Antares Auto-Tune DirectX

I play all instruments and have been involved in music for 15 years. I am a record engineer, and amateur mastering engineer. I use autotune with Sonar 6 Producer edition usually on vocals, and in an emergency Bass guitar. I deal with rock and acoustic indie music. I'm running an insanely fast custom built PC with windows XP. I use KRK V8 monitors.

EXTREMELY easy once you actually read the manual for a few minutes to figure out how to use the interface. I never use the auto mode, and the graphical mode is as simple as drawing a line where you want your note!

Sounds perfect in a mix, and almost always perfect solo'd. I always correct mono tracks, but it doesn't really matter if you're using it on a stereo track because you pick which side (L/R) to use as a tracking reference.

Absolutely worth the price. Will save your HOURS of editing takes and punching things in and out. I have had some issues with compatibility in Sonar with v4, but with v5 it has never crashed once. Doesn't hog my CPU load in the least. Anything I wish it had was taken care of in v5 (Snap to grid!)

I'm a guitarist/producer/engineer/songwriter with my own home project studio. I'm running Antares 4.0/DirectX within Cubase SL3 on a Windows XP PC with a 2.8GHz Intel Pentium processor, 1.5Gb RAM, 1 80Mb HD and 1 120 Mb HD. I've produced four commercial projects in the past few years for other artists.

I started with AutoTune Version 3 and am currently on version 4. I've had no installation problems. Antares has been pretty good about reissuing a response code to me back when I changed PC's a few years ago. I'm giving them a 9, only because I find challenge/response and PACE Interlock protection schemes a "pain" (but I understand why they use them and don't blame them)

I'm not sure who 'whizzed in the Corn Flakes' of some of these other reviewers, but I've been extremely pleased with AutoTune's performance. It's saved me several hours of 're-takes' and 'punches' to get an optimum vocal performance from an artist. If you select the right scale and pay attention to the retune speed, you can get some very decent results with the 'auto' mode with hardly any 'artifact'. I just recently did a project for a country artist/songwriter whereby I was able to honor his deliberate pitch slurs while ensuring that they always "trued up" on the ending target note, and that was using the 'auto mode'. Graphical mode is even better, where you can 'draw' the nature of the correction you want applied.

This plug-in is definitely worth the money. I've had as many as 10 simulataneous instances of it running on different tracks without incurring an CPU issues (and that was with compression and parametric EQ plug-ins running on those same 10 tracks). I routinely use it, particularly when recording upright bass to true up any minor pitch flaws. I also like to use AutoTune to assist with psuedo-double tracking of vocals, which sounds so real, you'd almost swear I recorded the vocals two or three times. What I'll do is send the lead vocal up the middle, with one cloned image panned hard left and another cloned image panned hard right. I'll delay one image by about +5 to 7ms and delay the other image by -5 to -7ms. I'll put AutoTune on these respective cloned tracks and have it deliberately detune one track by +3 to +5 cents and the other track to around -3 to -5 cents. By relaxing the correction and slowing the retune speed, you get the same 'natural' pitch fluctuations you would get if you had the person retrack their vocal two additional times.

Bottom line: AutoTune is an indispensible tool in my studio.

Recording engineer for 15 years, 5 years with "real pro" gear.
Musician for 25 years.
All Styles from Southern Gospel Quartet to Metal to Acoustic.
Been using Autotune (DirectX) for a couple years, starting with version 3.
Host App: Sonar 4 Producer.
PC: Dual Athlon 1.8 GHz, 2 Gig RAM, Win XP Pro.
Audio Interface: MOTU 2408 Mk3 w/PCI-424.
Monitors: JBL 4410A's.

The install was horrific for me. I spent months trying to get version 4 up and running. I even spent time on the phone with some of the actual developers because no one could figure out why it wouldn't work. The main problem was due to the copy protection scheme they set up through PACE-Interlock. It stinks big time. I eventually had to wait another 2 months to get the updated driver from PACE. It then worked, for a couple months. It no longer works as of last week and there are no newer updates available.
The interface is not really intuitive, but once you get used to it, you can be productive. There is one really annoying "feature". The graphical mode window will automatically scroll really fast when your mouse approaches the edge. I am constantly having to bring my audio selection back into view because it has been scrolled off the window, for my convenience.

When it worked, it sounded great. I was able to save some horrendous vocals. I never used the auto feature as it never seemed to track the pitch the way I wanted it to. I only used the graphical manual mode. Once again, there is a certain art to doing it so it took a few times to get how it worked best. I did run into some vocalists that it would not track at all. They tended to be more raspy, rock voices. It didn't know how to find the pitch. I imagine it wouldn't work too well on a session with Joe Cocker. I never experienced the pops and clicks mentioned in other reviews.

