Have you ever thought of automating the process of finding a key and detecting a scale automatically?
Let me introduce you to Auto-Key by Antares, with this plugin, you can automatically detect a key and its scale, which would, in turn, enhance your Auto-Tune workflow and save valuable time in the studio.
In this Auto-Key review guide, you would learn…
- The Features of Auto-Key by Antares
- If it is worth using at all
- Prices
- and more, let’s dive in…
Let's start with a little story...
When I started producing music, I learned to find the key of songs manually, and in most cases, I spend nothing less than a few seconds to find the key (of course, after years of practicing) -- This is called relative pitch and it is common among musicians who are used to "playing by ear".
On the other hand, there are those that are born with an absolute pitch (You'll hardly find this), which means if you have an absolute pitch, you can detect the key of a song immediately, without thinking twice.
If you have one of these, then congratulation! you can continue with the review below, if you don't have either of the two, I'll urge you to take a lesson on how to detect key relatively, you can learn this yourself by practicing, trust me, it isn't hard at all. The reason why I am saying this, is that, you'll find yourself in a situation where a plugin can't help, just saying!
Back to the review
Key and Scale Detection
Auto-Key makes choosing the correct key, and scale for your music easy and effective, think of a situation where you are working on multiple projects, and you need to work faster. Even if you can detect a key yourself, detecting a scale isn't that easy, which is where Auto-Key comes in handy.
Oh! Didn't mention you can also use it for choosing samples and loops that match the key of your project.
The way it works is, you place Auto-Key on an instrument track or master bus to analyze your music in real-time, it will analyze the audio in real-time and display the key and scale after a few seconds of playback analysis, or better still, you can upload an audio sample for faster than real-time analysis.
Auto-Key automatically detects and displays the key and scale of your music, as well as the tuning reference frequency. The onscreen keyboard also lights up to show detected pitches.
Click the “Send to Auto-Tune” button, and compatible versions of Auto-Tune are automatically updated with the correct key and scale settings. Amazing!
On top of all that, Auto-Key also tells you the reference frequency of your music. Most modern music is tuned so that A is equal to 440 Hz, but this is not always the case. If your music or samples are tuned to a different reference frequency, Auto-Key will show you what it is, so you can make the necessary adjustments when applying pitch correction or selecting samples.
Even if you already know the key and scale of your track, Auto-key will seamlessly streamline your workflow by allowing you to conveniently set the key and scale for multiple instances of Auto-Tune with a single click. You can see, it does more than detecting key and scale.
Video SneakPeek
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwNE0ptGCEg
Is Auto-Key by Antares Worth Using?
Yes, I highly recommend it if you looking to fasten the process of detecting key, and scale. However, I wouldn't recommend this if you can't do it manually, learn to detect key by yourself in the beginning, and use this as an option to ease the process.
Auto-Key Pricing
It is currently available for $49.00, this is for a limited time only, so, you might wanna hurry up if you don’t want to miss the offer.
System Requirements
Mac
AAX Native (64-bit only)
- Pro Tools 11.3.1 or later.
- Mac OS 10.10.5 to 10.14 as required by your version of Pro Tools.
VST3 (64-bit only)
- A compatible VST host program that supports VST3 format.
- Mac OS 10.10.5 to 10.14 as required by your host.
VST2 (64-bit only)
- A compatible VST host program that supports VST2 format.
- Mac OS 10.10.5 to 10.14 as required by your host.
Audio Units (64-bit only)
- A compatible host program that supports the AU format.
- Mac OS 10.10.5 to 10.14 as required by your host.
Windows
AAX Native (64-bit only)
- Pro Tools 11.3.1 or later.
- Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 as required by your version of Pro Tools.
VST3 (64-bit only)
- A compatible host program that supports the VST3 format.
- Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 as required by your host.
VST2 (64-bit only)
- A compatible host program that supports the VST3 format.
- Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 as required by your host.