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Wikipedia

Auto-Tune

February 12, 2023

For correcting pitch in general, see Pitch correction. For automated optimization software, see Self-tuning.

Auto-Tune (or autotune) is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies.[4] Auto-Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.[5]

Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune running on GarageBand
Original author(s)Dr. Andy Hildebrand
Developer(s)Antares Audio Technologies
Initial releaseSeptember 19, 1997; 25 years ago (1997-09-19)[1][2]
Stable release
10[3]
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows and macOS
TypePitch correction
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.antarestech.com

Auto-Tune was originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned despite originally being slightly off-pitch. The 1998 Cher song "Believe" popularized the technique of using Auto-Tune to distort vocals. In 2018, the music critic Simon Reynolds observed that Auto-Tune had "revolutionized popular music", calling its use for effects "the fad that just wouldn't fade. Its use is now more entrenched than ever."[6]

In its role distorting vocals, Auto-Tune operates on different principles from the vocoder or talk box and produces different results.[7]

Description

 
Antares Vocal Processor AVP-1 (middle)

Auto-Tune is available as a plug-in for digital audio workstations used in a studio setting and as a stand-alone, rack-mounted unit for live performance processing.[8] The processor slightly shifts pitches to the nearest true, correct semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest note in traditional equal temperament). Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly,[9] such that the voice is heard to leap from note to note stepwise, like a synthesizer.[10]

Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios.[11] Instruments such as the Peavey AT-200 guitar seamlessly use Auto-Tune technology for real time pitch correction.[12]

History

Auto-Tune was launched in September 1997[13] by Andy Hildebrand, a Ph.D. research engineer who specialized in stochastic estimation theory and digital signal processing. Over several months in early 1996, he implemented the algorithm on a custom Macintosh computer, and presented the result at the NAMM Show later that year, where "it was instantly a massive hit."[14]

His method for detecting pitch involved the use of autocorrelation and proved to be superior to earlier attempts based on feature extraction that had problems processing certain aspects of the human voice such as diphthongs, leading to sound artifacts.[14] Music industry engineers had previously considered the use of autocorrelation impractical because of the massive computational effort required, but Hildebrand found a "simplification [that] changed a million multiply adds into just four. It was a trick – a mathematical trick".[14]

According to the Auto-Tune patent, the referred implementation detail simply consists, when processing new samples, of reusing the former autocorrelation bin, and adding the product of the new sample with the older sample corresponding to a lag value, while subtracting the autocorrelation product of the sample that correspondingly got out of window.[5]

Hildebrand had come up with the idea for a vocal pitch correction technology on the suggestion of a colleague's wife, who had joked that she could benefit from a device to help her sing in tune.[14][15] Originally, Auto-Tune was designed to discreetly correct imprecise intonations, in order to make music more expressive, with the original patent asserting that "When voices or instruments are out of tune, the emotional qualities of the performance are lost."[6]

According to Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times, Cher's 1998 song "Believe" is "widely credited with injecting Auto-Tune's mechanical modulations into pop consciousness".[16] Cher's producers used the device to "exaggerate the artificiality of abrupt pitch correction", contrary to its original purpose.

While working with Cher on the song "Believe" in 1998, producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling discovered that if they set Auto-Tune on its most aggressive setting, so that it corrected the pitch at the exact moment it received the signal, the result was an unsettlingly robotic tone.

— Greg Milner (2009)[17]

In an early interview, the producers of "Believe" claimed they had used a DigiTech Talker FX pedal, in what Sound on Sound's editors felt was an attempt to preserve a trade secret.[18] After the success of "Believe" the technique was initially referred to as the "Cher effect".[19][20]

The English rock band Radiohead used Auto-Tune on their 2001 album Amnesiac to create a "nasal, depersonalised sound" and to process speech into melody. According to singer Thom Yorke, the software "desperately tries to search for the music in your speech, and produces notes at random. If you've assigned it a key, you've got music."[21]

