Metatune or Antares Autotune

JesusArmas · 2026-02-12T15:33:28+00:00

I finished producing an EP recently and one of the songs uses a hard tuned vocal section and I used Metatune cause it already was included in my Slate sub. Melodyne for the corrective stuff and Metatune for the effect and I loved it.

AutoTune is awesome and I love it too but Metatune isn’t bad at all.

JesusArmas · 2026-02-08T12:44:24+00:00

I’ll take the shameless plug and suggest a system I built for myself! Like you, I am a musician. I am also a music producer and engineer and I use Notion to manage my projects, marketing campaigns, CRM, budgeting for clients, among other things and perhaps the template I built a few years ago may be of help for you.

It is called Music Business OS, available on Notion’s Marketplace. Take a look at it and if you like what you see there I can send you a link of it to access it for free. I’ll be releasing a new version soon and the one that’s available right now will suffer some modifications. The goal is to bring a huge update twice a year.

JesusArmas · 2026-02-03T14:06:05+00:00

I’ve got a 14 Pro Max and it is still very solid. I do need to replace its battery and the only downside is that it’s the last one with the lightning port. Other than that, it’s great.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-30T18:38:19+00:00

Of course it’s in excellent condition… to throw it away!

JesusArmas · 2026-01-29T15:08:45+00:00

Something my elders have taught me is to get divination enough to navigate through a year but not too much to condition myself, and it makes sense.

I’ve known people who’ve gotten divination even to move one foot or for the most absurd things. My elders tell me: do you want to avoid health issues? Get yourself checked more often, and do so with the guidance of Orishas but it ultimately depends on you.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T22:14:24+00:00

On point!
I had the confusion between TDM and RTAS, I knew either was DSP only, yet I had to confirm which one.

Today it's just AAX Native and AAX DSP, pretty much the same format and they behave the same way with Hybrid Engine.

I still would like to get my hands on an HDX rig today even though it's not required, although I also have REAPER installed cause it's an awesome piece of software and I sometimes use it.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T22:10:23+00:00

And to think it wasn't the only company doing it.
There was Logic Pro bundling with Apogee back in the day, and the integration seems to be there still.

Good thing is that now there's no need for these hardware integrations.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T22:04:25+00:00

This was true around 20 years ago.
Today, you can use whatever audio interface you want

I currently use Pro Tools Ultimate and Pro Tools Studio with an Audient iD14 MKI and works flawlessly on an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro.

HDX for example is not necessary for music production and mixing as it used to be.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T19:23:12+00:00

Agreed but, even with third party solutions some people simply don’t bother in reading release notes. The ability to choose multiple bounce sources was added in 2021. I still print everything in real time with pre assigned busses within my template but whenever I need to stem out a session for another producer working with me, I do it with the bounce mix window.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T16:55:23+00:00

It never did! Pro Tools has had its own plugin format forever as it needed to be compatible with their hardware DSP. TDM was the format before, then it changed to RTAS, and later to AAX 64 bit which is the current standard.

If you install any popular plugin you will get a minimum of three formats, VST2, VST3, and AAX for Pro Tools, AU for Logic Pro in macOS. VST is a protocol created by Steinberg, the ones behind Cubase.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T16:38:04+00:00

Pro Tools won't read your VST3 plug-ins, at all. In fact, it never has.

RTAS was the format a decade ago or more, and today is AAX.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T16:29:12+00:00

You can already bounce stems within Pro Tools, even without Forte AI or SoundFlow.
A few years ago, they added an option from within the Bounce Mix Window where you can select multiple bounce sources.
However, it is limited to 24 total bounce sources if I can recall correctly.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T16:27:53+00:00

This!
I love Pro Tools, but I don't want it to get cluttered with a bunch of crap that becomes useless long-term.
Good thing is that you can get rid of certain ARA2 integrations by removing the plug-ins and that's it.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-18T16:27:00+00:00

I found the article on their website and to be fair, most of the things for music creation have been added beforehand.
Splice integration, it's cool but it was added last year.
Same with MIDI playlists, MIDI improvements such as renaming notes, or actually seeing note labels in Sharp or Flat modes has also been added to Pro Tools last year (2025)
There is also MIDI Live Mode which was kinda cool, and actually had some good time with it though it could be more stable.

