Auto-Tune tm For TDM and VST UserÕs Manual v 1.
© 1999 Antares Audio Technologies All Rights Reserved Antares Audio Technologies 464 Montery Ave. 2nd Floor Los Gatos, CA 95030 (408) 399-0008 web: www.antarestech.com Auto-Tune software and this UserÕs 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.
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Welcome! On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, weÕd like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase the absolute best intonation correction software in the world. Before you proceed much farther, weÕd like to strongly encourage you to Þll out and return the Auto-Tune registration card. As an Auto-Tune owner, you are entitled to receive notiÞcation of any upgrades, technical support, and advance announcements of upcoming products.
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Getting Started A few words from Dr.
More Information and Usage Tips CHAPTER 4 37 Auto-Tune Controls Automatic Mode Controls 39 The Scale popup 39 Modern equal temperament: 39 Historical tunings: 40 Ethnic Tunings: 40 Contemporary Tunings: 41 The Key popup 42 The Edit Scale button 42 The Scale Detune slider 44 The Retune slider 45 The Tracking slider 45 The Vibrato Section 45 The Change meter 46 Graphical Mode Controls 46 The Arrow buttons 46 The Graphical tools 47 The Line tool 47 The Curve tool 47 The Pointer tool 47 The Zoom/Select too
CHAPTER 1 Getting Started A few words from Dr. Andy I remember, as if it were yesterday, sitting in my junior high school band, happily playing away on my ßute, when I noticed that our conductor was screaming and jumping up and down on the podium. What was this about? Suddenly, I realized she was screaming at me. And just in time too Ñ since I was able to duck and watch a baton ßy past my head, missing me by inches. ÒWhy [expletive] canÕt you play in tune?Ó she asked. But I was in tune.
Getting Started How To Use This Manual Auto-Tune has a transparent user-interface and is extraordinarily easy to use. However, because Auto-Tune does things that have never been done before, some aspects of the user-interface will not be immediately obvious. You must read either Chapter 3, Auto-Tune Tutorial, or Chapter 4, AutoTune Controls, to learn the essential information you will need to operate Auto-Tune. The Contents Of This Manual Chapter 1: Getting Started The chapter you are reading.
Installing Auto-Tune Installing Auto-Tune To install Auto-Tune, double click the installer icon. Information about the authorization process call be found in the installed read-me Þle. Software Notes The TDM version of Auto-Tune is used within ProTools and other programs that access TDM through DAE. Auto-Tune processes one audio channel per DSP chip.
Getting Started 10 Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
CHAPTER 2 Introducing Auto-Tune Auto-Tune is a breakthrough in digital signal processing (DSP) in the music industry. It puts you in control of pitch. Moreover, Auto-Tune is a precision instrument for controlling pitch, allowing you to apply nuances of intonation to any performance. These nuances were only previously available to synthesized music if the engineer involved was willing to do a lot of work.
Introducing Auto-Tune function of time) that is periodic. This means that the waveform repeats itself, such as the periodic waveform shown in the diagram, below. Periodic Waveform: Digiwave Non-periodic Waveform: Violin Section Other sounds are more complex. The non-periodic waveform, above, is from a violin section playing a single tone. Our ears still sense a pitch, but the waveform does not repeat itself This non-periodic violin section is a summation of a number of individually periodic violins.
The Purpose of Pitch Correction The twelve-tone Equal Tempered Scale consists of tones that are, by deÞnition, 100 cents apart. These are called semi-tones. This scale is the ubiquitous scale used (or rather approximated) in 99.9% of all Western tonal music. The twelve equally-spaced tones of the Equal Tempered Scale happen to contain a number of intervals that approximate integer ratios in pitch.
Introducing Auto-Tune restores the performance. Auto-Tune is mostly used to solve these gross intonation problems. However, as you shall see, Auto-Tune is also a precision instrument, allowing intonation to be controlled to extraordinary degrees of accuracy. This allows the tonal aspects of music to be controlled accurately and easily to achieve any desired consonance or dissonance in harmonies. Don't try to raise the pitch more than an octave.
