How about a low latency AutoTune Evo RTAS version?

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Permalink Reply by mnml_music on December 15, 2009 at 12:03pm

Welcome to the board, Jason. All versions of Auto Tune have latency because the plug-ins cannot process the frequency of the incoming audio until at least half a cycle has passed. That's just the nature of the plug-in. As far as Auto Tune Evo, it has a much more transparent algorithm than previous versions so you're sacrificing latency for better quality processing.

Most hosts now-in-days have delay compensation. Pro Tools HD happens to be one of those hosts. It was left out of Pro Tools LE to give you more reason to upgrade but you can still adjust the audio manually. The grip with latency should no longer be associated with the plug-in manufacturer-- the technology is out there to make-up for this so plug-in manufacturers should not be worried about latency (unless for live applications).

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Permalink Reply by Jason Atkinson on December 15, 2009 at 12:32pm

Thanks for the reply. I have to bring up this point again: AutoTune 5 added "zero" samples of latency. I could quickly put it on any vocal track in Pro Tools LE for "set-n-forget" mild chromatic pitch correction. No latency was added. Nothing to adjust or compensate for. Why is it different in Evo? Does it have to do some "look ahead" like brickwall limiter plugins? This is easily verifiable on any track. When I place Evo on a Pro Tools LE track, there is 1360 samples of latency. When I place version 5 on a track, it shows "zero" samples of latency delay.

Even if a DAW has latency compensation, you really shouldn't use it while tracking, as things will land where they really shouldn't. At least in Pro Tools HD, it is highly advisable to track without compensation for accuracy, and to generally avoid using plugins with high latencies while tracking. Then really only use compensation once you are at the final mix stage and are utilizing high latency plugins.

Your thoughts?

Thank you for taking the time to answer my original post.

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Permalink Reply by Lucas on December 15, 2009 at 2:05pm

All the neat pitch detection and shifting in Auto-Tune is done by way of a phase vocoder, a fairly minimal operation as you saw with Auto-Tune 5. That process has gotten a bit more robust in Auto-Tune Evo, but the real reason for the latency is the new formant modeler. When you decide to pass an audio signal through a digital model of the human vocal tract, things get complicated in a hurry, hence the 1300 or so samples. As the above reply states, the power of modern DAWs means this is only really a concern when you are doing live monitoring.

If you want quick, dirty, and low latency, you might want to look at Auto-Tune EFX. A bit more restrictive than Auto mode of Auto-Tune Evo, but completely usable for live monitoring.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Atkinson on December 15, 2009 at 2:38pm

Thank you for the info Lucas, I appreciate it. I'll keep using version 5 for the low latency use when needed. Once version 5 becomes too old for compatibility, I may consider the EFX version for low latency use.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

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Permalink Reply by Mikko Raita on September 10, 2010 at 12:27am

Shouldn't EFX be included with EVO free of charge, especially with EVO being the resource hog it is? Most companies that create LE versions that have situational benefit over the full version do this I'd say.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Chase on March 28, 2010 at 6:06am

EVO is a processor hog, too, in addition to its latency issues.

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Permalink Reply by mnml_music on March 29, 2010 at 8:06am

More processing is necessary when you have Formant Control turned on. If you are not using Formant Control, turn it off to save on CPU.

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Permalink Reply by roger Mason on May 8, 2010 at 7:23am

yeah AGREE! this 1360 is killing me

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