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 | | | | Nov30Written by:Pete Leoni
Monday, November 30, 1998 6:00 PM Ever heard this one?
" If you spend one more *&^% penny on that &^%$ studio we're getting a divorce!"
Well, I have some bad news for you. You are very likely going to spend that penny and a little more, because here is one product that you absolutely have to have.
All of the tweaking, all of the endless hours you spend getting that "perfect" guitar tone, or that "killer" snare tuning doesn't amount to a hill of beans if you blow it all when you lay down the lead vocal. How many times have you put all your heart and soul into a lead vocal only to play it back and find that although the feeling was there, and the emotion was there, on a few phrases the pitch just wasn't quite in the pocket?
Ok, here we go again.
You punch in here, you punch in there, you finally get the intonation right, play it back and discover the emotion is gone, the moment is gone and you may just as well take it all from the top once again.
Frustrating as hell isn't it?
Well, thankfully and finally, that's no longer true. Now we have Antares Autotune. In my entire recording career (and this spans a longer period of time than I really care to admit) I have never encountered a device that is as remarkable as the Autotune plugin.
When I first installed it I was looking forward to a long session of tweaking to get the pitch correction working properly. The last thing I expected was for it to work flawlessly and transparently right out of the box, but to my amazement that is exactly what happened! All you do is choose the key signature, select the scale type and push play. Bam! the pitch problem is gone! No character change, no weirdness at all (unless you get really crazy with the adjustments)
In short, this is simply the finest example of an audio device, hardware or software, that I've ever encountered, and I have seen and used them all.
Normally, at this point in a review I would be going into a lengthy diatribe about the best way to use the product, the tricks, the tweaks etc., but the fact is Auto-tune is so simple to use that would really be a waste of your time.
Instead I'll simply outline the basic operating procedures and offer you some tips as to what not to do.
There are two basic modes: auto, and graphical. You will most likely use the auto mode for 99% of everything you do. When used as an effect insert you simply choose the key and scale as I stated before, and Autotune will do the rest. The only real thing you have to watch out for is that you don't set the retune slider too far toward the fast position or it will grab the note and correct its pitch so quickly that it may sound unnatural.
The only other major controls in the auto mode are the detune setting, allowing you to use the plugin at pitch centers that are not standard 440, and the tracking slider which gives you a little control over what may be considered a periodic (that is, containing pitch) tone. This may be useful with raspy voices or instruments that contain more harmonics and less of the fundamental tone.
I will also point out that this device works so well that it will actually remove vibrato if you set the retune slider too far toward the fast position!
Some of this may sound a bit complex but it really isn't, as I said previously in nearly all cases you can just use the default settings and forget about it.
For those of you that just can't get enough tweaking, there is the graphical mode. The graphical mode analyses the pitch, displays it against a chart of the chosen scale, and allows you to move specific notes closer to the scale. I'm not going to go into detail about this portion other than to say it will give you complete control over just how much the program changes your tracks.
I will now deliver a word of caution: don't overuse Autotune! It works so well you may be tempted to do so.
Like any form of quantization, if overused it is capable of rendering your performance sterile. Remember the stiff tracks of 80's dance music? The last thing we need is for this to occur again in a different fashion.
I have already heard of live performers using the hardware version of this device (yes, there is a hardware version) in their live concerts (shudder) I'm certainly not going to get in a discussion of musical ethics, ala Milli Vannili, but this device works so well that I can easily see this type of thing happening in the near future.
That being said, here is my favorite method of using the plugin and thus preserving the "feeling" of the original performance, while still getting the speed and simplicity of the "auto" mode. Simply record your lead track vocals, horns, guitar leads, or any monophonic line (the autotune does not work with chords, of course), highlight the offending phrases, and select autotune offline. Then choose the key signature and press OK.
That's about all there is to it: the pitch problems will be gone! You may have to be aware of any key signature changes in your song that occur during highlighted portions, but again most of the time, Autotune will plow happily through these transitions and adjust pitch chromatically. I'll conclude by making a simple statement: You really need this plugin, in fact you have to have this plugin, and your significant other is just gonna have to understand.
See ya' in divorce court.
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