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 X 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 X plug-in.
What is Auto-Tune Designed For?
Auto-Tune is designed to be used on solo, monophonic audio material. This includes:
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Solo vocals
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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:
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Vocal groups or doubled vocals
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Polyphonic sources (chords, harmonies, etc)
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Percussive sources (drums, cymbals, etc)
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Sources processed with stereo effects (chorus, delay, reverb, etc)
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Full mixes
Using Auto-Tune Realtime X
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 X 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 X:
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Reduce microphone bleed and reflections by using an isolation booth, gobo, and/or overdub vocals without any other sources in the room
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Use closed-back headphones when recording vocals
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Reduce rumble by using a shock mount / suspension mount for the microphone
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Reduce plosives by using a pop filter and ensuring proper distance from the microphone
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Reduce hum and hiss by using high pass/low cut filters before Auto-Tune
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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:
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Soprano: Used mainly for female vocals, occasionally for male falsetto vocals
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Alto/Tenor: Used for most male vocals, occasionally for lower female vocals
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Low Male: Used for very low male vocals
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Instrument: Used for instruments such as guitar, woodwind, brass, strings, etc
Tips for Reducing Latency
Auto-Tune Realtime X has the lowest latency when used in Console with an Apollo interface.
If you're not using an Apollo interface, Auto-Tune Realtime X can be used when monitoring input signals through your DAW however additional configuration is required to reduce latency. This includes:
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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.
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Removing latency causing plug-ins from DAW output busses (including the master buss)