Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

[sadude]

Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...1877372,00.html

By Josh Tyrangiel Thursday, Feb. 05, 2009



If you haven't been listening to pop radio in the past few months, you've missed the rise of two seemingly opposing trends. In a medium in which mediocre singing has never been a bar to entry, a lot of pop vocals suddenly sound great. Better than great: note- and pitch-perfect, as if there's been an unspoken tightening of standards at record labels or an evolutionary leap in the development of vocal cords. At the other extreme are a few hip-hop singers who also hit their notes but with a precision so exaggerated that on first listen, their songs sound comically artificial, like a chorus of '50s robots singing Motown.



The force behind both trends is an ingenious plug-in called Auto-Tune, a downloadable studio trick that can take a vocal and instantly nudge it onto the proper note or move it to the correct pitch. It's like Photoshop for the human voice. Auto-Tune doesn't make it possible for just anyone to sing like a pro, but used as its creator intended, it can transform a wavering performance into something technically flawless. "Right now, if you listen to pop, everything is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune," says producer Rick Rubin. "That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is."



Auto-Tune's inventor is a man named Andy Hildebrand, who worked for years interpreting seismic data for the oil industry. Using a mathematical formula called autocorrelation, Hildebrand would send sound waves into the ground and record their reflections, providing an accurate map of potential drill sites. It's a technique that saves oil companies lots of money and allowed Hildebrand to retire at 40. He was debating the next chapter of his life at a dinner party when a guest challenged him to invent a box that would allow her to sing in tune. After he tinkered with autocorrelation for a few months, Auto-Tune was born in late 1996.



Almost immediately, studio engineers adopted it as a trade secret to fix flubbed notes, saving them the expense and hassle of having to redo sessions. The first time common ears heard Auto-Tune was on the immensely irritating 1998 Cher hit "Believe." In the first verse, when Cher sings "I can't break through" as though she's standing behind an electric fan, that's Auto-Tune--but it's not the way Hildebrand meant it to be used. The program's retune speed, which adjusts the singer's voice, can be set from zero to 400. "If you set it to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds," says Hildebrand. "But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously"--eliminating the natural transition between notes and making the singer sound jumpy and automated. "I never figured anyone in their right mind would want to do that," he says.



Like other trends spawned by Cher, the creative abuse of Auto-Tune quickly went out of fashion, although it continued to be an indispensable, if inaudible, part of the engineer's toolbox. But in 2003, T-Pain (Faheem Najm), a little-known rapper and singer, accidentally stumbled onto the Cher effect while Auto-Tuning some of his vocals. "It just worked for my voice," says T-Pain in his natural Tallahassee drawl. "And there wasn't anyone else doing it."



Since his 2005 debut album, T-Pain has sent a dozen slightly raunchy, mechanically cheery singles into the Top 10. He contributed to four nominated songs at this year's Grammys on Feb. 8, and his influence is still spreading. When Kanye West was looking for an effect to match some heartbroken lyrics, he flew T-Pain to Hawaii to see how many ways they could tweak Auto-Tune. Diddy gave a percentage of his upcoming album's profits to T-Pain in exchange for some lessons. Even Prince is rumored to be experimenting with Auto-Tune on his new record. "I know [Auto-Tune] better than anyone," says T-Pain. "And even I'm just figuring out all the ways you can use it to change the mood of a record."



Other sonic tricks have had their moment--notably Peter Frampton's "talk- box," a plastic tube that made his guitar sound as if it were talking--but in skilled hands, Auto-Tune is the rare gimmick that can lead to innovation. On T-Pain's latest album, Thr33 Ringz, tracks like "Karaoke" and "Chopped N Skrewed" literally bounce between notes, giving the record a kids-on--Pop Rocks exuberance. Using the same program, West's 808s & Heartbreak is the complete opposite--angsty, slow and brutally introspective. West sings throughout, and while he couldn't have hit most of the notes without Auto-Tune, he also couldn't have sounded as ghostly and cold, and it's that alienated tone that made 808s one of the best albums of last year.



