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Antares Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced Plug-In Primer

Legendary for its vocal enhancing and creative applications, the Antares Auto-Tune effect revolutionized vocal production and has become a must-have tool for the modern music producer’s toolkit.
 
Developed by Antares and available exclusively for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces, the Antares Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced plug-in offers genuine low-latency Auto-Tune effects popularized by the likes of Cher, Daft Punk, and Kanye West, as well as subtle, real-time pitch correction.
 
See below for tips & tricks that will help you get the best results with the Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced plug-in. 
 
What is Auto-Tune Designed For?

Auto-Tune is designed to be used on solo, monophonic audio material. This includes:
  • Solo vocals
  • Solo instruments such as guitar, woodwinds, brass, strings, etc playing one note at a time

Auto-Tune is not recommended for use on the following sources:

  • Vocal groups or doubled vocals
  • Polyphonic sources (chords, harmonies, etc)
  • Percussive sources (drums, cymbals, etc)
  • Sources processed with stereo effects (chorus, delay, reverb, etc)
  • Full mixes 

Using Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced

Inserting Auto-Tune

Auto-Tune can be inserted on mono or stereo tracks, however, the source should always be monophonic.

Processing Order

In general, effects like high pass/low cut filters, subtle EQ, de-essers, and gentle compression/dynamics should be used before Auto-Tune in the effects chain. All other processing such as delay, reverb, spatial effects, distortion, etc should be applied after Auto-Tune.

Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced is Unison-compatible - meaning it can be used after a Unison plug-in within Console - however extremely distorted or saturated signals should be avoided. 

Tips for Best Results

Auto-Tune works best with clean, well-recorded audio. The following standard recording practices can help improve your results with Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced:

  • Reduce microphone bleed and reflections by using an isolation booth, gobo, and/or overdub vocals without any other sources in the room
  • Use closed-back headphones when recording vocals
  • Reduce rumble by using a shock mount / suspension mount for the microphone 
  • Reduce plosives by using a pop filter and ensuring proper distance from the microphone
  • Reduce hum and hiss by using high pass/low cut filters before Auto-Tune
  • Reduce excess sibilance by using a de-esser before Auto-Tune

Auto-Tune features "Input Types" designed for specific sources. If you encounter audio artifacts when using Auto-Tune, check that the Input Type matches your source and/or try a different Input Type. The Input Types available are:

  • Soprano: Used mainly for female vocals, occasionally for male falsetto vocals
  • Alto/Tenor: Used for most male vocals, occasionally for lower female vocals
  • Low Male: Used for very low male vocals
  • Instrument: Used for instruments such as guitar, woodwind, brass, strings, etc

Tips for Reducing Latency

Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced has the lowest latency when used in Console with an Apollo interface. 

If you're not using an Apollo interface, Auto-Tune Realtime Advanced can be used when monitoring input signals through your DAW however additional configuration is required to reduce latency. This includes:
  • Lowering the buffer size in your DAW application
    • Lowering the buffer size provides for lower latency, however it also puts additional strain on the host CPU
    • How low you can stably set the buffer size on your system depends on the CPU load and processing power available from the host CPU
  • Removing latency causing plug-ins from DAW output busses (including the master buss)
  • Using LiveTrack Mode
    • LiveTrack Mode is only available on Thunderbolt, PCIe, and USB devices (not available on FireWire)
    • LiveTrack Mode reduces latency when monitoring input signals through the DAW, but temporarily increases the native CPU load
    • UAD plug-ins are not processed by the host CPU, however performance when using LiveTrack mode depends on the processing power available from the host CPU
    • For details, see the "Using UAD Plug-Ins" section of the UAD System Manual
 
 
 
 
 

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