Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tune

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  1. Best Auto Tune Settings For Gsnap Mixcraft
  2. Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tune Free
  3. Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tune Windows 10

Welcome to GSnap

Best Gsnap Autotune Settings For Rap; Gsnap Settings For Drake; Gsnap Autotune Audacity; GSnap is a pitch-correction tool or auto-tune effect. This audio plugin can be used subtly to correct the pitch of a vocal, or, with more extreme settings, to create a robot-voice effect (T-Pain or Cher effect). Auto-Tune is a vocal effect used in music recording that was popularized by several artists, perhaps the most popular being T-Pain. Download free stickies for mac. The R&B singer T-Pain has now become so synonymous with Auto-Tuning, that the effect is sometimes casually referred to as 'the T-Pain effect.'

GSnap is an auto-tune effect. It can be used subtly to correct the pitch of a vocal, or, with more extreme settings, to create a robot-voice effect. It requires a monophonic input signal to operate.

  • Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tunes; Gsnap Autotune Free Download; Gsnap Autotune Free Download Windows 10; GSnap by GVST (@KVRAudio Product Listing): GSnap is an auto-tune effect. It can be used subtly to correct the pitch of a vocal, or, with more extreme settings, to create a robot-voice effect.
  • Gsnap is another free Auto Tune VST that works with both Audacity and Wavosaur.It lets you make very subtle pitch changes on vocals, giving it an auto tune effect. With high audio settings, it can be used to achieve robot like vocal effect.
  • Make sure that GSnap was installed. Click the Effect tab, then scroll down until you see GSnap near the bottom of the menu. If you see GSnap, you're all set to proceed with auto-tuning your vocals in Audacity. If you don't see GSnap here, you most likely installed the 64-bit version of GSnap on a Windows computer.
  • GSnap is an auto-tune effect. It can be used subtly to correct the pitch of a vocal, or, with more extreme settings, to create a robot-voice effect. It requires a monophonic input signal to operate.

Installation

  1. All GVST plug-ins come compressed in a ZIP file, so the first step is to extract the files from the ZIP file.
  2. Once extracted, you should have one or more DLL files, these are the plug-in files.
  3. You need to copy the plug-in files to the appropriate folder for your host program.
  4. In most cases, you will need either to restart the host program or re-scan the plug-in folder in order for newly-installed plug-ins to appear.

Hints

  • Try GSnap with non-vocal material for interesting effects.
  • GSnap's effect is more useful with simple material. Complex material with rapid note changes may require several hours of dedicated MIDI programming to deal with, and may still end up sounding less than realistic.
  • Use the automatic correction with Forced Key to help approximate that famous vocal effect.
  • Automate switching between Fixed and MIDI mode for ultimate control: allow GSnap to do its thing automatically for much of the material, and then 'take over' for passages or notes that need specific work.
  • Try feeding GSnap some MIDI information in real-time during a vocal passage. You may find the results even more interesting than that 'other' vocal effect!

Interface

The GUI features a set of 12 knobs which control all of the plug-in's parameters. Each has its function clearly labelled above, and features a user-editable readout below. Additionally, twelve 'switches' next to the pitch data view correspond to the twelve semitones of a full octave in the Western chromatic scale, and are used to supplement the 'fixed' mode of GSnap. Two further switches allow the user to select between 'fixed' or 'midi' modes, explained below.

The controls are divided into three groups: Detection, Correction, and MIDI. The Detection section allows you to fine-tune GSnap's ability to deal with incoming audio. Correction determines the method and audible effect of the tuning algorithm. MIDI controls determine how GSnap deals with particular MIDI information.

To the left of the controls is a visual representation of the pitch of the source and 'tuned' material. The source material appears as a red line graph, and the tuned material a green one. This can help the user zero in on problem notes, and also provide a secondary way (the primary being your ears!) with which to gauge GSnap's effect on the source material.

Detection Controls

The incoming audio is first processed by this set of controls, which help give GSnap a bit of a break by narrowing down the range of frequencies and sounds that the plug-in has to deal with.

Min Freq: Allows the user to set the minimum frequency, in Hertz, that GSnap will consider for correction. If you know the lowest frequency that should be encountered, then setting this parameter can make pitch-detection more efficient and accurate.

Max Freq: This allows the user to set the highest frequency that will be considered for tuning. As with Min Freq, setting this can help the pitch-detection algorithm, making it more efficient and accurate. (If in doubt you can just open the Min and Max Freq settings right up).

