Auto-Tune

[MazinMark]

Many people don't like auto-tune, becuase it takes less skill. You may think I am crazy, but I personally just like the sound of it. I'm just curious, what do you think of auto-tune?

[HLG]

vhc\\\

[nathanallenpinard]

At 12/3/09 12:19 AM, MazinMark wrote: Many people don't like auto-tune, becuase it takes less skill. You may think I am crazy, but I personally just like the sound of it. I'm just curious, what do you think of auto-tune?

Auto-tune can be used to sound transparent and not as noticeable. The effect your talking about is an overkill setting. Before that, there was talk boxes.

[JackRocker]

i'm not really sure exactly what auto-tune does, as i've never used it. does it actually change the sound of the person's voice, or does it just change the pitch so it doesn't sound like the singer missed a note?
i know auto-tune is mainly associated with hip hop, which isn't the style of music i like, but anyway, i don't know a whole lot about it.

[Psil0]

It's used to correct the pitch in bad notes of singers. And it's not used only in hip hop and pop, it's a production tool that spans many different genres and styles.

Also it can be used as an interesting effect on the voice (examples: T-Pain and Attack Attack).

[JackRocker]

At 12/3/09 12:36 AM, Nosferatu-of-Worms wrote: It's used to correct the pitch in bad notes of singers. And it's not used only in hip hop and pop, it's a production tool that spans many different genres and styles.

Also it can be used as an interesting effect on the voice (examples: T-Pain and Attack Attack).

alright, thanks bro.

[nathanallenpinard]

It was also used in Portal for the voice of GlaDOS.

[Kirbyfemur]

It's mostly for people who can't carry a tune, so they had someone make a program so that they could make it seem like they where robots.

At first i thought it sounded kind of cool, but people need to learn to sing rather than rely so heavily on a program.

And don't they a lot of times have someone use keyboards to make the effect as the person is singing?

[nathanallenpinard]

Auto-tune is used in almost every project, mainly to save time.

For instance, your comment about learning how to sing. How you sang in a studio before with expensive high quality mics? It's worlds different than the stage or your home studio. You may have nailed the most perfect take except one note that was slightly bad. What to do?

Auto-tune.

Also auto-tune helps with making background vocals much smoother. Especially when it comes to sync'ing your S's and T's.

[DJ-Chilvan]

I love auto-tune. It's great for people like me who can't sing for shit.
It's also a pretty nice effect, just to add kicks and style, like what T-Pain likes to do (he can sing well w/o an auto-tune btw, just youtube it)
And finally, it makes raspy-voiced rappers like Lil' Wayne be the next Michael Jackson

[Kirbyfemur]

At 12/3/09 12:53 AM, nathanallenpinard wrote: Auto-tune is used in almost every project, mainly to save time.

For instance, your comment about learning how to sing. How you sang in a studio before with expensive high quality mics? It's worlds different than the stage or your home studio. You may have nailed the most perfect take except one note that was slightly bad. What to do?

Auto-tune.

Also auto-tune helps with making background vocals much smoother. Especially when it comes to sync'ing your S's and T's.

Well i guess I've learned wrong... I kinda feel like a dick. I'm just wondering what people would of had to do without auto tune. 'Cause there was a time where people had to just gut it out and do it all on one take.

[nathanallenpinard]

At 12/3/09 12:57 AM, Kirbyfemur wrote:

At 12/3/09 12:53 AM, nathanallenpinard wrote: Auto-tune is used in almost every project, mainly to save time.

For instance, your comment about learning how to sing. How you sang in a studio before with expensive high quality mics? It's worlds different than the stage or your home studio. You may have nailed the most perfect take except one note that was slightly bad. What to do?

Auto-tune.

Also auto-tune helps with making background vocals much smoother. Especially when it comes to sync'ing your S's and T's.

Well i guess I've learned wrong... I kinda feel like a dick. I'm just wondering what people would of had to do without auto tune. 'Cause there was a time where people had to just gut it out and do it all on one take.

Well, mutiple takes, just more time consuming. The engineer would have to manually punch in record to fix any parts. Basically the vocal would sing with their already recorded vocals, and the engineer would "punch in" and then "punch out" to fix something.

To get the autotune effect, there was talk boxes back in the day. Such as what Peter Frampton used, as well as a number of other artists. Background vocals were usually chorused to make them sound smoother. In the 80s just about anything was chorused, including the main vocals.

Also, today we have digital recording and high quality mics that will pick up your stomach growling, let along a bad note in your singing.

[Kirbyfemur]

At 12/3/09 01:15 AM, nathanallenpinard wrote:
Well, mutiple takes, just more time consuming. The engineer would have to manually punch in record to fix any parts. Basically the vocal would sing with their already recorded vocals, and the engineer would "punch in" and then "punch out" to fix something.

To get the autotune effect, there was talk boxes back in the day. Such as what Peter Frampton used, as well as a number of other artists. Background vocals were usually chorused to make them sound smoother. In the 80s just about anything was chorused, including the main vocals.

Also, today we have digital recording and high quality mics that will pick up your stomach growling, let along a bad note in your singing.

Well that makes sense, and in the long run it probably does save time and money.

And i thought talk boxes where just used as a guitar effect lol

And if we don't be careful with the quality of mics as the newer ones come out, we might end up having them be able to pick up brain waves lol

[Reaper93]

Auto-tune is a program that was designed for pitch correction or bending. It can be applied sharply (to create a T-Pain style effect that is now pretty popular) or more weakly just to correct for minor pitch fluctuations. It is used in most songs with vocals, or sometimes even on instruments, and it is beginning to be used more often live as well.

