Antares Harmony EFX user manual

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Chapter 2: Introducing Harmony EFX
What the heck is this 
thing?
Harmony EFX is an extremely 
affordable and easy-to-use version of our 
Harmony Engine Evo real-time harmony 
generating plug-in. Based on exactly the 
same Evo™ Voice Processing Technology 
that powers its big brother, Harmony EFX 
puts professional-quality vocal harmony 
arrangements within reach of any songwriter, 
producer, musician or engineer.
What’s it do?
Traditionally, harmony tools offer two basic 
operating modes:
o n one hand...

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• Humanize functions that provide selectable 
amounts of variation to each harmony voice 
for realistic, natural sounding results
• A Harmony Preset matrix that lets you create 
up to 12 complete harmony settings and 
instantaneously recall them, in real time or 
via automation
Whether you’re an experienced vocal arranger, 
a songwriter looking for that perfect backup 
vocal, or a composer experimenting with 
unique vocal effects, Harmony EFX gives you 
entirely new ways to create the harmony parts...

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Chapter 3: Harmony EFX Controls
This chapter is a reference for all of the controls used in the Harmony EFX interface. 
Controls
Continuous controls in Harmony EFX are 
represented by virtual knobs or faders. 
Knobs can be controlled by either vertical or 
horizontal movement: 
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...

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NOTE : Keep in mind that the input 
must not only be monophonic, but 
actually a solo voice or instrument 
(as opposed to a unison section). For example, 
a group of singers singing the same note will 
typically not be reliably tracked. 
Although even true solo voices can sometimes 
be challenging (for example, exceptionally 
breathy voices, or tracks recorded in 
unavoidably noisy environments), Harmony 
EFX’s Tracking control, described later in this 
chapter, can typically deal even with those....

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Original Input
Gain
The Gain fader controls the gain of the original 
vocal whenever the channel is not muted. 
The default Gain value is - 6dB. option (Mac)/
Control (PC)-clicking the fader returns it to that 
value. 
Solo
Engaging Solo Mode causes the original 
vocal signal to appear at the output and 
simultaneously mutes all Harmony Voice 
channels that are not also soloed. 
When the Solo button is yellow, Solo Mode in 
engaged. Click the button to toggle its state.
Mute
Engaging Mute Mode causes...

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as octave errors or loss of pitch tracking), 
experiment until you get the best result.
A TIp: One of the things that can 
cause tracking problems is excessive 
sibilance and/or other unpitched 
articulations. De-essing (prior to compression) 
can often alleviate these problems.
I M pO rTANT N OTE: Like the Set 
Input Vocal  range setting, getting 
this setting right is critical for best 
performance. If you are experiencing problems, 
these are the controls to adjust. It may be useful to think of the...

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When a Mute button is blue, that channel’s 
Mute Mode in engaged. Click a Mute button to 
toggle its state.
NOTE : If both a channel’s Solo and 
Mute buttons are pressed, Solo takes 
precedence. However, if Solo is then 
disengaged, the channel will then be muted
Throat Length
This control uses Antares’ unique Throat 
Modeling technology to define the vocal quality 
of a Harmony Voice by actually varying the 
geometry of the channel’s model vocal tract.  
It is used in combination with the various...

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17 = perfect 11th
18 = aug 11th
19 = perfect 12th
20 = minor 13th
21 = major 13th
22 = minor 14th (rarely used)
23 = major 14th (rarely used)
24 = 2 octaves
Pan
These controls set each harmony voice’s 
position on the stereo soundstage when 
the voice is not muted and Harmony EFX is 
assigned to a stereo output. 
If Harmony EFX is not assigned to a stereo 
track, these controls will be disabled.The control range is from -100 (panned full 
left) to 100 (panned full right). Not surprisingly, 
a value of...

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in each voice. Again, the actual amount of 
variation will be different (and continuously 
variable) for each active harmony voice.
The third effect of the Naturalize function is 
to control how much of the original vocal’s 
inherent pitch variations, either vibrato or 
expressive pitch gestures like scoops and 
bends, will appear in the harmony voices. At 
a setting of 0, none of the input vocal’s pitch 
variation will be present in the harmony voices. 
NOTE : In Fixed Interval mode (only), 
the...

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Glide
The Glide function allows you to control the 
speed at which harmony voices transition from 
note to note during legato phrasing.
Transition Rate
This control lets you set a selectable amount 
of glide (or, for those who grew up with 
synthesizers, portamento) between overlapping 
note transitions. The control reads out in 
milliseconds and represents the time it takes to 
get halfway to the destination pitch.
NOTE : Glide only takes effect when 
successive notes overlap or butt 
up against each...