Gate: Any source material at a level below this setting is not considered for tuning. You should set this so that GSnap ignores background noise.

Speed: The Speed parameter sets the number of wave repetitions required for pitch-detection. Lower values for Speed will allow faster pitch-detection but increase the chance of false detection, resulting in sporadic jumps in the audio's pitch. The default value should be fine in most cases.

Correction Controls

Once a pitch has been determined, GSnap applies the specified pitch-correction. There are two modes of pitch correction: fixed scale and MIDI. Fixed scale correction has a fixed set of snap-notes, while MIDI correction is controlled in real time by MIDI data.

Fixed Mode: When this mode is selected, notes are 'snapped' to a key of the user's choosing. Pressing the 'Select Scale..' button located beside the 'Fixed Mode' button brings up a dialog box:

A drop-down menu allows you to select the 'root' of the scale, and another the 'mode'. Checking the 'Set Threshold..' option will automatically adjust the Threshold parameter so that the chosen scale is enforced.

Once a scale is selected (or at any point in time with 'Fixed' mode enabled), the user may add or remove notes from snap. All enabled notes in the scale are highlighted with light blue in small boxes on the 'piano keys' next to the graphical display. Disabled notes are indicated with dark blue.

Midi Mode: When this option is selected, notes will snap to the nearest currently depressed MIDI note, sent either by a controller being played in real-time, or by a pre-programmed MIDI sequence. For this to work, your sequencer must be set up so that GSnap can receive both audio and MIDI messages.

Threshold: Defines the snapping region around each snap-note. A 'cent' is a percentage of a Western semitone. For every 100 cents in the threshold, you add another semitone to the snapping region. A higher threshold allows GSnap to enforce wider 'gaps' between notes in customized scales, although you can choose to leave gaps if you only want certain notes to be corrected, for example. For standard scales, 100 cents will allow for perfect snapping. With pentatonic scales, 150 cents are necessary (the largest interval in a pentatonic scale is 300 cents, setting the threshold to half of that ensures there isn't a gap between any successive notes).

Amount: Sets the amount of correction that will be applied.

Attack and Release: These parameters set how quickly a note reaches full correction and subsequently returns to no correction. As a general rule, an extremely fast attack will produce a noticeable and distinctly artificial 'snap', but may be necessary to deal with certain phrases. Longer attack and release times can produce a more natural sound, but setting the times too long can also sound unnatural or be ineffective, so exercise caution.

MIDI Controls

When the user has selected 'Midi' mode, these controls are used to set how GSnap will respond to incoming MIDI information.

Pitch Bend: Allows the user to set the maximum pitch bend. Since every 100 cents represent a Western-scale semitone, the maximum bend at 200 cents is one full tone.

Vibrato: Defines the maximum range of the vibrato applied by manipulating the modulation wheel or sending a mod wheel Continuous Controller (CC) message in a MIDI program. Like Pitch Bend, its maximum range is 200 cents or one full tone.

Speed: Represents the speed (in Hertz) of vibrato applied by MIDI when the user uses the modulation wheel or sends a modulation CC.

Calibrate: This control allows the user to calibrate the actual 'tuning' of GSnap as it relates to the source material, with the number representing the frequency of the note 'A' in your song. This setting affects the detected note and consequently the amount of correction.

The default of A=440 Hz is the standard tuning calibration, and should be fine for the majority of situations. However, there are many exceptions, such as when singing to a track with a fixed instrument (i.e. a pipe organ) that is tuned to A=435.

License

  1. GVST plug-ins are provided to the user at no cost. While every GVST plug-in is tested to the best of the developer's ability, no warranty or guarantee is offered to the end user.
  2. No suggestions made by the developer or his representatives (i.e., freely offered support) are to be taken as an implied warranty or guarantee.
  3. These plug-ins may only be distributed by the official GVST website, or by parties explicitly given permission by the developer.
  4. GVST plug-ins are to be distributed only in their original form as intended by the developer (i.e., the unaltered archive).
  5. GVST plug-ins are freeware, meaning you are never under any obligation to pay for them! However, should you wish to help support continued development of GVST software, please consider donating through the official website.

