Antares Harmony Engine Evo user manual

							4
Installing Harmony Engine Evo 
Harmony Engine Evo is designed to function 
as a plug-in in a wide variety of digital audio 
applications. Please refer to your specific host 
application’s user manual for more information 
on installing and using plug-ins.
Authorizing Harmony Engine Evo 
Authorization is the process by which Harmony 
Engine Evo is allowed to run on your computer. 
Detailed instructions covering the available 
authorization options will be found in the file 
“Authorization Read Me” which is included on 
the installation CD RoM or with your software download. 
N OTE: When initially installed, 
this software will run for ten 
days without authorization. 
So even if you can‘t authorize it right away you 
can still use your software in the meantime. 
(During this period, click the “Continue” button 
whenever you are presented with the Trial 
Period screen at launch.) But don’t procrastinate 
too long. After those ten days are up you will no 
longer be able to launch Harmony Engine Evo 
until it’s authorized. 
Technical Support  
In the unlikely event that you experience a 
problem using Harmony Engine Evo, try the 
following: 
  1.  Make sure you have the latest version of the plug-in. You can download and install 
the latest version of Harmony Engine Evo 
from the following web page:
    http://www.antarestech.com/download/update.shtml
 2.  If you are having problems authorizing your software, be sure that you have the 
latest version of the PACE Interlok drivers. 
You can download and install the latest 
version for your operating system from the 
following web page:
    http://portal.knowledgebase.net/article.asp?article=174703&p=5764
If your problem is not resolved after taking the 
above actions, 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.  Consult our searchable knowledgebase at:
    http://www.antarestech.com/support/index.html
 3.  Check our web page for tips, techniques, or any late-breaking information:
    http://www.antarestech.com 
						

							5
Chapter 2:  
Introducing Harmony Engine Evo
What the heck is this 
thing?
Harmony Engine Evo is 
the second generation of our Harmony 
Engine real-time harmony generating plug-
in. Like its predecessor, Harmony Engine 
Evo puts professional-quality vocal harmony 
arrangements within reach of any songwriter, 
producer, musician or engineer.
What’s new?
While clearly the most visible addition to 
Harmony Engine Evo is the integration 
of five channels of our unique CH oIR Vocal Multiplier (and that  is seriously 
cool), the real story is tucked away 
invisibly under the hood (so to speak). 
During the development of Auto-Tune Evo, 
the latest version of the worldwide standard 
in professional pitch correction, Dr. Andy 
went back to the proverbial drawing board to 
create a seriously evolved voice processing 
technology that takes advantage of the 
hugely more powerful computers that are 
now the norm for digital audio recording.
The result was Evo™ Voice Processing 
Technology, setting a new standard for pitch 
detection, pitch shifting, and throat modeling 
that is substantially more accurate and reliable 
over a much wider range of audio input quality. 
Now we’ve turned our attention to 
incorporating Evo Technology into Harmony 
Engine. The result is an entirely new level of 
sonic performance. With faster, more accurate 
pitch detection, smoother, artifact-free pitch 
shifting, and seamless, natural-sounding (if 
you want it to be) throat modeling, Harmony 
Engine Evo just works better. Leaving you 
free to focus on creating your music.
What’s it do?
Traditionally, harmony tools offer two basic 
operating modes:
o n one hand are fully automatic modes based on either parallel or “smart” scale-based 
intervals. These are relatively easy to set up, but 
offer very little in the way of creative control.
on the other hand (assuming organisms with two hands) are MIDI modes that 
provide control of each individual note of 
each individual harmony voice. While these 
techniques offer absolute control, they also 
demand that you be skilled in the intricacies 
of vocal arranging (as well as having the 
time and patience to enter every note into 
a MIDI track, hardly a trivial undertaking).
With Harmony Engine Evo, we set ourselves 
the task of creating a tool that would let 
anyone who could hear the harmonies they 
wanted in their mind quickly and easily create 
those harmonies in a song or other project. 
While Harmony Engine Evo offers all of the 
traditional harmony generation methods, it 
adds a variety of new operating paradigms that 
allow you to approach the harmony generation 
process from a purely musical point of view.
What’s it got?
With four independent harmony voices 
utilizing our advanced Evo™ Voice Processing 
Technology, a variety of powerful harmony 
generating modes, humanization features 
for natural sounding performances, a flexible 
real-time preset system for harmony and vocal 
type, and five integrated channels of Antares’ 
unique CH oIR Vocal Multiplier, Harmony Engine Evo provides incredibly easy-to -use 
tools to quickly and easily produce virtually any 
vocal arrangement you can imagine.  
						

