Antares Harmony Engine user manual
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25 of popups, they are defined in real time by all “On” 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. NOTE : Each time there is a change in the currently “On” MIDI notes, Harmony Engine 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 Gain settings. As you increase the value of this control, MIDI velocity will have progressively more effect on the channel levels. N OTE : There are only four available harmony voices, so limit your MIDI input to no more than four notes at a time. aN OT hEr 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 Omni 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 Gain 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 be objectionable.
26 imp OrTa NT 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 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, Pan, 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, Velocity Sensitivity is active and 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 are routed to the matching numbered harmony voice channels. 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 In order to use the MIDI Harmony Control modes described above, you must be able to route MIDI data to Harmony Engine. 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 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.
27 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 Name 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 Inversion Key/Root Register Scale Spread Chord MIDI Velocity Sensitivity Harmony Channel Intervals (fixed) Harmony Channel Intervals (scale) 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. 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.
28 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 Tip: 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 Preset 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. imp OrTa NT N OTE: Harmony Presets are local to the instance of Harmony Engine in which they are created. If you want to share a set of Harmony Presets among various instances of Harmony Engine, 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.
29 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 Original Input:Solo Mute Tracking Gain Pan Harmony Channels 1- 4: Solo Mute Gain Throat Length Pan Vibrato Rate Onset Delay Pitch Amount Amplitude Amount 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 Preset 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.
30 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 Tip: 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 Preset 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. imp OrTa NT N OTE: Voice Parameter Presets are local to the instance of Harmony Engine in which they are created. If you want to share a set of Voice Parameter Presets among various instances of Harmony Engine, 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.
31 Chapter 4: Factory Presets This chapter provides brief descriptions of the factory presets that ship with Harmony Engine. 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. Simply start with a vocal track whose key and chord progression you know and run through the presets while reading their descriptions below. i mp OrTa NT N OTE: Unlike synth presets, which will always sound the same for all users, the Harmony Engine 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. Before auditioning presets, 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 Key set to C Major or G Major. Unless your composition is actually in C or G Major, you must first change the 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. Chord Degrees 1 This preset provides the root version all of the available chord degrees on the Harmony Preset buttons, as well as the first inversion of the key’s root chord. The Register and Spread controls are set for fairly wide, mid-range harmonies. The Voice Parameter Presets provide the following choices: No Variation: default Throat Lengths and all Humanization settings at 0 Varied: Various amounts of Naturalize, Pitch and Timing Variation and modified Throat Lengths Vibrato: Similar to Varied, but with the addition of slightly different vibratos to each voice Things to try: Play your vocal track and manually click the appropriate chord degree button at each chord change in your song. Experiment with different chord degrees. Does you melody work with any alternate harmonizations? Use your host’s automation system to record the Harmony Preset buttons and automate chord degree changes. Try changing the Register and Spread settings. Listen to the effect of various ranges and chord spacings.
32 Pick a part of your vocal where the chord remains unchanged for a measure or two. Click the Formant Only Freeze button at the beginning of that phrase and listen to the result. Then start again and click the Formant + Pitch Freeze button at the same point and note the difference. In both cases, click the respective buttons again at the end of the phrase to return to normal harmonization. Click the different Voice Parameter Preset buttons to hear their differences. Try modifying one or more of the voice parameters and save your new version onto one of the unassigned Voice Parameter buttons. Chord Degrees 2 This preset is similar to Chord Degrees 1 above, but instead of including all of the degrees on the Harmony Preset buttons, it includes the more commonly used degrees along with a variety of inversions of some of the degrees.. The Register and Spread controls are set for fairly wide, mid-range harmonies. The Voice Parameter Presets provide the following choices:No Variation: default Throat Lengths and all Humanization settings at 0 Varied: Various amounts of Naturalize, Pitch and Timing Variation and modified Throat Lengths Vibrato: Similar to Varied, but with the addition of slightly different vibratos to each voice Things to try: Pretty much the same things as listed in Chord Degrees 1 above. Cool Chords 1 This preset (along with the following “Cool Chords” presets) can be thought of as a sort of harmonic toy-box. It uses Chord Name mode to give you a variety of chords in a variety of ranges to try with your melody track. In this preset, four chords are provided, each in a low, medium and high voicing. The Voice Parameter Presets provide the following choices: No Variation: Default Throat Lengths and all Humanization settings at 0 Vibrato: Various amounts of Naturalize, Pitch and Timing Variation and modified Throat Lengths with the addition of slightly different vibratos to each voice Low2Hi: Throat Lengths optimized for a low input voice that is generally being shifted up (e.g., the original input is a baritone and the harmony voices are in the tenor and alto range). Hi2Low: Throat Lengths optimized for a high input voice that is generally being shifted down (e.g., the original input is a soprano and the harmony voices are in the alto, tenor, or even bass range). Things to try: Just play with the various chords and voicings with your input voice. Do they work? If the key of the original input is totally incompatible with the chords, mute the original input and listen to just the harmony voices. Since Chord Name mode always generates the correct harmony notes regardless of the input pitch, you can create an entirely re-harmonized version of your input. Add three new chords of your choice to the three unassigned Harmony Preset buttons. Customize some (or all) of the Voice Parameters and save them to the unassigned buttons. Play with the Freeze buttons as described above. Check out their effects when you have complete control of the harmonization.
