You may not know of Dr. Harold Hildebrand, but you'll almost certainly have heard the results of his sonic tinkering. Introduced in the late 1990s, Auto-Tune went on to make performers who can't hold a note into international sensations, but has also given new vocal expression to artists who could already belt out a good tune. In 2011, Antares announced that it was bringing its pitch correction technology to the electric guitar and we got to play in perfect tune with the AT-200 in 2013. Now the company is aiming for broader adoption with the introduction of the ATG-1 Floor Processor.
As with Peavey's AT-200, the ATG-1 features String Tune and Solid-Tune technologies. Strumming all six strings and engaging the former digitally scoops the guitar to pitch. Solid-Tune, meanwhile, constantly monitors the pitch of each string to deliver perfect intonation all along the fretboard.
Unlike the AT-200, ATG-1 users will need to install a divided pickup like Roland's GK-3 or own a guitar already packing such technology, such as a G-5 Strat, before they can take advantage of all that the unit has to offer. The hex pickup sends data captured from each string to the ATG-1 via the unit's 13-pin interface. The floor processor also has MIDI in, out and through, and left/right audio jacks.
In addition to keeping an instrument at standard EADGBE tuning, the ATG-1 also offers 13 alternate tunings, including Open E and DADGAD, tone modeling for switching between different classic guitar sounds, and each string can also be doubled up for a 12-string effect from a six-string axe. A virtual capo can raise or lower the instrument's pitch, there's onboard pitch shifting and an expression pedal for controlling volume output from the unit, real-time parameter changes and other tone tweaks.
Players can store up to 64 presets in the unit's memory for easy recall of favorite setups, and a two-line backlit LCD display helps users keep track of parameters and settings.
The ATG-1 Floor Processor is available now for US$699.
You can see a product overview in the video below.
Source: Antares