Antares Harmony Engine Evo user manual

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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.
This ensures that you can use each 
channel’s Throat Length control to define a 
timbre, confident of that channel’s general 
range. In the example above, for instance, 
since harmony channel 4 will always be 
assigned the lowest note, you might 
choose to lengthen the Throat setting a bit 
to reinforce its identity as a bass voice.
In the end, this is all actually a lot easier to see 
and hear than it is to describe, so just play with 
the controls for a bit and you’ll understand 
what’s happening.
Chord Degrees Mode
When Chord Degrees mode is selected, the 
Key/Root, Scale, Chord, Inversion, Register, 
and Spread controls are enabled and the 
Interval popups in the individual harmony voice 
channels are disabled.
In Chord Degrees mode, the harmony notes 
are generated by the combination of the 
settings of the Key, Scale, Chord, Inversion, 
Register, and Spread controls. This mode is specifically designed to be used with the 
Harmony Preset buttons described below.
Start by setting the song’s Key and Scale in 
the same way as described above for Smart 
Interval mode. Again, if your song is in an 
unlisted key, use the enharmonic equivalent:
Db = C#
Eb = D#
F = g bAb = g #Bb = A#
Next, for each chord that appears in your 
song, select the chord from the Chord popup 
(specified as a degree of the selected key 
and scale) and the desired inversion from the 
Inversion popup. 
Finally, set the chord’s voicing with the Register 
and Spread controls as described in the 
previous section.
VERY I MpORTANT N OTE: In the 
original Harmony Engine, when you 
were using Chord Degrees mode in 
combination with the Harmony  preset buttons described below, the settings of the Key/Root 
and Scale popups were not stored with button 
presets. 
THIS FUNCTION HAS BEEN CHANGED in 
Harmony Engine Evo. The settings of the Key/
Root and Scale popups ARE now stored with 
button presets. If you have existing sessions  
						

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When you have programmed all of the chords and any alternative voicings, you’re ready to 
play your song and simply select the various 
Harmony Presets at the appropriate times, 
either manually (by clicking the buttons) or, 
better yet, via automation.
IM pORTANT N OTE: In Chord Degrees 
mode, the harmony notes are 
generated independently of the actual 
pitch of the original track. The original can be out 
of tune (or even a monotone, for that matter), 
but the harmony notes will still be perfectly 
in tune with the A=440 pitch reference.
Chord Names Mode
When Chord Names mode is selected, the 
Key/Root, Chord, Inversion, Register, and 
Spread controls are enabled, while the Scale 
popup and the Interval popups in the individual 
harmony voice channels are disabled.
Chord Names mode is almost identical to 
Chord Degrees mode, with the exception that 
instead of setting a key and scale and then 
defining the chords by scale degree, you define 
each chord by its explicit name, independent of 
the scale or key.
In Chord Names mode, the Key/Root popup 
is used to define the root note of the chord. 
(And yes, this is where the discussion 
using Harmony Engine that depend on the 
old functionality, you may have to modify your 
button presets and/or any host automation of 
the Key/Root and Scale popups.
N
OTE : As mentioned in the 
Register and Spread section, the 
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. 
o nce you get everything the way you want it, assign the settings to a Harmony Preset button 
as described below.
Repeat the process for each of the chords in 
your song. If your song modulates, you can 
either create a new host preset in the new 
key or use automation to change the Key and/
or Scale setting to the new key (which, as 
mentioned above, will automatically transpose 
all of the chords to the new key).
A T Ip: Keep in mind that you can, for 
example, assign the same chord, but 
with different Register and Spread 
settings, to multiple Harmony  preset buttons so that you can have different harmony voicings for 
the same chord depending on where it appears 
in your song. 
						

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of enharmonic equivalents that we’ve already included twice above would go. If 
you don’t already know it by heart, check 
it out in the Chord Degrees section.)
The Chord popup is used to define the 
type of chord, and the Inversion popup, not 
unexpectedly, defines the inversion. 
The Register and Spread controls function 
exactly as described above.
As in the Chord Degree mode, assign all the 
chords and voicings you need to Harmony 
Preset buttons and harmonize away.
IM pORTANT N OTE: In Chord Names 
mode, the harmony notes are 
generated independently of the actual 
pitch of the original track. The original can be out 
of tune (or even a monotone, for that matter), 
but the harmony notes will still be perfectly 
in tune with the A=440 pitch reference. Chord Degrees vs. Chord Names
Why use one versus the other? 
The advantages of Chord Names are that if you 
have a lead sheet with written chord names, 
it’s extremely simple to quickly define and 
assign all of the chords you need to Harmony 
Preset buttons. Additionally, the Chord Names 
mode offers a wider variety of chord types. 
The advantages of Chord Degrees are that 
some people are more familiar with that 
naming convention (especially if they studied 
formal harmony in an academic environment). 
More usefully, if you are early in the song 
creation process and the song’s final key 
may eventually change, if you’ve used Chord 
Degrees mode it’s only necessary to change 
the Key popup to the new key and all the rest of 
your work is still applicable.
Chord via MIDI Mode
When Chord via MIDI mode is selected, 
Register, Spread and the MIDI Velocity control 
is enabled, while all other section controls and 
the Interval popups in the individual harmony 
voice channels are disabled.
Chord via MIDI is very similar to the two 
preceding modes, except that instead of 
defining chord names by some combination 
of popups, they are defined in real time by all  
						

