Antares AutoTune user manual

							 
Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
 
21
 
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 Auto-Tune installation process copies several audio Þles into the instal-
lation folder. Use these Þles in the exercises below.
 
Lesson 1: Automatic Mode Controls 
This lesson will exercise the Automatic Mode controls of Auto-Tune using a
synthetic sweep signal. The Automatic Mode works by continuously track-
ing the pitch of the input data and comparing it to a scale. The scale tone
having its pitch closest to the input is identiÞed. An output pitch is created
which is closer to the scale tone than the input. 
1. Setup your playback so that Auto-Tune processes the Þle ÒA2-A3-A2 
sweepÓ .
2. Set the Key popup to A.
3. Set the Retune slider to zero.
4. Set Bypass ÔonÕ and play the sweep to hear the input sound. 
5. Set Bypass ÔoffÕ. Play the sound again. 
						

							 
Auto-Tune Tutorial
 
22
 
Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
 
What you just heard was an A major scale. This is because Auto-Tune con-
tinuously 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. 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.
The next column is labeled ÒremoveÓ. Clicking in this column causes the
tone to be removed from the scale, as if it were never there to begin with. 
2. Press the mouse when the cursor is under the ÒremoveÓ column so that 
the ÒchkÓ symbol appears next to the tones B, D, F# and G#. The dialog 
will appear
3. Press Done and play the sound again.
 
You just heard a A-major triad because you had removed all other tones
from the scale.
On scales with more than 7 tones, the Edit Scale dialog appears with addi-
tional buttons. The Òset major scaleÓ and Òset minor scaleÓ buttons cause all 
						

							 
Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
 
23
 
Lesson 1: Automatic Mode Controls
 
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. These can be used to help tune up the scale by allowing you to
select tones that are in tune with other pitches in the harmonic structure. 
1. Press the Edit Scale button.
2. Press the mouse under the Òdo not trackÓ column so that the ÒchkÓ sym-
bol appears across from E.
3. Press Done and play the sound again.
 
You just heard the effect of not tracking the E. Over the duration when the
output should be E, Auto-Tune entered a bypass mode. 
1. Move the Retune slider to about 30.
2. Play the sound again. Compare the 30 setting to the 0 setting.
The setting of 0 is fast: Auto-Tune makes instantaneous pitch changes. The
setting of 30 is slower. Auto-Tune makes gradual pitch changes. This slider
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. 
1. Set the Retune slider to 0.
2. Press the Edit Scale button.
3. Press the mouse under the ÒremoveÓ column so that the ÒchkÓ symbol 
appears next to all the tones except F#.
Edits made using the Edit Scale dialog depend on the scale. That is, each scale
retains its own edits separate from the other scales.  
						

							Auto-Tune Tutorial
24Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
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 Òsine waveÓ and play back the sound.
2. Experiment with the vibrato controls to learn their effects.
Lesson 2: Graphical Mode
This lesson will show you how to use the Graphical Mode controls of
Auto-Tune. The Automatic Mode and Graphical Mode function separately;
when one is active, corrections of the other are not performed.
The Graphical Mode is similar to the Automatic Mode in that it continu-
ously tracks the pitch of the incoming sound and modiÞes the output pitch
to be closer to a desired pitch. In the Graphical Mode, the desired pitch is
not a scale tone, rather it is given graphically by you and is called the Òtar-
get 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: 
						

							Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual25 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 compu-
tations performed in Graphical Mode. They merely provide you with infor-
mation 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. This is done in the Soundbites win-
dow.
¥Bring up Auto-Tune. Set the buffer for a few seconds longer than the
duration 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 slider for the desired effect.
¥Press Correct Pitch and play back the sound. This will cause the pitch to
be corrected as speciÞed.
LetÕs begin the tutorial:
1. Setup your playback so that Auto-Tune processes the Þle ÒA2-A3-A2 
sweepÓ .
2. Set the Key popup to A.
3. Press the Graphical Mode button.
4. Press the Track Pitch button.
5. Play the sweep signal through Auto-Tune. 
After the playback stops, or is stopped by you, you will have to press the
ÒTrack PitchÓ button again to stop the tracking function.
In Graphical Mode, it is important that the sound played back for pitch correc-
tion begins precisely at the same spot as the sound played back for pitch detec-
tion. This is because the plug-ins do not know the absolute Òtime-of-dayÓ. The
speciÞed target pitch function will be applied to whatever sound occurs after
playback begins, even if it is a completely different sound.
In other words, before you press Correct Pitch and play, make sure that the
counter is set to start from the exact place you started Track Pitch. 
						

							Auto-Tune Tutorial
26Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
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 mul-
tiple points on the Pitch Graph, line segments joining the points will be 
drawn. 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  on the keyboard.
To erase the last point entered, press  on the keyboard.
3. Press Correct Pitch and play back  
						

							Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual27 Lesson 2: Graphical Mode
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. Press Correct Pitch and 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. 
Clicking on white space in the Pitch Graph causes all objects to become 
de-selected. Clicking on white space and dragging causes object end 
points to become selected. Shift-clicking (and dragging) is used to select 
contiguous points. Dragging off the Pitch Graph automatically scrolls the 
graph.
Every line or curve has two end points. If both end points are selected, 
the object is said to be selected. If you click on an object which is not 
selected, it becomes selected. If you click on an object that is already 
selected, it (and anything else that is selected) stays selected so you can 
drag it. 
Dragging causes the selected objects to be moved. Any objects that 
have one end-point selected will be stretched during dragging. Dragging 
is constrained by neighboring unselected objects.
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. 
						

							Auto-Tune Tutorial
28Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
1. Select one or more objects and play with undo, cut, copy, paste and 
select all.
The Auto-Tune clipboard is not shared with other Auto-Tunes. It is also not
shared by other plug-ins, or other applications.
Keyboard equivalents:   
The following are keyboard equivalents to the respective Graphical Mode
buttons on certain platforms. Try them out and see if they work for you:
Command 
(Apple) Key Function
a
Select All
zUndo
xCut
cCopy
vPaste
TABLE 2. Edit Control Keys 
						

							Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual29 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, press Correct Pitch and play back the sound 
to hear the effect..
The pitch you will hear is a steady tone, as you would expect.
3. Now set the Retune slider to about
 50, press Correct Pitch and play back 
the sound to hear the effect...
The pitch you now hear starts out sharper and then becomes ßatter. Why?
The Auto-Tune settings, including all the scale edit data, the input sound pitch,
input sound envelope and target pitch data are saved with the project settings . 
						

							Auto-Tune Tutorial
30Auto-Tune UserÕs Manual
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. Setup your playback so that Auto-Tune processes the Þles ÒC2 Ahhh v3Ó 
and ÒC2 Ohhh v1Ó.
2. In each Auto-Tune, set the Retune slider to 0.
3. In each Auto-Tune, set the Key popup to B-ßat.
4. In each Auto-Tune, press the Bypass buttons to bypass processing.
5. Play back the sound to hear the effect.
 Believe it or not, these are vocal samples from a CD of samples. Sounds
nasty, doesnÕt it?
6. Press Bypass in each Auto-Tune so processing is occurring.
If youÕve done everything right, you will hear the samples so well in tune
that they sound like one voice. 
Lesson 5: Using the Make Curve Button
The make curve button is an important tool in Auto-Tune. It allows you to
make precise and natural pitch corrections in Graphical Mode.
1. Setup your playback so that Auto-Tune processes the Þle ÒCrowd AllÓ .
2. Press the Graphical Mode button.
3. Press the Track Pitch button.
4. Play the ÒCrowd AllÓ Þle.