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Antares ATR 1a
Friday, 14 July 2006 11:41The Antares ATR 1a could, in fact, turn out to be the smartest piece of gear I have ever invested in. It's a very powerful, extremely versatile "Intonation Processor" that can do pitch correction in real time.
Pitch correction? Yup. You tell it what scale(s), what notes, (even when, if you want) and it samples and analyzes the notes coming in, determines if it is within it's instructions, and then re-pitches it to the correct (or what it thinks is correct) note.
As one writeup said, it can't make a bad singer sound good, and as I determined yesterday, it probably won't make a track I really don't like into a final take, but MAN does it do it's job!! Little glitches and notes that I didn't sing right were MIRACULOUSLY tweaked into something that sounded just like me, but on pitch. The setup I was using to test it seemed to result in a smidgen of loss on the low end, but I think some pre or post EQ processing will restore that. AND it can be set at various degrees of sensitivity and speed so that the corrections can be less radical and the singer more natural with scoops and slides and, I heard it yesterday: yes, it does that AND corrects the pitches before they're audibly wrong.
(depending on the song, of course- each song will require custom settings to get maximum benefit and not turn my voice into a robot)
It's going to take some learning and listening and practice to learn to use this thing's full potential, but the payoffs will be recordings that I'll be able to truly market to the whole wide world.
OK, and now the accusations will come. If I use this to tweak my vocals , it will be cheating and people won't be hearing the "real" me. Hmm....
Well, for one thing, when I listen to the playback, and watch it's processing, I can clearly see that on alot of my tracks there's a hell of a lot that's right. And on the stuff that it fixed- I can only tell that I've been altered when I play the corrections ALONGSIDE the originals. Once I start releasing tracks that have been processed, I DEFY you to tell me which parts are processed and which parts are let thru untouched without some sort of "CSI" or "24" type spiffy forensic analysis. It's that good.
But back to cheating. A modern recording studio ain't like the old days where you might be locked in a room all day- to get it right before you get to stop. I had a chat with the co-producers of a local band's CD that alot of my friends bought. We traded studio war stories. They went and pitch-orrected fiddle parts AND time shifted guitar strumming that trailed the beat a smidgen too much. Did they cheat? You can't tell and I can't tell, and everyone who has their album loves it. There are performers in the world who make MEGABUCKS and studio and live sound engineers who are charged by their record companies to make sure that nothing goes wrong that the children can hear who use this device and others.
If they can use it, so can I.
And believe me, this will NOT end my quest to sing better. I am 100% committed to that, as the better I sing, the better my livelihood gets.
So I tested a theory yesterday and found I was not only on the right track, but on track to some astonishing results.
I set the thing to anaylse and correct a C scale, and then sang a C into it. (I also piped the sound back into the studio monitors so that I could hear it.) As the processor corrected the pitch to a true C, the voice coming out of the speakers mixed with my voice live made a wild chorusy sound with a standing wave beat that I was able to slow down as I tuned MY voice to the processed voice (just like tuning instruments or strings together). When I got the note right, the beating and chorusing ceased and my voice along with the voice in the speaker turned into one pure note.
So yes, I CAN use this processor as a practice tool.
And the results were astonishing.
When I started my scale exercise I would be off as much as 40hz (as measured by my tuner).
In 20 minutes, I got the error margin down to 10hz!
The same thing happened singing a song into it one note at a time.
40hz error margin down to 10hz in less than a half hour.
To get these results to last will take a lot of practice. But I think that the practice vs/ payoff time it going to accellerate beyond anything I've ever had so far.
My voice has improved alot over time, and I'm having more nights/gigs where I'm sounding really good. But those instances are not reliable or consistent enough for me yet.
I'm on the verge of a breakthru, but I've needed something beyond what I've had available to me as teaching tools.
I think this device is it.
It can fix tracks where I sound good but have pitch errors.
It can take tracks I love and make them even better.
It's probably going to eliminate the 18 hour sessions for vocal tracks and give me what I want in two or less.
And as a practice tool it's mind-bogglingly effective.
It's going to increase the output AND the quality of my work so that I can realistically record and release 2 CDs a year.
And these are going to sound much better than anything I've ever done which will lead to more sales AND more gigs.
And if I practice with it and use it, I will become more skilled, AND the quality of my vocals will concurrently increase as it helps me learn to sing better all around- causing me to need it less AND get better results from it when I do.
That's why I called it my Holy Grail.
