently selected scale (i.e., only scale notes will appear in the pitch display).

UNDO/REDO Up to 20 levels of Undo/Redo are available. Simply click

the appropriate buttons.

VIBRATO SCALING The purpose of this function is to quickly and easily

change (either increasing or decreasing) the amount of an existing vibrato, while preserving the original shape and character of the vibrato.

To use this function, select the I-beam tool and highlight the range of audio you’d like to edit. When a range of audio is selected, the Make Vibrato Curve button becomes active. Set the desired amount of change using the Scale Vibrato Amount knob and then click the Make Vibrato Curve button to create a correction curve. Audition the result. If it’s not exactly what you wanted, click Undo and try again.

NOTE: This function uses the same algorithm as the Auto Mode’s Improved Targeting function to attempt to differentiate between vibrato and intended pitch changes. Therefore, you can typically select a portion of your audio containing both vibrato and intended pitch change and the Scale Vibrato function will scale the vibrato while leaving the intended pitch changes alone. But again, depending on the actual performance, sometimes this will work better than others. If Scale Vibrato seems to be making changes to parts of the audio you’d like to leave alone, simply Undo the scaling and use the I-beam to select only the vibrato portions you wish to edit.

GRAPHIC PITCH EDITING TOOLS As mentioned above, this is the one

area where we have made substantive changes to previous functionality. We realize that it will undoubtedly cause some initial frustration for seasoned AT veterans while they have to relearn the new functionality, but it is our experience that the new tools provide both increased power and increased ease-of-use once you get used to them.

So, without further ado, the new tools:

NOTE: In addition to clicking on the various tools, if your host passes key presses to plug-ins, you can also select the various tools by pressing the number keys 1-7*.

* NOTE ALSO: Some hosts reserve the numeric keypad for host keyboard shortcuts even when a plug-in window is selected. For that reason, the tool selection shortcuts mentioned above are specifically assigned only to the number keys that appear above the letter keys on the QWERTY portion of your keyboard.

LINE TOOL (1): Works like current Auto-Tune 3 Line Tool, plus:

• Pressing Shift while drawing a line causes the line to snap to the nearest semitone.

CURVE TOOL (2): Works exactly like the current Auto-Tune 3 Curve Tool.

ARROW TOOL (3): In the pitch display, works as it does in Auto-Tune 3 with the following additions:

• Double-click anywhere on an existing line to add an intermediate handle point

• Double-click on an existing handle point (except for end points) to remove it and cause a straight line to be drawn between the now adjacent handle points.

• The Arrow Tool has no function in the Envelope display

SCISSORS TOOL (4): Click anywhere on an existing line or curve to break it in two at the point clicked. Although it will look like there is only one handle created at the break point, there are actually two (one for each of the two newly created line or curve segments). Simply move the top handle to reveal the other one.

MAGNIFYING GLASS (5): Drag in the pitch display to zoom into that area (as in Auto-Tune 3)

Click in the pitch display to increase both horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible). Cursor shows default “+”

Option(Mac)/Alt(PC)-Click in the pitch display to decrease both horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible). Cursor changes to “-” while modification key is pressed.

Drag in the Envelope display to have that time range appear in the pitch display (most useful for navigating when the Envelope display in in “all” mode). The pitch range of the pitch display will be automatically scaled such that all of pitch information in that time range is visible on the screen.

I-BEAM TOOL (6): Drag in either the pitch or Envelope display to select an area for

Make Curve or Make Auto or Vibrato Scaling. The selection area is reflected in both displays.

HAND TOOL (7): Drag in any direction in the pitch display to move the area displayed.

Drag in the Envelope display to move the area displayed horizontally.

NOTE: This only works if “Tie” is selected. If “All” is selected, the icon will have an “X” through it to indicate that movement is not possible.

Have fun!

