TC electronic Intonator Owner's Manual

INTONATOR

VOCAL INTONATION PROCESSOR

English

USER’S MANUAL

a

1 Read these instructions.
2 Keep these instructions.
3 Heed all warnings.
4 Follow all instructions.
5 Do not use this apparatus near water.
6 Clean only with dry cloth.
7 Do not block any ventilation openings. Install in

accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.

8 Do not install near any heat sources such

as radiators, heat registers, stoves, or other
apparatus (including amplifiers) that produce heat.

9 Do not defeat the safety purpose of the polarized

or grounding-type plug. A polarized plug has two
blades with one wider than the other. A grounding
type plug has two blades and a third grounding
prong. The wide blade or the third prong are
provided for your safety. If the provided plug does
not fit into your outlet, consult an electrician for
replacement of the obsolete outlet.

10 Protect the power cord from being walked

on or pinched particularly at plugs, convenience
receptacles, and the point where they exit from the
apparatus.

11 Only use attachments/accessories specified by the

manufacturer.

12 Unplug this apparatus during lightning storms or

when unused for long periods of time.

Use only with the cart, stand, tripod, bracket, or
table specified by the manufacturer, or sold with
the apparatus. When a cart is used, use
caution when moving the cart/apparatus
combination to avoid injury from tip-over.

13 Refer all servicing to qualified service

personnel. Servicing is required when the
apparatus has been damaged in any way,
such as power-supply cord or plug is damaged,
liquid has been spilled or objects have fallen into
the apparatus, the apparatus has been exposed to
rain or moisture, does not operate normally, or has
been dropped.

• This equipment should be installed near the socket
outlet and disconnection of the device should be easily
accessible.

• To completely disconnect from AC mains, disconnect
the power supply cord from the AC receptable.

• The mains plug of the power supply shall remain
readily operable.

• Do not install in a confined space.

• Do not open the unit - risk of electric shock inside.

Caution:

You are cautioned that any change or modifications not
expressly approved in this manual could void your authority
to operate this equipment.

Service

• There are no user-serviceable parts inside.

• All service must be performed by qualified personnel.

Warning!

• To reduce the risk of fire or electrical shock, do not
expose this equipment to dripping or splashing and
ensure that no objects filled with liquids, such as vases,
are placed on the equipment.

• This apparatus must be earthed.

• Use a three wire grounding type line cord like the one
supplied with the product.

• Be advised that different operating voltages require the
use of different types of line cord and attachment plugs.

• Check the voltage in your area and use the
correct type. See table below:

Voltage Line plug according to standard

110-125V UL817 and CSA C22.2 no 42.

220-230V CEE 7 page VII, SR section

107-2-D1/IEC 83 page C4.

240V BS 1363 of 1984.

Specification for 13A fused
plugs and switched and
unswitched socket outlets.

The lightning flash with an arrowhead symbol
within an equilateral triangle, is intended to alert
the user to the presence of uninsulated "dan-

gerous voltage" within the product's enclosure that may
be of sufficient magnitude to constitute a risk of electric
shock to persons.

The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle
is intended to alert the user to the presence of
important operating and maintenance (servicing)

instructions in the literature accompanying the product.

IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

b

Certificate Of Conformity

TC Electronic A/S, Sindalsvej 34, 8240 Risskov, Denmark,
hereby declares on its own responsibility that following product:

Intonator - Digital Vocal Intonation Processor

that is covered by this certificate and marked with CE-label
conforms with following standards:

EN 60065 Safety requirements for mains
(IEC60065) operated Electronic and related

apparatus for household and similar
general use.

EN 55103-1 Product family standard for audio,

video, audio-visual and entertainment
lighting control apparatus for
professional use.
Part 1: Emission.

EN 55103-2 Product family standard for audio,

video, audio-visual and entertainment
lighting control apparatus for
professional use.
Part 2: Immunity.

With reference to regulations in following directives:
73/23/EEC, 89/336/EEC

Issued in Risskov, June 14th 1999

Anders Fauerskov

Managing Director

EMC / EMI.

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with
the limits for a Class B Digital device, pursuant to part 15 of
the FCC rules.
These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection
against harmful interference in residential installations. This
equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio
frequency energy and, if not installed and used in
accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful
interference to radio communications. However, there is no
guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. If this equipment does cause harmful
interference to radio or television reception, which can be
determined by turning the equipment off and on. The user
is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or
more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and
receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit
different from that to which the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV
technician for help.

For the customers in Canada:

This Class B digital apparatus complies with Canadian
ICES-003.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est conforme à la
norme NMB-003 du Canada.