And the smartest money I ever will have spent.
And if someone wants to tell me that's cheating,...
I'll just have to live without their approval.
Pitch correction? Yup. You tell it what scale(s), what notes, (even when, if you want) and it samples and analyzes the notes coming in, determines if it is within it's instructions, and then re-pitches it to the correct (or what it thinks is correct) note.
As one writeup said, it can't make a bad singer sound good, and as I determined yesterday, it probably won't make a track I really don't like into a final take, but MAN does it do it's job!! Little glitches and notes that I didn't sing right were MIRACULOUSLY tweaked into something that sounded just like me, but on pitch. The setup I was using to test it seemed to result in a smidgen of loss on the low end, but I think some pre or post EQ processing will restore that. AND it can be set at various degrees of sensitivity and speed so that the corrections can be less radical and the singer more natural with scoops and slides and, I heard it yesterday: yes, it does that AND corrects the pitches before they're audibly wrong.
(depending on the song, of course- each song will require custom settings to get maximum benefit and not turn my voice into a robot)
It's going to take some learning and listening and practice to learn to use this thing's full potential, but the payoffs will be recordings that I'll be able to truly market to the whole wide world.
OK, and now the accusations will come. If I use this to tweak my vocals , it will be cheating and people won't be hearing the "real" me. Hmm....
Well, for one thing, when I listen to the playback, and watch it's processing, I can clearly see that on alot of my tracks there's a hell of a lot that's right. And on the stuff that it fixed- I can only tell that I've been altered when I play the corrections ALONGSIDE the originals. Once I start releasing tracks that have been processed, I DEFY you to tell me which parts are processed and which parts are let thru untouched without some sort of "CSI" or "24" type spiffy forensic analysis. It's that good.
But back to cheating. A modern recording studio ain't like the old days where you might be locked in a room all day- to get it right before you get to stop. I had a chat with the co-producers of a local band's CD that alot of my friends bought. We traded studio war stories. They went and pitch-orrected fiddle parts AND time shifted guitar strumming that trailed the beat a smidgen too much. Did they cheat? You can't tell and I can't tell, and everyone who has their album loves it. There are performers in the world who make MEGABUCKS and studio and live sound engineers who are charged by their record companies to make sure that nothing goes wrong that the children can hear who use this device and others.
If they can use it, so can I.
And believe me, this will NOT end my quest to sing better. I am 100% committed to that, as the better I sing, the better my livelihood gets.
So I tested a theory yesterday and found I was not only on the right track, but on track to some astonishing results.
I set the thing to anaylse and correct a C scale, and then sang a C into it. (I also piped the sound back into the studio monitors so that I could hear it.) As the processor corrected the pitch to a true C, the voice coming out of the speakers mixed with my voice live made a wild chorusy sound with a standing wave beat that I was able to slow down as I tuned MY voice to the processed voice (just like tuning instruments or strings together). When I got the note right, the beating and chorusing ceased and my voice along with the voice in the speaker turned into one pure note.
So yes, I CAN use this processor as a practice tool.
And the results were astonishing.
When I started my scale exercise I would be off as much as 40hz (as measured by my tuner).
In 20 minutes, I got the error margin down to 10hz!
The same thing happened singing a song into it one note at a time.
40hz error margin down to 10hz in less than a half hour.
To get these results to last will take a lot of practice. But I think that the practice vs/ payoff time it going to accellerate beyond anything I've ever had so far.
My voice has improved alot over time, and I'm having more nights/gigs where I'm sounding really good. But those instances are not reliable or consistent enough for me yet.
I'm on the verge of a breakthru, but I've needed something beyond what I've had available to me as teaching tools.
I think this device is it.
It can fix tracks where I sound good but have pitch errors.
It can take tracks I love and make them even better.
It's probably going to eliminate the 18 hour sessions for vocal tracks and give me what I want in two or less.
And as a practice tool it's mind-bogglingly effective.
It's going to increase the output AND the quality of my work so that I can realistically record and release 2 CDs a year.
And these are going to sound much better than anything I've ever done which will lead to more sales AND more gigs.
And if I practice with it and use it, I will become more skilled, AND the quality of my vocals will concurrently increase as it helps me learn to sing better all around- causing me to need it less AND get better results from it when I do.
That's why I called it my Holy Grail.
And the smartest money I ever will have spent.
And if someone wants to tell me that's cheating,...
I'll just have to live without their approval.