Plenty of critics raved about West's use of Auto-Tune, but T-Pain is often dismissed as a novelty act. (Not that he minds: "I'd rather be known for something than unknown for nothing.") But unlike most singers, he acknowledges the impact Auto-Tune has had on his career. Of the half a dozen engineers and producers interviewed for this story, none could remember a pop recording session in the past few years when Auto-Tune didn't make a cameo--and none could think of a singer who would want that fact known. "There's no shame in fixing a note or two," says Jim Anderson, professor of the Clive Davis department of recorded music at New York University and president of the Audio Engineering Society. "But we've gone far beyond that."



Some Auto-Tuning is almost unavoidable. Most contemporary music is composed on Pro Tools, a program that lets musicians and engineers record into a computer and map out songs on a visual grid. You can cut at one point on the grid and paste at another, just as in word-processing, but making sure the cuts match up requires the even pitch that Auto-Tune provides. "It usually ends up just like plastic surgery," says a Grammy-winning recording engineer. "You haul out Auto-Tune to make one thing better, but then it's very hard to resist the temptation to spruce up the whole vocal, give everything a little nip-tuck." Like plastic surgery, he adds, more people have had it than you think. "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."



Rubin, who's produced artists as diverse as the Dixie Chicks and Metallica, worries that the safety net of Auto-Tune is making singers lazy. "Sometimes a singer will do lots of takes when they're recording a song, and you really can hear the emotional difference when someone does a great performance vs. an average one," says Rubin. "If you're pitch-correcting, you might not bother to make the effort. You might just get it done and put it through the machine so it's all in tune." Rubin has taken to having an ethical conversation before each new recording session. "I encourage artists to embrace a natural process," he says.



With the exception of Milli Vanilli's, pop listeners have always been fairly indulgent about performers' ethics. It's hits that matter, and the average person listening to just one pop song on the radio will have a hard time hearing Auto-Tune's impact; it's effectively deceptive.But when track after track has perfect pitch, the songs are harder to differentiate from one another--which explains why pop is in a pretty serious lull at the moment. It also changes the way we hear unaffected voices. "The other day, someone was talking about how Aretha Franklin at the Inauguration was a bit pitchy," says Anderson. "I said, 'Of course! She was singing!' And that was a musician talking. People are getting used to hearing things dead on pitch, and it's changed their expectations."



Despite Randy Jackson's stock American Idol critique--"A little pitchy, dawg"--many beloved songs are actually off-pitch or out of tune. There's Ringo Starr on "With a Little Help from My Friends," of course, and just about every blues song slides into notes as opposed to hitting them dead on. Even Norah Jones, the poster girl of pure vocals, isn't perfect. "There's some wonderful imperfections of pitch on 'Don't Know Why' from Come Away with Me," says Anderson, "and most of the other tunes on the album as well. But I wouldn't want to change a single note."



Let's hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade, even if the spread of Auto-Tune shows no signs of slowing. A $99 version for home musicians was released in November 2007, and T-Pain and Auto-Tune's parent company are finishing work on an iPhone app. "It's gonna be real cool," says T-Pain. "Basically, you can add Auto-Tune to your voice and send it to your friends and put it on the Web. You'll be able to sound just like me." Asked if that might render him no longer unique, T-Pain laughs: "I'm not too worried. I got lots of tricks you ain't seen yet. It's everybody else that needs to step up their game."



--------------------------------------------------



Interesting article on vocal processing in pop nowadays, especially on its effects in singers and on the change of people's expectations in music. It's kinda scary that it's so ubiquitous, though not too surprising? I wonder if Tsunku uses it.

[Pucchi-Mo]

It doesn't sound perfect, it sounds shitty with that effect.

Why would I wan't vocaloid guys singing about bitches and hos? Who thought this sounded good?



I am so sick of everyone singing like robots.

Luckily the American artists I care about would have no use for such things.



