• Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read Online
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• Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read Aloud
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The Top Ten Singers with Too Much Autotune. 1 Will.I.Am will.i.am is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor known for being the lead vocalist in The Black Eyed Peas. He was born in Los Angeles, California. Listen to Whats My Name, then you'll see she uses way too much auto tune. You guys are insufferable. Autotune does. Autotune, should it be used? He can’t sing but he still makes good music. It’s not obvious and blatant like with T-Pain, but you can tell he uses auto-tune. Most auto-tuned singers do actually sing well, and only use the auto-tune to get that 'robot' effect. You singing Kanye West off-key in your car is not putting more effort than the artist who practiced singing the song, warmed up his vocals, and had to re-record until everything was just right.

What I find most fascinating about Antares Auto-Tune is that everyone and their mother knows what it is, despite the fact that it's just another digital audio plugin used in bedroom and professional studios alike. Even people who have no clue what an EQ or compressor does somehow at least know of the word 'Auto-Tune' and even the general effect it has on the human voice.

But even though Auto-Tune has evolved to become this cultural phenomenon, very few artists or producers truly understand how to get it to sound like the way it sounds on major records.

In case you don't know what it is, Auto-Tune, in a nutshell, is a pitch correction software that allows the user to set the key signature of the song so that the pitch of the incoming signal will be corrected to the closest note in that key (and does so in real time). There are other pitch correction programs out there that do similar functions: Waves Tune, Waves Tune Real-Time, and Melodyne (which is pitch correction, but not in real time), but Auto-Tune seems to have won the standard for real-time pitch correction.

Auto-Tune traditionally is used on vocals, although in some cases can be used on certain instruments. For the sake of this article we will be discussing Auto-Tune and its effect on the human voice. Listen to this early example from the 'King of Auto-Tune,' the one artist who did more to popularize its effect than any other, T-Pain.

Working as a full-time engineer here at Studio 11 in Chicago, we deal with Auto-Tune on a daily basis. Whether it's people requesting that we put it on their voice, something we do naturally to correct pitch, or even for a specific creative effect. It's just a part of our arsenal that we use everyday, so over the years we have really gotten to know the ins and outs of the program—from its benefits to limitations.

So let's delve further into what this software really is and can do, and in the process debunk certain myths around what the public or people who are new to Auto-Tune may think. If you were ever wondering why your Auto-Tune at home doesn't sound like the Auto-Tune you hear from your favorite artists, this is the article for you.

To set the record straight, as I do get asked this a lot of times from clients and inquiring home producers, there really are no different 'types' of Auto-Tune. Antares makes many different versions of Auto-Tune—Auto-Tune EFX, Auto-Tune Live, and Auto-Tune Pro—that have various options and different interfaces, but any of those can give you the effect you're after. Auto-Tune Pro does have a lot of cool features and updates, but you don't need 'Pro' to sound pro.

I wanted to debunk this first, as some people come to me asking about the 'the Lil Durk Auto-Tune,' or perhaps that classic 'T-Pain Auto-Tune.' That effect is made from the same plugin—the outcome of the sound that you hear depends on how you set the settings within the program and the pitch of the incoming signal.

So if your Auto-Tune at home sounds different from what you hear on the radio, it's because of these factors, not because they have a magic version of Auto-Tune that works better than yours at home. You can achieve the exact same results.

In modern music Auto-Tune is really used with two different intentions. The first is to use it as a tool in a transparent manner, to correct someone's pitch. In this situation, the artist doesn't want to hear the effect work, they just want to hit the right notes. The second intent is to use it as an audible effect for the robotic vocals you can now hear all over the pop and rap charts.

But regardless of the intent, in order for Auto-Tune to sound its best, there are three main things that need to be set correctly.

1. The correct key of the song. This is the most important part of the process and honestly where most people fail. Bedroom producers, and even some engineers at professional studios who might lack certain music theory fundamentals, have all fallen into the trap of setting Auto-Tune in the wrong key. If a song is in C major, it will not work in D major, E major, etc.—though it will work in C major's relative minor, A minor. No other key will work correctly. It helps to educate yourself a bit about music theory, and how to find the key of a song.