The use of Auto-Tune as a vocal effect was bolstered in the late 2000s by hip hop/R&B recording artist T-Pain, who elaborated on the effect and made active use of Auto-Tune in his songs.[22] He cites new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutman's use of the talk box as inspirations for his own use of Auto-Tune.[16] T-Pain became so associated with Auto-Tune that he had an iPhone app named after him that simulated the effect, called "I Am T-Pain".[23] Eventually dubbed the "T-Pain effect",[15] the use of Auto-Tune became a popular fixture of late 2000s music, where it was notably used in other hip hop/R&B artists' works, including Snoop Dogg's single "Sexual Eruption",[24] Lil Wayne's "Lollipop",[25] and Kanye West's album 808s & Heartbreak.[26] In 2009, riding on the wave of Auto-Tune's popularity, the Black Eyed Peas' number-one hit, "Boom Boom Pow", made heavy use of Auto-Tune on all the group's vocals to create a futuristic sound.[15]

The use of Auto-Tune in hip hop gained a resurgence in the mid-2010s, especially in trap music.[15] Hip hop artists like Future, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, and Lil Uzi Vert used Auto-Tune to create a signature sound.[27]

The effect has also become popular in raï music and other genres from Northern Africa.[28] According to the Boston Herald, country stars Faith Hill, Shania Twain, and Tim McGraw use Auto-Tune in performance, calling it a safety net that guarantees a good performance.[29] However, other country music singers, such as Allison Moorer,[30] Garth Brooks,[31] Big & Rich, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill and Martina McBride, have refused to use Auto-Tune.[32]

Reception

Negative

At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest against the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry.[33] Later that spring, Jay-Z titled the lead single of his album The Blueprint 3 as "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". Jay-Z elaborated that he wrote the song under the personal belief that the trend had become a gimmick which had become far too widely used.[34][35] Christina Aguilera appeared in public in Los Angeles on August 10, 2009, wearing a T-shirt that read "Auto Tune is for Pussies". When later interviewed by Sirius/XM, however, she clarified that Auto-Tune could be used "in a creative way" and noted her song "Elastic Love" from Bionic uses it.[36]

Opponents of the plug-in have argued that Auto-Tune has a negative effect on society's perception and consumption of music. In 2004, The Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick called Auto-Tune a "particularly sinister invention that has been putting extra shine on pop vocals since the 1990s" by taking "a poorly sung note and transpos[ing] it, placing it dead centre of where it was meant to be".[37]

In 2009, Time magazine quoted an unnamed Grammy-winning recording engineer as saying, "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box." The same article expressed "hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade", speculating that pop-music songs have become harder to differentiate from one another, as "track after track has perfect pitch."[38] According to Tom Lord-Alge, the device is used on nearly every record these days.[17]

In 2010, the reality TV show The X Factor admitted to using Auto-Tune to improve the voices of contestants.[39] Also in 2010, Time magazine included Auto-Tune in their list of "The 50 Worst Inventions".[40]

Neko Case in a 2006 interview with Pitchfork gave an example of how prevalent pitch correction is in the industry:

I'm not a perfect note hitter either but I'm not going to cover it up with Auto-Tune. Everybody uses it, too. I once asked a studio guy in Toronto, 'How many people don't use Auto-Tune?' and he said, 'You and Nelly Furtado are the only two people who've never used it in here.' Even though I'm not into Nelly Furtado, it kind of made me respect her. It's cool that she has some integrity.[41]

Used by stars from Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne to Britney Spears and Cher, Auto-Tune has been widely criticized as indicative of an inability to sing on key.[20][42][43][44][45] Trey Parker used Auto-Tune on the South Park song "Gay Fish", and found that he had to sing off-key in order to sound distorted; he claimed, "You had to be a bad singer in order for that thing to actually sound the way it does. If you use it and you sing into it correctly, it doesn't do anything to your voice."[46] Electropop recording artist Kesha has been widely recognized as using excessive Auto-Tune in her songs, putting her vocal talent under scrutiny.[42][47][48][49][50] Music producer Rick Rubin wrote that "Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune. That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is."[51] Time journalist Josh Tyrangiel called Auto-Tune "Photoshop for the human voice".[51]

Big band singer Michael Bublé criticized Auto-Tune as making everyone sound the same – "like robots" – but admits to using it when he records pop-oriented music.[52]

Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran have called for honesty in live shows by joining the "Live Means Live" campaign. "Live Means Live" was launched by songwriter/composer David Mindel. When a band displays the "Live Means Live" logo, the audience knows, "there's no Auto-Tune, nothing that isn't 100 per cent live" in the show, and there are no backing tracks.[53]

