Worse, a generation of listeners accustomed to the centered pitches of Auto-Tuned recordings might have trouble enjoying jazz and blues singers, who often slide in and out of notes for effect. Almost immediately, mild doses of Auto-Tune were used to fix mistakes and avoid doing extra takes of songs, but the 1998 Cher song “Believe” became the first major hit to exhibit the characteristic “yodel” effect that occurs when the algorithm is cranked up to full-strength and the retune delay is set close to zero milliseconds.Īuto-Tune unquestionably degrades the art of singing, largely because it makes pitch control a matter of a few mouse clicks rather than a challenge that once took many years to master. The original Auto-Tune algorithm was devised in 1996 by the creator of an oil-surveying technique, and it uses a mathematical trick involving autocorrelation functions to correct the pitch of sound waves.
#T pain auto tune software pics software
Fewer realize that the technology also is responsible for the remarkable pitch of nearly every pop record of the last decade and a half, or that live music at concerts is often filtered through software boxes that ensure a pitch-perfect performance. Most people know of Auto-Tune through the work of artists like T-Pain, who exaggerate the effect to achieve a distinct sound, or from comedy clips like “Auto-Tune the News,” which apply the technology to flat speech to give the impression that the person is singing. But while attempts to stop the use of technology have failed in the past, the industry’s obsession with Auto-Tune will eventually fade, and there are signs that that day is nearly here. On the surface, Auto-Tune sounds like trickery, and it is to some extent.
Auto-Tune, created by Antares Audio Technologies, can re-tune a singer’s pitches so that a tenor’s high A sung a quarter-tone flat lands at a perfect 440 Hz. Of course, the trend doesn’t come from a sudden influx of talent but from software.
Well, they do at least in one crucial category: Every pop singer has amazingly perfect pitch.
If you turn on the radio these days and switch to a Top 40 station, you’ll notice that all the songs sound the same.