2. The input type. You have the option to choose from Bass Instrument, Instrument, Low Male, Alto/Tenor, and Soprano. Bass Instrument and Instrument are, of course, for instruments, so ignore them if you're going for a vocal effect. Low Male would be selected if the singer is singing in a very low octave (think Barry White). Alto/Tenor will be for the most common vocal ranges, and soprano is for very high-pitched vocalists. Setting the input type correctly helps Auto-Tune narrow down which octaves it will focus on—and you'll get a more accurate result.

3. Retune speed. This knob, while important, is really all dependent on the pitch of the input source, which I will discuss next. Generally speaking, the higher the knob, the faster it will tune each note. A lower speed will have the effect be a bit more relaxed, letting some natural vibrato through without affecting a vocalist's pitch as quickly. Some view it as a 'amount of Auto-Tune knob,' which isn't technically true. The amount of correction you hear is based off the original pitch, but you will hear more effects of the Auto-Tune the faster it's set.

So let's say you have all of these set correctly. You have the right key, you choose the right range for the singer, and the retune speed is at its medium default of 20ms. You apply it on the singer expecting it to come out just like the pros. And while their voice does seem to be somewhat corrected, it's still not quite corrected to the right pitch.

Here's why your Auto-Tune doesn't sound like the pros:

The pitch of the vocalist prior to Auto-Tune processing must be close enough to a note in the scale of the key of the song for Auto-Tune to work its best. In other words, the singer has to be at least near the right note for it to sound pleasing to the ears.

Whether you're going for a natural correction or the T-Pain warble, this point still stands. If the note the singer originally sings is nowhere near the correct note in the key, Auto-Tune will try to calculate as best it can and round up or down, depending on what note is closest. And that's when you get undesirable artifacts and hear notes you weren't expecting to hear. (Here is an example of how it sounds when the incoming pitch isn't close enough to the scale, resulting in an oddly corrected pitch.)

So if you put Auto-Tune on a voice and some areas sound good, some sound too robotic and a bit off, those are the areas that the singer needs to work on. Sometimes it can be difficult for non-singers to hear slight sharp or flat notes, or notes that aren't in the scale of the song, so Auto-Tune in many cases can actually help point out the problem areas.

This is why major artists who use Auto-Tune sound really good, because chances are they can sing pretty well before Auto-Tune is even applied. The Weeknd is a great example of this—he is obviously a very talented singer that has no problem hitting notes—and yet his go-to mixer, Illangelo, has said before that he always uses at least a little bit of Auto-Tune on the vocals.

If you or the singer in your studio is no Weeknd, you can correct the pitch manually beforehand with a program like Melodyne, or even with built-in pitch correction tools in your DAW, where you can actually go in and change the pitch of each syllable manually. So if you find yourself in a situation where you or an artist you are working with really want Auto-Tune on their vocals, but it's not sounding right after following all the steps, look into correcting the pitch before you run it through Auto-Tune.

If you get the notes closer to the scale, you'll find the tuning of Auto-Tune to be much more pleasing to the ears. For good reason, T-Pain is brought up a lot when discussing Auto-Tune. Do you want to know why he sounds so good? It's not a special Auto-Tune they are using, its because he can really sing without it. Check it out:

Hopefully this helps further assist you in your understanding and use of Antares Auto-Tune, and debunk some of the myths around it. Spend some time learning some basic music theory to help train the ear to identity keys of songs, find which notes are flat and which notes are sharp. Once you do, you'll find you'll want to use Auto-Tune on every song, because let's face it—nearly a decade after Jay-Z declared the death of Auto-Tune on 'D.O.A.'—it still sounds cool.

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Program Description

(Program not available for streaming.) NOVA scienceNOW talks to the engineers behind Auto-Tune, the pitch-correction software that turns sour notes into sweet ones. Professional musicians from Madonna to Snoop Dogg use Auto-Tune, but can the software turn host Neil deGrasse Tyson into a singing star?

Transcript

Auto-Tune

PBS Airdate: June 30, 2009

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Ourlove was like a supernova,'

Yeah,I sing.

'In the nebula of my soul.'

Okay,I'm not great.

'But now I find her heart is like a bigblack hole.'

Allright, I'm terrible. But here's what I'm wondering: if, digitally, you canremove red-eye, smooth over wrinkles, make people look thinner, then why don'twe have the technology to make me sing better?

