Microtonal Capabilities of Autotune

I just sent this to rec.audio.pro, and then (duh!) realized that I'd probably
get better luck on the tuning list:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have any of you used Antares' Autotune to retune to microtonal tunings?

I'm wondering if it can be made to tune to a nonoctave tuning, that is one that
doesn't have any two pitches one or more octaves apart, like W. Carlos' Alpha,
Beta, and Gamma tunings.

A friend who has explored Autotune a little, but not enough to know the answer
for sure, says that you can establish a table of up to 60 pitches, but he isn't
sure if those are required to repeat within an octave or what.

If I can establish a table of 60 pitches that (by necessity) repeat every, 4, 5,
or more octaves, rather than being required to duplicate that pattern every 1
octave, that would probably be OK. That would be OK by virtue of just simply
never using the multi-octave repetitions, and just using it as a table of 60
pitches within the range of the instrument being retuned. If, however, those 60
pitches inherently repeat every octave, then I don't think there'll be enough
value in buying Autotune for my immediate purposes.

Thanks for the info!

Gary,

Hi!

I use this as a DX Plugin quite a bit, and it is a wonderful way to
bring parts into tune, but it really works the best with monophonic
lines - and using it on complex timbres will make you have to really
make some fine settings in order to avoid introducing artifacts into
your sounds. I have never tried to use it in the way that you
describe, but I know that it does in fact have a some of the Wendy
Carlos scales in there as presets.

The primary thing that I've used it for is to bring vocal parts into
tune - to simple JI, before I blend them together for the final
mixdown. It is really amazing how well it work with vocals. One
interesting thing is that it can be configured to ignore a gliss in a
sound and only tune the sustained notes - this makes vocal chords
sound very much in tune. It is not uncommon for me to overdubb up to
a dozen separate vocal parts together in a harmony.

Another of the most important things I've found I can do with this is
to make a very long sample of the lowest note that a given woodwind
can play, then use this plugin to iron out the pitch to make it
perfectly in tune as the note evolves over time. I use these kinds of
samples in my Akai S3000xl sampler, so that I don't have to loop the
sample. This gives much greater realism - much more than my "sample
playback" modules (like my Roland Sound Canvas). You can hear an
example of this on my piece on the Tuning Punks Page on MP3.com
called "The 4th Order". The flute there was tuned with Autotune.

My feeling is that it'll really make you work hard to get good
results with what you are wanting to do with it.

Good Day!

Jacky

--- In tuning@egroups.com, Gary Morrison <MR88CET@T...> wrote:
> I just sent this to rec.audio.pro, and then (duh!) realized that
I'd probably
> get better luck on the tuning list:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
>
> Have any of you used Antares' Autotune to retune to microtonal
tunings?
>
> I'm wondering if it can be made to tune to a nonoctave tuning, that
is one that
> doesn't have any two pitches one or more octaves apart, like W.
Carlos' Alpha,
> Beta, and Gamma tunings.
>
> A friend who has explored Autotune a little, but not enough to know
the answer
> for sure, says that you can establish a table of up to 60 pitches,
but he isn't
> sure if those are required to repeat within an octave or what.
>
> If I can establish a table of 60 pitches that (by necessity) repeat
every, 4, 5,
> or more octaves, rather than being required to duplicate that
pattern every 1
> octave, that would probably be OK. That would be OK by virtue of
just simply
> never using the multi-octave repetitions, and just using it as a
table of 60
> pitches within the range of the instrument being retuned. If,
however, those 60
> pitches inherently repeat every octave, then I don't think there'll
be enough
> value in buying Autotune for my immediate purposes.
>
> Thanks for the info!

Gary Morrison wrote:

> Have any of you used Antares' Autotune to retune to microtonal tunings?
>
> I'm wondering if it can be made to tune to a nonoctave tuning, that is one that
> doesn't have any two pitches one or more octaves apart, like W. Carlos' Alpha,
> Beta, and Gamma tunings.

I use it at work (as an audio engineer) when I have to. I hate messing with a musician's
intonation unless it's obviously necessary. That said, it's completely flexible within the 60
pitch limit. In fact, it has the Partch Diamond, Carlos' tunings, and many other famous
microtunings as factory presets. It does microtones as well as it does 12t-ET. When I tune
background and harmony vocals with it, I usually set it to a JI tuning (diatonic, generally).

As Jacky pointed out, the primary limitation of it, which is likely to be a limitation of any
real-time pitch altering software in the near future, is that it only works on monophonic
tracks. (Of course, you could use it on polyphonic tracks, but not with predictable results!)
And as with any pitch processor, the less distance it has to move a pitch, the more natural the
output is going to sound. Technically, you could take a 12t-ET performance of any solo line
and force it to any other tuning, even a non-repeating one. But you'd do much better to
perform each track as near the intended tuning as possible to start with, then use Autotune to
correct things by a few cents here and there, where necessary to avoid sounding "out."

Jacky Ligon wrote:
> to make a very long sample of the lowest note that a given woodwind
> can play, then use this plugin to iron out the pitch to make it
> perfectly in tune as the note evolves over time.

Jacky, that's ingenious! Thanks for the tip.

The very best thing about Autotune, beyond a doubt, is that you can use it to make anyone sound
like Cher or Kid Rock! PHTHphthphth....

--
David J. Finnamore
Nashville, TN, USA
http://members.xoom.com/dfinn.1
--

Thanks for the reply, Jacky and David.

David, you said that "it's completely flexible within the 60 pitch limit." By
that do you mean that it has a 60-pitch table, period, with no implied
repetitions in octaves, double-octaves, or any other interval?

If I'm limited to 60 pitches, that'll be fine at least for now, provided that
they don't define those 60 pitches as 60 pitches PER OCTAVE. If they don't
force any octave repetition, I'm OK with it.