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“o n” MIDI notes appearing on an assigned MIDI channel. These notes are treated as if 
they were a chord (regardless if they actually 
are an “official” chord or not) and are re-voiced 
by the settings of the Register and Spread 
controls such that the lowest note played will 
always be the lowest pitched note and will 
be assigned to the highest numbered active 
harmony voice. 
The MIDI notes can, of course, be played in   
real time from a controller or recorded into 
a MIDI track that is then routed to Harmony 
Engine Evo. 
N OTE : Each time there is a change 
in the currently “On” MIDI notes, 
Harmony Engine Evo will re-voice 
the harmony based on the Register and 
Spread controls. If the MIDI data has notes 
that start or end at slightly different times, 
each such change will cause the harmony 
to be re-voiced, potentially shifting existing 
notes one or more octaves and resulting 
in unwanted changes. If you’re playing the 
chords manually, play precisely. If you’re 
creating a MIDI track, ensure that all notes 
of a chord start at exactly the same time.
The MIDI Velocity Sensitivity control can be 
used to scale the MIDI velocity messages 
assigned to harmony channel levels. With this 
control set to 0, MIDI velocity will be ignored 
and the channel levels will be defined entirely 
by the Channel g ain settings. As you increase the value of this control, MIDI velocity will have 
progressively more effect on the channel levels.
NOTE : There are only four available 
harmony voices, so limit your MIDI 
input to no more than four notes at 
a time.
A NOTHER N OTE: Keep in mind that 
you are not actually “playing” the 
harmony channels in this mode 
(that’s what MIDI Omni mode is for), but simply 
defining the notes that make up the chord that 
the Register and Spread controls will voice.
MIDI Omni Mode
When MIDI  omni mode is selected, the MIDI Velocity control is enabled, while all other 
section controls and the Interval popups in the 
individual harmony voice channels are disabled.
In MIDI o mni mode, you are in fact directly “playing” the harmony channels 
(again, either live from a controller or 
via a pre-recoded MIDI track). 
The MIDI Velocity Sensitivity control can be 
used to scale the MIDI velocity messages 
assigned to harmony channel levels. With this 
control set to 0, MIDI velocity will be ignored 
and the channel levels will be defined entirely 
by the Channel g ain settings. As you increase the value of this control, MIDI velocity will have 
progressively more effect on the channel levels.
A TIp: Keep in mind that there 
are only four available harmony 
voices, so limit your MIDI input 
to no more than four notes at a time. That’s 
easy to do when creating a MIDI track, but if 
you’re playing a controller live, watch out for 
sloppy fingering, as having five or more notes 
playing at once will result in voice stealing 
that may or may not be objectionable.  
						

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IM pORTANT N OTE: In MIDI Omni 
mode, there is no way to guarantee 
that a particular note will be assigned 
to a particular harmony voice channel. While 
Harmony Engine Evo does its best to assign 
the lowest note to the highest numbered active 
channel, depending on your fingering, that 
may not always be possible. Setting different 
harmony voices to different Gain, p an, and/or Throat Length settings will almost certainly 
result in harmony lines jumping from timbre to 
timbre, which may or may not be acceptable. 
As a result, this mode is most useful (or, 
at least, most predictable) when all active 
harmony voices are set to the same settings. 
MIDI Channels Mode
When MIDI Channels mode is selected, 
all other section controls and the Interval 
popups in the individual harmony 
voice channels are disabled.
This is the mode to use when you want 
to have absolute control over every 
note of your harmony arrangement. 
In MIDI Channels mode, channels 1- 4 of 
the MIDI bus assigned to Harmony Engine 
Evo are routed to the matching numbered 
harmony voice channels. While it’s 
conceivable that you could split a controller 
into four zones and use it live in this mode, 
its main purpose is for executing harmony 
arrangements where you can be assured 
that individual harmony lines will always be 
realized by the desired harmony voice. About 
Routing  MIDI to Harmony Engine Evo 
In order to use the MIDI Harmony Control 
modes described above, you must be able 
to route MIDI data to Harmony Engine Evo. 
The method of routing MIDI to a plug-in varies 
pretty dramatically (both in technique and 
ease) among various hosts. If you are unsure 
how to do it in your particular host, you should 
refer to your host’s manual for instructions. In 
addition, check the Read Me that accompanies 
Harmony Engine Evo for a guide to a few of the 
more obscure routing schemes. Finally, you can 
open one of the Tutorial Sessions described in 
Chapter 5 and simply observe how it is done. 
						

