What do you use to tune your samples?

[Doug Marshall]

Does a tuner plug-in exist which works well for tuning samples? I\'m using Sound Forge and currently use the pitch function and an external hardware tuner. Is there a plug-in that will do the whole deal in one shot - maybe even with different temperaments? Thanks for any suggestions. - Doug

[Doug Marshall]

Thanks for the tip, timzydee. I downloaded the Antares demo and it does seem to work. In my situation I don\'t want to repair any out-of-tuneness on the attacks or even any slight wavering of the pitch because it\'s considered part of the \"charm.\" I\'ll have to spend some time with the software to make sure it isn\'t overly \"enthusiastic\" in its corrections. - Doug

[timzydee]

Auto-Tune 3 by Antares is a DirectX plug-in for the PC. It only tunes sound files, so you\'ll have to extract the samples first. It also gives you manual tuning control so you can just fix the bad parts of sounds. Works great for brass which are usually out of tune on the attack.

[timzydee]

I usually use a setting that is slightly more relaxed than the default. It comes off sounding completely natural. I understand where people are coming from when they talk about leaving samples out of tune, since no one can play perfectly in tune all the time. The problem I have with this theory is that a real player would make adjustments over time and ex. \"that one D# wouldn\'t be out of tune to the same degree every time\". So I prefer to keep everything very well in tune with out sounding like a machine.

[Doug Marshall]

Good comments, timzydee. Thanks.

[Duncan Brinsmead]

I\'m using OBtune, which is an inexpensive subset of AutoTune( its the same core software). One problem is that if the tuning is moving the note substantially, then the initial attach phase will scoup as the auto tuning does not kick in fast enough. Part of the problem is noise in the attack and the other is that setting the autoTune response very fast can take some of the character out of the sound. It would be nice to be able to run the analysis on the opening second of the note, and then do a wholescale transpose based on the computed average pitch. One could then run auto tune to clean up wobbles. Does anyone know how to do this?

Duncan

[timzydee]

I\'ve never used OB tune. Does have a graphic mode similar to Auto-Tune? With this mode you are given a curve that represents the pitch as it changes throughout the sample. You can graphically edit this curve (like a drawing program) to change only the parts you want. You never want to see a straight line as this will make just about anything sound like a sine wave, but rather follow the existing curve as it goes up and down (natural pitch flucuations) and draw closer to the desired pitch.

[thesoundsmith]

Scoops and initial settling are a big part of the problem with getting natural, but in-tune samples. An instrument like trumpet which most players tend to scoop on attack is a special problem-in a long tone, which you typically want in a non-looped sample, the scoop is more pronounced and slower, so if you use this set to play rapid phrases, it will tend to be out of tune. (Unless you tuned it to the initial attack, in hwich case the long tones are out!)

So you need a short set, where the player gets into tune quicker, and then you have to either create keyswitches for the sets, or do the \'GigaStudio hocket dance\' where you edit after the fact to mapthe MIDI tracks to length-relevant sets, which means you can\'t play that instrument live.

Tradeoffs, tradeoffs...

Dasher

[Doug Marshall]

Some of the sampling I\'ve been doing is organ pipes. The pitch of pipes varies from instrument to instrument and also with temperature, not to mention the last time the organ tuner visited. So I\'m looking for something that will detect the note (or allow me to specify the note) and correct the pitch of the entire sample based on the average pitch of the steady state. It sounds to me like Auto-tune, as cool as it is, isn\'t designed for that. Thoughts? Suggestions? My old Peterson tuner works fine but it\'s so \"uncool\" for a software junkie. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubb/NonCGI/images/icons/wink.gif
Doug

[This message has been edited by Doug Marshall (edited 03-21-2002).]

[Giorgio Tommasini]

Doug,

Try ANALOGX AUTOTUNE

It\'s what you\'re looking for.

Giorgio

[Doug Marshall]

Thanks very much for the suggestion, Giorgio! I\'m having a look at the Analogx Autotune now. It certainly seems to work although in the short time I\'ve played with it I wrecked a couple of samples by entering the wrong note value. When I attempted to fix it some audible artifacts appeared. I\'ll play with it some more.
Regards,
Doug