NOTE

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Important Safety Instructions . . . . . a-b

Table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Front Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Rear Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Signal flow diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

BASIC OPERATION

Intonator Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Displays and Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Correction Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Automated Dynamics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Custom Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Automatic Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Manual Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

MIDI

MIDI and Manual mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

MIDI and Automatic mode . . . . . . . . . . 20

Internal Parameter Bulk Dump . . . . . . . 20

Front Panel Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

MIDI CONTINUOUS
CONTROLLERS

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Scale selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Pitch Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Attack Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Amount . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Manual Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Note Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Pitch Bypass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Adaptive Low Cut key . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Adaptive Low Cut Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

De-ess key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

De-ess Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Correction Amount. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Tuning Reference Adjustment . . . . . . . 25

Custom Scale Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Input Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Manual Pitch Bend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Keyboard Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

APPENDIX

MIDI Implementation Chart . . . . . . . . . 26

Technical Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Self Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Soldering Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

TC Electronic, Sindalsvej 34, DK-8240 Risskov - [e-mail] English version Rev 2.3 - SW - V 1.01

Prod. No. 606100010

5

INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on the purchase of your TC Intonator.

Why the Intonator ?

In recording, the voice is often referred to as "the money channel". There are a number of different reasons for this label. With pop music,
the lead vocal is considered the key to a song's success. The song and its arrangement can be perfect, but without a great vocal no one is
going to listen to the song. Another reason for that name would be the cost and amount of gear used on vocals. Engineers will take a
second mortgage on their home to get that elusive vocal sound. However, when the focus is put on the word MONEY in "the money
channel", one can not dispute the fact that a lot of time is spent tracking, double tracking, comping, editing, and mixing the voice.
Going with the defacto financial “one liner”: time is money, the amount of money spent on vocals can be staggering.

Though money saved due to less tracking-time spent, is a strong argument for utilizing the pitch correction techniques, a few musical
aspects should also be considered. Very often the strongest energy and timing occurs during the first two or three takes. Further tracking
just to nail a few “out of pitch” notes, often kills the initial energy and fresh feeling. Keep the “good track” and use the Intonator to correct
the few out of pitch notes there might be.
Another example is the situation where repeated tracking is unavoidable, while striving for the perfect vocal take. The result is an
exhausted vocalist. So, the timing and phrasing might be perfected after several takes, but as the vocalist gets tired one of the first skills to
slip is the intonation. Keep the take when only minor intonation problems exists and let the Intonator perfect the track.

These reasons have sparked the creation of Intonator.

Working with this unit you will discover that TC Electronic has once again created a unit with an intuitive, easy to use, time saving design.
Pitch mistakes can be corrected with a few adjustments on the front panel. There is no scrolling through vast amounts of parameters.
All the common parameters have their own dedicated controls.
The Pitch correction section combined with a De-esser tuned especially for vocals, and a pitch controlled Adaptive Low Cut filter, all fully
controllable via MIDI, makes the Intonator an essential tool in your setup.

TC Electronic sought help from a number of engineers, producers and performers when designing
the Intonator. However, one of the more notable names is IVL Technologies Ltd. IVL leads the way
in audio technology for the human voice. With 15 years of experience and dozens of famous prod­ucts under their belts, TC enlisted IVL to provide newly researched pitch recognition and shifting
technology to fulfill the pro-audio standard of the Intonator.

INPUT PITCH/CORRECTION

POWER

VOCAL INTONATIONPROCESSOR

PPM METER

Peak

Signal

5

-6

ANALOG IN

26

dB

DIGITAL LOCK

MIDI INPUT

MIDI OVERRIDE

20

Keyboard

SCALESTATUS

KEY

CDE F

FLAT

## #bb b

PITCH

1010 202040 305075100-200

6

FRONT PANEL

POWER

Electronic POWER switch
“Easy touch” - type.
Turn on the machine
with a single light touch.
To turn off the machine
you must press and hold
down the POWER key
approx. 3 seconds.

INPUT

SIGNAL LED

Present Input signal.
@ -22dBFS

PEAK LED

Indicates Input level
overload.
@ -3dBFS

LEVEL KNOB

Adjusts the Input level.

METER KEY

Switches the
Pitch/Correction
display to show the
Input level momentarily.

KEY/SCALE INDICATOR

Shows the current key and
displays Input Pitch in Chromatic
and Manual modes. When in
"Setup mode" this area indicates
current page number.

PITCH/CORRECTION DISPLAY

In Scale mode the amount of
pitch correction applied is
displayed.
In Setup mode various
parameters are displayed:
Input Source, Clock Source,
Dither, MIDI, Master Tune etc.

KEYBOARD

Shows: - Current scale tones

- Current Input pitch

Gives: - Tuning notes

- Custom scale editing.

- Allows you to force
Input signal to a
specific tone when
used in Manual mode.

PITCH/CORRECTION

DIGITAL LOCK

Shows when the Intonator is
locked to an external digital
signal. Blinking LED indicates
"unacceptable" or "no clock".

MIDI INPUT

Indicates incoming MIDI data.