If there were any other pieces of software that would do the manual graphical mode pitch correction I would have dumped this in a heart beat, but I didn't know of any. I will check out the one mentioned here. When it worked it worked pretty good to great. But when I have literally had it not working for more time than it has worked since I bought it, I can't recommend it. If anyone has any suggestions for other tuning correction plugins, email me, please!

I am a recording artist in a hard rock band, have recorded through many systems including the great Westlake studios in LA as well as others in northern california. Been playing guitar and singing for about 8 years now. I use AutoTune at my homestudio running Sonar 4 Producers Edition, in a Barton 2600+ Nforce2 chipset mobo running 350mHz FSB, 2 GB Corsair XMS PC3200 in dual channel, capturing audio at 24/96 through a M-Audio Delta 10/10. Rode NT-1A, Behringer T1952 mic pre for most vocals.

Very intuitive, very easy, pick your scale, chose your pickiness and your quickness to adjust. Remember that this is a pitch correcter it is not a vocal perfecter, if the track is unsalvagable there is nothing you can do to save it, just take the extra 3 minutes to rerecord it...there is nothing you can do to fix a poorly performed(or captured) track.

Like I said this is a pitch correcter, so long as the song's melody is rather straight forward and if it modulates at all you need to make sure you apply the appropriate envelopes and adjustments. I cannot stress the importance of making sure the track is as close to perfect as possible!! In my opinion autotune and other effects are just the icing on the cake, they cannot replace solid technique and performance. remember it is just a machine, if you set the quickness too fast, it WILL make you sound like eiffel 65. If you set the pickiness too picky and the quickness too slow you will slide all over the place and sound like a country singer, pitch correcters are only meant to be used to correct slight deviations in pitch, not to run an entire track through.

Amazing plug in, use sparingly, enjoy!!

I'm using sonar 4, and have just tried autotune v4.15.

AAARGH!!! Terrible settings control, does really stupid things where just a slight change on a parameter throws everything out of whack. The manual mode is, well, trying to use it makes me want to hurt someone... someone from antares.

How anybody could give this worthles piece of shiitt program a postive rating is beyond belief. There really should be negative ratings for especially pernicious garbage software like this. This should be called autoglitch or robotune or autoflaw because one thing this software does not do is TUNE anything, autoDEtune is more appropo.

This software is not worth $0.01. And beyond the actual functionality of the software, it uses copy protection from Pace that not only makes autodetune blowup, taking your host app with it, but destablizes your whole operating system. -10. I take that back, -1000.

Screw you antares, and screw all the other "autotune" programs out there too, they ALL suck. When they were programming this tripe, and encountered that robotic unnatural trademark shift that all these programs do, they should have just thrown in the towel and resigned themselves to failure, because the resulting processed vocal is worse than the original unprocessed vocal. Now after working on this trash for years the software is not better, they just added a few shiny new setting to bamboozle the eyes, but to the ears it's still crap.

A couple of the other reviews mentioned celemony melodyne, which I haven't tried yet, but I will, it's my last hope.

I have every pitch correction plugin in existence (for PC stuff).
For sequencers i use sonar, nuendo, and cubase.

auto mode is very easy to use, just select key and a few other parameters and and click apply.

manual mode, on the other hand, is a quirky, esoteric, completely unintuitive interface nightmare. what idiot designed this mess? fire him. now.

if your voice is a little off, then sometimes autotune just leaves it unchanged. thanks for nothing.

if your voice is off a bit, then it does an ok job most of the time. however if you have an awkward slide from one note to the next, it does some bizarre things and introduces very unnatural digital sounding, unexpected and incorrect transitions.

if you're a horrible singer, and therefore need this plugin the most, it turns your vox into these hideous glitches and robotic sounding shifts. absolutely worthless.

in manual mode (which requires reading the manual, because you'll never figure it out on your own) i just gave up because it's too tedious and lacks the percision to intonate it properly.

for just quick and dirty vocal pitch correction the akai plugin does a better job. and for real detailed pitch correction celemony melodyne is the only game in town.

occasionally the akai plug glitches and autotune works, but seldom, so i hardly ever use it.

compared to the functionality of melodyne, autotune deserves something like a -5 but i'll give it a 2 since it's a good test whether a vocal take is a viable candidate for melodyne processing.

