Antares AutoTune 4 user manual

							33
Graphical Mode Controls
The Playback Controls
TRACK PITCH
The Track Pitch function is used to detect the pitch of
the audio to be processed so that it can be displayed on
the Pitch Graph Display.
Locate the desired audio and press the Track Pitch
button. Its LED will flash to indicate that Auto-Tune is
waiting for audio. Next, start playback of the audio.
(The Track Pitch LED will light steadily.) When all of the
audio you want to correct has played, stop playback.
Track Pitch is automatically deactivated and the detected pitch is displayed
on Pitch Graph Display.
NOTE: After tracking, the pitch display will automatically scale in such a
way as to include all of the tracked audio.
ANOTHER NOTE: If the length of the audio to be processed exceeds the
currently set size of the buffer as set in the Options dialog, playback
will stop when the buffer is full. If this happens, increase the buffer
size as necessary. 
						

							34
CORRECT PITCH
After you have used the graphical tools (as described
below) to create a target pitch contour, this button is
used to apply the pitch correction to the audio.
In all cases, pressing the Correct Pitch button and then
starting playback will cause the pitch correction to be
applied to the audio. In some host applications, starting
playback when the Pitch Graph contains any yellow pitch
correction contour will automatically engage the Correct Pitch function.
Check your Auto-Tune 4 Read Me file for details.
THE PITCH GRAPH DISPLAY
The Pitch Graph displays the pitch contour of the audio to be processed as
well as the target pitch contour objects that you create. On this display, the
vertical axis represents pitch (with higher notes towards the top) while the
horizontal axis represents time.
NOTE: As explained in the Options section, you can select from three
different color schemes for the Pitch Graph Display. In the descriptions
below we will refer to the colors that appear in the Classic scheme.
The red curve represents the original pitch contour of the input track, while
the desired target pitch or pitch contour is indicated in yellow. 
						

							35
The horizontal grid lines represent scale pitches. The key annotation, scale
name, scale pitches and Scale Detune value are those defined in the
Automatic Mode. They do not affect the computations of the Graphical
Mode in any way. They are merely a reference to guide you in drawing the
target pitches. If you wish to change them, select the Automatic Mode and
change the Key pop-up, Scale pop-up, or the Scale Detune setting, respec-
tively. (Changing the Scale Detune setting will also result in the scale pitch
graph lines moving up or down relative to the tracked pitch.) Then, return
to Graphical Mode.
PITCH GRAPH SCALE
The Pitch Graph Scale Buttons control the horizontal (time) and vertical
(pitch) scaling of the graph. Clicking the appropriate “+” button causes the
view to zoom in, while clicking a “-” button causes it to zoom out.
NOTE: The horizontal scale buttons always control the Pitch Graph.
They also control the Envelope Graph when it is set to “Tie” (see
below).
CURSOR PITCH DISPLAY
The exact pitch value of the cursor position on the Pitch Graph is constantly
displayed as a note name +/- cents. This display is always relative to the
currently selected scale (i.e., only scale notes will appear in the pitch
display).
THE ENVELOPE GRAPH DISPLAY
The Envelope Graph displays the amplitude (loudness) envelope of the
sound whose pitch is shown in the Pitch Graph.
ALL/TIE BUTTONS
The Envelope Graph’s horizontal (time) scale is controlled by the “All” and
“Tie” buttons.
Clicking the All button causes the envelope graph to display the entire time
scale represented by the current buffer setting. This is useful for locating
and selecting various portions of audio spread over the duration of a song.
Clicking the Tie button slaves the position of the Envelope Graph to that of
the Pitch Graph. When this setting is selected, the horizontal scale of the
Envelope Graph is controlled by the Pitch Graph horizontal scale buttons. 
						

