allright homie, here it is. You need a keyboardif you dont have one. Whatver song you are rapping on, when you are trying to "sing a little bit", as in putting a melody to your vocals instead of "spoken", you need to play the keyboard notes and find out what the "root note", which will be the "key" that the song is in. If you make beats and know the key of them( key of C, a minor, B flat, etc.), then its easy, but if you just have a beat or made them without knowing what key you were in, find out! Without knowing that, there is litle hope for accuracy.
After you determine the key it is in, in autotune, choose the key.
Then, in the other choice, shoose major, minor, or chromatic(more of a blues scale).
Also, choose the voice- Alto, Tenor(high male singer or low female singer), barritone, bass(lower range male singer), soprano(high female singer). after that
The default settings for the rest of it(fast/slow and relaxed/choosy)are pretty good as they dont usually give away the autotune effect too much, as in making the vocals sound "robotic".
If you find the vocals are still night quite in tune(this takes a good ear for the correct pitch, so I hope you have that my friend, if not sure, get help from someone you knows does have a good sense of wether a voice is in tune with the key of the song or not), try turning the relaxed/choosy knob more towards relaxed, so autotune will be more often correcting pitch, and/or turn the fast/slow know towards fast as it will correct pitch faster.
If it is too robotic, first make sure you have the settings right and the vocals sound in tune with the key of the song. Make sure your key setting and voice settings are correct. Then, try putting the relaxed/choosy knob towards choosy so autotune will be choosy about which notes it tries too correct, and/or put the fast/slow knob more towards slow so Autotune wont change pitch so quickly. This may help reduce the "robotic" sound like that R&B singer "Kevin Lyttle" has so much. If you like that sound, crank the knobs to way more relaxed and way more fast settings, and listen!
Between listening for the vocals being on pitch and avoiding robotic sound(unless desired), you can find a happy medium that should make the vocals you are "trying to sing" in tune. Remember, to use it for tuning vocals, autotune must be set in the correct key of the song(A, C minor, etc.), scale of the song(major, minor, chromatic) and the correct vocalist setting chosen. Im on on tour worldwide with Shifty, the rapper from Crazy Town. I am an R&B singer and producer, and I know the importance of autotune in todays music, especially someone truly isnt a singer. Kevin Lyttle sounds like crap live(he is on Warner Bros. like us) and autotune makes him sound robotic as hell, but in his style, it sounds very cool, and he is in tune with the effect. Thats why the clubs are bumping it. Its "cool". For you, use your ear or someone elses to find"cool" according to your flavor. Dont let ego get in the way. If you know pitch, well, thats good! If not, dont let it mess you up man. Just get a second opinion from someone you know knows. Its all about the end result. If this advice doesnt concern you, then more power to you. But as far as pitch goes, its takes a musical ear to hear it, and using the autotune plugin correctly. Most rappers dont have that concept, some do, and thats cool. Rappers have something a lot of time that singers dont, like a flava or style. As for me, well, I got it all man! hehe...I hope you do well homie.
Best Regards, Pony Boy
www.shiftymusic.com