what antares needs is a few of my vocal tracks as test samples.
if they could get those right, then they could get anything right and i would would rate it a 10. what are they using now, pavarotti? he doesn't need pitch correction.

i've used autotune since version 1.3, but i won't be upgrading to any newer version. it's virtually unchanged in all that time (except for perttier graphics) so there's no point. these guys just don't get it

Been making music since the 70's. Primary instrument is electric guitar, but make use of drum machine, bass, vocal keys (some) in my project studio. I bought Antares Autotune to add to my DAW (Vegas/Sound Forge). Using basic set up: 2 drives (audio files on d, programs on c), win 98se, tons of ram, etc. Not important what kind of computer as long as it meets specs for the program. Don't try using it as a real-time plug(although you could). Use it in the graphics mode as an editing tool. Read the stinkin' manual....took me a year, but I'm glad I did.

This is THE tool to use for professional pitch correction. Get through the stupid installation process, then read the manual. It's not easy, but no comprehensive tool is. If you just want to use the auto mode, then select your key and use "chromatic", especially if your trying to fix a blues vocal and expect "C-major" to work.

When applied correctly to a marginal vocal take by a singer who sings better than Lucy Ricardo, it's perfect. If you sing like a hinge, get a different hobby. I've used it on some guitar parts here and there, and as long as the parts aren't polyphonic, it works.

Worth every penny. If you have a home studio get it.

Hobbiest. Want to be able to correct real time or not, vocals to encourge family members to sing and record with me. Using my PC as center of world for recording. Using Auto Tune as a Direct X plug-in in Power Tracks Pro.

Seems easy to use if all you do is have to select a key and scale and let it automatically correct. Seems to have a pretty extensive set of tools if you want to tinker manually. Well laid out and intuitive, even for myself who is very non theoritical. But what good is a nicely constructed interfaces if it got nothin behind it as youll see below.

Has a way of using midi to correct based on that, but I couldnt get it to see the midi interface.

Far as I can tell, it doesent do much. Tried to A-B some stuff but no change or correction to my ear. I could hear it approach robot sounds when I set the sensitivity to high to change fast. Would have liked to see how it worked with midi reference to tune to but couldnt get that to even see the midi interface.

luckily they offer a 10 day trial. Otherwise it was $240 online from Musicians friend or somewhere like that.

10 years making music.
Win XP. 256Ram, 20Gig and 80Gig. 1.8 Ghz. PC.
Cubase SX.
Audiofile M-Audio soundcard.

N/A

N/A

Just read these reviews and someone mentioned:
http://www.celemony.com/melodyne/Examples.html

Now I have been downloading examples of voice correction, pitch correction software and thought they all sounded fake. This one sounds awsom. I rarely endors things but this is very advanced.

Just thought i'd let you all know, I just hope it works well in real life, ie. it doesn't crash etc!

I'm gonna get it...

Plenty

Big Learning Curve

totally imperceptible if you use it wisely. This takes time and ears! then more time more ear. expect to spend a few days learning this before you try to perform any miracles. this plugin should be used spairingly try manual mode phrase by phrase. remember your changing the main character and focus of you music, the vocal.

worth its weight in gold

25 years making music, lots of studio experience, home studio
I use with Sonic Foundry products, Vegas Video and Sound Forge
Use with all types of music that I record, vocals and violin and an old mandolin that has a fretting problem.
PC with XP
Alesis M1 monitor system

easy to install, register
Fairly simple interface

Pretty amazing. I just did a project with about 30 kids coming into the studio to do solos. All various qualities of intonation and pitch. I fixed them all in moments, sometimes making rather lackluster performances shine. I then corrected a violin part for fiddle accompaniment and it tuned it perfectly without losing intonation. Pretty amazing as I said.

Very worth it. I can't understand why other users were having pops and clicks, mine is clean as a bell. Must be something in their system setup.
I just process a track from Vegas in Sound Forge and save as a take. Its easy to A/B in Vegas. I wonder why everyone that is recording less than perfect artists DOESN'T have this plug in.

PIII 600 260RAM 2x40Gb HD
Musician, Singer (lyrical)

It has a pretty nice interface but the graphical mode could be more efficient.

Sound quality is a joke.
I have the same problem as described here by another person: in live mode it works ok (..the sound quality still not good enought) but when you process it, it's a shame. Clicks, pops and frustrating results.

It was really disapointing.
Try a software called Melodyne from Celemony. I'll see what pitch correction is really about. I just tried a demo version this week and I was amazed.