Credits

  • Development, code, website and graphics by Graham Yeadon.
  • Documentation by Greg Pettit and Graham Yeadon (many thanks to Greg for all of his help).
  • VST technology copyright Steinberg GmbH.
  • The 'VST' name and logo are registered trademarks of Steinberg GmbH.
  • 'Windows' is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
  • 'Mac' and 'OSX' are trademarks of Apple Inc.

Auto-Tune is one of the most widely used plug-ins in music production. This tutorial shows you the power within this amazing audio processor.

In the 22 years since it’s inception (1997), Auto-Tune has been the industry standard for tuning vocals, and for good reason. From my own personal experience, it’s still my go-to tuning software, as it can keep up with my own workflow, and does exactly what I need it to do. There are many other tuning softwares available, but none have the proven to me better. In the past 20 years, I’ve never had a single negative comment, or even anyone notice that I’ve used a tuning software, which is exactly as it should be. There are many people out there wanting to lay blame on the tools for their work sounding robotic, or unnatural. I may take some heat for saying so, but this doesn’t have to be the case if you learn how to use your tools properly; pay attention to what the settings do. If something doesn’t sound right, keep tweaking until it does. It’s as simple as that. Now I must say though, there is a limit to how much tuning or editing you CAN do to a less than perfect performance. A common saying in the industry comes to mind - “You can’t polish a turd”. I could probably write an entire book on tuning vocals, but the intent here is to give you an inside look at the most commonly used parameters and how to use Auto-Tune in a more effective way….

The Correction Modes In Auto-Tune

There are two correction modes and ways to use Auto-Tune. There’s Auto Mode, also know as “lazy mode”, and Graphical Mode, also known as “Auto-Tune”. Auto Mode basically runs in real-time, and analyzes the audio as it passes through. It then determines what to do to the audio, as it passes through. Adjusting your settings can help it to do a better job of tuning, but nothing replaces your own ears on what needs to be tuned, and what does not. The only time I personally use Auto Mode is when I have several songs that need to be mixed in a very short amount of time, and there simply is not enough time, or budget, to properly tune the tracks. Graphic Mode is a bit more involved, but yields MUCH better results! Graphic Mode basically works like this: You capture (track pitch) the performance once into the plug-in, so it can be analyzed, displayed and edited. (Same for most other professional tuning software) Then, you choose which notes are to be tuned, and how, and which are to be left alone. This is far superior to every single bit of audio being automatically adjusted. By the way, if what you are trying to achieve with Auto-Tune is the T-Pain, or CHER effect, use Auto Mode with a very fast Retune Speed, and you can skip the rest of this article.

Best Auto Tune Settings For Gsnap Mixcraft

Auto Mode

Auto Mode is the default mode when opening Auto-Tune. It is designed to automatically analyze audio as it passes through, and tune up or down to the nearest note everything that passes through. With that being said, there are some very important things to pay attention to, as they will help you get much better results. Paying attention to a few of these settings following, you can minimize Auto-Tune attempting to tune things that should not be, such as vibrato and notes that are intentionally slurred from one note to another.

Input Type: This basic setting help Auto-Tune focus on specific frequency ranges and types based upon the type of content you are trying to tune. Always start here!

  • Soprano -For high or female voices
  • Alto/Tenor -For normal voices
  • Low Male -For Barry White
  • Instrument -For violins, violas, and other types of monophonic instruments
  • Bass Inst -For lower pitched instruments, and yes, it is quite common to tune a bass guitar.

Scale: Setting the scale to the actual key of your song will most certainly help minimize errors in automatically tuning. Chromatic is the default scale, and probably most popular, but setting the proper key of your song will narrow down the choices of tuning from eleven notes down to the seven within a given key. For example, you have a song in the key of “C”, which has no sharps or flats. A singer sings a little bit sharp on a trying to sing a “C”. If the note sang is closer to “C#”, Auto-Tune will try to tune the note up to “C#”, resulting in an improperly tuned note. When setting the scale to C Major in this same scenario, the singer would have to sing past “C#” for it to create and error and try to correct to a “D”. This is another great starting point for Auto Mode usage. As you can see from the picture to the right, there are many other scales to choose from, and yes, Auto-Tune is used world wide, and there are many other scales available to those around the world using alternate tuning and scales.

Retune Speed: This is one of the most important settings to pay attention to, as it sets how fast Auto-Tune will tune a note, similar to a glide or fade time from non-tuned to fully tuned processing. Setting a very fast time will remove any variations in pitch, but can yield some very unnatural results. But then again, this is a big part of creating the T-Pain/Cher effect. If this is what you are looking for, absolutely start here with a very fast time!