Positive

Despite its negative reputation, some critics have argued that Auto-Tune opens up new possibilities in pop music, especially in hip-hop and R&B. Instead of using it as a correction tool for poor vocals—its originally designed purpose—some musicians intentionally use the technology to mediate and augment their artistic expression. When French house duo Daft Punk was questioned about their use of Auto-Tune in their single "One More Time", Thomas Bangalter replied by saying, "A lot of people complain about musicians using Auto-Tune. It reminds me of the late '70s when musicians in France tried to ban the synthesizer... What they didn't see was that you could use those tools in a new way instead of just for replacing the instruments that came before."[54]

T-Pain, the R&B singer and rapper who reintroduced the use of Auto-Tune as a vocal effect in pop music with his album Rappa Ternt Sanga in 2005, said "My dad always told me that anyone's voice is just another instrument added to the music. There was a time when people had seven-minute songs and five minutes of them were just straight instrumental. ... I got a lot of influence from [the '60s era] and I thought I might as well just turn my voice into a saxophone."[55] Following in T-Pain's footsteps, Lil Wayne experimented with Auto-Tune between his albums Tha Carter II and Tha Carter III. At the time, he was heavily addicted to promethazine codeine, and some critics see Auto-Tune as a musical expression of Wayne's loneliness and depression.[56] Mark Anthony Neal wrote that Lil Wayne’s vocal uniqueness, his "slurs, blurs, bleeps and blushes of his vocals, index some variety of trauma."[57] And Kevin Driscoll asks, "Is Auto-Tune not the wah pedal of today's black pop? Before he transformed himself into T-Wayne on "Lollipop", Wayne's pop presence was limited to guest verses and unauthorized freestyles. In the same way that Miles equipped Hendrix to stay pop-relevant, Wayne's flirtation with the VST plugin du jour brought him updial from JAMN 94.5 to KISS 108."[58]

Kanye West's 808s & Heartbreak was generally well received by critics, and it similarly used Auto-Tune to represent a fragmented soul, following his mother's death.[59] The album marks a departure from his previous album, Graduation. Describing the album as a breakup album, Rolling Stone music critic Jody Rosen wrote, "Kanye can't really sing in the classic sense, but he's not trying to. T-Pain taught the world that Auto-Tune doesn't just sharpen flat notes: It's a painterly device for enhancing vocal expressiveness and upping the pathos ... Kanye's digitized vocals are the sound of a man so stupefied by grief, he's become less than human."[60]

YouTuber Conor Maynard, who has received criticism for his use of Auto-Tune, defended the audio processor in an interview on the Zach Sang Show in 2019, stating: "It doesn't mean you can't sing ... auto-tune can't make anyone who can't sing sound like they can sing ... it just tightens it up ever so slightly because we're human and we are not perfect, whereas [Auto-Tune] is literally digitally perfect".[61][62]

Impact and parodies

The US TV comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied Auto-Tune using the fictional white rapper Blizzard Man, who sang in a sketch: "Robot voice, robot voice! All the kids love the robot voice!"[63][64]

Satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic poked fun at the overuse of Auto-Tune, while commenting that it seemed here to stay, in a YouTube video commented on by various publications such as Wired.[65]

Starting in 2009, the use of Auto-Tune to create melodies from the audio in video newscasts was popularized by Brooklyn musician Michael Gregory, and later by the band the Gregory Brothers in their series Songify the News. The Gregory Brothers digitally manipulated recorded voices of politicians, news anchors, and political pundits to conform to a melody, making the figures appear to sing.[66][67] The group achieved mainstream success with their "Bed Intruder Song" video, which became the most-watched YouTube video of 2010.[68]

The Simpsons season 12 episode 14, "New Kids on the Blecch", satirizes the use of Auto-Tune.

