Audio Mastering Auto Tune
In our How to Mix Music guide we talked about why mixing dynamic sounds is a tough egg to crack. Vocals are super dynamic so they’re trickier to mix.
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- For twenty years, Auto-Tune has been the industry standard for professional pitch correction and the most iconic vocal effect in popular music. Auto-Tune Synergy brings Antares’ acclaimed technology to the Antelope Audio Synergy Core platform for low-latency, CPU-free performance and extensive recording options.
But you don’t have to pull your hair out every time you hit the mixing board to get the perfect vocal.
Nov 28, 2018 Now in its 9th iteration, Auto-Tune Pro brings new features to users, regardless of how you use it. This new version comes with two plug-ins: Auto-Tune for tuning, and Auto-Key. The latter can detect the proper key of the song, an especially helpful tool for users without a background in music theory. Get the guaranteed lowest prices on Antares Mixing & Mastering Software instruments at Musician's Friend. KeroVee is a free Auto Tune software for Windows. It works with both Audacity and Wavosaur. This is actually a pitch correction plugin, which mainly focuses on tuning vocals. It provides various auto tune settings to tune input audio and get corrected audio output.
There’s a dizzying amount of audio effects plugins out there. That’s why we did the digging so you don’t have to.
Here’s 9 plugins that will help you get your vocals and beats fitting together like peas and carrots.
1. Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity
Ever recorded an entire vocal only to realize you had the mic in the wrong spot? No sweat.
The Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity lets you change the mic placement AFTER you record. Pretty useful and pretty cool.
2. Acon Digital Multiply Chorus
Vocals need some color. That’s where a chorus plugin comes in. Precision tune auto care edmond ok hours.
Acon Digital’s Multiply Chorus will thicken up your sound. It’s a whole bunch of tiny delays (we’re talking milliseconds) that fill out your vocals to liven them up a bit.
3. Melda MAutoPitch Auto-Tune
Auto-tune’s origins are pretty strange. But there’s no denying that it’s an invaluable tool for producers dealing with vocals.
Auto-tune is the vocal mixer’s secret weapon. MAutoPitch is one of the best auto-tune plugins around. It fixes pitch, corrects sour notes, and even gives you that iconic T-pain/Cher effect if you want it.
Professional Audio Mastering
This one comes in a free plugin bundle with all sorts of fun mixing toys.
4. Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
Reverb for vocals is essential. Reverb takes your vocals out of the room you recorded them in, and allows you to make your own sound space.
OldSkoolVerb has got you covered no matter what your needs are. From huge halls to a tiny closet, it gives you all the options to create the perfect sonic space in your mix.
5. Klanghelm DC1A
The DC1A is a nifty little character compressor by Klanghelm. It uses sophisticated compression settings and an easy 2 knob setup that has you covered “from smooth levelling to heavy pumping.”
Be sure to check out their absolutely EPIC demo video.
6. Alex Hilton A1 Trigger Gate
Audio Mastering Auto Tune Online
If you’re wondering how far you can push your vocal track this plugin will do a great job letting you know.
Using a step-style sequencer the A1 Trigger Gate packs in a boat load of cool effects. It’s good for all sorts of stuff. So grab it and start experimenting.
7. Glitch Machines Hysteresis
Just like any other part of a mix, vocals are a great place to experiment. The effects on Hysteresis definitely deliver a whole bundle of experimentation.
This delay plugin creates “robotic artifacts and abstract music malfunctions.” Count me in.
8. Acustica Ochre EQ
All good mixing needs a keen sense of EQ early on. Vocals are no exception.
That’s why the Ochre from Acustica is so useful. It’s perfect for sculpting out the best vocals you can.
9. Fine Cut Bodies La Petite Excite
Exciter plugins add subtle harmonics to your vocal track for some extra sonic-excitement in the high range.
The free La Petite Excite from Fine Cut Bodies (you just have to signup to get it) is a great plug to try out.
Throw it on your vocal and enhance it to your liking with some subtle harmonic distortion.
Go make that perfect vocal
Vocals are tricky to mix. But with these handy plugin tools it doesn’t have to be so tough. Grab ’em all, hit the studio and get cracking on that perfect vocal track.
And don’t forget to let us know your favourite plugins for mixing and mastering vocals. We wanna know all your tips and tricks too. :)
Get all of the LANDR-approved free VST plugin collection:
Some product names like Xerox, Photoshop, and Kleenex are instantly identifiable by nearly anyone. Similarly, a lot of people who aren’t into music production know what Auto-Tune is and what it does. It was the first pitch correction tool and has become ubiquitous in recording studios for enthusiasts and experts alike. Many artists use it as an effect, while producers use it as a tool. Now in its 9th iteration, Auto-Tune Pro brings new features to users, regardless of how you use it.
What’s New
This new version comes with two plug-ins: Auto-Tune for tuning, and Auto-Key. the latter can detect the proper key of the song, an especially helpful tool for users without a background in music theory. It can also be used to program multiple instances of Auto-Tune with the correct key signature. There’s also ARA support for compatible DAWs, which allows for graphical editing without the need to ‘capture’ the audio into the plug-in first.
Also new — or old — is the Classic Mode, which switches to the legacy Auto-Tune 5 algorithm. AT5 had a unique sonic personality, especially for those who use it as an effect. Essentially, if you want to ‘hear’ Auto-Tune, you’ll love Classic Mode.
