Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator Owner’s Manual
©2009 Antares Audio Technologies. All rights reserved. Certified Isinglass-free.™ All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA www.antarestech.com Printed in USA Rev 1.
The Obligatory Legal Mumbo-Jumbo The Antares Harmony Engine Evo software and this User’s Manual are protected by copyright law. Making copies, adaptations, or derivative works without the prior written authorization of Antares Audio Technologies, is prohibited by law and constitutes a punishable violation of the law.
Term of the Agreement This agreement is effective until terminated by you or Antares. You may terminate the agreement at any time by notifying Antares and destroying all copies of the manual, and erasing Harmony Engine Evo from all machine-readable media, whether on-line or on archival copies. In the event of breach of any of the terms of this agreement, you shall pay the attorney’s fees of Antares that are reasonably necessary to enforce the agreement plus resulting damages.
Contents Chapter 1 Getting Started How to use this manual Installing and Authorizing Technical Support Chapter 2 Introducing Harmony Engine Evo What the heck is this thing? Chapter 3 7 8 10 12 15 16 17 17 18 20 29 31 The Factory Presets The Presets Chapter 5 5 Harmony Engine Evo Controls Controls Setup Original Input Harmony Voices Vibrato Controls Humanization Glide Freeze CHOIR Harmony Control Harmony Presets Voice Parameter Presets Chapter 4 3 4 4 33 Tutorials Stay By Me Lift Us Away Let You
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1 Welcome! On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase Harmony Engine Evo, the second generation of the quickest, easiest to use tool for realistic harmony creation. Before you proceed any farther, we’d like to strongly encourage you to register and authorize your copy of Harmony Engine Evo. (You can skip ahead to the Authorization and Installation instructions on page 3. We’ll wait.
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3 Chapter 1: Getting Started How to use this manual We know you’re probably anxious to get some harmony going. While we’ve designed the Harmony Engine Evo interface to be largely self-explanatory, Harmony Engine Evo introduces some entirely new concepts to the process of quickly and easily creating realistic harmonies, so, to really get the most out of Harmony Engine Evo, we strongly encourage you to read this manual.
4 Installing Harmony Engine Evo Technical Support Harmony Engine Evo is designed to function as a plug-in in a wide variety of digital audio applications. Please refer to your specific host application’s user manual for more information on installing and using plug-ins. In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using Harmony Engine Evo, try the following: Authorizing Harmony Engine Evo Authorization is the process by which Harmony Engine Evo is allowed to run on your computer.
5 Chapter 2: Introducing Harmony Engine Evo What the heck is this thing? Harmony Engine Evo is the second generation of our Harmony Engine real-time harmony generating plugin. Like its predecessor, Harmony Engine Evo puts professional-quality vocal harmony arrangements within reach of any songwriter, producer, musician or engineer.
6 Key Harmony Engine Evo features include: • Four high-quality, formant-corrected harmony voices featuring Evo™ Voice Processing Technology providing independent vocal character, vibrato, and pan settings • Antares Throat Modeling technology that lets you process each harmony voice through a physical model of the human vocal tract • A variety of innovative Harmony Control modes, from fully automatic to individual control of every note: Fixed or Scale Intervals: Simply set the key and harmony voice inter
7 Chapter 3: Harmony Engine Evo Controls This chapter is a reference for all of the controls used in the Harmony Engine Evo interface. Controls Continuous controls in Harmony Engine Evo are represented by virtual knobs or faders.
8 Note: The specific modifier key may vary from host to host (Steinberg hosts on the Mac, for example, use the Command (Apple) key instead of the Option key). Refer to the Harmony Engine Evo Read Me for details (or just try a few until you find the one what works). (voice + noise) sound. Luckily, there is a control (the Tracking control, discussed later in this chapter) that will let Harmony Engine Evo be a bit more casual about what it considers “periodic.
9 another track and then mute the original input in Harmony Engine Evo. Five Channel Output Depending on your host’s routing capabilities, you may be able to use Harmony Engine Evo in five channel output mode to send the original input and the four harmony voices to five separate channels for subsequent individual processing. Unfortunately, the ability and method of accomplishing this varies from host to host and typically involves making nonstandard use of a host’s 5.1 capabilities.
10 Tip: The actual effect of this control depends a great deal on the characteristics of the original audio. Consequently, in most cases the best approach is to simply try the various settings and pick the one that best fits the style of your particular performance. To select glottal waveform, click on the Model Glottal pop-up and then select the desired stylistic character from the pop-up list. Bypass This control is used to (you guessed it) bypass the plug-in.