ANDYHILDEBRAND (Antares Audio Technologies): We can fix Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: This guy invented away to do it.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: We can fix Neil's pitch. He'sstill going to sound like Neil, though.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Electrical engineerand inventor Andy Hildebrand designs pitch-correction software. He calls itAuto-Tune.

'Pitchcorrection?' Is that a euphemism for 'fixing bad singers?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes, we fix bad singers.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I visited Andy atAntares Audio Technologies in Scotts Valley California, where he and engineerJustin Malo..

JUSTINMALO: Hey,Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..showed me how itworks.

Hummmmmmmmmm.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Great. There you go. You didthat.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: That wavy line representsthe exact frequency of my voice. This line shows where a perfect A should be,so, not too bad.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: He's right dead nuts on in tune.Look at that.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So how does acomputer know that?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: When you hear A, you'rehearing 440 vibrations per second.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So somebody at thebeginning of time said 440 vibrations per second is an A?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: A.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So, if you sing orplay a pitch at 440 cycles per second, the computer calls it an A and it restson this line. B-flat would go on the line above it, G-sharp below, and so on.

'Butnow I find her heart..'

Whenyou're out of tune, the notes don't fall so neatly onto the lines of the grid.

'..big..'

That'sawful.

'..blackhole.'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Well, it's creative, it'screative. Okay.

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NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: '..supernova..'

Thoselines are me singing the word 'super.'

'supernova..'

Mypitch is all over the place. If anything, it's closest to this note, here.

JUSTINMALO: Neil,you sang an F, which normally is okay, if you're in the key of F. And we're not,so we moved your F to an E.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Supernova..'

SoJustin gently nudges it down to where an E would be.

'Supernova..'

Closer amanda cook mp3 song download. You'rechanging the frequency of the sound that came out of my vocal cords.

JUSTINMALO: Actually,yes.

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON:Changingpitch isn't new. You can change someone's voice by fast forwarding on a taperecorder, but you'd sound like..

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas time ishere.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..well, achipmunk.

Pitchcorrection software lets you change the pitch..

'Supernova..'

..whilekeeping the essential tone of a voice the same.

Andso, although few engineers are willing to admit it, pitch correction software,like Auto-Tune, has become an indispensable tool in most recording studios.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: It's been used by a lot ofpeople: Madonna..

MADONNA (Film clip): 'Music makes the bourgeoisie..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..Celine Dion..

CELINEDION (Film clip): 'You got one heart you are following..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Reba McEntire usesit live?

REBAMcENTIRE (Film clip): 'Starting over again..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: You're telling me asinger can sing into a microphone a bad note, and out the speakers comes a goodnote?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Now, that's evil.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: To modify something isn'tnecessarily evil. My wife wears makeup. Is that evil?

Isthat okay, honey?

Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read Online

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Evil or not, therecording industry kept Auto-Tune on the down-low.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: The secret popped out of thebag when Cher did 'Believe.'

CHER(Film clip): 'Do you believe in lifeafter love?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: I couldn't believe it.

CHER(Film clip): '..aside and I can't breakthrough..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Rather thangradually and naturally reaching up to each note..

CHER(Film clip): 'I can feel somethinginside me say..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..like this,Cher's producer forced Auto-Tune to jump suddenly from one pitch to the next.

CHER(Film clip): 'I feel something inside mesay..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Is this some knobthat you turn?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: All right.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: And we can turn this knob tozero, which means 'move instantaneously to the new pitch.' And so, if we dothat, your voice would sound like this.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'But nowI find her heart..'

Didyou plan for people to use it that way?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: No. I didn't think anybody intheir right mind would ever use it that way.

Autotune Free Download

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Well a lot ofartists do.

T-PAIN(Film clip): 'She got me doing the dishes

Anything she want for some kisses'

OJO(Film clip): 'I wasyoung and in love..'

SNOOPDOG (Film clip): 'She might be with him but she's thinkin' boutme, me, me.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: But it's mostlyused to tweak out-of-tune performances—a kind of cosmetic surgery.

'..bigblack hole.'

Inmy case though, more like triple-bypass.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Try to change this to the keyof C.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Moving the tracesof my voice up in pitch or down..

'..supernova..'

..Justincoaxes me into tune.

'Supernova

ofmy soul..'

Ittook several hours.

'..ofmy soul..'

Howwell did it work? You be the judge.