							6
Key Harmony Engine Evo features include:• Four high- quality, formant- corrected harmony voices featuring Evo™ Voice Processing 
Technology providing independent vocal 
character, vibrato, and pan settings
• Antares Throat Modeling technology that lets 
you process each harmony voice through a 
physical model of the human vocal tract
• A variety of innovative Harmony Control modes, from fully automatic to individual 
control of every note:
  Fixed or Scale Intervals:  Simply set the 
key and harmony voice intervals and let 
Harmony Engine Evo do the rest
  Scale Degree or Chord Name:  Define 
your harmony chord-by-chord, complete 
with inversions and variable vocal ranges
  Chord by MIDI:  Define your harmony 
in real time via a MIDI controller or pre-
recorded MIDI track
  MIDI Omni:  Directly “play” the four 
harmony voices as if they were voices of 
a synth or sampler.
  MIDI Channel:  Use four separate MIDI 
channels for absolute control over each 
note of your vocal arrangement
•  Spread and Register controls that allow you to quickly and intuitively set the pitch range 
and harmony style of your vocal arrangement
• Humanize functions that provide selectable amounts of variation to each harmony voice 
for realistic, natural sounding results
• A Freeze function that allows a unique variety of backup vocal effects by letting 
you instantly freeze pitch and/or formant 
articulation
• A Harmony Preset matrix that lets you create up to 15 complete harmony settings and 
instantaneously recall them, in real time or 
via automation
• A Voice Parameter Preset matrix that lets you create and instantly recall up to 6 different 
“vocal groups”
• Five integrated channels of our unique CH oIR Vocal Multiplier, to let you turn the input voice and/or each harmony voice into 
2, 4, or 8 distinct individual unison voices, 
each with its own pitch, timing and vibrato 
variations. Perfect for creating entire choirs 
out of a single vocal line.
• Five-channel output capability (host dependent) that lets you assign the original 
input and each of the four harmony voices to 
their own channels for further processing
Whether you’re an experienced vocal arranger, 
a songwriter looking for that perfect backup 
vocal, or a composer experimenting with 
unique vocal effects, Harmony Engine Evo 
gives you entirely new ways to create the 
harmony parts you hear in your head. In fact, 
experimenting with different harmonies is so 
easy (and, dare we suggest, fun), you may find 
yourself using Harmony Engine Evo to explore 
harmonic alternatives you may have never 
otherwise considered.
Harmony Engine Evo is, quite simply, the 
quickest, easiest tool for flexible, realistic 
harmony creation. 
  
						

							7
Chapter 3: Harmony Engine Evo Controls
This chapter is a reference for all of the controls used in the Harmony Engine Evo interface. 
Controls
Continuous controls in Harmony Engine Evo 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 counterclockwise. The 
current value of the knob’s parameter 
appears in its associated numeric display.
H o RIZ oNTAL: 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.
For faders, simply click on the “thumb” of the 
fader and move it to the desired setting.
o ption (Mac)/Control (PC)-clicking a control returns it to its default value.  
						