How Auto-Tune Corrects Pitch and Auto-Tune will have difÞculty determining the pitch of this sound. There is a slider (the Tracking slider, discussed in Chapter 4) that will allow Auto-Tune to be more casual about what it calls ÒperiodicÓ, which will help in these cases. If you have problems processing a particular sound, zoom it up and look at it. If it is non-periodic, Auto-Tune will not work. If you can correct that problem, by using EQ or re-recording, then those are options available to you.
Introducing Auto-Tune The accuracy of pitch correction in Auto-Tune is exceptional. In the worst case, a continuously varying tone can be corrected (at the discretion of the user) to within an error of at most one cycle in 80 seconds (assuming the Retune slider is set to zero). These accuracies are equivalent to the .01 cent accuracies by which the various scales of the Automatic Mode (discussed below) are internally speciÞed.
The Automatic Mode Major, minor, chromatic and 26 historical, ethnic and microtonal scales provide unprecedented control of the output tonality. Scale pitches can be disabled causing no pitch correction. Scale pitches can also be removed allowing a wider range of pitch correction for neighboring pitches. The scale can be de-tuned, allowing pitch correction to any pitch center. You also choose the key of the scale. You have control over how rapidly, in time, the pitch adjustment to the scale tone is made.
Introducing Auto-Tune has not learned to use his (or her) own vibrato. It can also be used for special sound design effects. A fast pitch adjustment to remove an existing vibrato can be used in conjunction with the Vibrato Section to replace a vibrato with a new one. This will not always give good results, though, (as discussed in Chapter 3), because there are usually accompanying changes in the loudness of the sound.
The Graphical Mode is not a scale tone, rather it is given graphically by you and is called the Òtarget pitch functionÓ. As in Automatic Mode, the rate of change towards the desired pitch (the target pitch function) is controlled by the Retune slider. The Graphical Mode uses the Pitch Graph: In this graph, higher pitches are upwards and increasing time is to the right. The lighter (red) curve is the input sound pitch and the darker line is a target pitch function.
Introducing Auto-Tune envelope of the pitch-detected sound or 2) align the envelope to the horizontal scale and position of the Pitch Graph. In Graphical Mode, the user draws the target pitch function using line and curve drawing tools. Complete image sizing 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: ¥ Select some sound for processing.
CHAPTER 3 Auto-Tune Tutorial ÒI donÕt want to know how it works Ð I want to know how to work it!Ó Ð Keith Emerson This chapter introduces you to how Auto-Tune works by guiding you through several tutorials. All of the important controls are explained. Also, tips are presented that will help you use Auto-Tune effectively. If you only read one chapter, read this one. The install procedure loads a project named ÒAuto-Tune TutorialÓ. Install Auto-Tune and start that session.
Auto-Tune Tutorial 6. In TDM, set Bypass ‘off’. In Cubase, click on “Pre” in the channel’s audio monitor and drag the slider all the way down. Play the sound again. What you just heard was an A major scale. This is because Auto-Tune continuously compared the input pitch to the A major scale and corrected the output pitch so that the output was closer in pitch to the scale tones. Now do the following: 1. Press the Edit Scale button. The left most column is labelled Òdo not trackÓ.
Lesson 1: Automatic Mode Controls On scales with more than 7 tones, the Edit Scale dialog appears with additional buttons. The Òset major scaleÓ and Òset minor scaleÓ buttons cause all tones to be removed except those nearest the diatonic Equal Tempered Scale of the current key. On microtone scales, additional ÒMicrotonal tuning dataÓ appears in the window that shows the cents values for various ideal intervals.
Auto-Tune Tutorial 4. Press Done and play the sound again. As the sound is playing, slide the Scale Detune slider. You are hearing the output pitch change with the Detune slider movement. This is because the Detune slider changes the pitch standard of the scale. If you have a tone you know 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. 1. Set the Vibrato popup to “sine wave” and play back the sound. 2.
Lesson 2: Graphical Mode The appearance of the Pitch Graph is affected by the Key, Scale and Detune setting in the Automatic Mode. These parameters do not affect the computations performed in Graphical Mode. They merely provide you with information about the location of scale tones so that you may draw in your desired pitches. The basic steps you will perform in Graphical Mode are: ¥ Select some sound for processing. ¥ Bring up Auto-Tune and press the Track Pitch button and play the sound.
