Antares AVP1 Hardware user manual

							AVP-1

Antares Vocal  Producer
Owner’s Manual 
						

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©2002 Antares Audio Technologies. All rights reserved.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
All names of microphone manufacturers and microphone model
designations appearing in this manual are used solely to identify the
microphones analyzed in the development of our digital models and
do not in any way imply any association with or endorsement by any
of the named manufacturers.
Antares Audio Technologies
231 Technology Circle
Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA
voice: (831) 461-7800
fax: (831) 461-7801
email: [email protected]
web: www.antarestech.com
Printed in USA Rev 1.2 01/2002 
						

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Contents
Getting Started
Welcome v
Technical Support vi
Introducing the Antares Chapter 1
AVP Overview 2
Auto-Tune Pitch Correction 3
Antares Microphone Modeling 7
Understanding Compression 8
What is a De-Esser? 15
Equalization 15
Setting Up Chapter 2
Setting up the AVP is easy 20
Panel Controls Chapter 3
The front panel 21
The back panel 24
Operation Chapter 4
Live or mixdown? 25
Patching the AVP into your system 25
Controls and Display Screens 28
Master Module 28
Microphone Modeler Module 40
Auto-Tune  Module 45
Compressor/Gate Module 48
De-Esser Module 51
Equalizer/Output Module 53
Vocal Producer
and Connectors 
						

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Get Creative Chapter 5 58
Appendix
Factory Presets 60
Realistic Mic Modeling Expectations 64
Specifications 66
Index 68 
						

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Welcome!
On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to
offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to
purchase the Antares Vocal Producer.
Before you proceed any farther, we’d like to strongly encourage you
to fill out and return the AVP-1 registration card. To make it as easy
as possible, we’ve included a sticker with your serial number already
attached to the card. It’s probably a good idea also to write it in
your manual for future reference.
As an AVP-1 owner, you are entitled to receive notification of any
software upgrades, technical support, and advance announcements
of upcoming products. But we can’t send you stuff unless we know
who and where you are. So please, send that card in.
At Antares, we are committed to excellence in quality, customer
service, and technological innovation. With your purchase of the
AVP-1, 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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Technical Support
In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using your
Antares Vocal Producer, 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. Check our web page for tips, techniques, or any late-breaking
information: www.antarestech.com
3. Call your local Antares dealer.
4. Call us at  (831) 461-7800 Monday through Friday between
9am and 5pm USA Pacific Standard Time.
5. Email us at: [email protected]
For options 3, 4 and 5, please be prepared to provide the serial
number of your Vocal Producer. 
						

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Chapter 1:
Introducing the Antares Vocal Producer
How to use this manual
The Antares Vocal Producer (henceforth referred to as the AVP) has a very
friendly user-interface and is extraordinarily easy to use. However, to get
the full benefit of its capabilities, we recommend that you give this
manual at least a quick once over.
If the AVP is your first experience with vocal signal processing, you’ll find a
brief introduction to the theory and application of the various processing
modules in this chapter. (More in-depth information can be found in a
variety of books on recording technique and periodically in recording-
oriented magazines like Electronic Musician, EQ, Mix, Recording,and
Home Recording, among others.)
If you’re already familiar with the functions and uses of basic studio signal
processors (compressor, gate, de-esser, EQ, etc.), you can go straight to
Chapter 4 to see how they are implemented in the AVP. On the other
hand, unless you have experience with Auto-Tune and Antares Micro-
phone Modeler, it’s probably wise to at least read the background infor-
mation on those features in Chapter 1.
The contents of this manual
Chapter 1: Introducing the Antares Vocal Producer
The chapter you are reading. It provides an overview of the AVP as well as
background information on Auto-Tune pitch correction and Antares
Microphone Modeling. It also includes an introduction to basic concepts in
compression, expansion, gating, de-essing, and parametric equalization.
Chapter 2: Setting Up the Antares Vocal Producer
How to get the AVP up and running.
Chapter 3: Controls and Connectors
This chapter provides a reference for all of the controls, displays and
connectors on the AVP’s front and back panels. 
						