The Auto-Tune plug-in has a more refined 'sharp and dark' interface. If you've ever used AT in the past, using AT9 will be a breeze. It has Auto Mode for tightening pitches in real-time without capturing or rendering, plus Graph Mode for surgical editing.
Using Auto-Key
To automatically detect the key signature of a song, insert Auto-Key on your DAW master output. You can also insert it on a single track or group bus so long as the source material contains melodic elements. The display will then read, 'Listening..' When you play back the song, the key will be detected and shown in the display. The notes in the scale will appear in blue on the virtual keyboard, and clicking the Send to Auto-Tune™ button will publish the results to every loaded instance of the AT9 plug-in. You can also manually select from all of the major and minor scales from a drop-down menu, or load/save a preset by clicking the File button.
I found that Auto-Key is exceptionally accurate, although songs with heavily overdriven guitars can cause a few missed detections. For genres like that, try inserting Auto-Key on a bass, keyboard, or vocal track rather than the master bus.
Auto Mode
For those situations where the track needs a hint of correction, that's where Auto Mode shines. It has four basic controls. Retune Speed alters the pace at which the pitches are corrected. Songs with fast tempos and phrasing need a higher speed, while a slower correction can sound invisible when applied to tracks with slower rhythms or more extended phrasing.
Flex-Tune controls how much of the original pitch is retained and can leave a singer's (or other musician's) pitch nuances intact. (Tip: If you want the Auto-Tune effect, set each of these to zero, full-clockwise and counterclockwise, respectively.) When using fast Retune Speeds, the Humanize control can make sustained notes sound more natural, and the Vibrato knob can increase or decrease the vibrato in the original performance. Double-clicking a knob will reset it to its default value. The Pitch Change meter is in the center of the UI and shows the root pitch as well as how sharp or flat the note is, +/- 100 cents. The Hold button momentarily freezes both the Pitch Change meter and keyboard display for instant pitch analysis.
At the top of the control panel are the settings for Input Type (alto, tenor, etc.), key, and scale where you'll find much more than Western scales. You can also transpose in +/-12 semitones, and retune the entire plug-in from 415.3 to 466.2 Hz. The Tracking control can be useful if the clip you're retuning is noisy, has breaths or other human-induced noises.
By using a MIDI keyboard, you can have Auto-Tune follow the notes you play live or on a pre-recorded MIDI track. However, if you've pre-selected a key and scale, the keyboard will be dimmed out. To enable it, set the key to chromatic. The keyboard has both Latch (note stays on even after lifting off the MIDI note-on) and Momentary (traditional MIDI note-on/off) settings.
Turning on the Advanced mode reveals all the Vibrato settings, as well as the tuning of each note in the scale. You can also remove or bypass each note to prevent them from being retuned, and you can play the scale in from a MIDI keyboard.
Classic Setting
Is there such a thing as vintage software? In the case of Auto-Tune Pro 9, the answer is yes. One of the most frequent requests from long-time users was to bring back the sound characteristics of Auto-Tune 5. Many appreciated its bright sonic personality and distinct retuning characteristics. When you enable Classic, the Flex-Tune knob will be dimmed because that feature wasn't available in version 5. The retuning will sound a little more obvious, so if you want a more 'invisible' pitch correction, disable Classic Mode.
Formant Correction
Formants are the changes in tonal characteristics determined by the shape of a human's throat. (Any animal's throat, in case you're recording non-humans.) When the Formants button is on, you can alter the shape with the Throat control. Formant correction is especially useful when you're transposing from one key to another. (Note: Be aware that Formant Correction does not work in Classic Mode.)
Graph Mode
Graph Mode is designed to be an offline process, in that it doesn't work in real-time. Instead, you record or 'capture' the timing and/or pitch of an audio clip into the plug-in, then apply the edited version back into the DAW. (Note: Both Studio One and Mixcraft are ARA-compatible, meaning you don't have to capture the audio for AT to edit in Graph Mode.) By using the correction curves, lines, and objects, you take full control over each pitch and vibrato element, as well as the timing.
Graph Mode showing the original pitch (red), correction object (blue), and resulting pitch correction (green).
The plug-in has its own undo/redo buttons, and there's a Clear All option for deleting all the time and/or pitch corrections you've made. I found the standard zoom setting of the pitches to be very small, even on a 1080P display. Fortunately, you can zoom the display, and also recall up to six zoom states. Alt/Option-clicking will memorize your own zoom setting into the corresponding state. If you go into 'Settings' > 'Preferences', you do have the option to type in a larger size to increase the size of the interface, which of course is especially useful on 4-5K monitors.
Conclusion
With nearly every DAW including some sort of built-in pitch correction tool, I'm sure many have pondered the need for Auto-Tune. It's a fair question. But AT9 offers many more features than most DAWs provide, plus you now get the contemporary sound of version 9 or the vintage sound of AT5 in one plug-in that is compatible with modern operating systems. If you're still on the fence, download the trial version at antarestech.com. (iLok account and USB iLok required.) If you need more pitch correction capabilities than your DAW provides and you like new features in version 9, Auto-Tune Pro is certainly worthy of your investment.
Price: $399
Pros: Sounds great as an effect or utility, Auto-Key makes setting the key signature a breeze, new tuning features add welcome sonic refinements, Classic Mode for the legacy Auto-Tune sound.
Cons: It costs more than some popular DAWs, Graph Mode is small and constricted on high-resolution, non-scaled displays.
Web: https://www.antarestech.com/product/auto-tune-pro/
Learn more about vocal production and mixing: https://ask.audio/academy?nleloc=new-releases