Humanize: This allows sustained notes to have a slower Retune speed than the shorter duration notes. Typically you would start a setting of 0 while setting the Retune speed, making sure all notes that need tuning are being tuned, then adjusting the Humanize will help with sustained notes from not sounding overly tuned, while still being fast enough to tune shorter duration notes.

Natural Vibrato: This is independent of your pitch settings and is used solely to tame natural vibrato of a performance. Leaving it at it’s default setting of 0, will not affect the original vibrato, but adjusting will minimize the amount of vibrato allowed. Once again, this is independent of pitch controls.

Targeting Ignores Vibrato: Turning this on can help with what Auto tuning tries to tune and what it ignores. If you have a track with a lot of vibrato, try turning this on and see if it helps. This is something that would typically be used with a lead type of vocal, allowing the natural vibrato to be ignored. Backing vocals typically shouldn’t have as much vibrato, therefore, minimizing vibrato is preferred.

Target Notes Via MIDI: This is quite fun to play with, along with fast Retune speeds. When engaging, Auto-Tune does nothing until a MIDI note is present from a keyboard or MIDI track, then it tunes to the MIDI notes present. You can then play in a melody from a MIDI device, and the track will be tuned to what you play.

Graphic Mode

Graphic Mode is the mode you will use the most often when quality is the primary concern. The advantage: Graphic mode allows you to specify which notes are to be tuned, and which are not, along with independent settings for each note to be tuned, instead of the global settings to be used for every note passing through in Auto Mode. Ready to get started?

Correction Mode to Graph: Pretty self-explanatory, slide or click the correction mode from Auto to Graph.

Options

Click on the options button next to correction mode to get here:

Enter buffer seconds: The default here is 240 seconds, which is 4 minutes at 44.1k or 48k sample rate, based upon your session settings. A minute song would require 300 seconds. There’s no need to set a really high buffer amount, as it uses much more RAM from your system. The max setting of 14400 would yield 4 hours on one track! If any of you actually need that much, I’d like to know what project you are working on.

Default Retune speeds: After learning a bit about retune speed from Auto Mode, you can set the default retune speeds for various tune settings in which I will discuss shortly here, but this is where you set your defaults.

Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tune Free

Track Pitch in Autotune

The first thing we need to do is capture, or “Track Pitch”, our audio track into Auto-Tune so that it can analyze it, draw a graphic representation of the audio pitches, and respond appropriately. This allows Auto-Tune the time to not only respond quickly, but also to ramp in tuning before a note needs to be tuned, which is impossible in Auto Mode, as it is only running in real-time. So to get started:

  • Click on the “Track Pitch” button: It will turn “Red” when enabled to track pitch.
  • Play the track: Play your song from beginning to end, or section by section. As long as all the information that needs to be tuned is tracked in, you can then proceed.
  • Turn off the “Track Pitch” button: Self-explanatory, but necessary to start tuning.

Decisions decisions!

You have two options now for tuning. You can draw or auto-create lines/curves or notes. The difference is that notes are typically easier to work with and treat an area of audio as a block, or note, and a line or curve allows you to treat bends in between specific notes with a little more intent.

The Tools

There are a few tools to start with here and I’ll describe them briefly from left to right.

  • The Line Tool is used to draw multi-segment lines on the pitch graph. It is typically used when you want to hold a straight pitch, or bend evenly from one pitch to another.
  • The Curve Tool is used when you would like to free-hand draw in pitch correction. I personally find this one quite difficult to use.
  • The Note Tool is used to draw notes. These are constrained to specific pitches and cannot vary off of them. I tend to use these more often than the line tool.
  • The Arrow Tool is the most commonly used tool, as it is how you select and edit existing lines or notes.
  • The Scissors Tool is used to cut existing lines or notes into separate pieces for individual editing. I typically use this when notes or lines have been generated automatically, and need to be separated. We’ll take a look at automatically generating lines or notes shortly.
  • The Magnifying Glass is used for zooming. Simply click and drag a box around what you would like to zoom into, and release to zoom.
  • The I-Beam Tool is used to select an area of time to be used edit with in, or generate data between. This is also a commonly used tool.
  • The Hand Tool is used to move the display. Click and hold on an area of the screen, and then drag the screen to an area you would like to see. I find the scrolling functions on apple mice work quite nicely for this same purpose, so this one doesn’t get used much.