							36
The Graphical Tools
The graphical tools are used in conjunction with the edit buttons to create
the desired target pitch contour.
NOTE: In addition to clicking on the various tools, if your host passes
key presses to plug-ins, you can also select the various tools by pressing
the number keys 1-7*.
* NOTE ALSO: Some hosts reserve the numeric keypad for host
keyboard shortcuts even when a plug-in window is active. For that
reason, the tool selection shortcuts mentioned above are specifically
assigned only to the number keys that appear above the letter keys
on the QWERTY portion of your keyboard.
THE LINE TOOL (1)
The Line Tool is used to draw multi-segment straight lines on the
Pitch Graph.
Start the process by selecting the Line Tool and clicking anywhere
on the Pitch Graph to set an anchor point. As you move the cursor, a line
will extend from the anchor point to the cursor position. Click again to set
a second anchor point and define the first segment of your pitch contour.
Continue clicking and defining lines until your contour is complete. End the
process by double-clicking on the final anchor point or pressing  on
your keyboard.
Pressing Option/Alt on your keyboard during line entry will force the
current segment to be perfectly horizontal.
Pressing the Shift key on your keyboard while drawing a line causes the line
to snap to the nearest semitone.
If you move the cursor outside the Pitch Graph during point entry, the
graph will automatically scroll.
To delete the last anchor point entered, press  on your keyboard
(you can do this repeatedly back to the very first anchor point).
Only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at any time point on
the Pitch Graph. When you complete the entry of a line object, any
object(s) that previously existed at the same time will be deleted. 
						

							37
THE CURVE TOOL (2)
The Curve Tool is used to draw arbitrary curves on the Pitch
Graph.
Start the process by selecting the Curve Tool and clicking any-
where on the Pitch Graph to set an anchor point. Hold down your mouse
button and move the cursor to draw the desired pitch contour curve. End
the process by releasing your mouse button.
Unlike the Line Tool, the Pitch Graph will not scroll if you attempt to move
the Curve Tool cursor outside the current display area.
Only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at any time point on
the Pitch Graph. When you complete the entry of a curve object, any
object(s) that previously existed at the same time will be deleted.
THE ARROW TOOL (3)
The Arrow Tool is used to select and drag existing target pitch
contour objects (yellow lines and curves) as well as to add or
delete anchor points to existing lines.
The Arrow Tool behaves as follows:
MANIPULATING LINES AND CURVES
•Clicking on the background of the Pitch Graph and dragging
horizontally selects objects’ anchor points. Shift-clicking extends the
selection.
•Dragging beyond the Pitch Graph boundaries automatically scrolls
the graph.
•Moving the Pointer Tool over a pitch contour object causes the
cursor to change to the object cursor (a horizontal bar).
Clicking on an unselected curve or line segment with the
object cursor causes the curve or segment and its anchor
points to become selected and allows that object to be
dragged. Clicking on an already selected curve or line
segment with the object cursor allows that object, along with
all other selected objects, to be dragged.
•Moving the Arrow Tool over a pitch contour object anchor
point (whether that point is currently selected or not) causes
the cursor to change into the anchor point cursor (four
diagonal arrows). Clicking on an anchor point with the
anchor point cursor deselects all other objects and anchor
points and selects that anchor point so that it can be
dragged. Dragging an anchor point stretches or compresses
the pitch contour object relative to the nearest unselected
anchor point(s).
•The extent to which you can drag selected objects is con-
strained by the position of neighboring unselected objects. 
						

							38
•In some host applications, holding down the Option/Alt key and
then clicking to drag will restrict the cursor to vertical
movements only (the cursor will change to indicate this
state). The effect of this is to allow you to modify the pitch
contour while preserving the object’s location in time. This
is particularly handy after using the “Make Curve” button,
discussed below.
•Clicking on the background of the Pitch Graph deselects all selected
objects.
ADDING AND DELETING ANCHOR POINTS
•Moving the Arrow Tool over an existing line segment and double-
clicking will add an intermediate anchor point at that point. The
cursor will change to the anchor point cursor and the new anchor
point can then be dragged.
•Moving the Arrow Tool over an existing anchor point (except for
end points) and double-clicking will remove that anchor point and
cause a straight line to be drawn between the now adjacent anchor
points.
•The Arrow Tool will not add or delete anchor points on curves, only
on lines created with the Line Tool.
The Arrow Tool has no function in the Envelope Display
While the above may seem a bit mind-boggling on first reading, in
practice it’s quite intuitive. Spend a minute or two playing with the
Arrow Tool and all will become clear.
SCISSORS TOOL (4):
Moving the Scissors Tool over an existing curve or line segment
and clicking will break the line segment or curve in two at the
point clicked. Although it will look like there is only one anchor
point created at the break point, there are actually two (one for
each of the two newly created line or curve segments). Simply use the
Arrow Tool to move the top anchor point to reveal the other one.
MAGNIFYING GLASS (5)
In the Pitch Graph, use the Magnifying Glass to click and drag a
box around an area of interest. Dragging off the Pitch Graph
automatically scrolls the graph. When you release the mouse
button, the scale and position of the Pitch Graph will be changed
to display the area enclosed by the box. 
						

