Antares Audio Technology ATR-1a Auto-Tune Intonation Processor

Purchased unit through American Musical Supply on line. Price was approx: $350 USD.
Purchased for live application vocal intonation.

When the software version of the product was dubbed "The Holy Grail" of recording there was no exaggeration. Let's face it every singer has a bad night every now and then. Well, this will help prevent that. The unit is a simple single rack space with 6 buttons a few lights a knob and an lcd screen.(not even an on off switch)with the press of a couple buttons youre in business. Just a turn of the knob to bring you to the key you (or the vocalist) needs to be in and thats pretty much it, instant perfect pitch. There is some minor tweaking that needs to be done from the factory presets, but nothing that doesnt take 3 seconds or so to adjust. In the studio, this can save hours of having to manually adjust pitch by hand using the software version of the unit(in my opinion, the hardware actually sounds more transparent) In addition to being transparent the unit can be set up to have a prety cool robot like effect (which is pretty obvious) on the singer or solo instruments voice. No more embarassing off key notes.... SIGN ME UP!!!

The unit isnt perfect but it is darn near close. If the vocalist is severly off there is an audible intonation problem as the unti doesnt know which note to go up or down to. But i think thats more a problem with the singer than the unit. The unit could use an on/off switch.

Solid built chassis, the power supply is a proprietary 7 pin din. Buttons are flat which reduces the possibility of things being broken on the front panel. The one knob on the face seems to be securly fastened and seems quite sturdy.

Awesome unit! If vocalists buy only one thing for their live or studio vocals this should be it! It can only take one sour note to turn away fans and industry... this can help reduce the chances of this happening.

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com