Antares Audio Technology Harmony EFX

The Antares Systems Harmony EFX is a less expensive of the Harmony Engine version, designed as an auto-harmonizer. It's a bit more compact with a few less features than the other version, but this can still do a lot as is at aimed at those who might have a bit less money to spend on plug-ins. I don't own this one myself, as I've got the full version at home. This one I've used at the studio where I'm working, as they've got all of the Antares stuff. Learning how to use the plug-in is easy even if you don't have experience with any versions of the Harmony Engine. There are four voices essentially to work with, each with parameters for level, throat length, interval, and panning. It also has harmony presets with different keys, as well as a section for more in depth harmony control. The other parameters that it has include those for vibrato rate and amount, a naturalize parameter, and a glide one as well. There is also an input section that allows for the same control that you get with the other voices. I haven't looked at the manual for this plug-in...

SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE

We have the Antares Systems Harmony EFX plug-in running on a few different systems at the studio that I work at, but they are all Pro Tools HD based, so it's very rare if we ever have problems running plug-ins. Our main system is comprised of a Mac Pro computer with 10 GB of RAM and dual 2.66 Ghz Intel Xeon processors. We have a Neve console and Apogee converters as well. If you're working in an LE setting however, I'd be surprised if you could run more than a few instances of this at once without experiencing a bit of a slow down, although I can't say this from experience.

OVERALL OPINION

The Antares Systems Harmony EFX plug-in is designed for both realistic and artificial sounding auto-harmonization, and for the most part I'd say that it is as advertised. While I wouldn't say that the harmonies always sound 100% realistic, you can get them sounding pretty good if you don't overdo it. In general there's a lot that you can do in this slightly abridged version of the Harmony Engine, and at a very good price too. If you're on a budget but still want a powerful harmony plug-in to work with, this is probably going to be your best bet...