11 Mute Engaging Mute Mode causes the original input signal to be muted from the output. When the Mute button is blue, Mute Mode in engaged. Click the button to toggle its state. Note: If both the Input Channel’s Solo and Mute buttons are pressed, Solo takes preference. However, if Solo is then disengaged, the original input will then be muted. Another Note: Moving a channel’s Gain slider to its minimum setting also results in completely muting its output.
12 Harmony Voices 1–4 Each of the four Harmony Voice channels are functionally identical and contain identical controls. It may be useful to think of the four Harmony Voices as being similar to the voices of a fourvoice synthesizer. Each voice has independent controls for setting its timbre, vibrato, pan and level. The method by which pitches are assigned to voices varies with the Harmony Modes selected in the Harmony Control section. In this section, we’ll describe the Harmony Voice controls.
13 Solo Engaging a channel’s Solo Mode causes that channel’s signal to appear at the output and simultaneously mutes any other channels (Harmony Voice and/or Input Voice) that are not also soloed. When a channel’s Solo button is yellow, Solo Mode in engaged on that channel. Click a button to toggle its state. Note: If both a channel’s Solo and Mute buttons are pressed, Solo takes precedence. Mute Engaging a Harmony Voice channel’s Mute Mode causes that channel’s signal to be muted from the output.
14 This control is inactive in all Chord Name and MIDI modes. Note: Harmony Engine Evo remembers the most recent Interval settings for each of the two interval harmony modes. So, if you select Fixed Interval and set a harmony voice to +3 semitones, and then change to Smart Interval and set that same harmony voice to -5th, if you then change back to Fixed Interval, the Interval setting will return to +3 semitones.
15 The default Vibrato Rate values are slightly different for each Harmony Voice channel as follows: Channel 1: 6.2 Hz Channel 2: 5.8 Hz Channel 3: 5.4 Hz Channel 4: 5.0 Hz Option (Mac)/Control (PC)-clicking a fader returns it to its default value. Vibrato Controls The following four controls are used to add an independently programmable vibrato to each Harmony Voice.
16 Humanization The functions in the Humanize section are designed to allow you to add a selectable bit of random variation to each harmony voice as well as deciding how much (if any) of the original input’s vibrato and pitch gestures will be present in the harmony voices. Each of these controls affect all active harmony voices. However, they affect each harmony voice individually (i.e.
17 The range of the control is from 0 (no pitch variation) to a maximum of 100 . milliseconds and represents the time it takes to get halfway to the destination pitch. The default Pitch Variation value is 30. Option (Mac)/Control (PC)-clicking the knob returns it to that value. Note: Glide only takes effect when successive notes overlap or butt up against each other. If there is any silence between two notes (even a few milliseconds worth), no glide will be applied.
18 behind the lead singer (in this case, the original input). There are, however, a lot of other really intriguing possibilities (highly dependent on your particular vocal). We encourage you to play around and discover some for yourself. Note: The Formant Only mode is not available in Fixed Interval or Smart Interval modes. The button is disabled in those modes. Formant + Pitch Click the Formant + Pitch button to engage the Formant + Pitch Freeze function.
19 Choir Size This control allows you to select the number of individual voices that will be generated from the input or harmony voice. The choices are 2, 4, and 8 voices. Vibrato The Vibrato control allows you to select the range of variation in vibrato depth applied to the generated voices. Each voice is individually assigned a vibrato variation relative to the original voice. The higher the value of this control, the greater the possible vibrato variation.
20 Some CHOIR Tips • Experiment with different combinations of the Pitch and Timing controls. They can create dramatically different vocal ensembles. With Timing at its minimum and substantial Pitch Variation, you have a choir that’s rhythmically tight but a bit loose with intonation. Conversely, reversing those settings gives you a group that’s solidly in tune, but rhythmically loose. And there are of course many variations in between. Match the performance style to the style of your music.
21 The desired harmony mode is selected with the Harmony Source popup menu. Depending on which mode you select, various of the other controls in this section will be either activated or disabled as necessary. Rather than discuss each control separately, we’ll look at all of the controls that function in each mode.
22 To use Scale Interval mode, select your song’s key with the Key/Root popup. Note that sharp/flat keys are specified as flats with the exception of F. If your song is in an unlisted key, you should choose the enharmonic equivalent: Db = C# Eb = D# F = Gb Ab = G# Bb = A# The Scale popup offers three variations of the major and four variations of the minor scales as follows: Major Major with no 7th (Maj/no 7th) Major with a flat 7th (Maj/flat 7th) Natural Minor (Minor) Harmonic Minor (Harm.