							39
When the Magnifying Glass cursor is displaying the default “+”, clicking the
Magnifying Glass anywhere in the pitch display will increase the display’s
horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible).
Pressing Option(Mac)/Alt(PC) will cause the cursor to change to “-”. In this
state, clicking anywhere in the pitch display will decrease the display’s
horizontal and vertical zoom factors one step (if possible).
Dragging the Magnifying Glass in the Envelope display will cause the
selected time range to appear in the pitch display (most useful for navigat-
ing when the Envelope display is in “All” mode). The pitch range of the
pitch display will be automatically scaled such that all of pitch information
in that time range is visible on the screen.
I-BEAM TOOL (6)
Drag the I-beam Tool in either the pitch or Envelope display to
select an area for Make Curve or Make Auto or Vibrato Scaling
(see below). The selection area will be reflected in both displays.
HAND TOOL (7)
Drag the Hand Tool in any direction in the pitch display to move
the area displayed.
If the Envelope display is set to “Tie”, you can drag the Hand
Tool in the Envelope display to move the area displayed horizontally. If the
Envelope display is set to “All”, the Hand Tool icon will have an “X”
through it to indicate that movement is not possible.
THE EDIT BUTTONS
Once some audio has been tracked and/or pitch contour objects created,
they can be affected or edited in various ways with the Edit Buttons.
The Edit Buttons are context sensitive, i.e., only the buttons that are
applicable to the current state of the pitch display are active. If a particular
button does not have a valid function relative to the current pitch display
state, it will be “grayed out.”
THE UNDO BUTTON
The Undo button becomes active whenever you move or
modify a target pitch contour object. Clicking the Undo
button once will undo the most recent change. If you have
made multiple changes, you can continue to click Undo to undo additional
changes up to the limit that you set in the Options dialog. 
						

							40
THE REDO BUTTON
The Redo button becomes active whenever you have
executed at least one Undo. Clicking the Redo button once
will redo the most recent undone change. If you have
executed multiple undos, you can continue to click Redo to redo additional
changes up to the limit that you set in the Options dialog.
THE CUT AND COPY BUTTONS
The Cut and Copy buttons become active whenever a pitch
contour object is selected. Cut removes selected objects.
Both Cut and Copy copy selected objects to the Auto-Tune
4 clipboard. You can then paste the objects elsewhere in
the Pitch Graph display.
THE PASTE BUTTON
The Paste button becomes active whenever an object has
been Cut or Copied to the clipboard. Clicking Paste places
the contents of the clipboard in the center of the current
Pitch Graph view.
NOTE: Since only one pitch contour object (line or curve) can exist at
any time point on the Pitch Graph, any object(s) that previously existed
at the time where an object is Pasted will be deleted. Hence, before
you press Paste, be sure that the Pitch Graph view does not contain any
pitch contour object(s) that you want to keep.
THE SELECT ALL BUTTON
The Select All button causes all pitch contour objects,
whether currently visible on the Pitch Graph view or not, to
become selected.
KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS
Some host applications support the following keyboard command equiva-
lents for the above Edit Buttons. Others reserve these commands for their
own use. Consult your host application’s manual for details (or just try them
and see if they work).
Command/Control-Z undo
Command/Control-X cut
Command/Control-C copy
Command/Control-V paste
Command/Control-A select all 
						

