Antares Harmony Engine

[Ricebug]

I need help getting the Antares Harmonizer plug-in to work with Cakewalk/BandLab.  I've read and re-read the manual and have tried all kinds of routing, to no avail.  Here's the basic setup:

• The MIDI data is on Track 2. (3-part harmony.)
• The microphone is on Track 1. 
• Track 3 is supposed to capture the resulting harmonies.

I've tried all kinds of routing methodology, and am hoping someone on this forum can help.

[ZincT]

16 hours ago, Ricebug said:

I need help getting the Antares Harmonizer plug-in to work with Cakewalk/BandLab.  I've read and re-read the manual and have tried all kinds of routing, to no avail.  Here's the basic setup:

• The MIDI data is on Track 2. (3-part harmony.)
• The microphone is on Track 1. 
• Track 3 is supposed to capture the resulting harmonies.

I've tried all kinds of routing methodology, and am hoping someone on this forum can help.

Okay so follow these steps...

1. On Track 1 (the Mic Track), record your solo vocals if they aren't already recorded.

2. Insert Antares Harmony Engine (AHE) in the FX block of Track 1.

3, Open AHE (click on it), select the VST3 menu at the top and select "Enable MIDI input".

4. Also in AHE, on the Harmony Control menu select MIDI Omni.

5. On your MIDI track with the harmony make sure the output is set to  Harmony Engine1

Now when you playback the song you should hear your vocal with the three part harmony singing along with it.

 

 

[Ricebug]

Thanks for the help on this. I was missing the Enable MIDI Input. 

The next obvious question is this: How do I get the AHE MIDI-generated vocals recorded onto a track as an audio file?

 

[John Vere]

If your audio interface has a Loopback feature then you insert an audio track and select the Loopback as the input. 
Thenn solo the midi instrument and record it as it plays. 
Other options is freeze the instrument then copy the results to a new track. 
 

Or Export just the harmony track as a stem and drag it back into the project. 

Edited December 21, 2023 by John Vere

[ZincT]

16 hours ago, Ricebug said:

Thanks for the help on this. I was missing the Enable MIDI Input. 

The next obvious question is this: How do I get the AHE MIDI-generated vocals recorded onto a track as an audio file?

 

What John suggests will work, but what I used to do when I was doing this a lot was:

1. Right Click on the vocal track and select "Insert Send -->  New Aux Track"

2. On the new Aux Track you can now record the output of the vocal track.

You can adjust the volume and pan of each harmony within the AHS plugin and create different Aux track mixes of the harmonies. I also used to use Chord via Midi in AHE and adjust the register and spread to create multiple harmony Aux tracks with different register/spread.

Once you have recorded your Aux track you can just disable the AHE plugin on the vocal track and I would typically record other takes for doubling of the main track. I would sometimes also use the double tracks to create slightly different AHE harmony tracks to thicken up the harmonies. 

[Ricebug]

Thanks to both of you. I have a Scarlett 6i6 audio interface. It doesn't have a loopback feature, although I could probably jerry-rig it and burn down the house in the process.

You guys should do some YT videos. Except for TC-Helicon, the musicians now clogging up the bandwidth never explained the "how" of doing this.  So I really appreciate the help from the forum here.

After going blind from reading the reviews and watching promos on every harmonizer out there, I went ahead and ordered TC-Helicon's Performance-Controllable Vocal Processor. The issue with AHE and other VST FX is they are terrible resource hogs. My rig is a beast and can handle any game out there at Ultra High settings,  but it chokes and stutters when running some of these VSTi FX. Having owned several harmonizers, hardware is the way to go, IMO.