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©2000 Antares Audio Technologies. All Rights Reserved. Antares Audio Technologies 231 Technology Circle, Scotts Valley, California 95066 USA voice: (831) 461 7800 fax: (831) 461 7801 service: (831) 461 7814 web: www.antarestech.com Printed in USA Rev 1.0-10/00
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Contents Getting Started Welcome 5 Tech Support 6 A few words from Dr. Andy 7 Introducing the ATR-1a Chapter 1 Background 9 So what exactly is it? 9 A little bit about pitch 10 Some pitch terminology 10 How the ATR-1a determines pitch 11 How the ATR-1a corrects pitch 12 Program Mode vs. Song Mode 13 Setting Up the ATR-1a Chapter 2 Setting up the ATR-1a 15 Panel Controls and Chapter 3 Connectors Front panel 17 Back panel 19 Display Screens and Chapter 4 Menu Pages Flash screen 20 Mode pages 20 Pr
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Program Name page 27 Save Program page 27 Song Edit pages 27 Song Speed page 28 Song Items page 28 Song Vibrato page 29 Song Name page 30 Save Song page 30 System Edit pages 30 Bass Mode page 31 Sensitivity and LCD page 31 Foot Switch and Detune page 32 MIDI page 1 33 MIDI page 2 34 MIDI page 3 35 MIDI page 4 35 MIDI page 5 36 Owner Message page 36 Creative Applications Chapter 5 37 Appendix Factory Programs 40 Scale and Chord Guides 41 MIDI SysEx message formats 44 MIDI SysEx message examples 4
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Welcome! On behalf of everyone at Antares Audio Technologies, we’d like to offer both our thanks and congratulations on your decision to purchase the absolute best intonation correction hardware in the world. Before you proceed much farther, we’d like to strongly encourage you to fill out and return the ATR-1a registration card. As an ATR-1a owner, you are entitled to receive notification of any firmware upgrades, technical support, and advance announcements of upcoming products. But we can’t se
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Technical Support In the unlikely event that you experience a problem using your ATR-1a, try the following: 1. Make another quick scan through this manual. Who knows? You may have stumbled onto some feature that you didn’t notice the first time through. 2. Check our web page for tips, techniques, or any late-breaking information: www.antarestech.com 3. Call your local Antares dealer. 4. Call us at (831) 461-7814 Monday through Friday between 9am and 5pm USA Pacific Standard Time. 5. Email us at:
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A few words from Dr. Andy I remember, as if it were yesterday, sitting in my junior high school band, happily playing away on my flute, when I noticed that our conductor was screaming and jumping up and down on the podium. What was this about? Suddenly, I realized she was screaming at me. And just in time too — since I was able to duck and watch a baton fly past my head, missing me by inches. “Why [expletive] can’t you play in tune?” she asked. But I was in tune. Everybody else was out of tune.
