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Humanize makes the connections more natural.

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This is manna from heaven for everybody - particularly Logic users, who still can’t route and record signals internally. Before, you had to do a bounce of your pitch-corrected vocal, import it and then line it up by sight. However, you can now have it running in real time and continually refine it as the mix develops (this extends to multiple instances of the plug-in). If you’re using a host that doesn’t use any form of clock, you can still set it to clock internally, as with Auto-Tune 4.

With the clocking development comes real-time pitch tracking - you can see the pitch waveform appear as it passes. This makes life so much easier; you now hear a bit of problem tuning, open the plug-in window, hit the Track Pitch button and make your adjustments.

You can even make tweaks while the sequencer is running – and yes, this means you can make refinements while you’re cycling a section. In a perfect world, you’d be able to stop, start and ‘locate’ the sequencer from the Pitch window too, but what we’ve got will do fine for now.

Predictably, there are also one or two less noteworthy enhancements: a dedicated Snap To Note button when you’re using the Line tool (this saves you having to hold down Shift as in Auto-Tune 4) and a Clear All button for deleting correction lines. There are also several obscure new scales available.

Finally, in Automatic mode you can now add a variable ‘Humanize’ factor. This introduces a fast retune speed for short, staccato notes, while still allowing held notes to naturally waver.

Good looks

Don’t make the mistake of thinking Auto-Tune simply looks better than its predecessor – it works better too. The fact that it clocks to the host program and can run in real-time (with no need to record the results as you go) means it’s much more straightforward to use.

Its name may have become a byword for inauthenticity, but Antares’ plug-in is still very much the real deal.