Opening Auto-Tune Artist in Pro Tools HDX 2019.6, I found the Basic view looked very familiar--just like Auto-Tune Pro with the giant Pitch Display and Pitch Change Meter. I immediately inserted Auto-Key on the piano track to send key and scale information to the Auto-Tune Artist plug-in inserted on the lead singer. I was mixing a Jazzy song with real instruments played during a live performance.

The verses were in C minor and it went to C major in the chorus. I initially set Retune Speed at 35 and Flex-Tune to 61. These are big values (if you know Auto-Tune) for a singer who was expressive and free. Both of these parameters worked like they do in Auto-Tune Pro but I found Auto-Tune Artist more "forgiving" for this particular singer for this certain song. There were fewer artifacts and miss-tracked and pitched notes using Auto-Tune Artist.

The Humanize control was especially good for striking a compromise between instant tuning (fast Retune Speed) for short staccato notes and much slower tuning (slower Retune Speed) for long sustaining notes. Auto-Tune gets a "bad sound rap" sometimes because long notes can end up sound like test tones--static pitches--when the Humanize, Flex-Tune and/or Retune Speed are not set up properly.

Auto-Tune Artist has an Advanced View that is exactly like Auto-Tune Pro's Advance view with features like "Targeting Ignores Vibrato" that's great for singers who use super wide (in pitch) vibratos. I had a lot of fun experimenting with Creating Vibratos--it was amazing how you can turn a lack luster held note into a beautiful thing by controlling the onset of vibrato, the vibrato speed, shape--the wave shape modulating the pitch with sine, square and saw tooth waves choices.

There are other "humanizing" parameters such as Variation--a kind of randomizer and Onset Rate--you can set the time period and fade in rate of vibrato. Self-produced singer/artists are going love this much control over their recorded vocals.

The Advance View page finishes with the ability to create customized scales by removing or bypassing certain notes or just use "Learn Scale" by playing the desired notes (of the scale) on a connected MIDI keyboard. A MIDI keyboard can also play a new melody in real-time for tuning a vocalist's already sung vocal. This is a lifesaver especially for song demo recordings when trying different singers or melody experiments. Wow! Great to have this powerful tool!

Antares Auto-Tune Artist is $99 as an upgrade from Auto-Tune Live or Auto-Tune EFX and $199 upgrade from Auto-Tune Access. Buy it complete for $299 MSRP.