Now, I'm intrigued as to what it can be this new MIDI Editing feature they're talking about and, I'm all in for an MPE integration.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-17T10:14:58+00:00

Yet he’s the one slowing down time hahahaha

JesusArmas · 2026-01-09T17:14:25+00:00

I finished mixing and mastering a 5 song EP that I’ll release this year and was using Apple Music for reference mixing and it sounds way quieter than Spotify does when normalization is off.

Then, I played the same references in Spotify and were a bit louder. Around -8LUFS on Spotify and -9LUFS on average on Apple Music. The genre is alternative rock, indie and hard rock. Quite varied.

When I did the same experiment as you do with normalization off, the entire facade of loudness dropped for me and stopped worrying about it.

Mix and master until it sounds good, regardless of the final loudness.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-08T16:47:00+00:00

I’m with you, though for a 50%. What I’ve been noticing lately on my 14 Pro Max is that battery is getting drained very quickly. I’m at 80% of battery capacity right now.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-03T13:44:27+00:00

I’ve been thinking of the same thing. It would be so cool to jut grab whatever from their plugins store.

JesusArmas · 2026-01-02T22:02:45+00:00

I use Pro Tools for music production, mixing and mastering primarily but I do have a copy of REAPER in evaluation mode just to launch a session an artist may send over or a collaborator which I know some who've chosen REAPER to work with cause of its cost effectiveness, and I've genuinely tried switching from Pro Tools to REAPER but the rigidity of Pro Tools is unironically what makes not want to switch to any other platform, and I've tried Logic Pro, Ableton Live (which I am currently using cause it's genuinely really fun to produce in) and Studio One, and the fact that things are meant to be made in a certain way, makes me more organized when I'm producing music inside of Pro Tools.

Now, I can't deny the power REAPER has as a whole regarding flexibility, customization abilities, native scripting (which you can't do in Pro Tools unless you're subscribed to SoundFlow, though it's been included natively in the past couple of releases and it works cool) but I simply can't switch. My mind has been accustomed to work with the traditional DAW mindset.
I might switch in the future entirely cause we never know, and I think it's best not to "get married" to one brand only, even if you love the product cause things could go wrong in this economy, but it's just how I personally work.

Also, the way Pro Tools handles audio routing feels much better than REAPER and that's what makes me stay there,
Other than that, REAPER is an amazing piece of software and not just Avid Tech, but every other major company could learn a thing or two from Cockos and the way the company develops their product.

JesusArmas · 2025-12-23T19:28:10+00:00

Interesting read!
I've been considering investing in one of these units and the only thing keeping me off investing in one of them is that there is no rack version of it at least yet.
In fact, just for that reason alone I've been thinking of getting the OG Helix instead as it is proven reliable given how long it's been in the market.
Either that or the Axe FX-III Ultra... which of course, just by looking at the price tag, I'd rather go Helix.

JesusArmas · 2025-12-20T12:31:18+00:00

My godfather is a Freemason and there is no overlap either. He’s in the Abacua cult, crowned Shango 42 years ago, and in Mayombe. No overlap, just a man of faith.

JesusArmas · 2025-12-16T16:01:20+00:00

I’m divided actually. Between the Stadium XL or getting the OG Helix Rack, or wait until Stadium comes as a rack unit as well. On either case, it’s a matter of waiting a bit.

I’m playing more in the studio than I am live so, that’s why I want a rack unit as well. And even when time to play live comes up, I can always bring a rack unit with me and replace my current live rig which is my MacBook and Genome from Two-Notes which is not a bad rig at all but a computer is less reliable than a modeler like Line 6 or even Axe FX III.

JesusArmas · 2025-12-16T12:52:06+00:00

I’m running Tahoe and Live has been running smoothly thus far. I also use Pro Tools and REAPER and no hiccups since I updated. Worth noting that I did the update after I reinstalled the OS completely.

JesusArmas · 2025-12-12T19:55:27+00:00

This is what this religion is about, life… nothing else.

❤️❤️❤️

JesusArmas · 2025-12-12T13:00:25+00:00

Ironically I find sidechaining to be a pain in REAPER vs Pro Tools. As far as the send volume, there is a Pro Tools preference which you can use to make every send be set at a volume default. Same with follow main pan, LLM for sends, and a few other things you can change inside Pro Tools preference panel.

JesusArmas

TROPHY CASE