[nathanallenpinard]

On that Oxhorn Christmas for Geeks album, I used Melodyne, which is another brand of pitch correction (Auto-tune is just a brand0

Here's what interesting about the initial design of auto-tune:

Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch.[2]

[Reaper93]

Hey, a wave's a wave, right?

[SymbolCymbal]

auto-tune can also be used on live instruments .. sometimes musicians use old or odd instruments to record tracks.. adding autotune makes sure the pitch is perfect so there are no discrepancies when recording other perfectly tuned instruments with it.

like when cake uses a guitar with piano pick ups on it.. or when benevento russo duo uses tuned percussion that is home made

[ZStriefel]

when i t boils down to it pitch correction software like auto tune and melodyne are time savers. Not to mention, If you're good with these programs it makes you extra tasty to a client (thats assuming you're trying to get a gig as an engineer). Sometimes yes, you DO have people that absolutely can not sing at all that say "omfg auto tune! I can be a pop star now!" but in general, like Nathan said, It's applications are more for saving time and fixing those little off parts and making everything smooth. Auto tune is not the devil.

[Khuskan]

Heck, even if an artist rents out a studio and asks not to be autotuned, they probably will be anyway. It saves so much time and money to fix a few tiny timing and tuning errors than re-recording everything over and over again. There's nothing wrong with trying to be perfect, but if you have to do 18 recordings of a vocal line and cut out the good bits and stick them together, that's a much more dishonest and cheaty practice than autotune, in my opinion.

Also yes, it can do some very interesting effects. Only real objection I have to it is in live performance where it's not being used as an effect but as a stealthy correction system.

[Short-Factor]

As I see it, if you ever intend to use Auto Tune, you should be able to sing well naturally too so you don't look like a total cheapskate.
It is a sketchy subject, but I've enjoyed it in many songs, and what I've noticed always catches my interest most are songs that have the vocalist sing naturally at first, then brief parts where the 'Autotune' effect takes over (this is rarely done).
As long as you're not dependent on Auto Tune for your success, I say go for it. And if you can't sing well, then you better be one creative fucking musician.

Also, poo on them and their ridiculous price tag. I've had awesome results messing with Gsnap

[nathanallenpinard]

Autotune may fix pitch, but it doesn't fix other things like tone, breath support, and annunciation, which are all traits of good singing. It doesn't fix inconsistent vibrato either.

[ZStriefel]

At 12/3/09 10:10 PM, nathanallenpinard wrote: Autotune may fix pitch, but it doesn't fix other things like tone, breath support, and annunciation, which are all traits of good singing. It doesn't fix inconsistent vibrato either.

its all a matter of time..

[Pure-Metal-UTA]

Actually, Autotune is now seen as a meme because of how overkilled it was.
Although it is an extremely useful tool to adjusting your voice pitch subtlely, the robotic sound use of it has died.
Here's a video with a better explaination of it.

[nathanallenpinard]

No, it hasn't really died. Just not every genre maxes the settings anymore.

[SymbolCymbal]

is it bad that i knew that cher was the first popular artist to use auto-tune

[Kirbyfemur]

At 12/4/09 01:48 AM, SymbolCymbal wrote: is it bad that i knew that cher was the first popular artist to use auto-tune

Nah could be worse.... Could be raining... Or you could have said something like:
"PS Cher is teh grtest musacian in teh wrld!" or somethign along those lines lol

[Calamaistr]

is this (auto tune) the thing that you hear in pretty much every song today? That their voices sound like they change pitch like a synthetic/robot? Forgive me if i am not sure i never heard the word before.

(Cause symbol mentioned cher and i remember cher because there was a girl i once knew who listened to some track called do you believe in life after love or the other way around, wich kindof had it too but then not as overused as today)

Sometimes when im in town i pick up some of that on the radio they play, i dont listen to radio myself see so its pretty much a rarity.

[Khuskan]

At 12/4/09 01:48 AM, SymbolCymbal wrote: is it bad that i knew that cher was the first popular artist to use auto-tune

Fallacy. 'Life after Love' used vocoders, not autotune.

is this (auto tune) the thing that you hear in pretty much every song today? That their voices sound like they change pitch like a synthetic/robot? Forgive me if i am not sure i never heard the word before.

Yes and no. If autotune is being used properly, the listener should not be aware it has been used at all, unless it's being applied as an effect rather than a precision process to enhance the recording.

[xKore]

At 12/4/09 06:49 PM, Khuskan wrote:

At 12/4/09 01:48 AM, SymbolCymbal wrote: is it bad that i knew that cher was the first popular artist to use auto-tune

Fallacy. 'Life after Love' used vocoders, not autotune.

actualllllly

"Cher's voice is altered by a pitch correction speed that is "set too fast for the audio that it is processing."[8] Producer Mark Taylor added the effect to Cher's vocal simply as a lark. In interviews at the time, he claimed to be testing out his recently purchased DigiTech Talker. It later emerged that the effect was not created by a vocoder, but by using extreme (and then-unheard-of) settings on Antares Auto-Tune software.[8] When Cher heard the results, she demanded that the effect remain in the song, and her original vocal be erased. When her record company requested it be removed, Cher responded, "Over my dead body!"."

[nathanallenpinard]

That song by Cher was the first single released using Auto-Tune.