Real-time Auto-tune Vocal Effect and Pitch Correction Plugin
Auto tune is everywhere these days. From the new Cheryl Cole track to Black Eyed Peas and Keisha all the way to my own band Bleed Electric. I might even go as far here as to say that Auto-tune is the new back tracking (backwards sounds) of the modern era. It offers a sound and tone that had never before been heard and with some people playing with it to the max it has resulted in those artists being known more than the actual plugin - often referred to as the T-Pain effect. There seems to be a division on Auto-tune however. Some people love it, and others hate it. I personally love it and we don't use it in Bleed Electric because we need it but because we want the tone that the output provides. In fact to get the best Auto-tune tone I will often mimic what I know the Auto-tune output will be to get the best quality sound output. Make your voice sound auto-tuned going in and it comes out sounding great.
Autotune-EFX is the new, budget version of the already famous plugin by Antares. It is designed specifically to make it easy for people to use the effect, to appeal to all budgets and with a much more user friendly interface. It is easy to use for even the least computer literate people out there.
In the Box and Installation
At a mere 85 quid, Autotune-EFX is within the budgets of even the smallest project studios. So as much as Jay-Z would love to see the "Death of Autotune," the release of Autotune-EFX ensures that his wish will never come true and be very prepared to hear Auto-tune on even more records in 2010. The plugin comes in a nice looking box emblazoned with the hand that is all over the plugin after install (shows you what note you are hitting), an install CD and the appropriate registration documents.
I slip the CD into the drive and install as appropriate on my Windows machine. All goes smoothly and I set my DAW to search for new plugins and BAM! it is found easily. This is where I am faced with the biggest dilemma that people are going to have. The Autotune-EFX plugin requires an iLok USB device to run and register. Reading around the internet I have seen other people stating Auto-tune EFX comes with it included HOWEVER with this review copy there was no iLok which, if this was the case on the retail units would mean that the user would need to spend another 30 quid on that! The plugin does give you a 10 day trial however so I just went with the trial for this review but I hope it is true to what reads elsewhere on the internet.
All loaded and ready to go then!
On Trial and In Use
Anyone familiar with previous versions of Antares Autotune will be pleasently surprised by the simplicity of the Auto-tune EFX plugin. The window itself looks similar in it's grey and blue colouring, but there are a lot less settings or so it appears due to the very simplistic layout. The top left has the Voice Type which needs to be set according to what you are tuning and has Sporano, Alto/Tenor, Instrument and Bass Instrument settings. Then you have the key and it's associated scale (major, minor etc).
Underneath that it shows every note and when in use a hand shows over which note it is tuning it too. This feature is great if you want to compare what it is tuning too as opposed to the note it should be. This feature is also great for checking the effect is working live (without needing sound) prior to hitting the stage. And the final setting is the type of Auto-tune you want. Hard EFX is the T-Pain effect everyone wants, Soft EFX is the same effect but a bit more realistic and Pitch Correct is the most real sounding of all and if the original source is well sung you would struggle to hear this tuning although it is there and does make singers sound better. I imagine that this setting was used on the Cheryl Cole single and it just shows how bad of a singer she must be because you can still hear the tuning all over it.
It is at this point I feel the need to note a basic knowledge of music theory to correctly use this plugin. In order to tune things you need to know the key of the song. If you or the person you are recording do not know the key then you need to know how to figure it out and this is where scales come in. It is as important to know that the key is say for example C as it is to know that the key is Minor. Without this knowledge you will be tuning to the wrong musical key and that's when it all starts to sound like Cher.
I used this plugin on the song 'Boost Your 1's' by Bleed Electric which can be heard at BleedElectric.com and I used the Hard EFX setting to achieve those sounds. I won't let you know what else I did though as that's a trade secret
. I am sure you will agree that Auto-tune EFX sounds as good as some of the most expensive Autotune plugins and so why would you bother buying anything else? Well unless you are looking to tune individual notes within chords (Melodyne DNA) then indeed, there is no better Auto-tune plugin in terms of quality and price on the market.
Live Autotune?
Well as you can probably imagine being in a band like Bleed Electric and using so much Auto-tune on our vocals there is going to be a time when you are going to need to do this live. We did our first show the other week and we successfully pulled off Auto-tune live using a combinaion of the Auto-tune EFX plugin, a guy to change the keys between songs and Fruity Loops 9 Producer Edition. It was really simple and if anyone wants to know how to do it then reply here and I might put together a tutorial for it. I just thought it was worth a mention that for 80 quid and as long as you have a laptop you can have live Auto-tune which would normally require a hardware unit costing 1000 pounds plus.