							41
THE MAKE CURVE BUTTON
The Make Curve button is enabled whenever there is any
red input pitch contour data present in the Pitch Graph
(whether it is displayed in the current Pitch Graph view or
not). Pressing the Make Curve button causes yellow target pitch contour
objects (curves for short) to be created from the input pitch contour data.
These curve objects can then be dragged and stretched for very meticulous
pitch correction. This is the central technique of Auto-Tune 4’s Graphical
Mode and is described in more detail in Chapter 4.
NOTE: If a range of time has been selected by using the I-beam Tool,
the Make Curve button works only in the selected time range. Other-
wise it works on all red pitch data.
THE MAKE AUTO BUTTON
The Make Auto button is enabled whenever there is any red
input pitch contour data present in the Pitch Graph (whether
it is displayed in the current Pitch Graph view or not).
Pressing the Make Auto button causes yellow target pitch contour objects
(curves for short) to be created from the red input pitch contour data. The
yellow curve(s) created by the Make Auto function is a precise representa-
tion of the pitch correction that would result from processing the tracked
input pitch through the current settings of Auto-Tune 4’s Automatic Mode.
These include the Automatic Mode’s Key and Scale selections, the Edit Scale
settings, the Improved Targeting mode (if selected), and the Scale Detune,
Retune Speed and Vibrato settings.
NOTE: If a range of time has been selected by using the I-beam Tool,
the Make Auto button works only in the selected time range. Other-
wise it works on all red pitch data.
ANOTHER NOTE: If you are adding pitch variation using the Automatic
Mode’s Vibrato function, the variation in pitch will be visually reflected
in the yellow curve when you Make Auto.
However, since there is no easy way to visually represent specific
changes in amplitude or formant, if you have used the Automatic
Mode’s Vibrato function to introduce amplitude and/or formant
variation, the Make Auto curve will be blue rather than yellow to
remind you that these elements will be introduced into your Graphical
Mode output.
YET ANOTHER NOTE: The Automatic Mode Tracking control is not
involved in the Make Auto function. In Graphical Mode, the input pitch
has already been determined, (i.e., the red input pitch contour), hence
the Automatic Mode Tracking setting is not needed for the Make Auto
computation. 
						

							42
Once you have used the Make Auto function to create a yellow (or blue)
target pitch curve, setting the Graphical Mode Retune Speed to 0 and
clicking Correct Pitch will result in exactly the same output as you would
have gotten by processing the audio through Automatic Mode. Alterna-
tively, you can adjust the Retune Speed or further edit the yellow curve
using any of the Graphical Mode tools to get precisely the effect you want.
If you aren’t satisfied with the results of the Make Auto function, simply
switch to Automatic Mode, modify any of the settings as desired, and then
return to Graphical Mode and click Make Auto again.
NOTE: In addition to its use as a Graphical Mode correction tool, the
Make Auto function can also be used to provide an informative visual
representation of the results of Automatic Mode settings. If there are
times when you’d prefer to use Automatic Mode, but can’t quite zero
in on the ideal settings, examining the results of various settings with
the Make Auto function can give you a visual picture of exactly what’s
going on. This will often make it readily apparent which Automatic
Mode settings need to be changed to give your desired results.
STILL ANOTHER NOTE: One potentially confusing aspect of the Make
Auto function is the relationship between the Automatic Mode Retune
Speed setting and the Graphical Mode Retune Speed setting. To
summarize:
•The Automatic Mode Retune Speed controls how the input audio
would be processed in Automatic Mode. Changing this setting will
change the shape of the yellow curve that will be created by the
Make Auto function.
•The Graphical Mode Retune Speed controls how quickly the pitch of
the input audio will be changed to that of the yellow target pitch
curve by the Correct Pitch function. As mentioned above, to pre-
cisely duplicate the results of Automatic Mode, set the Graphical
Mode Retune Speed to 0.
VIBRATO SCALING
The purpose of this function is to
quickly and easily change (either
increasing or decreasing) the amount of
an existing vibrato, while preserving
the original shape and character of the
vibrato.
To use this function, select the I-beam
tool and highlight the range of audio
you’d like to edit. When a range of
audio is selected, the Make Vibrato
Curve button becomes active. Set the
desired amount of change using the
Scale Vibrato Amount knob and then click the Make Vibrato Curve button
to create a correction curve. Audition the result. If it’s not exactly what you
wanted, click Undo and try again.