Not worth at all.
If you are serious don't buy it. Try first if you can, and see for yourself.
Doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

See my previous review:

See my previous review +
I think I spoke too soon.

1st. It works great in real time. When I tried to create a file with it, I has pops and clicks. eg. In Cubase VST Score, export audio to create a file with just the corrected track. I called a friend who has the software and Cubase VST. He said his was perfect. I asked about exporting and he said no problem. Then he called me back and said he had the same problem. He had never exported to create a corrected track, so he tried it and...pops and clicks.
2nd. ...so I sent a help request to Antares. No response.
3rd. I sent a second help request. No response!!!
4th. I called them on the phone. The help tech said, and I quote "never heard of this problem, could be anything, sorry!"
I got the feeling I was interupting his Latte break.

My solution is to create a bus loop and bring the audio back into VST, so I can record it in reltime. What a pain!!!

Been multi-track recording music since 1984. Keyboardist/vocalist/poducer.
Using version 3.0 (Direct X) with Cubase VST Score for the PC.

Just got the plugin a few days ago and have been using it on a project involving female pop vocals.

Using Pentium 4, 2Ghz, with 2 gig of ram, on Windows ME os.

Use a MOTU 2408 as a digital interface into Studio Master Board monitored on Mackie 824's and Toa ME-265a's

Comprehensive interface that is well laid out.

Installed easily. Uses challenge/response copy protection. This made me a little nervous about buying it, but it installed without a hitch. There is a MIDI input feature that I won't be using so I can't comment on that.

Here's how easy it was for me.
1. Installed the software (5 mins)
2. Challenge/response (5 mins-I have dialup access)
3. Launch VST (I have the auto load last song initiated)
4. Activate the send effect option and choose the plugin
5. Assign to a couple of tracks - hit play

The preset setting corrected the audio just fine, but I made some changes. Then I set the retune to zero and...instant Cher from the Believe album title track (just for fun, obviously it's passe now).

I also took the vibrato out of a song and replaced it using the vibrato options.

The GUI part of the program with the waveform display wasn't immediately clear to me, so I'll read the manual.

The sound is excellent. On the vocal tracks I was processing, the singer was never off more than +-33 cents and usually a lot less than that so the pitch shifting doesn't really have to alter the sound all that much. If a vocalist is off by 50 cents or more you probably need a better vocalist.

Just for fun I recorded a vocal patch single note from an XV-88 which I had detuned about 33 cents flat and recorded it into VST. After about 10 seconds I moved the pitch bend back and forth adding about 10 cents + and minus to the sound. Ran the track through the plugin and presto pitch correction right on the money. I also listened to the sound quality of the even tone prior to pitch bending after correction. The tibre was changed ever so slightly when compared to the original note at the correct pitch, but there are half a dozen reason why this could have happened and I would still rate the quality excellent.

It's a stereo plugin. I have heard that it's somewhat CPU intensive, but it didn't even rgister on the VST performance meter with 38 tracks playing and other plugins activated. Of course I'm using a pretty fast PC.

It's worth every penny.
Listen to your V. tracks, do they loose pitch at the ends of phrases?
I read the Keyboard magazine review on the plugin, and they have never steered me wrong.
I love that it actually works. I have some high quality plugins that are less than stellar. With this plugin, I know what it's suppose to do and it does it.
Haven't had it long enough to know every feature, but I like the fact that you can bypass notes in the chosen scale on the fly by clicking on them, I hope that is automatable with midi. Will need a similar feature for changing the scale in a song part way through to accomodate key changes. I don't do live work, but this would be important for that. I'll bet it does it.

I have 20 years of experience as a musician. I am
using Win98se OS with 256M RAM, 850MHz CPU. Tried Antares with many audio programs. I use a SBLive soundcard.

It is easy to install. Cosmetically good looking plugin. But the controls are not designed for novice PC musicians, they are for a bit experienced PC musicians.

The resulting output after applying the effect sounded wacky. I guess I expected too much. I could not use this plugin because of the poor output. I had to take it out.

This plugin fails to do it's job.

win2k,
1.2ghz athlon with 684mb ram, and raid0 scsi (2 x 40gb)
frontier design wavecenter/tango24 d/a/d
cakewalk's sonar.

the automatic mode is simple enought, but the graphical mode doesn't give you quite enough room to work in.

the autotune plugin is great, but every once in a while it shifts octaves on you. i've heard that the new version autotune v3 will have an octave selector to prevent this from happening in the future; however, the directX version of the plug-in has yet to be released

definitely worth the money and has no comparitor in its price range.