Manual Editing/Drawing of Lines and Notes in Auto-Tune

In this example above, after capturing (Track Pitch) a vocal into Auto-Tune, I selected the Line Tool, and then clicked on “Snap to Note” which forces any segments of a line to snap to a specific note. Upon clicking the last segment, it must be double-clicked to end the line. After drawing this line, it is still selected, and retune speed can be set for this line independently of other lines. If it is not selected for some reason, using the Arrow Tool, click on the line to re-select it, and then you can adjust the retuning speed. The advantage of using the Line tool is that, as shown, the bend from one note to another can be drawn in as well.

In this example to the below, I selected the Note Tool, and then drew in some notes. I’ve found that drawing notes from where they are on key, or crossing through the desired key, on the beginning and end of a note give the best results. The advantage of the working with Notes is that Notes can be moved from one pitch to another much easier than trying to move a line.

Automatically creating Lines and Notes in Auto-Tune

Select an area: Using the I-Beam Tool, select an area that you wish to generate notes or Lines/Curves> Personally, I like to select the duration of the entire song, and then fix the points that are not created to my satisfaction, rather than manually create each event, one by one.

Best Gsnap Settings For Auto Tune Windows 10

Down at the bottom of the plug-in next to “Track Pitch” are the option for “Make Curve” and “Make Notes”, which are how we can auto-create “Notes” or “Line Curves”.

Make Curve: Clicking the Make Curve button will automatically draw a curved line, matching exactly the pitches captured in from the Track Pitch function earlier. As you can see to the right, there are green lines overlapping the detected pitches, and anchor points on either side of each detected event. These anchor points can be moved independently by clicking on, and dragging each anchor point up or down. This is particularly useful is in key, but starts drifting sharp or flat as a note is being held out. You need to use the Arrow Tool to manipulate these points.

In the example below, an area was first selected using the I-Beam Tool, then using the Arrow Tool, the Curves were moved up together to another pitch, keeping all the bending between notes still intact. If only part of a curve or line is to be moved, the line can be separated into two segments by clicking at the desired split point using the Scissors Tool. Now the segments can be individually manipulated.

In the example below, the “Make Notes” button was pressed after selecting the same area as described above. The advantage with working this way is that the only things being tuned, or manipulated are the notes that are being sustained, and the bending in-between notes is left alone. I find it particularly advantageous to modify these notes using the Arrow Tool. What I’ve found to give the best results is to drag the edges of each note to a crossing point, where the original audio is on, or crossing through, the correct pitch. By starting and stopping the tuning process on these points that are already in tune, I’ve found that I have much more transparent tuning, and less “T-Pain” sounding tuning.

Hopefully this is enough to get you started in Auto-Tuning, and has shed some light onto the mysterious world of tuning. Honestly, Auto-Tune has saved so many projects from bankrupting, and allowed thousands of productions to keep amazing performances, that in the past would have been performed over, and over, and over, and over again, until finally in key. Did anyone happen to think about the feeling, or emotion, left in a recording that an artist just finished singing for the 150th time? Yes, it may finally be perfectly in tune, but is the emotion of the singer still representing the initial idea of the song, and convincing all the listeners that this is a happy song. I think Elvis left the building about 145 takes back…. My point is, if a take sounds and feels great, but has a little pitch problems here and there, it’s worth tuning vs. beating the life out of a part until it is performed technically correct.

Until next time, happy tuning!

Mihai BoloniCreative Director & Avid Expert Pro Tools instructor
Mihai has made it his life's work to help others in the audio industry. Mihai gained experience as an audio engineering Full Sail Instructor in early 2000's and joined ProMedia in 2002. Since then, he has become one of Avid's Top Leading and most experienced and in-demand Instructors Worldwide, with clients who come to him form all over the world. Corporate clients include MTV, PBS, NBC, Telemundo, The Voice's Chief Engineer Mike Bernard, Atlanta Public School System, countless professors from leading Universities, CNN, Turner Broadcasting, and the top producers, artists, and engineers in leading studios and record labels. For over 20 years, Mihai has continued to work as an Audio Engineer, Record Producer, Songwriter (ASCAP), Dog Lover, Record Label Owner, and Expert Level AVID Certified Pro Tools Instructor.

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