							8
NOTE : The specific modifier key may 
vary from host to host (Steinberg 
hosts on the Mac, for example, use 
the Command (Apple) key instead of the Option 
key). Refer to the Harmony Engine Evo Read 
Me for details (or just try a few until you find the 
one what works).
Setup
The functions described in this section are used 
to tell Harmony Engine Evo things about the 
source audio or otherwise affect the plug-in as 
a whole.
Input Audio
For accurate harmony generation and best 
modeling performance, Harmony Engine 
Evo needs to be able to detect the pitch 
of the original performance. To do that, 
Harmony Engine Evo requires a clean, 
pitched, monophonic signal. (In this context, 
“clean” refers both to lack of noise and lack of 
processing with effects like chorus, reverb, etc.)
N OTE : 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. 
You can have problems with certain solo 
voices and solo instruments as well. Consider, 
for example, an exceptionally breathy voice, 
or a track recorded in an unavoidably noisy 
environment. The added noise is non-periodic 
and Harmony Engine Evo will have difficulty 
determining the pitch of the composite  (voice + noise) sound. Luckily, there is a 
control (the Tracking control, discussed 
later in this chapter) that will let Harmony 
Engine Evo be a bit more casual about 
what it considers “periodic.” Experimenting 
with this setting will often allow Harmony 
Engine Evo to track even noisy signals.
Routing
Harmony Engine Evo should typically be 
instantiated as an insert effect on the track that 
will supply the source audio. Harmony Engine 
Evo can be instantiated on a mono or stereo 
track, but since it processes only a single 
channel of audio, if you instantiate it on a stereo 
track, the two channels will be mixed together 
before being processed.
Harmony Engine Evo’s output can be mono 
or stereo (or, in some circumstances, five 
channels — see below). Unless you have 
some overriding reason for using a mono 
output, we highly recommend using it in stereo 
output mode, since in mono mode, all panning 
controls are disabled. This prevents you from 
positioning the harmony voices across the 
stereo soundstage and dramatically impacts (in 
a not-so -swell way) the overall effect.
Effects
The cleaner the input signal, the easier 
Harmony Engine Evo’s task of reliably detecting 
its pitch. For this reason, effects designed to 
improve the quality of the input (e.g., de-essing, 
noise reduction, etc.) should be applied to the 
audio before it is input to Harmony Engine Evo.
N
OTE : If you will be using both 
de-essing and compression on 
your vocal track, it has been our 
experience that using the de-esser before 
the compressor provides improved results in 
Harmony Engine Evo.
As mentioned above, effects like chorus or 
reverb can negatively affect Harmony Engine 
Evo’s ability to reliably detect the pitch of the 
input audio. As a result, you should not apply 
these effects to the input audio before it is 
routed into Harmony Engine Evo. Either apply 
them to the Harmony Engine Evo output or, 
if you only want them on the original audio, 
apply them to a copy of the original audio on  
						

							9
another track and then mute the original input in Harmony Engine Evo.
Five Channel Output
Depending on your host’s routing capabilities, 
you may be able to use Harmony Engine 
Evo in five channel output mode to send the 
original input and the four harmony voices 
to five separate channels for subsequent 
individual processing. Unfortunately, the ability 
and method of accomplishing this varies from 
host to host and typically involves making non-
standard use of a host’s 5.1 capabilities. Check 
your host’s manual and the Harmony Engine 
Evo Read Me for details.
NOTE : While it is our intention to 
provide tips in our Knowledgebase on 
using five channel output in the major 
hosts that support it, your primary resource 
should be a detailed knowledge of how routing 
works in your host. In this case, your host’s 
manual is your best friend.
A NOTHER N OTE: With the original 
Harmony Engine, we felt that one 
of the most useful (and dramatic) 
reasons to use five channel output was to allow 
you to use instances of CHOIR or DUO on each 
of the individual channels. With the integration 
of CHOIR into Harmony Engine Evo, it’s no 
longer necessary to struggle with five channel 
routing to get those effects, so it may well be 
that you can just ignore this whole issue.
Set Input 
Vocal 
Range
As a result 
of Antares’ 
research 
into the unique characteristics of various types 
of audio signals, Harmony Engine Evo offers a 
selection of optimized processing algorithms 
for the most common types of inputs. Choices 
include Soprano Voice, Alto/ Tenor Voice, Bass/
Baritone Voice and Instrument (a general 
setting for anything that isn’t actually a vocal). 
Matching the appropriate algorithm to the 
input results in faster and more accurate pitch 
detection and more accurate modeling. To select vocal range, click on the Vocal Range 
pop-up and then select the appropriate range 
from the pop-up list. 
IMpORTANT NOTE: We really can’t stress this enough. Getting this setting right is critical to getting the best performance from Harmony Engine Evo. Choosing the wrong Vocal Range (or just forgetting to set it at all) will result in compromised performance. pay a
ttention.
Model 
Glottal
The glottal 
waveform 
is created 
by the 
vibration of a singer’s vocal chords. While 
the glottal waveform is largely defined by 
each singer’s individual anatomy, it is also 
affected by the specific singing style of 
a particular performance. For example, 
singing softly results in a markedly different 
glottal waveform than does belting a 
song with great energy and volume.
The Model  glottal control lets you tell Harmony Engine Evo what performance style you would 
like to model. The options are soft, medium, 
loud, and intense. (If you want to preserve the 
stylistic character of the original vocal, start 
with this control set to Medium.)
Despite the value names (soft, loud, etc.), these 
settings result in only modest change to the 
actual level of the signal (with the “intense” 
setting providing the most gain). Its primary 
purpose is to model the glottal waveform that 
would result from the various styles of singing. 
If you want to further adjust the levels, use 
the individual Harmony Voice g ain controls described below.
NOTE : The Model Glottal control 
affects all of the harmony voices. To 
define individual vocal characteristics 
for each voice, use the Throat Length 
controls described later in this chapter.
A NOTHER N OTE: The Model 
Glottal control does not 
affect the Original Input. 
						