Auto-Tune Tutorial This is the pitch of the sweep signal. In Cubase, you will have to press the ÒTrack PitchÓ button again to stop the tracking function. 1. Press the Zoom/Select tool and drag out a box on the Pitch Graph that encloses the red curve. You will see the following: 2. Press the Line tool and enter a line similar to that below. By clicking multiple points on the Pitch Graph, line segments joining the points will be drawn.
Lesson 2: Graphical Mode 3. Play back the sound to hear the effect. 4. Select the Curve tool, then click and hold down the mouse on the Pitch Graph. A curve will be drawn as the mouse is dragged. To exit, lift up on the mouse. Create a curve similar to the one shown: 5. Play back the sound to hear the effect. 6. Listen to the effect of the Retune slider as you change the values between 0 and about 50. 7. Experiment with the Pointer tool. This tool is used to select and drag lines and curves.
Auto-Tune Tutorial In Cubase, if you hold down the option key and then click to drag, the cursor will be restricted to vertical only movements. This is particularly handy after using the “Make Curve” button, discussed below. 1. Select one or more objects and play with undo, cut, copy, paste and select all. In TDM, the Auto-Tune clipboard is shared by all Auto-Tune's simultaneously. But it is not shared by other plug-ins, DAE applications (e.g. ProTools) or other applications.
Lesson 3: A Quiz Lesson 3: A Quiz So, you think youÕre getting the hang of this? Well, if you really are, youÕll be able to answer the question at the end of this lesson. 1. Use the techniques above to achieve the following Pitch Graph. Note the horizontal target pitch function: 2. Set the Retune slider to 0 and play back the sound. The pitch you will hear is a steady tone, as you would expect. 3. Now set the Retune slider to about 50 and play back the sound.
Auto-Tune Tutorial Lesson 4: Precision This lesson is actually more like a demonstration to show the extraordinary precision by which Auto-Tune can track and correct intonation problems. It will, though, give you a little more practice using Auto-Tune. If this doesnÕt sound interesting, please proceed to Lesson 5, below, which is an important tutorial of some Graphical Mode techniques. 1. Arrange the files “C2 Ahhh v3” and “C2 Ohhh v1” so that they are in separate tracks and can be played at the same time.
Lesson 5: Using the Make Curve Button 2. In TDM, assign Auto-Tune as a new insert to the desired track. In Cubase, select “No Effect” then select “Auto-Tune”. This will initialize the controls to known values. 3. Press the Graphical Mode button. 4. Press the Track Pitch button. 5. Play the “Crowd All” file. 6. Press the Zoom/Select tool and drag out a box on the pitch view that encloses the red curve for the “-gether” part of the last word, “to-gether”. You will see the following: 7.
Auto-Tune Tutorial 8. Press the Make Curve button. Auto-Tune will compute a new curve object from the existing pitch data. The new curve may be difÞcult to see at Þrst because it will exactly overlay the red curve. 9. Both ends of the new curve will be selected. Use the pointer tool and click on the white space of the Pitch Graph. That will cause no points to be selected. 10.Use the Pointer tool again and click precisely on the left end of the curve.
Lesson 5: Using the Make Curve Button 1. Use the line tool to draw a horizontal tine as shown below. 2. Set the Retune slider to 20 and play back the sound. Vibratos and other pitch gestures occur with related loudness gestures. SpeciÞcally, with vibratos, some vocalists produce mostly pitch variations and little loudness variations while others produce small pitch variations and a lot of loudness variations. (Some have called the latter a Tremolo.
Auto-Tune Tutorial ¥ The second technique is to draw a ßat line segment across the duration of a tone at the desired pitch and then use the Retune slider set in the range 20 to 40. This has the effect of gently moving the pitch downwards 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 ßatter than that line.
Lesson 6: Using the Make Auto Button 6. Press the Zoom/Select tool and drag out a box on the pitch view that encloses the red curve for the “crowd all rushed” words. You will see the following: 7.
Auto-Tune Tutorial 8. Press the Make Auto button. Auto-Tune will compute a new curve object from the existing pitch data: pitch drawn to neighboring tone Assuming this entire phrase is at the pitch E3, then there are several problem spots, indicated above, where the pitch is being incorrectly adjusted towards neighboring tones. 9. To hear the processed sound that would produced in Automatic Mode, set the Graphical Mode Retune Slider to 0, (fast) and play back the sound. 10.