23 move apart or together in response to your adjustments. Here are some example settings: Wide harmony: Register and Spread The Register and Spread controls are used together with their associated graphic display to define the general range and “closeness” of the harmony notes in Chord Degrees, Chord Name, and Chord via MIDI modes. They provide an amazingly easy and intuitive method of arranging your harmonies in almost any desired style.
24 progressively higher pitched notes will be assigned in order to the progressively lowered numbered active channels. For example, for a four note chord, the lowest note will be assigned to harmony channel 4, the next higher to channel 3, the next higher to channel 2 and the highest to channel 1. This ensures that you can use each channel’s Throat Length control to define a timbre, confident of that channel’s general range.
25 using Harmony Engine that depend on the old functionality, you may have to modify your button presets and/or any host automation of the Key/Root and Scale popups. Note: As mentioned in the Register and Spread section, the harmony notes will be assigned to the various harmony channels such that the lowest pitched note will be assigned to the highest numbered active channel and the progressively higher pitched notes will be assigned in order to the progressively lowered numbered active channels.
26 of enharmonic equivalents that we’ve already included twice above would go. If you don’t already know it by heart, check it out in the Chord Degrees section.) The Chord popup is used to define the type of chord, and the Inversion popup, not unexpectedly, defines the inversion. The Register and Spread controls function exactly as described above. As in the Chord Degree mode, assign all the chords and voicings you need to Harmony Preset buttons and harmonize away.
27 “On” MIDI notes appearing on an assigned MIDI channel. These notes are treated as if they were a chord (regardless if they actually are an “official” chord or not) and are re-voiced by the settings of the Register and Spread controls such that the lowest note played will always be the lowest pitched note and will be assigned to the highest numbered active harmony voice.
28 Important Note: In MIDI Omni mode, there is no way to guarantee that a particular note will be assigned to a particular harmony voice channel. While Harmony Engine Evo does its best to assign the lowest note to the highest numbered active channel, depending on your fingering, that may not always be possible.
29 In normal operation, a button with a preset assigned to it is blue and displays the first five or six characters of the preset’s name. A button with no preset assigned to it is gray and displays no text. Note: If you assign a preset to a button without entering a name for it in the Name field, you’ll end up with a blue button (indicating that it has an assigned preset) that displays no text (since it has no name). In general, unless you have a really good memory, this is a bad idea. Don’t do it.
30 If you click the Assign button and then realize that you forgot to type a name for your preset, you can still click the name field and type a name before clicking a preset button to assign the preset. If you click the Assign button and then, for some reason, change your mind, simply click it again to exit Assign mode. To edit an existing preset: 1. Click the existing preset’s button to call up its control settings and place its name in the Name field. 2. Edit the controls as desired. 3.
31 When you click a button with a preset assigned, the preset’s full name will appear in the Name field and the harmony voice parameters will be set to their preset values. Assigning and deleting Voice Parameter Presets works exactly like the Harmony Presets described above, with the obvious exception that you will be working with the six Voice Parameter Preset buttons and their associated Name field.
32 If you click the Assign button and then realize that you forgot to type a name for your preset, you can still click the name field and type a name before clicking a preset button to assign the preset. If you click the Assign button and then, for some reason, change your mind, simply click it again to exit Assign mode. To edit an existing preset: 1. Click the existing preset’s button to call up its parameters and place its name in the Name field. 2. Edit the parameters as desired. 3.
33 Chapter 4: Factory Presets This chapter provides brief descriptions of the factory presets that ship with Harmony Engine Evo. Since it is extremely unlikely that any factory preset will be immediately useful for any of your personal projects, we have designed the presets to demonstrate various ways of using Harmony Engine Evo. Simply start with a vocal track whose key and chord progression you know and run through the presets while reading their descriptions below.
34 Chord Degrees 1 Chord Degrees 2 This preset provides the root version of all of the available chord degrees on the Harmony Preset buttons, as well as the first inversion of the key’s root chord. This preset is similar to Chord Degrees above, but instead of including all of the degrees on the Harmony Preset buttons, it includes the more commonly used degrees along with a variety of inversions of some of the degrees.. The Register and Spread controls are set for fairly wide, mid-range harmonies.
35 Hi2Low: Throat Lengths optimized for a high input voice that is generally being shifted down (e.g., the original input is a soprano and the harmony voices are in the alto, tenor, or even bass range). Things to try: Just play with the various chords and voicings with your input voice. Do they work? If the key of the original input is totally incompatible with the chords, mute the original input and listen to just the harmony voices.