33 Since all of the Cool Chords presets operate on basically the same principle, we will just describe their differences below: Cool Chords 2 In this preset, we’ve provided five chords, each in a low, medium and high voicing. The Voice Parameter Presets provide a No Variation version, along with Low, Medium, and High settings that are optimized for those voicing ranges. Things to try: Create harmonizations that are entirely in the Low, Medium or High registers. Select various Voice Parameter Presets, both matching and non-matching ranges. Cool Chords 3 Same as Cool Chords 2, but with a different set of chords. Cool Chords 4 Six chords, each with a mid register and low register version. Voice Parameter Presets include the standard No Variation, Varied, and Vibrato settings. Cool Chords 5 Ten different chords, all in a relatively wide mid-range voicing. Voice Parameter Presets the same as Cool Chords 4. Things to try: Add up to five additional chords (or inversions) of your choice to the unassigned Harmony Preset buttons. Change the Register and/or Spread and/or Inversion of the supplied chords and resave the new versions to the same (or a different) button. Dissonance This preset uses Fixed Interval mode to provide three different special effects. In each case, the original input is muted.diss 1: Four harmony voices at half-tone intervals two octaves below the input. diss 2: Four harmony voices at half-tone intervals two octaves above the input. diss 3: Four harmony voices at half-tone intervals clustered around the input. The two Voice Parameter Presets demonstrate pan control, offering a contrast between all voices panned center and the spread across the stereo soundstage. Things to try: Unmute the original input. Try modifying individual voice intervals Add various amounts of vibrato to one or more of the harmony voices. Experiment with various Glide settings. Try various combinations of Humanize settings. Duet This preset uses Scale Interval Mode to provide one harmony voice at a variety of intervals. (Don’t forget to change the Key and Scale popups to match your track.) Choices include: 5th up or down 4th up or down 3rd up or down Octave up or down Harmony Channel 1 is used for all presets. The other channels are muted. The Voice Parameter Presets provide a No Variation version, along with Low and High versions, which add Humanization and Throat Length modifications that accentuate the formant changes associated with shifting up or down.
34 Things to try: Add vibrato to the harmony voice. Try different values of Glide. Unmute one or more of the other channels and experiment with different intervals. Fixed Inter vals This preset lets you explore the effect of using various parallel intervals in Fixed Interval mode. Other than unison and octaves, this is not something you would typically use in conventional diatonic music, but as this preset will show, it can be useful as an effect in sound design. Things to try: Explore other combinations of parallel intervals. Group This preset demonstrates how the Harmony Presets and the Voice Parameter Presets can be used together to create variously-sized vocal groups. Using Scale Interval mode (don’t forget to change the Key and Scale popups to match your track), this preset provides four variations of four harmony voices and two variations of two harmony voices. Up1, Down1, Up2 and Down2 are the four voice presets and are designed to be used with the Voice Parameter presets No Variation, Up and Down. The Harmony Presets TrioUp and TrioDown are designed to be used with the Voice Parameter presets TrioUp and TrioDown. The Harmony Presets define the proper intervals, while the Voice Parameter presets define the “Trio” by muting harmony channel 3 and 4. Humanize Fun This preset is designed to demonstrate the variety of effects available from the Humanize functions, as well show how different Harmony Control modes can be combined in a single preset. The Voice Parameter presets include one preset with no Humanize functions and five additional presets with various combinations of the three Humanize functions (their names make their settings pretty obvious, but you can also just watch the controls as you select each preset). Up in the Harmony Presets section, you will see that four different harmony modes are represented. The top three buttons are chords in Chord Name mode. The next 6 are chords in Chord Degrees mode (be sure to set the Key and Scale as necessary). Finally there is a preset in Scale Interval mode (again, set the Key and Scale) and another in Fixed Interval mode. The point of this is that different parts of a particular project may work best with different harmony modes. For example, Scale Interval mode might work great for an entire song except for one phrase in the bridge where the harmony moves away from the basic scale. In that case, you can have the primary preset be in Scale Interval mode, but still include a few Harmony Presets that specifically define the errant chords in Chord Name mode. Things to try: Experiment with the various combinations of Harmony Control modes and Humanize presets. If your track needs some chords that don’t work well in Scale Interval mode, add them to the unused Harmony Presets buttons and try switching back and forth between the modes as necessary.