MIDI OVERRIDE LED

This LED indicates that analog
controls (such as Attack,
Amount, Window) have been
changed via MIDI and are
different than their front panel
settings.
The OVERRIDE LED will go
out when all parameters
match the front panel controls.

POWER

VOCALINTONATION PROCESSOR

INPUT PITCH/CORRECTION

PPM METER

Peak

Signal

5

-6

dB

ANALOG IN

DIGITALLOCK

MIDI INPUT

MIDI OVERRIDE

20

Keyboard

26

CDE F GAB

FLAT SHARP

SCALESTATUS

KEY

## ###bb bbb

PITCH

PITCH

CORRECTION

1010 202040 3030 40 5050 7575 100100 200+-200

CENT

7

FRONT PANEL

CORRECTION PROCESSING

MANUAL KEY

Switches between Manual and
Automatic modes.

PITCH WINDOW

Defines the area which the Input pitch
must be within, to be corrected to a
Target note. The Pitch Window can be set
to +/- 200 cent. (100 cent is 1 semitone).

NOTE HOLD

Press and hold this key to hold the
current corrected pitch.

ATTAC K

Controls how fast the pitch is corrected
to the "correct" note.

CORRECTION - BYPASS

Bypasses all pitch correction.

CORRECTION AMOUNT CONTROL

Controls how much of the automatic
correction is used. This control is
intelligently scaled, giving you greater
correction the more the Input note is out
of pitch.

SCALE/SETUP

SCALE/SETUP KEY

Toggles between Scale
selection and Setup pages.
The Setup pages
automatically exit to Scale
after approx. 6 seconds.

ALPHA DIAL - ENTER KEY

Changes values according
to SCALE/SETUP key.
When pushed this dial
works as an “ENTER” key
used to confirm actions.

MANUAL PITCH KNOB

Additional pitch bend
control.

AUTOMATED DYNAMICS

DE-ESS KEY

Turns the De-esser on/off.

DE-ESS KNOB

Controls the amount of
Ess-reduction.

DE-ESS LED

The LED indicates when the
De-esser is activated.

LOW CUT FILTER KEY

Toggles the Adaptive Low Cut
between:
Off - Inactive.
Adaptive - In Adaptive mode the

Low Cut Threshold
frequency adapts to the
Input pitch.

Manual - The set Low Cut frequency

is fixed as in a normal
Low Cut filter.

LOW CUT FREQUENCY KNOB

Sets the Threshold frequency of the
Manual and Adaptive filters.

SCALE/SETUP

DIAL

SCALE

SETUP

ALPHA DIAL

AUTOMATED DYNAMICSMANUAL CORRECTION PROCESSING

ON HOLD BYPASS ON Adaptive

DE-ESS LOW CUT FILTERMANUAL NOTE HOLD CORRECTION

Active Manual

3 1203MEDIUM75

2250 44100

1125

55150

6 265/6SLOW200

0550FAST0

rel.rel. Hzrel.cent

DE-ESSATTACK FREQUENCYAMOUNTWINDOWPITCH

8

REAR PANEL

PIN2+/PIN3- PIN2+/PIN3-

DI

DO

SP/DIF

BALANCED OUTPUTS

BALANCED INPUTS DIGITALAUDIO

THRU

IN

OUT

MIDI

IN

SYNC

100-240V 50-60Hz 20W~AC

R

NRTL/C

UL1419
EN60065

IN

EXTERNAL
CONTROL

DI DO

1122

AES/EBU

SERIAL NO.

TYPE:V005

MADEIN DENMARK

CAUTION

RISKOF ELECTRIC SHOCK - DO NOT OPEN

WARNING:TO REDUCE THE RISK OF FIRE OR ELECTRIC

SHOCKDO NOT EXPOSE THIS EQUIPMENT TO
RAINOR MOISTURE.

AVIS:

RISQUEDE CHOC ELECTRIQUE-NE PAS OUVRIR

THISCLASS B DIGITAL DEVICE MEETS ALL REQUIREMENTS
OFTHE CANADIAN INTERFERENCE-CAUSING EQUIPMENT
REGULATIONSAND COMPLIES WITH PART 15 OF THE FCC RULES.
OPERATIONSUBJECT TO CONDITIONS STATED IN THE MANUAL.

DI DO

ADATor S/PDIF

#4,688,464

U.S.Patent

Main

Power

Switch

Power

Input

Balanced

XLR

Analog

Inputs

Balanced

XLR

Analog

Outputs

Serial

no.

Digital

In/Out

AES/EBU

S/PDIF

Tos

Wordclock

RCA

MIDI

In,Thru,Out

Pin 2 is »hot« on all XLR’s (IEC and AES standards). For soldering instructions please refer to page 30.

If you are connecting the Intonator to unbalanced equipment, you must tie pins 1 and 3 together in the
cable ends away from the Intonator.

Digital
In/Out
ADAT