Chapter 6: Creative Applications for Auto-Tune

Auto-Tune 4 works on vocals so well you may think that’s all it can do. Actually, lots of instruments can use it to great advantage. Fretless bass, electric violin, trombone, even the theremin, all feature continuous pitch potential, unconstrained by frets or keys. Here are some other ideas for using Auto-Tune 4:

• Produce instant double tracking in one take! Record onto two tracks, processing only one of the tracks through Auto-Tune 4. If you’re going

for a tight double track, set Retune Speed rather fast and Detune Auto-Tune 4 slightly. Increase both of these parameters to broaden the doubled effect. You can also use some Vibrato to make a more dynamic effect (small depth and rate values are best, with medium delay). Of course, you can also decide to record a single virgin track, and bounce that to another, pr ocessing through Auto-Tune 4. This way you can dial in the effect while auditioning the mix.

• Recording with two mics (as above) while improvising can also produce heterophonic effects (the effect of two players and instruments playing the ‘same’ melody, which actually varies with some different pitch material). The more constrained your scale is in Auto-Tune 4, the morevariation there will be between the two performances.

• To set up a drone or ambient aura behind a melodic performance, try sending some of the signal to Auto-Tune 4 with an extremely constrained scale (for example, in the key of C: C, F, G, A#) and then on to a lush, long reverb. The effect produced will be a steady backdrop of chanting tones behind the main melodic material.

• Don’t be afraid to use just as little of Auto-Tune 4 as you need. It’s quite possible that a performer has really quite good intonation, but fails consistently on one or two notes. In this case, use Auto-Tune 4’s individual Bypass function (using the Edit Scale display or on the Virtual Keyboard) to bypass all the notes except the one(s) which need the retuning. This way, Auto-Tune 4 is working in a completely transparent mode, and only when needed.

Index

Antares Audio Technologies

contacting iv Authorizing Auto-Tune 4 4 Auto-Tune 4

background 5

what it is 5 Automatic Mode 2, 9

Controls 17

Retune Speed 10

Scales 9

Vibrato 10 Automatic Mode Controls 17

Bypass 21

Bypass All 23

Cents 22

Edit Scale Display 20

Hold Button 32

Improved Targeting 29

Key Selection 17

Knobs 17

Octave as Played/All Octaves 27

Pitch Change Indicator 32

Remove 21

Remove All 23

Retune Speed 28

Scale Detune 27

Scale Selection 17

Set All 22

Set Major Scale/Set Minor Scale 23

The Scales 18

Tracking 28

Vibrato Section 29

Virtual Keyboard 23

Bypass 15

Common Controls 13

Bypass 15 Correction Mode 14 Input Type 14 Options 15 Sample Rate Display 13 Select Pitch Reference 14

Correction Mode 14

Dr. Sturgeon 1

Equal Tempered Scale 7

Graphical Mode 2, 11 Graphical Mode Controls 33

The Graphical Tools 36 The Playback Controls 33

Graphical Tools 36

Arrow Tool 37 Curve Tool 37 Cut and Copy Buttons 40 Edit Buttons 39 Hand Tool 39 I-beam Tool 39 Keyboard Equivalents 40 Line Tool 36 Magnifying Glass 38 Make Auto Button 41 Make Curve Button 41 Paste Button 40 Redo Button 40 Retune 44

Scissors Tool 38 Select All Button 40 Tracking 43 Undo Button 39 Vibrato Scaling 42

Input Type 14 Installing Auto-Tune 4 4

Keyboard Equivalents 40

License Agreement v

MIDI Functions 25

Learn Scale From MIDI 26 Target Notes Via MIDI 25

Options 15

Custom Cursors 16 Graphical Mode Color Scheme 16 Knob Control 16 Number of Undos 17

Pitch 6

a little bit about 6 how Auto-Tune 4 corrects pitch 8 how Auto-Tune 4 detects pitch 8 terminology 7

Playback Controls 33

All/Tie Buttons 35 Correct Pitch 34 Cursor Pitch Display 35 Envelope Graph Display 35 Pitch Graph Display 34 Pitch Graph Scale 35 Track Pitch 33

