Antares AutoTune Live Owner`s Manual
Auto-Tune® Live
Ultra Low Latency Pitch Correction
and Auto-Tune Vocal Eect
Owner’s Manual
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©2012 Antares Audio Technologies. All rights reserved.
Certified Isinglass-free™
All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
www.antarestech.com
Printed in USA Rev 1.0 PN P28031-0612-M01
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The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
The Antares Auto-Tune Live 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
Live software and its documentation. Use of Auto-Tune Live 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 Live 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 Live License Agreement
Antares Audio Technologies grants you a non-transferable, non-exclusive
license to use Auto-Tune Live under the terms and conditions stated in this
agreement. Use of Auto-Tune Live indicates your agreement to the following terms and conditions.
License
You may:
1. Use Auto-Tune Live on only one computer at a time.
You may not:
1. Make copies of Auto-Tune Live or of the user manual in whole or in part
except as expressly provided for in this agreement. Your right to copy
Auto-Tune Live 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 Live 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 Live (or any copy) or
disassemble or de-compile Auto-Tune Live (or any copy), or attempt to
discover the source code of Auto-Tune Live.
3. Sub-license, lease, lend, rent, or grant other rights in all or any portion of
Auto-Tune Live (or any copy) to others.
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Term of the Agreement
This agreement is eective 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 Live 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
AUTOTUNE LIVE 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 Live 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 AUTOTUNE LIVE 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 stu.
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Contents
Chapter 1 Getting Started 07
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Chapter 2 Introducing Auto-Tune Live 10
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Chapter 3 Auto-Tune Live Controls 18
Chapter 4 Auto-Tune Live Tutorials 40
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Installing and Authorizing 07
Technical Support 08
Some background 10
So what exactly is Auto-Tune Live? 10
A little bit about pitch 11
How Auto-Tune Live detects pitch 13
How Auto-Tune Live corrects pitch 14
Formant Correction 16
Latency 17
1: Pitch Correction Basics 40
2: Targeting Ignores Vibrato Function 42
3: Natural Vibrato Function 43
Chapter 5 The Auto-Tune Vocal Eect 44
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Chapter 6 The Auto-Tune Live Scales 46
Index 49
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Welcome!
On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to oer
both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase
Auto-Tune Live, an ultra low latency version of the worldwide standard
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in professional pitch correction and manipulation optimized for real time
operation and control.
Before you proceed any farther, we’d like to strongly encourage you to
register and authorize your copy of Auto-Tune Live. (You can skip ahead to
the Authorization and Installation instructions on pages 6 and 7. We’ll wait.)
Also, if you’re planning on discarding that lovely Auto-Tune Live box, it’s
probably a good idea to write down the serial number that appears on the
bottom of the box for future reference.
At Antares, we are committed to excellence in quality, customer service,
and technological innovation. With your purchase of Auto-Tune Live, 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.
The Whole Antares Crew
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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 Live does and how it does it.
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If you’ve used or are currently using a fairly recent version of Auto-Tune’s
real time Automatic Mode, you will find that what you’re already doing will
continue to work in Auto-Tune Live, only with minimal latency and with
MIDI control of all the key parameters.
The contents of this manual
Chapter 1: Getting Started
The chapter you are reading.
Chapter 2: Introducing Auto-Tune Live
This chapter presents some basic facts about pitch and how Auto-Tune
Live functions to correct pitch errors. The basic functionality of Auto-Tune
Live is discussed, and information you need in order to use it eectively is
provided.
Chapter 3: Auto-Tune Live Controls
This chapter is reference information for all of the controls used in the
Auto-Tune Live interface.
Chapter 4: Auto-Tune Live Tutorials
This chapter introduces you to details of how Auto-Tune Live works by guiding you through several tutorials. The tutorials will give you insight into how
and when to use each of Auto-Tune Live’s key functions.
Chapter 5: The Auto-Tune Vocal Eect
What it is. How to do it.
Chapter 6: The Auto-Tune Live Scales
Brief descriptions of the various scales available in Auto-Tune Live.
Installing Auto-Tune Live
Auto-Tune Live 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. (Although in most cases, simply double-clicking the Auto-Tune Live installer and following the resulting
directions will be all you need to do.)
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Authorizing Auto-Tune Live
Authorization is the process by which Auto-Tune Live is allowed to
permanently run on your computer. Detailed instructions covering the
available authorization options will be found in the file “Authorization Read
Me” which is included on the installation DVD ROM or with your software
download.
NOTE: You will need to authorize Auto-Tune Live before you can run it in
your host. If you plan to follow along with the manual (a good idea), go
do it now.
Technical Support
In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using Auto-Tune Live,
try the following:
1. Make sure you have the latest version of the plug-in. You can download
and install the latest version of Auto-Tune Live from the following web
page:
http://www.antarestech.com/download/update.shtml
2. If you are having problems authorizing your software, be sure that you
have the latest version of the PACE Interlok drivers. You can download
and install the latest version for your operating system by going to ilok.
com and clicking the “Download” tab.
