November 2021 - 24

-Review by Paul Vnuk Jr.
Slate Digital
MetaTune
Double-up with new tricks from
the new tuner on the block
Whether you love it, loath it, or reluctantly accept it,
software-based vocal tuning is over two decades old. With
the release of MetaTune, Slate Digital hopes to bring some
new tools, tricks and more to the tuning table.
A meta meet and greet
MetaTune is a monophonic automatic pitch correction
plugin-no polyphonic tuning and no graphic editing mode. It
launches as a single-window GUI with three basic tuning controls
(Speed, Sustain, and Amount), a piano keyboard and an
animated visual display. If you have ever used a vocal tuning
plugin, you will already be familiar with these basic controls.
Select your key
Step one: select your key from a pop-up panel of presets, or
choose your own on the virtual piano keys. Not sure what key
a song is in? Pressing on the note names above the keyboard
plays or holds a single note or a major or minor chord. As the
music plays, you can choose what fits.
MetaTune limits itself to major and minor scales with pentatonic
and harmonic variations, although you can easily use the
keys and roll your own.
Speed and Amount
Speed offers a range of 200ms to 0ms; lower values are
the most transparent, and upper values enter effect territory. At
the top of the dial is an additional 0ms to -3ms range, pushing
MetaTune beyond the norm into harder extremes.
Amount sets the overall tuning from 0% (no tuning) to 100%,
which hard quantizes the pitch to the target note.
Sustain
Sustain determines how long the tuning of a note is held.
More sustain equals a faster, more obvious retuning. Unique in
MetaTune is the ability to dial in negative values for very slow
retuning, preserving a singer's vibrato in longer passages.
Stability
MetaTune also offers a Note Stabilizer with Short, Mid and
Long settings; this feature helps minimize the pitch fluttering
associated with overcorrection. Stabilizer can clean up
24 RECORDING November 2021
Graphic content-contains heat
Next, a large round graphic dial moves and pulsates with
the sound. By clicking and dragging in its circles, it becomes
an X/Y macro control of the Speed and Amount in tandem,
perfect for subtle variations and not-so-subtle automation.
A final graphic bar called HeatMaps located just above the
keyboard shows the incoming pitch of each key and the applied
tuning, all in real time. It's pretty informative and slick.
All-natural otherworldly organics
Whether performing subtle and barely noticeable pitch correction
or going full-on stressed robot and beyond, MetaTune retains a
smooth, organic sonic quality that, like the doubler, lays nicely in the
mix. This organic nature extends to the graphic controls, which offer
a great range of subtle motion and nuance, as well as full-throttle
control, thanks to excellent informative graphics and metering.
Get Meta
If you have exhausted your tuning options, are ready for some
new tuning tones and tricks, or have so far not dipped your toe
into the automatic vocal tuning pool, MetaTune is worth a look
and listen. If you are a Slate All Access Pass subscriber, you may
already have it by the time you read this.
Price: All Access Pass: $9.99 month for 6 months, then
$14.99 monthly (annual); $24.99 month-by-month; $149
annual upfront. Perpetual price: $199
More From: slatedigital.com
fluctuations for more natural-sounding tuning, or it can place
even more creative vocal effects (i.e., fluttering / sudden shifts)
under your control. Note that you can't use Note Stabilizer
while using the plugin's realtime low-latency mode.
Groups
Similar to the grouping function found in the Slate Virtual Tape
Machine and Virtual Mixbus plugins, you can assign multiple
instances of MetaTune to one of four groups. Changes applied to
one will affect all instances in the group-an excellent feature for
the quick tuning of vocal stacks and background vocals.
Double-up
MetaTune also includes a Doubler effect with sliders for mix
and width along with a ganged master control. While this
doubler lacks the many deep-level parameters of a standalone
plugin, it may actually be one of the best-sounding vocal doublers
I have ever used. It can get ultra-wide, and there is a
magic to how naturally it sits in a mix.
http://www.slatedigital.com
November 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November 2021