							10
TIp: The actual effect of this 
control depends a great deal on 
the characteristics of the original 
audio. Consequently, in most cases the 
best approach is to simply try the various 
settings and pick the one that best fits the 
style of your particular performance.
To select glottal waveform, click on the Model 
g lottal pop -up and then select the desired stylistic character from the pop -up list.
Bypass
This control is used to (you 
guessed it) bypass the plug-in. It 
has been designed to provided 
artifact-free bypass switching 
so that you can use it to seamlessly enable 
harmony only where desired on a track.
Click the Bypass button to toggle its state. 
When it’s red, all harmony voices are muted 
and the original input will be passed to all 
output channels. This happens seamlessly (i.e., 
with no click or artifact on activation). 
N OTE : When Bypass is enabled, 
the original input will still be passed 
through with the plug-in’s normal 
processing delay, allowing seamless transitions 
between harmony and no harmony. 
De-Noise
Engaging the De-Noise function 
reduces noise that is inherent in 
the formant correction/shifting 
process. 
NOTE: While a quick A/B will som
etimes give the impression that 
eng

aging De- Noise attenuates the 
hig

hs, it is only the noise (which tends to be 
hig

h-pitched) that is being attenuated. (This 
is 

very much like the effect of turning on and 
off

 Dolby®  NR on a cassette deck back in 
pre

historic times). 
The default setting for De-Noise is “ on.” Click 
the De- Noise button to toggle its state.
Original Input
GainThe  gain fader controls the gain of the original input whenever the channel is not muted. 
The default g ain value is - 6dB. o ption (Mac)/Control (PC)-clicking the fader returns it to that 
value. 
Solo
Engaging Solo Mode causes the 
original input signal to appear at the 
output and simultaneously mutes all 
Harmony Voice channels that are not 
also soloed. 
Whe

n the Solo button is yellow, Solo Mode is 
eng

aged. Click the button to toggle its state. 
						

							11
MuteEngaging Mute Mode causes the 
original input signal to be muted from 
the output. 
When the Mute button is 
blue, Mute Mode in engaged. Click 
the button to toggle its state.
N OTE : If both the Input Channel’s 
Solo and Mute buttons are 
pressed, Solo takes preference. 
However, if Solo is then disengaged, 
the original input will then be muted.
A N OTH ER  NOTE : Moving a 
channel’s Gain slider to its 
minimum setting also results in 
completely muting its output.
Pan
Sets the 
original input’s 
location in 
the stereo 
spectrum 
when its output is not muted and Harmony 
Engine Evo is assigned to a stereo output. 
If Harmony Engine Evo is not assigned to a 
stereo track, this control will be disabled.
Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control 
to reset it to its default value of 0 (center).
N OTE : See the CHOIR section below 
for a discussion of how the CHOIR 
Stereo Spread control interacts with 
the Input Voice p an control.
Tracking
As previously mentioned, for 
best performance, Harmony 
Engine Evo requires a clean, 
pitched monophonic signal. 
Specifically, in order to 
accurately identify the pitch 
of the input, Harmony Engine 
Evo requires a periodically 
repeating waveform, 
characteristic of a voice or solo 
instrument. The Tracking control determines 
how much variation is allowed in the incoming 
waveform for Harmony Engine Evo to still 
consider it periodic. If you are working with a clean, well-isolated 
solo signal you can typically set the Tracking 
control to 25 and forget it (hence, that’s the 
default value).
If, on the other hand, your signal is noisy or 
not well-isolated (as might be more common 
in a live performance situation or a track with 
headphone bleed) or you are dealing with a 
particularly breathy or guttural voice, it may 
be necessary to adjust the tracking for best 
performance. 
Interestingly (to us, anyway), during the 
development of Harmony Engine Evo we 
discovered that (unlike Auto-Tune, where we 
can usually predict with pretty fair accuracy 
what kind of Tracking adjustments a signal will 
require) it was almost impossible to predict, just 
from listening, what setting would work best. 
This led to our choice of labels for the extremes 
of the control’s range. 
As the labels imply, there is no hard and fast 
rule for what settings will work well with what 
kinds of input. If you’re having a problem (such 
as octave errors or loss of pitch tracking), 
experiment until you get the best result.
A T
Ip: 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 pORTANT N OTE: Like the Vocal 
Range setting, getting this setting 
right is critical for best performance. 
If you are experiencing problems, these are the 
controls to adjust. (Even, if in the case of the 
Vocal Range, it means trying a “wrong” one. 
Whatever works.) 
						