New Features 61

Dual Detune Display 63 Graphic Pitch Editing Tools 67 Hold Button 65 Improved Targeting 63 Maximum Sampling Rate 61 Octave as Played/All Octaves 63 Option Dialog 61 Pitch Edit Display 65 Scale Edit Window 63 Undo/Redo 66 Vibrato 65 Vibrato Scaling 66 Virtual Keyboard 64

Retune Speed 10

Sample Rate Display 13 Scales 9 Select Pitch Reference 14

Technical Support 4 The Scales 18

Contemporary Tunings 19 Ethnic Tunings 19 Historical Tunings 18 Modern equal temperament 18

Tutorial 45

Automatic Mode Basics 45

Graphical Mode Basics 49

Precision 52

The Improved Targeting Function 47

The Make Auto Function 56

The Make Curve Function 53

Using the Automatic Mode MIDI Functions 48

Vibrato 10, 65 Vibrato Section 29

Amplitude Amount 31

Formant Amount 31

Onset Delay 30

Onset Rate 31

Rate 30

Shape Menu 30

Variation 30 Virtual Keyboard 23, 64

Key Colors 24

Keyboard Edit 24

Momentary 24

What’s New in Auto-Tune 4 2

Automatic Mode Features 2

General Features 2

Graphical Mode Features 2

Antares AUTO-TUNE 4 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Welcome!

What’s New in Auto-Tune 4

GENERAL FEATURES

AUTOMATIC MODE FEATURES

GRAPHICAL MODE FEATURES

Installing Auto-Tune 4

Authorizing Auto-Tune 4

Technical Support

How Auto-Tune 4 detects pitch

How Auto-Tune 4 corrects pitch

Automatic Mode

SCALES

RETUNE SPEED

VIBRATO

Graphical Mode

Common Controls

SAMPLE RATE DISPLAY

INPUT TYPE

CORRECTION MODE

SELECT PITCH REFERENCE

BYPASS

OPTIONS

GRAPHICAL MODE COLOR SCHEME This setting lets you select one of

KNOB CONTROL Lets you select how you want to control the “knobs”

CUSTOM CURSORS Click the check box to use Custom Cursors in

NUMBER OF UNDOS Auto-Tune 4 provides multiple Undo/Redo

Automatic Mode Controls

KNOBS

KEY SELECTION

SCALE SELECTION

THE SCALES

BYPASS

REMOVE

CENTS

SET ALL

REMOVE ALL

BYPASS ALL

SET MAJOR SCALE/SET MINOR SCALE

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD

KEY COLORS The color of the keys of the Virtual Keyboard indicate

KEYBOARD EDIT These

MOMENTARY When this button is not On (i.e., its LED

TARGET NOTES VIA MIDI

LEARN SCALE FROM MIDI

OCTAVE AS PLAYED/ ALL OCTAVES

SCALE DETUNE

RETUNE SPEED

TRACKING

IMPROVED TARGETING

SHAPE MENU

RATE

VARIATION

ONSET DELAY

ONSET RATE

AMPLITUDE AMOUNT

FORMANT AMOUNT

HOLD BUTTON

Graphical Mode Controls

The Playback Controls

TRACK PITCH

CORRECT PITCH

PITCH GRAPH SCALE

CURSOR PITCH DISPLAY

ALL/TIE BUTTONS

The Graphical Tools

KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS

VIBRATO SCALING

TRACKING

MAXIMUM SAMPLING RATE

OPTION DIALOG

OCTAVE AS PLAYED/ALL OCTAVES For both of the MIDI functions

DUAL DETUNE DISPLAY The Detune control now includes dual displays

IMPROVED TARGETING This feature is designed to help with target

SCALE EDIT WINDOW In addition to the previous Set Major and Set

VIRTUAL KEYBOARD The Virtual Keyboard displays Auto-Tune 4’s pitch