antares vocal producer

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ad0lescnts

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what are your guys' thoughts on this thing??

I need it because it has pitch correction, de-esser, and i WANT it because it has other little things to fuck around with...

problem: 500 bones.

what do you guys think about it?? is it worth the $$?



T
 
The Antares Autotune and Exciters and the like are essentially rescue tools -- if you have talent that is having pitch issues (or isn't all that talented) - or you a client brings you tracks that weren't tracked very well - but you need to get that track done anyways, then you pull out these devices to assist......

But I'm a firm believer in getting it to sound "right", right from the start... bottom line, IMO - avoid using them unless you have to........ the talent should be in front of the mic, not in the rack!
 
yeah..thats just something i cannot do. plus if i'm gonna start recording other bands i think its probably necessary especially since the bands are mainly going to be teenagers unergoing puberty.

also..i have an NT1. I like the sound but my only problem with it is the esses.

T
 
The need to de-ess can usually be solved by mic placement...... in addition, it helps to have several mics to choose from when recording vocals - a single mic will not work for everyone.......

It does sound like you've already made the decision to buy it...... (since you've rationalized its use)...........!!!

As I said, it's useful for rescue operations but it's best used very minimally...........
 
you can be creative with it too....ya know.. and sound like Cher;)

but in all seriousness...there's no reason you can't use it for other things than just a "correction" device. Autotune a bass and combine the result with the original for a cheapie chorus....tune your drums to some unworldly scale unknown to western civilization...draw funny pitch envelopes to make Holloween sounds!!...
 
yeah, right on.
i got a deal on it at guitar center. kind of...but anyway...if i have an akai dps16 do you know how i could use it as an insert effect on more than one channel?? thanks

T
 
Ad....

You can't insert it into more than one channel, because the unit can only handle a monophonic input (if you are pitch correcting).

Blue....

You know I hardly EVER disagree with you Bluey... but this once I will make an exception ;-) I think the autotune is a great unit even if you DO have talent in front of the mic because if set correctly, you can make a take that was 99.99999% perfect 100% perfect. Maybe the singer NAILED it, but couldn't quite hold out the pitch long enough on that killer high note etc. The take might be the most expressive one they've ever done. The autotune can help give them that "little something extra".

I know, I know... you can always retrack it... but in this case, you wouldn't need to. Helps keep the singers attitude high and the headaches low.

It also is killer for those background harmonies... everyone knows that 4 different singers will sing the same note at 4 slightly different pitches (no matter how good they are)... if that is NOT the effect you are after, the autotune can help tighten up the harmonies so that they don't draw attention away from the main vocalist.

Just my $0.02 worth :)

Velvet Elvis
 
I hear ya Vel.......... but there are plenty of "slightly-off" held-notes/pitches in Frank Sinatra recordings too - and that wasn't a problem!!!

The point is 100% bang-on, absolutely zero flaws is for robots and boy bands.........

There's no such thing as a "perfect" performance -- (and of course, we're talking professional subtleties anyways -- naturally obvious off-notes and bad timbre/tuning/pitch HAVE to be corrected -- but many professional singers are not 100% on --- look at Fagen (Steely Dan) -- he's had some off vocals in the SD tracks.... no autotune there!)

Now that the technology exist, it's real tempting to leave that autotune permanently in the channel insert -- but I think the reasons should be obvious about why you wouldn't want to!
 
Bear...

The cool thing is, that if set correctly, you can still have off notes :) But the subtleties that it corrects are pretty nice. I actually do leave it inserted into my mic pre... BUT it by no means should be set to the point where it is audible.

I have it set to a point where if you double track the part (same singer sings it twice), there is still OBVIOUS variance between the two.

I don't want to hear it... I just want it to help me smooth things out for otherwise questionable places :)

I've gotten very good at hearing it being used on major label releases (and yes... I must admit... there are several of mine where if I listen to it again now I can REALLY hear it).

I've done some pretty cool stuff with it recently that I should post. On a song for our new album we did some background "Dit dit dit dit" parts on a chorus... used autotune set fairly high because it was being sung falsetto and the notes where soooo short and sooooo repetitive that it was hard to sing well. Anyhow, it wound up sounding like a human mellotron... it was really kind of cool.

Velvet Elvis
 
ad0lescnts said:
what are your guys' thoughts on this thing??

I need it because it has pitch correction, de-esser, and i WANT it because it has other little things to fuck around with...

problem: 500 bones.

what do you guys think about it?? is it worth the $$?



T
Click to expand...
I got one last Wed. and I love it.
Easy to use.
Auto tune works great.
Nice variable knee compressor, de-esser, parametric EQ, mic modeler.
Awesome bang for the buck.
I was going to bring it back if I didn't like it.
I'm keeping it...
Peace.
Carmen
:)
 
I know what you're talking about with that Cher effect but i see nothing in here on how to do it...

T
 
ad0lescnts said:
I know what you're talking about with that Cher effect but i see nothing in here on how to do it...

T
Click to expand...
It's in there....
In Autotune, set your scale and set the speed to 0.
Done.
Peace.
Carmen
:)
 
Not to interfere with any classic Urban Legends, but just so you know: while you can get a Cher-like effect with the autotune, the Antares was not, in fact, used on her record. At least not for the pitch-glitch effect.
 
littledog said:
Not to interfere with any classic Urban Legends, but just so you know: while you can get a Cher-like effect with the autotune, the Antares was not, in fact, used on her record. At least not for the pitch-glitch effect.
Click to expand...
Quite true!
 
How does the autotune work anyway? Do you just pick a scale and go? What types of settings are there?
 
There are several things you can set, but the basics are

Speed (how fast will in start correcting)
Sensitivity (how closely will it examine the note)
and then the scale.

Other things such as bass mode, vibrato, midi scales, etc are available too.

Velvet Elvis
 
Whaaaa?

What did Cher use? Anyone know?

Do you HAVE to choose a scale, or can you just let it do it's thing without the headache of figuring out the song's key and stuff?

Anyone know how much the unit would cost Canadian and possibly list some major retail outlets?
 
Gregwor...

You don't have to choose a key... by default it loads in Chromatic mode. But I have found that you get much better results if you use the actual key.

Likewise, you can build a scale from midi... simply plug a midi keyboard into it (or use the cursor keys on the unit itself) and "select" the notes you want. The nice thing about the build from midi is that you just have to be able to play the note... so doing something as simply as "playing" the melody line on the keyboard first will select the appropriate notes to pitch correct in the Antares.

Velvet Elvis
 
c7sus said:
Technology that advanced would probably cost millions, if not billions, in Canadian money........

I doubt that something as advanced as this would even be allowed to be exported to Canada. For obvious reasons.:D
Click to expand...

That's funny.....

Here's how the Cher thing was done...

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/feb99/articles/tracks661.htm

The engineer later retracted and said it was actually AutoTune.
He said was trying to save some face for Cher...

Peace.
Carmen
:)
 
CarmenC said:


That's funny.....

Here's how the Cher thing was done...

http://www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/feb99/articles/tracks661.htm

The engineer later retracted and said it was actually AutoTune.
He said was trying to save some face for Cher...

Peace.
Carmen
:)
Click to expand...
I don't remember ever hearing that -- as a matter of fact, it almost doesn't make sense, since the Autotune wasn't in production at the time the Cher song was released.........

And guaranteed if you're new product was a major contributor to a large hit, Antares marketing department would have definitely capitalized on it.......

"Yes - you too could have that same vocal sound used on recent megahits!"
 
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