In 2014, during season 18 of the animated show South Park, the character Randy Marsh uses Auto-Tune software to make the singing voice of Lorde. In episode 3, "The Cissy", Randy shows his son Stan how he does it on his computer.[69]

See also

References

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External links

  • Antares – Compare Auto-Tune Editions
  • Ryan Dombal (2006-04-10). . Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 2007-05-01. – artistic integrity and Auto-Tune
  • CBC Radio One Q: The Podcast for Thursday June 25, 2009 – NPR's Tom Moon on the takeover of the Auto-Tune.
  • "Auto-Tune", NOVA scienceNOW, PBS TV, June 30, 2009
  • Andy Hildebrand Interview – NAMM Oral History Library (2012)

February 12, 2023
auto, tune, correcting, pitch, general, pitch, correction, automated, optimization, software, self, tuning, autotune, audio, processor, introduced, 1996, american, company, antares, audio, technologies, uses, proprietary, device, measure, alter, pitch, vocal, . For correcting pitch in general see Pitch correction For automated optimization software see Self tuning Auto Tune or autotune is an audio processor introduced in 1996 by American company Antares Audio Technologies 4 Auto Tune uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances 5 Auto TuneAuto Tune running on GarageBandOriginal author s Dr Andy HildebrandDeveloper s Antares Audio TechnologiesInitial releaseSeptember 19 1997 25 years ago 1997 09 19 1 2 Stable release10 3 Operating systemMicrosoft Windows and macOSTypePitch correctionLicenseProprietaryWebsitewww wbr antarestech wbr comAuto Tune was originally intended to disguise or correct off key inaccuracies allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned despite originally being slightly off pitch The 1998 Cher song Believe popularized the technique of using Auto Tune to distort vocals In 2018 the music critic Simon Reynolds observed that Auto Tune had revolutionized popular music calling its use for effects the fad that just wouldn t fade Its use is now more entrenched than ever 6 In its role distorting vocals Auto Tune operates on different principles from the vocoder or talk box and produces different results 7 Contents 1 Description 2 History 3 Reception 3 1 Negative 3 2 Positive 3 3 Impact and parodies 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksDescription Edit Antares Vocal Processor AVP 1 middle Auto Tune is available as a plug in for digital audio workstations used in a studio setting and as a stand alone rack mounted unit for live performance processing 8 The processor slightly shifts pitches to the nearest true correct semitone to the exact pitch of the nearest note in traditional equal temperament Auto Tune can also be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly 9 such that the voice is heard to leap from note to note stepwise like a synthesizer 10 Auto Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios 11 Instruments such as the Peavey AT 200 guitar seamlessly use Auto Tune technology for real time pitch correction 12 History EditAuto Tune was launched in September 1997 13 by Andy Hildebrand a Ph D research engineer who specialized in stochastic estimation theory and digital signal processing Over several months in early 1996 he implemented the algorithm on a custom Macintosh computer and presented the result at the NAMM Show later that year where it was instantly a massive hit 14 His method for detecting pitch involved the use of autocorrelation and proved to be superior to earlier attempts based on feature extraction that had problems processing certain aspects of the human voice such as diphthongs leading to sound artifacts 14 Music industry engineers had previously considered the use of autocorrelation impractical because of the massive computational effort required but Hildebrand found a simplification that changed a million multiply adds into just four It was a trick a mathematical trick 14 According to the Auto Tune patent the referred implementation detail simply consists when processing new samples of reusing the former autocorrelation bin and adding the product of the new sample with the older sample corresponding to a lag value while subtracting the autocorrelation product of the sample that correspondingly got out of window 5 Hildebrand had come up with the idea for a vocal pitch correction technology on the suggestion of a colleague s wife who had joked that she could benefit from a device to help her sing in tune 14 15 Originally Auto Tune was designed to discreetly correct imprecise intonations in order to make music more expressive with the original patent asserting that When voices or instruments are out of tune the emotional qualities of the performance are lost 6 According to Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times Cher s 1998 song Believe is widely credited with injecting Auto Tune s mechanical modulations into pop consciousness 16 Cher s producers used the device to exaggerate the artificiality of