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Chapter 1: Introducing the ATR-1a Some background In 1997, Antares first introduced the ground-breaking Auto-Tune Pitch Correcting Plug-In for ProTools™ (followed a bit later by the VST and stand-alone versions). Here was a tool that actually corrected the pitch of vocals and other solo instruments, in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all of the expressive nuance of the original performance. Recording Magazine called Auto-Tune a “Holy Grail of recording.” And went on
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A little bit about pitch Pitch is typically associated with our perception of the “highness” or “lowness” of a particular sound. Our perception of pitch ranges from the very general (the high pitch of hissing steam, the low pitch of the rumble of an earthquake) to the very specific (the exact pitch of a solo singer or violinist). There is, of course, a wide range of variation in the middle. A symphony orchestra playing a scale in unison, for example, results in an extremely complex waveform, yet
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Pitches are often described relative to one another as intervals, or ratios of frequency. For example, two pitches are said to be one octave apart if their frequencies differ by a factor of two. Pitch ratios are measured in units called cents. There are 1200 cents per octave. For example, two tones that are 2400 cents apart are two octaves apart. The traditional twelve-tone Equal Tempered Scale that is used (or rather approximated) in 99.9% of all Western tonal music consists of tones that are,
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How the ATR-1a corrects pitch The ATR-1a works by continuously tracking the pitch of an input sound and comparing it to a user-defined scale. The scale tone closest to the input is continuously identified. If the input pitch exactly matches the scale tone, no correction is applied. If the input pitch varies from the desired scale pitch, an output pitch is generated which is closer to the scale tone than the input pitch. (The exact amount of correction is controlled by the Speed parameter, descri
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An example As an example, consider this before-and-after graphic representation of the pitch of a vocal phrase that contains both vibrato and expressive gestures. CORRECTED BY ATR-1 ORIGINAL PERFORMANCE In the original performance, we can see that although the final note should be centered around D, the vocalist allowed the tail of the note to fall nearly three semitones flat. The “after” plot is the result of passing this phrase through the ATR-1a with a Program consisting of a D Major and
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If a performance is quite close to begin with and only requires minor correction (i.e., never more that 50 cents), it’s often sufficient to simply choose the Chromatic scale, set Speed to about 10 and leave it there. If you are working in the studio to correct an already recorded track, you might use Program Mode to deal with the track one section at a time, stoping to change Programs between sections. Song Mode Song Mode offers a more elaborate set of controls primarily designed to facilitate t
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Chapter 2: Setting Up the ATR-1a Setting up the ATR-1a is a very straightforward. 1. Find a suitable location. The ATR-1a is designed to be mounted in a standard 19-inch equipment rack. 2. Confirm that the included power supply is correct for the electricity in your part of the world. If you are not sure, or the power supply has a plug that is incompatible with your wall sockets, contact your local Antares dealer for help. Important! Do not attempt to modify the supply or use any other supply th
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An Important Note About Monitoring: If the ATR-1a is used to pitch- correct an artist’s performance in real time, it is very important that the performer is able to monitor their original signal, not the pitch-corrected signal. Trying to react musically to the processed signal will drive them crazy and, in most cases, drive them farther off pitch. 16
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Chapter 3: Panel Controls and Connectors As you have almost certainly noticed, the ATR-1a has relatively few controls. We’ll cover them here. 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 The Front Panel 1 Non-existent Power Switch That’s right. There isn’t one. The ATR-1a is designed to remain on continuously. You can, of course, plug it in to a switched power strip or power conditioner if you like, but leaving it on all the time will do it no harm. 2 LCD An easy-to-read 20 character by 2 line display. You can set the
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7 SYSTEM Button Press this button to set various parameters that affect the ATR-1a’s overall functionality (MIDI response, LCD contrast, etc.) The accompanying LED lights to remind you that you are in System Edit Mode. When the LED is lit, press the SYSTEM buttom again to exit the System Edit Mode. 8 BYPASS Button Press the Bypass button to pass audio through the ATR-1a without any pitch correction or other processing. Switching the Bypass state will not cause any audio artifacts, so it can be u
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1 2 3 4 5 The Back Panel 1 AC POWER INPUT Plug the 7-pin DIN connector from the included power supply in here. Do NOT use a supply which is not expressly intended for the ATR-1a (even if you could find one with the that weird plug on it). Bad things could happen. 2 MIDI IN Connect the MIDI Out from a MIDI keyboard, sequencer, or other MIDI source in here. 3 FOOT SWITCH Plug in a foot switch here. A 1/4-inch TS (tip-sleeve) plug is required. There are two varieties of foot switch: those that are
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Chapter 4: Display Screens and Menu Pages Flash Screen ATR-1a version 1.3 ATR-1a Processor The Flash Screen appears for a few moments after the ATR-1a is powered on. The first line displays the firmware version. The second line can display any message that will fit in 20 characters. As it comes from the factory, the ATR-1a displays the rather unimaginative message above. However, you can create your own (much more clever) message in one of the SYSTEM pages (see page 36). Mode Pages The ATR-1a o
