User Manual

5
2: How It Works
Some background
In 1997, Antares first introduced the ground-breaking Auto-Tune Pitch Correcting
Plug-In and Recording Magazine called Auto-Tune a “holy grail of recording.” In
the intervening years, Auto-Tune has established itself as the worldwide standard in professional
pitch correction. Today, it’s used daily by tens of thousands of audio professionals to save studio
and editing time, ease the frustration of endless retakes, or save that otherwise once-in-a-lifetime
performance.
But in addition to its use in pitch correction
(and, as of the introduction of Auto-Tune 7,
time correction as well), Auto-Tune has also
gained renown as the tool of choice for what
has become one of the signature vocal sounds
of our time.
First heard on Cher’s 1998 mega-hit “Believe,”
variations of the Auto-Tune Vocal Eect have
gone on to appear on songs from a huge
variety of artists in almost every music genre.
This has generated intense interest in the
eect and introduced the magic of Auto-Tune
to an even larger community of musicians and
producers.
As a result, we have created Auto-Tune EFX ,
an aordable, easy-to-use tool for basic real-
time pitch correction, creating the Auto-Tune
Vocal Eect and our unique Auto-Motion™
Vocal Pattern Generation.
New in Auto-Tune EFX  is a fully adjustable
Retune Speed control that lets you finetune
Auto-Tune EFX ’s pitch processing for any
performance. And its new Humanize function
provides pitch correction that is even more
natural and realistic.
What’s it do?
Pitch Correction
Auto-Tune EFX  pitch correction works by
continuously tracking the pitch of your vocal
and comparing it to the notes in the (user-
customizable) scale of your song. The scale
note closest to the input pitch is identified
as the target note. If the vocal’s pitch exactly
matches the target note, no correction is
applied. If the vocal’s pitch varies from the
target note, either sharp or flat, the output
pitch is smoothly corrected to the target note.
Auto-Tune Vocal Eect
The Auto-Tune Vocal Eect is what is
technically known as “pitch quantization.”
That is, instead of allowing all of the small
variations in pitch and the gradual transitions
between notes that are a normal part of
singing (and speaking, for that matter), the
Auto-Tune Vocal Eect limits each note to an
exact pitch, stripping out any variation, as well
as forcing instantaneous transitions between
notes.
The process of choosing the pitches to
quantize to is the same as described above
for pitch correction. The dierence is that
for pitch correction, the correction is done
smoothly in order to make the process as
transparent as possible. For the Auto-Tune
Vocal Eect, the correction is instantaneous.
Auto-Motion Vocal Pattern
Generation
Auto-Motion Vocal Pattern Generation
is a new eect that takes advantage of
Auto-Tune’s superb pitch-shifting ability
to add intricate musical patterns to a vocal
performance. Patterns are selected from a
built-in (and expandable) library in a variety of
styles and can be synced to your host’s tempo
at various beat divisions. At any point in your
vocal track, simply click the Auto-Motion
Trigger button to send your vocal on a melodic
adventure.