In Conclusion
Auto-tune EFX is simply put the best value for money Auto-tune plugin available on the market. It has all the features and is laid out in the simplest way making it easy for everyone to use. If you are looking for a cheop way to do the signature T-Pain sound, then look no further. Hopeully the iLok does come with the retail versions because if so this would go down on my 100 things everyone producing music should own. Whether you love it or hate it, Auto-tune is here to stay so why not go out and get yourself a copy of this fantastic plugin today?
ANTARES AUTOTUNE EFX - U.K. International Cyberstore
Autotune-EFX is the new, budget version of the already famous plugin by Antares. It is designed specifically to make it easy for people to use the effect, to appeal to all budgets and with a much more user friendly interface. It is easy to use for even the least computer literate people out there.
In the Box and Installation
At a mere 85 quid, Autotune-EFX is within the budgets of even the smallest project studios. So as much as Jay-Z would love to see the "Death of Autotune," the release of Autotune-EFX ensures that his wish will never come true and be very prepared to hear Auto-tune on even more records in 2010. The plugin comes in a nice looking box emblazoned with the hand that is all over the plugin after install (shows you what note you are hitting), an install CD and the appropriate registration documents.
I slip the CD into the drive and install as appropriate on my Windows machine. All goes smoothly and I set my DAW to search for new plugins and BAM! it is found easily. This is where I am faced with the biggest dilemma that people are going to have. The Autotune-EFX plugin requires an iLok USB device to run and register. Reading around the internet I have seen other people stating Auto-tune EFX comes with it included HOWEVER with this review copy there was no iLok which, if this was the case on the retail units would mean that the user would need to spend another 30 quid on that! The plugin does give you a 10 day trial however so I just went with the trial for this review but I hope it is true to what reads elsewhere on the internet.
All loaded and ready to go then!
On Trial and In Use
Anyone familiar with previous versions of Antares Autotune will be pleasently surprised by the simplicity of the Auto-tune EFX plugin. The window itself looks similar in it's grey and blue colouring, but there are a lot less settings or so it appears due to the very simplistic layout. The top left has the Voice Type which needs to be set according to what you are tuning and has Sporano, Alto/Tenor, Instrument and Bass Instrument settings. Then you have the key and it's associated scale (major, minor etc).
Underneath that it shows every note and when in use a hand shows over which note it is tuning it too. This feature is great if you want to compare what it is tuning too as opposed to the note it should be. This feature is also great for checking the effect is working live (without needing sound) prior to hitting the stage. And the final setting is the type of Auto-tune you want. Hard EFX is the T-Pain effect everyone wants, Soft EFX is the same effect but a bit more realistic and Pitch Correct is the most real sounding of all and if the original source is well sung you would struggle to hear this tuning although it is there and does make singers sound better. I imagine that this setting was used on the Cheryl Cole single and it just shows how bad of a singer she must be because you can still hear the tuning all over it.
It is at this point I feel the need to note a basic knowledge of music theory to correctly use this plugin. In order to tune things you need to know the key of the song. If you or the person you are recording do not know the key then you need to know how to figure it out and this is where scales come in. It is as important to know that the key is say for example C as it is to know that the key is Minor. Without this knowledge you will be tuning to the wrong musical key and that's when it all starts to sound like Cher.
I used this plugin on the song 'Boost Your 1's' by Bleed Electric which can be heard at BleedElectric.com and I used the Hard EFX setting to achieve those sounds. I won't let you know what else I did though as that's a trade secret
. I am sure you will agree that Auto-tune EFX sounds as good as some of the most expensive Autotune plugins and so why would you bother buying anything else? Well unless you are looking to tune individual notes within chords (Melodyne DNA) then indeed, there is no better Auto-tune plugin in terms of quality and price on the market.Live Autotune?
Well as you can probably imagine being in a band like Bleed Electric and using so much Auto-tune on our vocals there is going to be a time when you are going to need to do this live. We did our first show the other week and we successfully pulled off Auto-tune live using a combinaion of the Auto-tune EFX plugin, a guy to change the keys between songs and Fruity Loops 9 Producer Edition. It was really simple and if anyone wants to know how to do it then reply here and I might put together a tutorial for it. I just thought it was worth a mention that for 80 quid and as long as you have a laptop you can have live Auto-tune which would normally require a hardware unit costing 1000 pounds plus.
In Conclusion
Auto-tune EFX is simply put the best value for money Auto-tune plugin available on the market. It has all the features and is laid out in the simplest way making it easy for everyone to use. If you are looking for a cheop way to do the signature T-Pain sound, then look no further. Hopeully the iLok does come with the retail versions because if so this would go down on my 100 things everyone producing music should own. Whether you love it or hate it, Auto-tune is here to stay so why not go out and get yourself a copy of this fantastic plugin today?
ANTARES AUTOTUNE EFX - U.K. International Cyberstore
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