abrupt pitch correction contrary to its original purpose While working with Cher on the song Believe in 1998 producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling discovered that if they set Auto Tune on its most aggressive setting so that it corrected the pitch at the exact moment it received the signal the result was an unsettlingly robotic tone Greg Milner 2009 17 In an early interview the producers of Believe claimed they had used a DigiTech Talker FX pedal in what Sound on Sound s editors felt was an attempt to preserve a trade secret 18 After the success of Believe the technique was initially referred to as the Cher effect 19 20 The English rock band Radiohead used Auto Tune on their 2001 album Amnesiac to create a nasal depersonalised sound and to process speech into melody According to singer Thom Yorke the software desperately tries to search for the music in your speech and produces notes at random If you ve assigned it a key you ve got music 21 The use of Auto Tune as a vocal effect was bolstered in the late 2000s by hip hop R amp B recording artist T Pain who elaborated on the effect and made active use of Auto Tune in his songs 22 He cites new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutman s use of the talk box as inspirations for his own use of Auto Tune 16 T Pain became so associated with Auto Tune that he had an iPhone app named after him that simulated the effect called I Am T Pain 23 Eventually dubbed the T Pain effect 15 the use of Auto Tune became a popular fixture of late 2000s music where it was notably used in other hip hop R amp B artists works including Snoop Dogg s single Sexual Eruption 24 Lil Wayne s Lollipop 25 and Kanye West s album 808s amp Heartbreak 26 In 2009 riding on the wave of Auto Tune s popularity the Black Eyed Peas number one hit Boom Boom Pow made heavy use of Auto Tune on all the group s vocals to create a futuristic sound 15 The use of Auto Tune in hip hop gained a resurgence in the mid 2010s especially in trap music 15 Hip hop artists like Future Playboi Carti Travis Scott and Lil Uzi Vert used Auto Tune to create a signature sound 27 The effect has also become popular in rai music and other genres from Northern Africa 28 According to the Boston Herald country stars Faith Hill Shania Twain and Tim McGraw use Auto Tune in performance calling it a safety net that guarantees a good performance 29 However other country music singers such as Allison Moorer 30 Garth Brooks 31 Big amp Rich Trisha Yearwood Vince Gill and Martina McBride have refused to use Auto Tune 32 Reception EditNegative Edit At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009 the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest against the use of Auto Tune in the music industry 33 Later that spring Jay Z titled the lead single of his album The Blueprint 3 as D O A Death of Auto Tune Jay Z elaborated that he wrote the song under the personal belief that the trend had become a gimmick which had become far too widely used 34 35 Christina Aguilera appeared in public in Los Angeles on August 10 2009 wearing a T shirt that read Auto Tune is for Pussies When later interviewed by Sirius XM however she clarified that Auto Tune could be used in a creative way and noted her song Elastic Love from Bionic uses it 36 Opponents of the plug in have argued that Auto Tune has a negative effect on society s perception and consumption of music In 2004 The Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick called Auto Tune a particularly sinister invention that has been putting extra shine on pop vocals since the 1990s by taking a poorly sung note and transpos ing it placing it dead centre of where it was meant to be 37 In 2009 Time magazine quoted an unnamed Grammy winning recording engineer as saying Let s just say I ve had Auto Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums And every singer now presumes that you ll just run their voice through the box The same article expressed hope that pop s fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade speculating that pop music songs have become harder to differentiate from one another as track after track has perfect pitch 38 According to Tom Lord Alge the device is used on nearly every record these days 17 In 2010 the reality TV show The X Factor admitted to using Auto Tune to improve the voices of contestants 39 Also in 2010 Time magazine included Auto Tune in their list of The 50 Worst Inventions 40 Neko Case in a 2006 interview with Pitchfork gave an example of how prevalent pitch correction is in the industry I m not a perfect note hitter either but I m not going to cover it up with Auto Tune Everybody uses it too I once asked a studio guy in Toronto How many people don t use Auto Tune and he said You and Nelly Furtado are the only two people who ve never used it in here Even though I m not into Nelly Furtado it kind of made me respect her It s cool that she has some integrity 41 Used by stars from Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne to Britney Spears and Cher Auto Tune has been widely criticized as indicative of an inability to sing on key 20 42 43 44 45 Trey Parker used Auto Tune on the South Park song Gay Fish and found that he had to sing off key in order to sound distorted he claimed You had to be a bad singer in order for that thing to actually sound the way it does If you use it and you sing into it correctly it doesn t do anything to your voice 46 Electropop recording artist Kesha has been widely recognized as using excessive Auto Tune in her songs putting her vocal talent under scrutiny 42 47 48 49 50 Music producer Rick Rubin wrote that Right now if you listen to pop everything is in perfect pitch perfect time and perfect tune That s how ubiquitous Auto Tune is 51 Time journalist Josh Tyrangiel called Auto Tune Photoshop for the human voice 51 Big band singer Michael Buble criticized Auto Tune as making everyone sound the same like robots but admits to using it when he records pop oriented music 52 Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran have called for honesty in live shows by joining the Live Means Live campaign Live Means Live was launched by songwriter composer David Mindel When a band displays the Live Means Live logo the audience knows there s no Auto Tune nothing that isn t 100 per cent live in the show and there are no backing tracks 53 Positive Edit Despite its negative reputation some critics have argued that Auto Tune opens up new possibilities in pop music especially in hip hop and R amp B Instead of using it as a correction tool for poor vocals its originally designed purpose some musicians intentionally use the technology to mediate and augment their artistic expression When French house duo Daft Punk was questioned about their use of Auto Tune in their single One More Time Thomas Bangalter replied by saying A lot of people complain about musicians using Auto Tune It reminds me of the late 70s when musicians in France tried to ban the synthesizer What they didn t see was that you could use those tools in a new way instead of just for replacing the instruments that came before 54 T Pain the R amp B singer and rapper who reintroduced the use of Auto Tune as a vocal effect in pop music with his album Rappa Ternt Sanga in 2005 said My dad always told me that anyone s voice is just another instrument added to the music There was a time when people had seven minute songs and five minutes of them were just straight instrumental I got a lot of influence from the 60s era and I thought I might as well just turn my voice into a saxophone 55 Following in T Pain s footsteps Lil Wayne experimented with Auto Tune between his albums Tha Carter II and Tha Carter III At the time he was heavily addicted to promethazine codeine and some critics see Auto Tune as a musical expression of Wayne s loneliness and depression 56 Mark Anthony Neal wrote that Lil Wayne s vocal uniqueness his slurs blurs bleeps and blushes of his vocals index some variety of trauma 57 And Kevin Driscoll asks Is Auto Tune not the wah pedal of today s black pop Before he transformed himself into T Wayne on Lollipop Wayne s pop presence was limited to guest verses and unauthorized freestyles In the same way that Miles equipped Hendrix to stay pop relevant Wayne s flirtation with the VST plugin du jour brought him updial from JAMN 94 5 to KISS 108 58 Kanye West s 808s amp Heartbreak was generally well received by critics and it similarly used Auto Tune to represent a fragmented soul following his mother s death 59 The album marks a departure from his previous album Graduation Describing the album as a breakup album Rolling Stone music critic Jody Rosen wrote Kanye can t really sing in the classic sense but he s not trying to T Pain taught the world that Auto Tune doesn t just sharpen flat notes It s a painterly device for enhancing vocal expressiveness and upping the pathos Kanye s digitized vocals are the sound of a man so stupefied by grief he s become less than human 60 YouTuber Conor Maynard who has received criticism for his use of Auto Tune defended the audio processor in an interview on the Zach Sang Show in 2019 stating It doesn t mean you can t sing auto tune can t make anyone who can t sing sound like they can sing it just tightens it up ever so slightly because we re human and we are not perfect whereas Auto Tune is literally digitally perfect 61 62 Impact and parodies Edit The US TV comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied Auto Tune using the fictional white rapper Blizzard Man who sang in a sketch Robot voice robot voice All the kids love the robot voice 63 64 Satirist Weird Al Yankovic poked fun at the overuse of Auto Tune while commenting that it seemed here to stay in a YouTube video commented on by various publications such as Wired 65 Starting in 2009 the use of Auto Tune to create melodies from the audio in video newscasts was popularized by Brooklyn musician Michael Gregory and later by the band the Gregory Brothers in their