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Harmony Presets
The Harmony Preset system allows you 
to assign combinations of harmony control 
settings to each of 15 buttons for instant 
recall, either manually or via automation. It 
is a powerful tool, both for ease of creating 
vocal arrangements and as a creative tool 
for quickly and easily experimenting with a 
variety of harmonic approaches. Particularly 
in Chord Degrees or Chord Names 
modes, assign a variety of chords to the 
preset buttons and, with just a few clicks, 
audition your vocal with an almost limitless 
combination of harmonic structures.
Here’s how it works:
Harmony Presets store the value of the 
following controls:
Harmony Source InversionKey/Root  RegisterScale  SpreadChord
MIDI Velocity Sensitivity
Harmony Channel Intervals
Note that not all of the above controls are 
available in every mode. When assigning 
a Harmony Preset to a button, only those 
controls that are active in the selected   
Harmony Mode are remembered.  In normal operation, a button with a preset 
assigned to it is blue and displays the first 
five or six characters of the preset’s name. A 
button with no preset assigned to it is gray and 
displays no text. 
N
OTE : If you assign a preset to a 
button without entering a name for it 
in the Name field, you’ll end up with 
a blue button (indicating that it has an assigned 
preset) that displays no text (since it has no 
name). In general, unless you have a really 
good memory, this is a bad idea. Don’t do it.
When you click a button with a preset 
assigned, the preset’s full name will 
appear in the Harmony Preset Name 
field and the various harmony controls 
will be set to their preset values.
To   assign a new preset to a button:
 1.  Set the controls listed above as desired.
 2.  Click in the Name field below the Harmony Preset buttons and type a name for 
the preset. Remember, the first 5 or 
6 characters will be displayed on the 
button, so try to pick something that will 
remind you what each preset is about.
  3.  Click the Preset Assign button. The button will flash red and all of the 
Harmony Preset buttons will turn blue.
 4.  Click on the Harmony Preset button to which you want to assign the preset. 
The Assign button will stop flashing 
and all unassigned Preset buttons will 
once again turn gray. The selected 
button will remain blue and its preset 
name text will be displayed.
If you assign the new preset to a button that 
already has a preset assigned to it, the new 
preset will overwrite the old one. 
						

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If you click the Assign button and then realize that you forgot to type a name for your preset, 
you can still click the name field and type a 
name before clicking a preset button to assign 
the preset.
If you click the Assign button and then, for 
some reason, change your mind, simply click it 
again to exit Assign mode.
To  edit an existing preset:
 1.  Click the existing preset’s button to call up its control settings and place its name in 
the Name field.
 2.  Edit the controls as desired.
 3.  Click the Assign button and then the preset’s button. The updated values will be 
recorded and the preset’s name will remain 
the same.  optionally, you can modify the preset name (which will already be in the 
Name field) before assigning the edited 
preset to the button.
To   create a new preset based 
on an existing preset:
  1.  Click the existing preset’s button to call up its control settings and place its name in 
the Name field.
 2.  Edit the controls as desired.
 3.  Click in the Name field and type a name for the new preset.
  4.  Click the Assign button and then the preset button to which you want to assign the 
new preset.
A T Ip: Don’t forget to change the 
name of the new preset before 
assigning it to a button. Otherwise 
you’ll end up with two identically named 
presets with different control values. Not good. To  
delete an existing preset:
 1.  Click the Presets Delete button
 2.  Click the button whose preset you want to delete. The selected preset will be 
erased and its button will return to the gray 
unassigned state. 
IM pORTANT N OTE: Harmony  presets are local to the instance of Harmony 
Engine Evo in which they are created. 
If you want to share a set of Harmony p resets among various instances of Harmony Engine 
Evo, save the plug-in state as a preset in your 
host so that it can then be recalled as a starting 
point in any instance of Harmony Engine Evo. 
						

