The original Antares ATR1 made a huge impact when it was first released, making possible natural‑sounding, real‑time pitch correction. Now it has been given a cosmetic face‑lift and a software upgrade, to produce the far prettier ATR1a. A cost‑effective upgrade is also available for existing ATR1 owners, incorporating all the new processing features of the newer machine. The upgrade kit comprises a small integrated circuit (IC), together with an IC extraction tool and instructions. Antistatic handling precautions need to be taken, as always, and the replacement must be aligned identically to the original — a small dot is provided for this purpose and the orientation of the written labelling should not be relied upon.
The most useful new feature is the Make Scale From MIDI function, which provides a faster means of specifying the scale to which audio is to be tuned. The desired scale notes can be played directly into the ATR1a over MIDI, in any order and at any speed. If you make a mistake, it's a simple matter to start again, and in general I found it rather faster than having to enter each note individually via the unit's menus. The other improvement is the ability to track pitches down to 25Hz, rather than the previous 50Hz, making the ATR1a much more useful for work with bass instruments. I managed to successfully tighten up fretless bass parts with very natural‑sounding results.
In short, the upgrade provides some worthwhile extra enhancements to an already impressive product. What's more, I'm pleased to see that existing ATR1 owners can upgrade their own machines cost effectively, albeit without the snazzy new colour scheme. Paul White