If your problem is not resolved after taking the above actions, 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. Consult our searchable knowledgebase at:
http://www.antarestech.com/support/index.html
3. Check our web site for tips, techniques, or any late-breaking
information:
http://www.antarestech.com
4. Join the Antares Online Community. The Antares Online Community is a
place where Antares product users can gather to exchange information,
compare notes, and get to know other Antares users from around the
world. Check it out at:
http://www.antarestech.net
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5. For the quickest access to new developments, follow us on Twitter and
“Like” our Facebook pages:
http://twitter.com/AntaresAudio
http://www.facebook.com/pages/
Antares-Audio-Technologies/6852445Live680
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Auto-Tune/81891651280
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Chapter 2: Introducing Auto-Tune Live
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 cor-
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rected 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 the “holy grail
of recording.” And went on to say, “Bottom line, Auto-Tune is amazing…
Everyone with a Mac should have this program.” (In fact, we know of quite
a few people back then who bought kilo-buck Pro Tools™ systems just to be
able to run Auto-Tune.)
In the intervening years, Auto-Tune has established itself as the worldwide
standard in professional pitch correction. Today, it’s used daily by tens of
thousands of audio professionals around the world to save studio and
editing time, ease the frustration of endless retakes, save that otherwise
once-in-a-lifetime performance, or to create what has become the signature vocal eect of our time.
Now, with Auto-Tune Live, we’ve created a version of Auto-Tune optimized
for real-time use in performance or when tracking in the studio.
So what exactly is Auto-Tune Live?
Auto-Tune Live is a real-time tool for correcting intonation and timing
errors or creatively modifying the intonation of a performance. Auto-Tune
Live provides world professional standard Auto-Tune pitch correction
optimized for tracking and live performance with ultra-low latency and
comprehensive MIDI control.
Thanks to its ultra-low latency, Auto-Tune Live allows virtually instant
response in performance or when tracking in the studio. And with its MIDI
control capabilities, you can control all of Auto-Tune Live’s key performance
parameters in real time, for the ultimate in creative pitch processing.
Auto-Tune Live employs state-of-the-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 user-programmable scales or by MIDI
input).
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To take maximum advantage of the power of Auto-Tune Live’s pitch correction functions, you should have a basic understanding of pitch and how
Auto-Tune Live functions to correct pitch errors. This chapter presents basic
terminology and introduces Auto-Tune Live’s operating paradigm, giving
you the background you need to use it eectively.
A little bit about pitch
Pitch is traditionally 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
Godzilla’s enormous footsteps as he stomps his way through Tokyo) 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 Live 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 Live.
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 Live
would not be able to process this sound.
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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 A4 (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 dier 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 5/3 86.31
perfect fourth 500 4/3 498.04
tritone 600
perfect fifth 700 3/2 701.65
minor sixth 800 8/ 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.
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How Auto-Tune Live detects pitch
In order for Auto-Tune Live to automatically correct pitch, it must first
detect the pitch of the input sound. Calculating the pitch of a periodic
waveform is a straightforward process. Simply measure the time between
repetitions of the waveform. Divide this time into one, and you have
the frequency in Hertz. Auto-Tune Live does exactly this: It looks for a
periodically repeating waveform and calculates the time interval between
repetitions.
The pitch detection algorithm in Auto-Tune Live is virtually instantaneous.
It can recognize the repetition in a periodic sound within a few cycles. This
usually occurs before the sound has sucient amplitude to be heard. Used
in combination with an extremely slight processing delay, the output pitch
can be detected and corrected without artifacts in a seamless and continuous fashion.
Auto-Tune Live was designed to detect and correct pitches up to the pitch
C6. (If the input pitch is higher than C6, Auto-Tune Live 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 Live will
detect pitches as low as 25Hz (when the Bass Input Type is selected). This
range of pitches allows intonation correction to be performed on virtually
all vocals and instruments.
Of course, Auto-Tune Live will not detect pitch when the input waveform
is not periodic. As demonstrated above, Auto-Tune Live 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 Live will
have diculty determining the pitch of the composite (voice + noise)
sound. Luckily, there is a control (the Tracking control, discussed in Chapter
3) that will let Auto-Tune Live be a bit more casual about what it considers
“periodic.” Experimenting with this setting will often allow Auto-Tune Live
to track even noisy signals.
A NOTE: The above description has been in pretty much every Auto-Tune
manual since the beginning. While it is still definitely true in the general
case, it must be noted that Auto-Tune Evo did a much better job than any
prior version of Auto-Tune with borderline troublesome material and AutoTune Live (as well as Auto-Tune 7) does even better yet.
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How Auto-Tune Live corrects pitch
Auto-Tune Live 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
and Humanize settings, described below and in Chapter 3.)
Scales
The heart of Auto-Tune Live pitch correction is the Scale. Auto-Tune Live
lets you choose from major, minor, chromatic or 26 historical, ethnic and
micro-tonal 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 Live 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 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 iconic Auto-Tune Vocal Eect.
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 Live allows real-time adjustment of the depth of any natural
vibrato present in the input.
Auto-Tune Live can also add a vibrato to an input that does not naturally
exhibit one. You can program the vibrato rate along with individual vibrato
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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 Live’s Vibrato
settings, you can even remove a performer’s own vibrato and replace it
with Auto-Tune Live’s programmed vibrato, all in real time. Also, unusual
combinations of Vibrato Waveform, Rate and Depth settings can be used
for some interesting special eects.
An example of Auto-Tune Live pitch 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.
D3
CORRECTED BY
AUTO-TUNE LIVE
C#3
ORIGINAL
PERFORMANCE
B2
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 Live 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 Live from trying to correct the seriously flat tail of the last note
to those pitches. See Chapter 3 for more details.)
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