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Voice Parameter Presets
The Voice Parameter Preset system allows 
you to assign combinations of voice parameter 
settings to each of 6 buttons for instant recall, 
either manually or via automation. This makes 
it easy to instantly change the timbre and 
configuration of your “vocal group” at any point 
in your song.
Voice Parameter Presets store the values of the 
following controls:
Naturalize
Pitch Variation
Timing Variation
glide Transition Rate
o riginal Input:Solo   MuteTracking  g ainPan
Harmony Voices 1- 4:
Solo   Mutegain  Throat LengthPan   Vibrato Rateonset Delay  Pitch AmountAmplitude Amount
CHoIRChoir BypassChoir Size  VibratoPitch TimingStereo Spread Input Voice on/offHarmony Voice 1- 4 o n/off
In normal operation, a button with a preset 
assigned to it is blue and displays the first 
5 or six characters of the preset’s name. A 
button with no preset assigned to it is gray and 
displays no text.  When you click a button with a preset 
assigned, the preset’s full name will appear 
in the Name field and the harmony voice 
parameters will be set to their preset values.
Assigning and deleting Voice Parameter 
Presets works exactly like the Harmony Presets 
described above, with the obvious exception 
that you will be working with the six Voice 
Parameter Preset buttons and their associated 
Name field. 
If you’ve already read those instructions, there’s 
really no point in reading the rest of this section, 
since we just copied and pasted the same stuff 
and changed all the references to Harmony 
Presets to Voice Parameter Presets. (
on the other hand, if you’re reading the manual out of 
order and got here first, you might as well read 
about it here.)
To   assign a new preset to a button:
 1.  Set the controls listed above as desired.
 2.  Click in the Name field below the Voice Parameter buttons and type a name for 
the preset. Remember, the first 5 or 6 
characters will be displayed on the button, 
so try to pick something that will remind 
you what each preset is about.
 3.  Click the Presets Assign button. The button will flash red and all of the Voice Parameter 
buttons will turn blue.
 4.  Click on the Voice Parameter button to which you want to assign the preset. The 
Assign button will stop flashing and all 
unassigned Preset buttons will once again 
turn gray. The selected button will remain 
blue and the preset name text will be 
displayed.
If you assigned the new preset to a button that 
already had a preset assigned to it, the new 
preset will overwrite the old one. 
						

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If you click the Assign button and then realize that you forgot to type a name for your preset, 
you can still click the name field and type a 
name before clicking a preset button to assign 
the preset.
If you click the Assign button and then, for 
some reason, change your mind, simply click it 
again to exit Assign mode.
To  edit an existing preset:
 1.  Click the existing preset’s button to call up its parameters and place its name in the 
Name field.
 2.  Edit the parameters as desired.
 3.  Click the Assign button and then the preset’s button. The updated values will be 
recorded and the preset’s name will remain 
the same.  optionally, you can modify the preset name (which will already be in the 
Name field) before assigning the edited 
preset to the button.
To   create a new preset based 
on an existing preset:
  1.  Click the existing preset’s button to call up its parameters and place its name in the 
Name field.
 2.  Edit the parameters as desired.
 3.  Click in the Name field and type a name for the new preset.
  4.  Click the Assign button and then the preset button to which you want to assign the 
new preset.
A T Ip: Don’t forget to change the 
name of the new preset before 
assigning it to a button. Otherwise 
you end up with two identically named presets 
with different control values. Not good. To  
delete an existing preset:
 1.  Click Presets Delete button
 2.  Click the button whose preset you want to delete. The selected preset will be 
erased and its button will return to the gray 
unassigned state.
IM pORTANT N OTE: Voice  parameter presets are local to the instance of Harmony Engine Evo in which 
they are created. If you want to share a set of 
Harmony p resets among various instances of Harmony Engine Evo, save the plug-in state 
as a preset in your host so that it can then be 
recalled as a starting point in any instance of 
Harmony Engine Evo. 
						

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Chapter 4: Factory Presets
This chapter provides brief descriptions of the factory presets that ship with 
Harmony Engine Evo.
Since it is extremely unlikely that any factory preset will be immediately useful 
for any of your personal projects, we have designed the presets to demonstrate 
various ways of using Harmony Engine Evo. Simply start with a vocal track whose key and chord 
progression you know and run through the presets while reading their descriptions below.
I M pORTANT N OTE: Unlike synth 
presets, which will always sound 
the same for all users, the Harmony 
Engine Evo presets are heavily dependent 
on the vocal tracks that you use them on. 
Consequently, they serve primarily as starting 
points for various general usages, with the 
expectation that you will tweak them to work 
best with your particular track.
Specifically, they all contain the default 
settings for the Tracking and Vocal Range 
controls. After calling up a preset, you 
must set each of those controls to reflect 
your actual track.
Also, although the presets were designed with 
vocal tracks in mind, feel free to experiment 
with any preset on any source track. There are 
no rules.The Presets
In experimenting with the presets below, it is 
important to keep the following points in mind:
•  The presets that use Scale Interval or Chord Degrees mode are programmed 
with the Harmony Preset buttons’ Key 
and Scale parameters set to C Major. 
Unless your composition is actually in C 
Major, you must first change the various 
preset buttons’ Key and Scale to the 
correct settings for your composition.
• Due to the differences in the way various hosts deal with routing MIDI to plug-ins, we 
have not included any presets that use the 
various MIDI modes. To experiment with 
the MIDI modes, use the Tutorial Sessions 
described in Chapter 5.