Quantized pitch correction (auto tune) - stompboxable?

[bwanasonic]

I was playing around with the quantized pitch correction (enhance tuning) in Garageband, and found it yields some pretty cool effects with guitar. Are there any stompbox style units that can do this type of effect? Even a funky *lo-fi* version might be fun.

Kerry M

[gez]

Excuse my ignorance Kerry, but what does it do exactly?

[puretube]

a PLL circuit (4046) could give similar sounding FX - though not "correction", but rather "de-tunings"...

[d95err]

Auto tune effects require higly complex digital processing. Way beyond the scope of a DIY project.

[MartyMart]

Auto tune effects require higly complex digital processing. Way beyond the scope of a DIY project.

Hmm, well there's one way of doing this ...

Buy a Mac/PC laptop - £1000
Buy a copy of "Antares Auto tune" - which is very intelligent "pitch correction"| with formant shaping - £300
Buy some "Music" creation software to run it on - £200-£700
A simple soundcard with the relevant i/o - £200

If the laptop is fast enough, you can "process" live through the plugin and
have a lot of fun  !!

So, about £1,500 to £2,400 should do it !! ......  :shock:

..... or buy the rack version, which is about £1000 .... bargain !

Autotune, is not only great for making an average vocalist seem very
good ( pitch wise anyway! ) but is great on monophonic lines of any
description. in particular keeping a bass part in perfect "tune" !!

Marty.

[StephenGiles]

:roll:  :roll:  :roll:  :roll:
Stephen :roll:

[nelson]

Effects are one thing.....but autotune.........sorta takes away the "talent" "musicianship" and randomness that makes good live music great. I imagine it sucks the life out of recordings aswell......If I wanted to listen to "live" perfect music I would listen to a "DJ". Digital effects can go too far......

[Rodgre]

Effects are one thing.....but autotune.........sorta takes away the "talent" "musicianship" and randomness that makes good live music great. I imagine it sucks the life out of recordings aswell......If I wanted to listen to "live" perfect music I would listen to a "DJ". Digital effects can go too far......

Going way off topic here, but on one hand, I think that things like pitch correction and cut-and-paste editing is just one of the many things that makes contemporary commercial music so unpalatable, but I will say that as an engineer/producer, technology is just a tool to the user. Don't blame autotune for bad music.

I always think it's kind of funny when people say that things like Autotune is cheating and sucks the life out of music, when if you really think about it, pretty much EVERYTHING about recording is cheating. That overdub? That punch in? That comp of twelve vocal takes that STILL needs to be tuned? If you look at it that way, hell, even compression is cheating.  If you wonder if Autotune sucks the life out of music....well, I kind of think that most commercial music has no life to suck to begin with, but that's just me and I'm an indie snob  By the way, if you want to know what Autotune sounds like, I would estimate that 99% of everything you've heard on a major label (and especially on the radio) in the last six or seven years has been autotuned.

Kerry, I know what you're talking about, and I think that's just the sort of thinking that makes something like Autotune useful in a whole new and unintended way.

I don't know of anything other than using the Autotune or TC pitch corrector rack that will do that effect, and I certainly don't know of anything DIY. I am surprised that Alesis hasn't made a Mod-FX version of it for $40.  One DSP chip and a couple of jacks....

Roger

[nelson]

OT still.


It isnt responsible for bad music but it certainly makes otherwise talentless hacks mainstream successes, at the detriment of true musicians and artists.


But then again, I am an indie snob too.

[MartyMart]

OT still.


It isnt responsible for bad music but it certainly makes otherwise talentless hacks mainstream successes, at the detriment of true musicians and artists.


But then again, I am an indie snob too.

Yes, in the most part I agree, the music biz in the UK has become a route
for "TV" stars to have a crappy "pop" career ..... If your not on TV, then
chances are that you dont have enough :profile" to make it .... SAD !!

But on the other hand, I was recording an "Indie" band recently and I'm
afraid that their gear/chops were not up to much ( great music though)
so "autotune" was very handy for "tuning" a nice monophonic gtr line, that was  otherwise unusable !!!   .... no "Life" was removed at all BTW!!

LEARN TO TUNE  A GTR  !!!! grrr  

Marty.

[bwanasonic]

Excuse my ignorance Kerry, but what does it do exactly?

In the context I'm talking about, it does something similar to the way a guitar synth tracks when set to quantize pitch. Wiggle/bend a string about, and you get a piano-like gliss instead of a bent note. It rounds up/down to the nearest semi-tone of the key you specify. Aside from making the latest boy band (or Green Day) sound like they're actually singing in tune, these effects can make for some really interesting vocal *deconstruction*. See Mouse On Mars Radical Connector or Bob Scheneider's I have Seen The End Of The World... ( www.bobschneidermusic.com - check out "Dolphins" for an example). I guess what I am interested in is, instead of using this effect to make things sound "right", I want to use it to make things sound "wrong" :twisted:


Kerry M

[j.frad]

hey you could try the trem tuna from this site: http://www.angelfire.com/yt3/redtele/redtelectronix.html
the site has been cited on another thread , it's got other kinds of funny pedals...

[JimRayden]

But on the other hand, I was recording an "Indie" band recently and I'm
afraid that their gear/chops were not up to much ( great music though)
so "autotune" was very handy for "tuning" a nice monophonic gtr line, that was  otherwise unusable !!!   .... no "Life" was removed at all BTW!!

LEARN TO TUNE  A GTR  !!!! grrr  

Marty.

You devil, you... Now I have to kill you for turning your back to the music. I would of told the guys practice some more and then come recording. But I understand it's your job to record bands and make them sound better than they actually do. So I forgive you.

I personally HATE when this effect is heavily used on vocals and when it makes the vocals all pixelated and squarey. I turn the song off and go beat my head on the wall for a few minutes.  :roll:

I've never heard it used on guitars before. I wonder what it would do for full chords...

----------
Jimbo

PS: These things are really REALLY pi$$ing me off. If you can make anyone sing in tune and become a star, there's no point in having a talent. Well, all the songs are written by the producer anyway, then you record it with lots of hassle and on gigs you move your mouth. Sorry. I'm bringing the MTV-topic here too. Ignore this post scriptum.

[Rodgre]

You know Kerry, this isn't exactly the same, but if you use an old Roland GM-70 guitar-to-midi converter, and trigger some interesting sound, it will do the choppy half-step pitch thing, instead of gliding smoothly from note to note.

Not a solution, but another interesting effect.

Roger

[Vsat]

Conceptually similar to the GR-30 method mentioned above, if you want to do a bunch of soldering:

You need:
a) a pitch to voltage converter with a one volt/oct output. Perhaps similar to Korg MS-03.

b) a quantizer that rounds off the
output of a) to the nearest 1/12 volt. Most often based on ADC feeding DAC. Elektor magazine showed one circuit.

c) a voltage controlled oscillator with a one volt/oct response. This replaces the guitar signal.

Basically build a guitar synth with a quantizer. Lots of parts, will only process one string at a time unless you have hex pickup, and will have the tracking problems that most guitar synths suffer from, unless you can come up with a new technique for fundamental extraction.
Cheers, Mike