User Manual

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).
Setup
The functions described in this section are used
to tell Harmony Engine Evo things about the
source audio or otherwise affect the plug-in as
a whole.
Input Audio
For accurate harmony generation and best
modeling performance, Harmony Engine
Evo needs to be able to detect the pitch
of the original performance. To do that,
Harmony Engine Evo requires a clean,
pitched, monophonic signal. (In this context,
“clean” refers both to lack of noise and lack of
processing with effects like chorus, reverb, etc.)
NOTE: Keep in mind that the input
must not only be monophonic, but
actually a solo voice or instrument
(as opposed to a unison section). For example,
a group of singers singing the same note will
typically not be reliably tracked.
You can have problems with certain solo
voices and solo instruments as well. Consider,
for example, an exceptionally breathy voice,
or a track recorded in an unavoidably noisy
environment. The added noise is non-periodic
and Harmony Engine Evo will have difficulty
determining the pitch of the composite
(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.” Experimenting
with this setting will often allow Harmony
Engine Evo to track even noisy signals.
Routing
Harmony Engine Evo should typically be
instantiated as an insert effect on the track that
will supply the source audio. Harmony Engine
Evo can be instantiated on a mono or stereo
track, but since it processes only a single
channel of audio, if you instantiate it on a stereo
track, the two channels will be mixed together
before being processed.
Harmony Engine Evo’s output can be mono
or stereo (or, in some circumstances, five
channels — see below). Unless you have
some overriding reason for using a mono
output, we highly recommend using it in stereo
output mode, since in mono mode, all panning
controls are disabled. This prevents you from
positioning the harmony voices across the
stereo soundstage and dramatically impacts (in
a not-so-swell way) the overall effect.
Effects
The cleaner the input signal, the easier
Harmony Engine Evo’s task of reliably detecting
its pitch. For this reason, effects designed to
improve the quality of the input (e.g., de-essing,
noise reduction, etc.) should be applied to the
audio before it is input to Harmony Engine Evo.
NOTE: If you will be using both
de-essing and compression on
your vocal track, it has been our
experience that using the de-esser before
the compressor provides improved results in
Harmony Engine Evo.
As mentioned above, effects like chorus or
reverb can negatively affect Harmony Engine
Evo’s ability to reliably detect the pitch of the
input audio. As a result, you should not apply
these effects to the input audio before it is
routed into Harmony Engine Evo. Either apply
them to the Harmony Engine Evo output or,
if you only want them on the original audio,
apply them to a copy of the original audio on