More Information and Usage Tips raised pitch More Information and Usage Tips The decision to use the Graphical Mode instead of the Automatic Mode is taken when the Automatic Mode doesn't achieve the desired result. This is most often the case when pitch errors cross the boundary from one tone to another and you don't want to mess with continually adding and removing tones from the scale. In Graphical Mode, correcting pitch involves listening to a short passage and making several attempts at a correction.
Auto-Tune Tutorial tings...Ó and ÒImport Settings...Ó options of the ÒEffectÓ menu.The shared clipboard, ÒExport Settings...Ó, ÒImport Settings...Ó and the Make Curve button can be used in combination to create and use libraries of vibratos and other pitch gestures. In Cubase, the slider settings and the popup menu settings are saved and restored by VSP. These can also be saved and restored by you with the ÒFileÓ popup in the effects rack. Finally, expect some strange results.
CHAPTER 4 Auto-Tune Controls ÒJust the facts, MaÕamÓ - Bill Gannon, Dragnet This chapter is reference text for all of the controls used in the Auto-Tune interface. This chapter simply describes the function of each control. How these controls are used together for intonation correction is described in Chapter 3, Auto-Tune Tutorial. Much of the information in this chapter is also presented in Chapter 3. However, some of the less important controls are only explained here.
Auto-Tune Controls 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.
Automatic Mode Controls ¥ 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.
Auto-Tune Controls ¥ 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 Þfth octave of the harmonic series. The scale degrees that correspond to the classic just intervals are the major second, major third, perfect Þfth and major seventh.
Automatic Mode Controls arate from the other scales. If a seven tone scale is being edited, the Edit Scale dialog appears: The top line shows the current scale as selected from the Scale popup. The second line shows the current key. The left most column is labelled Òdo not trackÓ. Clicking in this column places a ÒchkÓ indicator. This has the effect that when the pitch of the incoming sound is close to a tone so edited, the output pitch is not changed from the input. This is like a pitch dependent bypass.
Auto-Tune Controls The Òset major scaleÓ button, when clicked, will check tones in the remove column such that the remaining scale is a major scale. Similarly for Òset minor scaleÓ. If a scale with more than twelve tones is edited, the Edit Scale dialog appears: The microtuning data at the bottom is presented as information to help you make decisions concerning what tones to include and exclude from the scale. The Scale Detune slider The Scale Detune slider allows the scale to be re-tuned.
Automatic Mode Controls The Retune slider The Retune slider 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. Larger values let through more vibrato and other interpretative pitch gestures but also slow down how rapidly pitch corrections are made.
Auto-Tune Controls The Change meter The Change meter shows you how much the pitch is being changed, measured in cents (100 cents = one semitone). Graphical Mode Controls The Arrow buttons The arrow buttons next to the Pitch Graph control the horizontal and vertical scaling of the graph. The arrow buttons next to the Envelope Graph control the vertical scales as expected, but the left and right arrows are replaced by ÒallÓ and ÒtieÓ.
Graphical Mode Controls The Graphical tools These buttons are the graphical tools. They allow you to draw and edit the target pitch function. The Line tool Use this tool to click multiple points on the Pitch Graph. Line segments joining the points will be drawn. Any existing line or curve will be overwritten. If you move the cursor outside the Pitch Graph during point entry, the graph will be automatically scrolled. To exit, double-click a point or press the on the keyboard.
Auto-Tune Controls In Cubase, if you hold down the option key and then click to drag, the cursor will be restricted to vertical only movements. This is particularly handy after using the ÒMake CurveÓ button, discussed below. The Zoom/Select tool Use the zoom/select tool in the Pitch Graph to press and drag a zoom box. After you lift the mouse, the scale and position of the Pitch Graph will be changed to show the area enclosed by the box. Dragging off the Pitch Graph automatically scrolls the graph.
Graphical Mode Controls The Paste Button The Paste button is active after objects have been cut or copied to the clipboard. Pressing it places the contents of the clipboard in the middle of the current Pitch Graph view. Hence be careful the Pitch Graph view does not contain anything you want to keep before you press paste. The Select All Button The Select All button causes all target pitch function objects to become selected.