36 Duet Group This preset uses Scale Interval Mode to provide one harmony voice at a variety of intervals. (Don’t forget to change the presets buttons’ Key and Scale settings to match your track.) Choices include: This preset demonstrates how the Harmony Presets and the Voice Parameter Presets can be used together to create variously-sized vocal groups. 5th up or down 4th up or down 3rd up or down Octave up or down Harmony Channel 1 is used for all presets. The other channels are muted.
37 The point of this is that different parts of a particular project may work best with different harmony modes. For example, Scale Interval mode might work great for an entire song except for one phrase in the bridge where the harmony moves away from the basic scale. In that case, you can have the primary preset be in Scale Interval mode, but still include a few Harmony Presets that specifically define the errant chords in Chord Name mode.
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39 Chapter 5: Tutorial Sessions As mentioned in Chapter 1, the composers who produced some of the Harmony Engine Evo demo compositions have been kind enough to allow us to include the actual sessions for you to load into your host and experiment with. In each case, we’ve provided versions of each demo for a number of the most popular host applications. To keep the sessions to manageable size, all accompaniment tracks have been mixed to a single stereo track.
40 Stay By Me (Paloma Ramos and Jason Poyner; produced by Brian English) This pop ballad consists of a lead vocal track by singer/songwriter Paloma Ramos with piano accompaniment by co-writer Jason Poyner. Producer Brian English generated MIDI data from Jason’s original keyboard performance and edited it for use as harmony control input to a single instance of Harmony Engine Evo. Brian used two of Harmony Engine Evo’s MIDI modes for different harmony voicing effects.
41 Lift Us Away (gerry bassermann) This country-tinged song features two vocalists, a male and a female, each processed with an instance of Harmony Engine Evo. Between the two parts, gerry uses three different Harmony Control modes as follows: Male Singer The male singer’s performance is split into three distinct sections: In the first section, the harmonic structure is relatively simple, allowing four harmony voices to be generated using Scale Interval mode in G Major.
42 Notice how the number of female harmony voices changes at various places in the song. In MIDI Channel mode, a harmony voice is only active when MIDI data is present on its channel, so it’s easy to have a duet in one section and four part harmony in the next (or even from note to note). Things to try: Select different intervals in the male singer’s Scale Intervals sections. Try different Register and Spread settings during the male’s Chord Name section.
43 Let You Know (Erik D and Stacey Dawn) In this tasty bit of techno from Erik D and Stacey Dawn, the lead vocal and various vocal effects are split onto four separate tracks, each with its own instance of Harmony Engine Evo, allowing the various parts to overlap each other. Here’s what’s there: The first track, intermittent “Yeah”s, uses Harmony Engine Evo set to Scale Interval mode in C Major to create a single harmony part a 5th above the original vocal. All Humanize functions are set to 0.
44 Things to try: Add one or more additional voices at different intervals to the first “Yeah” track. Set different intervals for one or more of the harmony voices on the third track. Experiment with different chords on the lead vocal part. Try various different Register and Spread settings on the lead vocal. Use either of the Freeze functions at various points on the lead vocal. More Sessions? We may, in the future, provide additional sessions to explore.
45 Index A Antares Audio Technologies ii Antares Software Updates 44 Auto-Tune Vocal Effect 37 Original Input 10 Setup 8 Vibrato 15 Voice Parameter Presets 31 B D C E Bypass 10 CHOIR 18 Tips 20 CHOIR Bypass 18 CHOIR Controls 18 CHOIR Bypass 18 CHOIR On Buttons 18 Choir Size 19 Pitch 19 Stereo Spread 19 Timing 19 Vibrato 19 CHOIR On Buttons 18 Choir Size 19 Chord Degrees Mode 24 Chord Degrees vs.
46 K R L S Key features 6 knowledgebase 4 License Agreement iii M MIDI 28, 39 Routing MIDI to Harmony Engine Evo 28 MIDI Channels Mode 28 MIDI Omni Mode 27 Model Glottal 9 Mute 11, 13 O Original Input 10 Gain 10 Mute 11 Pan 11 Solo 10 Tracking 11 P Pan 11, 14 Pitch 19 Pitch Variation 16 Presets 33 Register 23 Register and Spread 23 Routing 8 Scale Interval Mode 21 semitone interval 14 Setup 8 Bypass 10 De-Noise 10 Effects 8 Five Channel Output 9 Input Audio 8 Model Glottal 9 Routing 8 Set Inpu
