Antares Announces Auto-Tune 3

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Antares Audio Technologies today announced Auto-Tune 3, a new version of their award-winning real-time pitch correction plug‹in designed to work with TDM, RTAS, MAS, VST and DirectX compatible digital audio applications.

Hailed by the audio press as a "Holy Grail of recording," Auto-Tune has become the worldwide standard for professional pitch correction and one of the world's best-selling audio plug-ins. Like previous versions of Auto-Tune, Auto-Tune 3 provides the ability to correct the pitch of a voice or solo instrument in real time, without distortion or artifacts, while preserving all of the expressive nuance of the original performance. Auto-Tune 3 includes an Automatic Mode for real-time pitch correction as well as a Graphical Mode that displays the pitch envelope of the audio to be corrected along with a selection of graphical tools that allow precise manipulation of the performance's pitch.

Chief among Auto-Tune 3's new features are its "Source Specific" pitch detection and correction algorithms. As a result of Antares research into the unique characteristics of various types of audio signals, Auto-Tune 3 offers a selection of optimized processing algorithms for the most commonly pitch-corrected inputs.

Choices include Soprano Voice, Alto/Tenor Voice, Baritone/Bass Voice, Instrument, and Bass Instrument. Matching the appropriate algorithm to the input results in even faster and more accurate pitch detection and correction.

Other key new features of Auto-Tune 3 include:

• Phase-coherent pitch correction of stereo tracks.
• A Bass Mode that lowers the lowest detectable frequency by about one octave to 25Hz. Since the lowest E string on a bass guitar is approximately 41Hz, Bass Mode allows the user to apply pitch correction to fretless bass lines as well as other low bass range instruments.
• The ability to set target pitches in real-time via MIDI from a keyboard or sequencer track.
• A new Make Scale From MIDI function for occasions when it is not clear exactly what key a melody line is in, or where the line has too many accidentals to fit comfortably into a conventional scale. For those occasions, the Make Scale From MIDI function allows the user to simply play the line from a MIDI keyboard or sequencer and let Auto-Tune 3 construct a custom scale containing only those notes that appear in the line.
• High sample rate (88.2kHz, 96kHz) compatibility
• Enhanced MIX chip usage efficiency for more instantiations per MIX chip (TDM only)
• AudioSuite version (TDM only)
• A spiffy new user interface

"With literally tens of thousands of Auto-Tune users out there, we've gotten a lot of great feedback about what additional functionality they'd like to see in the program," said Marco Alpert, Antares Vice President of Marketing. "Auto-Tune 3 not only offers virtually everything they've asked for, but some additional features that we feel will make the pitch correction process even easier and more transparent."

Auto-Tune 3 will be available in early 2001 at a U.S. MSRP of $599.00 (TDM), $399.00 (MAS, RTAS, VST) and $299.00 (DirectX). Upgrades are available to current registered Auto-Tune users.

For more information, visit their web site at www.antarestech.com.