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Chapter 4: Operation
This is a guide to all of the features and functions of the AVP. If you’re
only going to read one chapter, this is the one.
Chapter 5: Creative Applications for the AVP
Some cool, but not-so-obvious stuff you can do with the AVP.
Antares Vocal Producer Overview
The heart of any great song is a great vocal sound. With the Antares Vocal
Producer, we’ve combined our world-renowned Auto-Tune Pitch Correc-
tion and TEC-Award-winning Microphone Modeler technologies with
state-of-the-art vocal processing modules to give you everything you need
to create stunning vocal tracks in any musical style.
Live or in the studio, the AVP lets you instantly select from a library of
sounds. From gorgeously mellow to seriously twisted, we’ve included
factory presets for a wide variety of vocal styles as well as an interface that
makes it easy to create your own signature sounds. (And given the power
and flexibility of the AVP’s processing modules, we’ve even included a
selection of presets for instrumental and percussion tracks.)
The Antares Vocal Producer features:
•Auto-Tune Real-time Pitch CorrectionAntares’s world-renowned Auto-
Tune technology lets you correct the pitch of vocals (or solo instru-
ments), in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all
of the expressive nuance of the original performance.
•Antares Microphone ModelingOur TEC Awarding-winning Microphone
Modeler technology lets you give your vocal tracks the characteristics of
a variety of high-end studio mics as well as adjust the proximity effect
associated with mic distance.
•Analog Tube ModelingGives your vocals the warmth of a classic tube
preamp.
•Variable Knee Compressor A state-of-the-art dynamics processor with
threshold, ratio, attack and decay controls as well as a continuously
variable knee characteristic.
•Downward Expanding GateThe AVP’s gate, with threshold and ratio
controls, works independently of the compressor to eliminate noise and
breath sounds.
•Variable Frequency De-EsserThe AVP’s de-esser tames vocal sibilance
with threshold, ratio, attack and decay controls as well as a variable
highpass frequency to match any vocal performance. 
						

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•Flexible Parametric EQYou can fine-tune your vocal sound with two
independent bands of equalization that let you select from 6dB or 12dB
high or low cut, high or low shelving with variable slope, bandpass,
notch and fully parametric peaking.
•Automatic Mono or Stereo Double TrackingYou can automatically mix
a doubled track into the AVP’s main output or route it to a separate
output for post-processing and mixing.
•Fully ProgrammableOnce you’ve created the perfect vocal sound for a
particular track, every parameter can be saved as a preset for instant
recall.
•Factory Presets for a Wide Variety of Vocal StylesThe AVP comes out-
of-the-box with an extensive collection of factory presets for a variety
of vocal styles. (We’ve even included a selection of presets for instru-
mental and percussion tracks.)
•MIDI AutomationEvery variable module parameter can be controlled
via MIDI continuous controllers for realtime automation.
•Really Easy To UseNo scrolling though endless menus to find the
parameter you want. Virtually every major function is only a single
button press away.
Read on for the details.
Auto-Tune Pitch Correction
In 1997, Antares first introduced the ground-breaking Auto-Tune Pitch
Correcting Plug-In for ProTools™ (eventually followed by most other plug-
in formats). Here was a tool that actually corrected 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 a “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
who bought kilo-buck ProTools systems just to be able to run Auto-Tune.
The AVP’s Auto-Tune module is a hardware implementation of our Auto-
Tune pitch correcting software. Like Auto-Tune, the AVP 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). 
						

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A little bit about pitch
Pitch is typically 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 an earthquake) 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 the AVP is designed to process
have a very clearly defined quality of pitch. The sound-generating mecha-
nism of these sources is a vibrating element (vocal chords, a string, an air
column, etc.). The sound that is thus generated can be graphically repre-
sented 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 the AVP.
Other sounds are more complex. This waveform:
is of a violin section playing a single tone. Our ears still sense a specific
pitch, but the waveform does not repeat itself. This waveform is a summa-
tion 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 would not
be able to process this sound.
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 (abbre-
viated Hz.). For example, the pitch of A3 (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).