							12
Harmony Voices 1– 4
Each of the four Harmony Voice channels 
are functionally identical and contain identical 
controls. 
It may be useful to think of the four Harmony 
Voices as being similar to the voices of a four-
voice synthesizer. Each voice has independent 
controls for setting its timbre, vibrato, pan 
and level. The method by which pitches are 
assigned to voices varies with the Harmony 
Modes selected in the Harmony Control 
section. In this section, we’ll describe the 
Harmony Voice controls. The Harmony Modes 
will be discussed later in this chapter. 
NOTE : As mentioned below in the 
Harmony Control section, harmony 
notes will be assigned to the various 
harmony channels such that the lowest pitched 
note will be assigned to the highest numbered 
active channel and the progressively higher 
pitched notes will be assigned in order to 
the progressively lowered numbered active 
channels. For example, for a four note chord, 
the lowest note will be assigned to harmony 
channel 4, the next higher to channel 3, the  next higher to channel 2 and 
the highest to channel 1.
Gain
Each gain fader controls the gain of its Harmony Voice 
channel whenever that 
channel is not muted. 
In the various MIDI Harmony 
Modes, the  gain control sets the maximum gain level for 
its channel (i.e., the gain at 
MIDI velocity value 127). 
The default  gain value is -6dB.  option (Mac)/Control (PC)-clicking a fader returns it 
to that value.  
						

							13
SoloEngaging a channel’s Solo Mode 
causes that channel’s signal 
to appear at the output and 
simultaneously mutes any other 
channels (Harmony Voice and/or Input Voice) 
that are not also soloed. 
When a channel’s Solo button is yellow, Solo 
Mode in engaged on that channel. Click a 
button to toggle its state.
N OTE : If both a channel’s Solo and 
Mute buttons are pressed, Solo takes 
precedence.
Mute
Engaging a Harmony Voice channel’s 
Mute Mode causes that channel’s 
signal to be muted from the output. 
When a Mute button is blue, that 
channel’s Mute Mode in engaged. Click a Mute 
button to toggle its state.
N OTE : 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.
A N OTH ER  NOTE : Moving a channel’s 
Gain slider to its minimum setting 
also results in completely muting its 
output.
Throat Length
This control is used to 
define the unique 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 
Model glottal control and the various forms of pitch 
shifting to define gender 
and/or vocal quality. 
The Throat Length control 
allows you to lengthen or 
shorten its Harmony Voice 
channel’s modeled throat. 
The range of this control  is .75 to 1.50. Values above 1.00 represent a 
lengthening of the throat while values below 
1.00 represent a shortening of the throat. 
The actual values represent the percentage 
change in the throat length. For example, a 
value of 1.20 represents a 20% increase in 
throat length, while a value of 0.80 represents a 
20% decrease in throat length. 
In addition to simply changing vocal timbre, 
increasing throat length is useful when the 
original input is female and you want the 
Harmony Voices that are being shifted down 
to sound male. Conversely, decreasing throat 
length is useful when the original input is male 
and you want the Harmony Voices that are 
being shifted up to sound female or childlike.
N
OTE : While this control gives you the 
ability to radically change the throat 
length, keep in mind that the variation 
in the length of human vocal tracts is rarely 
more than about 20% in either direction. If you 
are looking for a “realistic” vocal characteristic, 
start with modest settings of this control. More 
extreme settings can produce dramatic results, 
but probably not what anyone would call 
“realistic.”
Command (Mac)/Control (PC) click the control 
to reset it to its default value of 1.00.
I M pORTANT N OTE: This function is 
specifically for changing the existing 
quality of a voice, not for manual 
formant compensation for pitch shifting. 
Harmony Engine Evo automatically applies 
appropriate formant correction when it shifts a 
channel’s pitch.
Interval
The Interval popup 
sets a Harmony Voice’s 
pitch interval relative 
to the original input 
in Fixed Interval and 
Smart Interval modes. 
In both modes, the range is plus- or-minus two 
octaves. In Fixed Interval mode, the popup 
displays half-steps in the range -24 to +24. In 
Smart Interval mode, the popup displays scale 
degrees in the range 16va to 16vb.