Auto-Tune Controls The Make Auto button The Make Auto button is enabled whenever there is any input sound pitch (red) data. If a range of time has been selected by applying the zoom/select tool in the Envelope Graph, the Make Auto button works in the selected time range only. Pressing the Make Auto button causes curve objects to be created from input sound pitch (red) data.
Graphical Mode Controls change this slider before Pitch Correction, your target pitch function may inadvertently make corrections you did not intend, possibly resulting is strange artifacts. The Retune slider The Retune slider is only used during pitch correction. ItÕs similar in function but separate from the slider by that name in the Automatic Mode, however, the desired pitch is not the scale tone, but rather the target pitch function.
Auto-Tune Controls The Correct Pitch button After you have used the graphical tools to create a target pitch function, this button is used to apply the target pitch function to the incoming sound. In TDM, this button presses itself in for you when playback is started. In Cubase, you must press the button before playback is started. After it is pressed, it would (brießy) show ÒprocessingÓ, followed by ßashing ÒwaitingÓ. When playback begins and the Þrst sound occurs, this button will show ÒcorrectingÓ.
Index Numerics 19 Tone 41 24 Tone 41 31 Tone 41 53 Tone 41 A accuracy 16 Arabic 1 41 Arabic 2 (chromatic) 41 Arrow buttons 46 artifacts 14 Automatic Mode 16, 24, 34, 36 Controls 39 Automatic Mode Controls 21 Auto-Tune Tutorial 21 B Barnes-Bach (chromatic) 40 beat cycles 16 breathy voice 14 Buffer size control 52 bypass button 16, 21 C Carlos Alpha 41 Beta 41 Gamma 42 Carlos, Wendy 41 cent 12, 16 Change meter 24, 46 clipboard 37 community orchestra 14 consonance 14 Contemporary Tunings 41 Control Key 28, 49
Delay slider 45 Depth slider 45 desired pitch 19, 24 de-tune 17 Detune value 19 dissonance 14 dissonant 12 do not track 22, 23, 43 drawing tools 20 DSP 9, 11 E Edit Scale button 22, 23, 36, 42 Edit Scale dialog 23, 43 end points 27 Envelope Graph 19, 46 EQ 15 Equal Tempered Scale 13, 23, 39 error 16 ethnic scales 17 Ethnic Tunings 40 F Fast Fourier Transform 15 FFT 15 frequency 11 fundamental 11, 16 G graphical editor 20 Graphical Mode 16, 18, 24 Graphical Mode Controls 46 Graphical tools 20, 25, 47 Greek c
I Indian 40 Infinity 14 Installing 9 interference constructive 16 destructive 16 intervals 12 intonation 14 J Just (minor chromatic) 40 K key annotation 19 Key popup 21, 25, 42 Keyboard equivalents 28, 49 L Line tool 26, 47 double-click 26 erase 26 Ling Lun 40 loudness gestures 33 M Make Auto button 34, 36, 50 Make Curve button 30, 32, 33, 38, 48, 49 Meantone chrom.
phase errors 15 pitch 11, 12, 15 correction 13, 15 detection 14 gestures 33 shifting 15 standard 24, 42, 44 variation 15 Pitch Graph 19, 24, 27, 46 Playback controls 51 Pointer tool 27, 47 precision of correction 16, 30 precision of detection 15 processing delay 14 pure intervals 40 pure perfect fifths 40 Pythagorean 40 R Rate slider 45 ratios of frequency 12 Registration 9 remove 22, 36, 43 Retune slider 17, 21, 23, 27, 45 fast 17, 23 slow 17, 23 S scale 16 chromatic 17 major 17 minor 17 names 19 pitches 1
TDM 9, 52 Technical Support 9 time-of-day 20, 37 tonality 17 Track Pitch button 20, 25, 51 tracking 16 Tracking slider 15, 45, 50 transparent 15 Tremolo 33 U Undo button 48 Use Cursors button 52 V Vallotti & Young chrom. 40 vibrating element 11 Vibrato popup 45 vibrato 17, 37 delay 17 depth 17 libraries 38 popup 24 rate 17 Vibrato Section 17, 45 W waveform 11 non-periodic 12, 14 periodic 12 Werckmeister III chrom. 40 Western tonal music 13 Wilkinson, Scott R.
