Karaoke Forums

This effect is hugely popular in the music industry and studio recording. Example? Cher. Has anyone used it for karaoke? You can get it in a rack mount for about $450. I may add this little toy eventually, but I'm down to one gig right now so it wouldn't be worth it at this point. Check it out here:

http://www.antarestech.com/products/avp.shtml[/url]

That's a better unit to have

http://www.tc-helicon.com/voiceworks.asp

The Auto-Tune VST plugin is more popular in studio's

I've got the tc-helicon voiceworks also.
What sold me was that it has a bypass function, easy to use knobs and settings, AND you can use it as a megaphone/telephone/robot/synth - vocoder as well as autotune, plus combinations of all of the above. My next project is to plug my guitar into it and use it as a talkbox. It's very small (the size of a guitar foot pedal) and very solidly built. The price was under $250. I love getting the singers vocals to sound just like the recorded version, and this is a cool little effect to help with that. The singers that sing these newer songs really appreciate it too. The only bummer is that you need to know what key the song is in and set it to that, but that is easy to find. I haven't set it up for the auto key detect yet, but it has that as a feature.

Kevin

what do u think of antares atr1 or atr1a?

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:angel:

You must have the Voicetone Synth, not Voiceworks. Voiceworks is a rack unit.

I also have the Voicetone Synth. Lots of fun!

I've got a few rack mount processors around i've fiddled with over the years.. thought it would be funny to make myself sound like a robot or mickey mouse or whatever between songs during announcements.

People just either didn't get it or didn't notice or care.

I can see playing with an Auto Tune thing being fun for a night or two.. but I doubt it would be anything that you'd find yourself using regularly, unless you had a lot of people wanting to sing OMG or Life After Love night after night.

So unless the rig you picked up had a bunch of other effects that you would use night after night (compressor/limiter/reverbs/etc) it sounds like a bunch of money wasted.

hence why i asked what u all think about the antares atr or atr1 since it has more use than just autotune?

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:angel:

I don't have direct experience but read that that while Antares is the father of Autotune, that unit is difficult to use in a live situation and best left to the recording studio.

I'm almost thinking that simply the auto-tune feature, even without it turned up high for the "vocal effect" would come in handy for all the tone deaf singers. How nice would it be to hear an improvement in regulars that you know can't sing?

The thing of it is, as pitchy as some of the tone-deaf divas are, this is what you'd wind up with.

http://www.barelypolitical.com/autotune

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Dave's not here.

But if they started to sound better coming out of the speakers, they might turn into diva's who no longer drink and just eat the free pretzels. You better keep them sounding terrible so they will keep drinking.

It doesn't work that way unfortunately. In fact when you sing with one of these boxes you have to train yourself to NOT listen to the mains or it will seriously mess you up. You simply cannot add it to an unsuspecting singer unless they have monitors you can do a mix-minus with. It's hard to describe unless you have actually tried it.

I know my system and voice...but even so it messes with me. Imagine you are singing a note, but what comes out of the speaker is another note, so your brain tells you to alter the pitch, and when you do, it corrects, so you correct, etc. You end up fighting with the correction. When these boxes are used in the studio or live, the singer hears only HIS dry voice. Only the audience here's the actual effect. Its the only way to do it right.

Still, it's a lot of fun IF you can mentally block out the mains. Done right you only hear your "head voice" and everyone else hears the T-Pain effect.

Sorry I was mistaken, I have the Synth, which is the small unit.
It's only a gimmick effect, and best used sparingly. Like I said, it works great with the newer songs from the charts that also use that same effect, like T-Pain songs. I also like the distorted/megaphone and telephone effects that it does. It's perfect for when the song calls for it - like Smooth by Rob Thomas/Santana.

well 199 on ebay isnt a bad steal for a fun effect unit as a pedal /////




:p





cheers

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:angel:

I could see using AutoTune, the AVP-1 or the ATR-1 specifically for the purposes of creating the "T-Pain" or "Cher" vocal effects. Basically, that's a pitch corrector with everything set to the extremes so that it creates that tone. However, if you're going to attempt to use the plug-in or either hardware version for the purpose they were originally designed for (which would be Pitch Correction) I can tell you right now don't waste your time and money.

When producing a recording and using the AutoTune plugin in Pro-Tools, it can take an hour or better just to get the thing dialed in to the point where it works but isn't audible. It's a lot of trial and error even with singers your familiar with. To try and set it on the fly for each singer at a Karaoke show would be completely absurd. It would likely be more detrimental than helpful.

Even when attempting to replicate T-Pain's or Cher's goofy mechanical vocal sound, you do need to adjust for each singer. This is definitely not a set it and forget it piece that you can just add to your arsenal. You're going to need to take some serious time to get used to using it and understanding how vocal pitch, vibrato and harmonics all affect the operation of the pitch correctors.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

You should try this pedal.

Used a Ring Modulator back in the 80's.
It was fantastic at kids discos.
Would like one again, it was fun.
Would not use it for a karaoke song though.
Just diaologue between tracks.

It's a great Ice breaker at a new venue.

I have an AVP-1 in my rack and a separate Mic to use with it. If you do get one, I agree with Bazza that you need a separate feed bypassing the AVP-1 for the singer's monitor (or better yet - headphones). If a singer hears the "corrected" pitch from the house speakers, it usually just screws them up worse.

I only use it on fairly good singera that only need minor pitch corrections. It just doesn't work to make a bad singer good, in fact it makes them worse!

Also I have found that the T-Pain effect is not that great from the unit running live. It sounds more like distortion than the computer synthesis effect. A singer must learn to "play" the microphone like an instrument to achieve the desired effects. I've used it with some Kanye West songs, and Only God Knows Why by Kid Rock.

The best way to get the desired effect is to feed in a MIDI file for each song that sets the target pitch for each note.

I prefer the Autotune VST plugin to edit songs after being recorded.