'Ourlove was like a supernova

Inthe nebula of my soul, but now I find

herheart is like a big black hole..'

JUSTINMALO: It'sa lot more pleasing.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I thought the firstone sounded pretty good myself, I don't know.

Kiddingaside, there's no substitute for training or talent.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: If the singer doesn't have agood tonality to their voice, we're not going to make that better.

Dous a favor. Don't go on American Idol.

Broadcast Credits

Auto-Tune

Produced and Edited by

Vincent Liota

NOVA scienceNOW

Executive Producer

Samuel Fine

Executive Editor

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Senior Series Producer

Vincent Liota

Senior Producer

Julia Cort

Supervising Producers

Stephen Sweigart
Joey David Jovanovich

Senior Editor and Colorist

David Chmura

Senior Researcher

Sharon Kay

Associate Producer

Fran Laks

Assistant Editor

Tung-Jen (Sunny) Chiang

Graphic Design

Brian Edgerton

Compositor & Animator

Yunsik Noh

Music

Rob Morsberger

Sound Mix

Bill Cavanaugh, RazorMix, Inc.

Assistant to Neil deGrasse Tyson

Elizabeth Stachow

NOVA scienceNOW Series Animation

Edgeworx

Associate Producers

Julie Crawford
Jonathan Loewald
Richard Marnell
Laura Willcox

Camera

Austin de Besche
Brian Dowley
Robin Hirsh
Stephen Kazmierski
Rob Lyall

Sound Recordists

John Cameron
James Lindsey
Len Schmitz
Chris Strollo

Animation and Graphics

Anthony Kraus
Sputnik Animation
James LaPlante
Dan Nutu

Researchers

Ethan Herberman
Eric Olson

ArchivalMaterial

AP Worldwide Photos
BBC Motion Gallery
CNN Image Source
Corbis
The Frederick News-Post and Randall Family, LLC
Getty Images
Josh Landis
National Science Foundation
NASA
Prelinger Internet Archives
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium
Steven Snyder
WTC: The First 24 Hours, Producers; Etienne Sauret & David Carrara

Special Thanks

Jason Bannan, FBI microbiologist
Carnegie Mellon University
Dave and Busters
Gemological Institute of America
Justin Goger Malo
George Gray, Gray Jewelers
Susan Hrishenko
Northern Arizona University
David Rasko
Sandia National Laboratories
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Neil deGrasse Tyson

is director of the Hayden Planetarium in theRose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.

NOVA Series Graphics

yU + co.

NOVA Theme Music

Walter Werzowa
John Luker
Musikvergnuegen,Inc.

Additional NOVA Theme Music

Ray Loring
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Post Production Online Editor

Spencer Gentry

Closed Captioning

The Caption Center

NOVA Administrator

Mykim Dang

Publicity

Carole McFall
Eileen Campion
Victoria Louie
Karinna Sjo-Gaber
Karen Laverty

Marketing

Steve Sears

Researcher

Kate Becker

Senior Researcher

Gaia Remerowski

Production Coordinator

Linda Callahan

Paralegal

Sarah Erlandson

Talent Relations

Scott Kardel, Esq.
Janice Flood

Legal Counsel

Susan Rosen

Production Assistant

Ryan Murdock

Post Production Assistant

Darcy Forlenza

AssociateProducer, Post Production

Patrick Carey

Post Production Supervisor

Regina O'Toole

Post Production Editors

Rebecca Nieto
Jason York

Post Production Manager

Nathan Gunner

Compliance Manager

Linzy Emery

Development Producer

Pamela Rosenstein

Business Manager

Joseph P. Tracy

Senior Producer and Project Director

Lisa Mirowitz

Coordinating Producer

Laurie Cahalane

Senior Science Editor

Evan Hadingham

Senior Series Producer

Melanie Wallace

Managing Director

Alan Ritsko

Senior Executive Producer

Paula S. Apsell

This material is based upon worksupported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0638931. Anyopinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in thismaterial are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe National Science Foundation.

NOVA scienceNOW is a trademark of the WGBH Educational Foundation

NOVA scienceNOW is produced for WGBH/Boston by NOVA

© 2009 WGBH Educational Foundation

All rights reserved

(Neil deGrasse Tyson singing) Courtesy T. Robin Hirsh

Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read Aloud

Participants

Voice Changer