series Songify the News The Gregory Brothers digitally manipulated recorded voices of politicians news anchors and political pundits to conform to a melody making the figures appear to sing 66 67 The group achieved mainstream success with their Bed Intruder Song video which became the most watched YouTube video of 2010 68 The Simpsons season 12 episode 14 New Kids on the Blecch satirizes the use of Auto Tune In 2014 during season 18 of the animated show South Park the character Randy Marsh uses Auto Tune software to make the singing voice of Lorde In episode 3 The Cissy Randy shows his son Stan how he does it on his computer 69 See also EditAudio time stretching and pitch scaling Melodyne a similar product Overproduction music Robotic voice effectsReferences Edit Antares News Archived from the original on 2000 08 19 Retrieved 2016 10 22 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint bot original URL status unknown link AntaresTech com Preve Francis Antares Kantos 1 0 Audio Synthesizer PC Mac Keyboard 28 no 10 10 2002 92 95 97 https www antarestech com products auto tune pro a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a Missing or empty title help AUTO TUNE USPTO Archived from the original on 2020 02 18 Retrieved 2020 02 17 a b US patent 5973252 Harold A Hildebrand Pitch detection and intonation correction apparatus and method published 1999 10 26 issued 1999 10 26 assigned to Auburn Audio Technologies Inc a b Reynolds Simon 2018 09 17 How Auto Tune Revolutionized the Sound of Popular Music pitchfork com Archived from the original on 2019 07 26 Retrieved 2018 10 05 Frazier Neely Cathryn The Independent Teacher Live Vs Recorded Comparing Apples to Oranges to Get Fruit Salad Journal of Singing The Official Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing 69 5 2013 593 6 ProQuest Web 16 June 2014 Antares product page antarestech com Archived from the original on 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original on January 7 2014 Hardeman Simon 12 December 2014 Live ish at a venue near you Are miming rock stars undermining the music experience The rock band that plays completely live with no pre recorded backing tracks or extended samples is becoming rarer and rarer www independent co uk Independent Archived from the original on 5 October 2017 Retrieved 29 June 2017 Gill Chris 2001 05 01 ROBOPOP Remix Archived from the original on January 3 2006 Retrieved 2014 10 06 Zachary Sniderman 2011 12 06 T Pain Talks Autotune Apps and the Future of Music Mashable com Archived from the original on 2013 11 08 Retrieved 2013 11 14 Twitter noz YoPendleton newbornrodeo Twitter com February 22 2013 Archived from the original on December 16 2013 Retrieved 2013 11 14 A Love Supreme Seeingblack com October 8 2008 Archived from the original on December 13 2013 Retrieved 2013 11 14 todo mundo Blog Archive Is that Lil Twane on the keytar Kevindriscoll info 2008 08 07 Archived from the original on 2013 12 09 Retrieved 2013 11 14 808s amp Heartbreak Reviews Metacritic November 25 2008 Archived from the original on December 15 2012 Retrieved 2013 11 14 Rosen Joden 11 December 2008 808s amp Heartbreak Rolling Stone Archived from the original on March 25 2017 Retrieved August 10 2015 Conor Maynard Talks Hate How Much I Love You Using Auto Tune James Charles amp Caspar Lee YouTube Archived from the original on 2020 01 12 Retrieved 2020 05 19 Conor Maynard on Auto Tune amp Why Artists Use It Archived from the original on 2021 12 21 via www youtube com Blizzard Man 2 Saturday Night Live Yahoo Screen Archived from the original on 2014 03 30 Retrieved 2014 03 30 SNL Transcripts Tim McGraw 11 22 08 Blizzard Man snltranscripts jt org Archived from the original on 2 July 2017 Retrieved 8 August 2017 Thill Scott 16 November 2009 Will Auto Tune Die Ask Know Your Meme and Weird Al Wired Archived from the original on 9 March 2017 Band s Parody Helps Keep Auto Tune Alive Archived October 24 2010 at the Wayback Machine John D Sutter Time September 2009 Auto Tune the News Archived 2010 03 15 at the Wayback Machine Claire Suddath Time April 2009 Double rainbows annoying oranges and bed intruders the year on YouTube Archived 2010 12 23 at the Wayback Machine YouTube Blog Dec 2010 Heggs Melanie February 21 2015 Sia Confirms Involvement In South Park Lorde Parody Chandelier Singer Figured Royals Artist Would Find It Funny Fashion amp Style Archived from the original on April 25 2016 External links EditAntares Compare Auto Tune Editions Ryan Dombal 2006 04 10 Interview Neko Case Pitchfork Archived from the original on 2007 05 01 artistic integrity and Auto Tune CBC Radio One Q The Podcast for Thursday June 25 2009 MP3 NPR s Tom Moon on the takeover of the Auto Tune Auto Tune NOVA scienceNOW PBS TV June 30 2009 Andy Hildebrand Interview NAMM Oral History Library 2012 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Auto Tune amp oldid 1137840166, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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