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 to say, “Bottom line, Auto-Tune is amazing...
Everyone with a Mac should have this program.” In fact, we know of quite a few people who bought kilo-buck ProTools systems just to be able to run Auto-Tune.
While Auto-Tune has met with tremendous success, we were immediately barraged with requests for a self-contained “Auto-Tune-in-a-box.” The result is the ATR-1a which you have presumably just purchased.
So what exactly is it?
The ATR-1a is a rack-mountable hardware implementation of Antares’s Auto-Tune pitch correcting software. Like Auto-Tune, the ATR-1a employs state-of-the-art digital signal processing algorithms (many, interestingly enough, drawn from the geophysical industry) to continuously detect the pitch of a periodic input signal (typically a solo voice or instrument) and instantly and seamlessly change it to a desired pitch (defined by any of a number of user-programmable scales).
In addition, the ATR-1a, befitting its easy portability, includes a number of new features that make it particularly powerful in live performance situations. These include a new Song Mode that lets the ATR-1a follow even the most complex harmonic song structures, foot switch control of Scale selection and Bypass Mode, as well as MIDI control of every ATR-1a parameter.