Antares AutoTune 4 user manual

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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, “to-
gether.” 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: 
						

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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): 
						

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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 ex-
tremely 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 millisec-
onds). 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. 
						

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Tutorial 7: The Make Auto Function
The Make Auto function allows you to display and edit the pitch correc-
tions 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: 
						

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PITCH DRAWN TO
NEIGHBORING
TONE
8. Click the Make Auto button. Auto-Tune 4 will compute a new yellow
curve object from the existing pitch data:
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.
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.
10. Switch to the Automatic Mode and click the Remove buttons next to C,
D and F.
11. Return to the Graphical Mode and use the Zoom/Select tool to drag out
a selection in the Envelope Graph, as in Step 7.
12. Press the Make Auto button. Auto-Tune 4 will compute a new yellow
curve from the existing pitch data:
RAISED 
PITCH 
						

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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. 
						

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T
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 SIZEThis 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
SCHEMELets 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. 
						

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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
in high contrast (as in the original Auto-Tune).
KNOB CONTROLSelect 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 one-
button 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 and “rotate” the knob in
the desired direction.The current value of the knob’s parameter
appears in its associated numeric display.
CUSTOM CURSORSCheck 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 UNDOSAuto-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) 
						

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DETAILS
OCTAVE AS PLAYED/ALL OCTAVESFor 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 DISPLAYThe Detune control now includes dual displays
that simultaneously show the amount of detuning in cents and in Hz.
relative to A440.
IMPROVED TARGETINGThis 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 perfor-
mance). 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 WINDOWIn 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. 
						

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VIRTUAL KEYBOARDThe 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.
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.
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.