BaseBallBear on the other hand, with Koide and his love of Perfume.

Knock it off! <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... dammit.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':nono:' />



For US pop acts, how would this work at a concert?

(I guess they wouldn't be opposed to lip syncing if they use auto-tune on their cds, never mind)

[Ap2000]

[quote name='sadude' post='60451' date='Feb 20 2009, 02:24 AM']Rick Rubin[/quote]



That's the guy who produced all of System of a Down's (who I love) albums and Metallica's most recent one.

He also produced the (horrible) Results May Vary by Limp Bizkit.



"immensely irritating" haha !

Yeah, I also found that to sound extremely weird whenever I heard it.



However, I think it was quite obvious that most producers correct how their singers sing for many years now.

[peachgirldb]

[quote name='TightWetPucchi' post='60452' date='Feb 19 2009, 08:46 PM']For US pop acts, how would this work at a concert?

(I guess they wouldn't be opposed to lip syncing if they use auto-tune on their cds, never mind)[/quote]

You can get it to run in realtime.

[Tallgeese]

I hate it with a passion. It absolutely destroyed rap and R&B in the US. Everyone sounds like a fuckin' robot!

[tsukinobyouin]

I didn't know other people actually called it the Cher Believe effect <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':nono:' /> I always thought that was a sort of internet joke thing. I was trying to tell someone at work the other day that this effect is why I didn't end up getting that whole Kanye album. I'm normally not a Kanye fan at all, but something about the song Love Lockdown grabbed me so I went to listen to the rest of it on iTunes. Once I figured out the whole album was done with that effect, I gave up on it. I like it in small doses (like used on one or two lines for a special emphasis), and very rarely do I like entire songs done that way - but a whole album? That's going overboard. That's exactly why I've never been able to get into perfume.



During that office talk about Kanye's album, someone brought up that there's a way for them to record in the studio with some device in their mouth that produces the same effect (much like the Frampton thing that I've always hated). Is this true, and if so would this enable people to do live performances with the effect or would it be something really noticeable and stupid looking?



As for pop music sounding perfect, I'm definately not hearing it. Sure, most pop artists, American or otherwise, have sounded better on CD than they do live for years - but I'm not hearing perfect. Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne immediately come to mind as people who constantly sound to me like they're straining way beyond their range. I guess as someone was saying about Sayumi in the Yowamushi thread, it can only work so much magic.

[pamacii]

One of my favorite youtube musicians (David Choi) made a video about auto-tune about a month ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xX6OwNk8sk

[Solitudity]

I've used the auto-tune T-Pain effect on my own vocals for fun. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> I don't know if I'd like to do it for it's intended purpose. I don't need to know how off-tune I am.



I agree a lot with what was said at the end: Imperfections can be good. It makes things real.

[neshcom]

Auto-tune is hard, at least every time I've tried it...



[quote name='TightWetPucchi' post='60452' date='Feb 19 2009, 08:46 PM']For US pop acts, how would this work at a concert?

(I guess they wouldn't be opposed to lip syncing if they use auto-tune on their cds, never mind)[/quote]

Many times, I think they sing without it. That's probably why Rihanna is such a crap live singer <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... hahaha.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />



Or, they may just use normal filters to simulate the robotic-like sound, but without the auto-tune.

[peachgirldb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWEpEvixME (A tutorial-ish thing)



At around 2:50 the guy gives a demo of it live. I've done it before too.

[pamacii]

[quote name=':Peach' post='60467' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:34 PM']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWEpEvixME (A tutorial-ish thing)



At around 2:50 the guy gives a demo of it live. I've done it before too.[/quote]

I was hoping that was the video you used. That guy is so goofy



"geez, you irritatin' me"

[EmEl]

Yeah, they use it live. My favorite story is about Kanye West cursing at a heckler at one of his shows.... but his autotune was turned on, so his anger was very melodious. His defenders say he was free-styling, but "eat shit and die" just doesn't sound the same under auto-tune.

[peachgirldb]

[quote name='Pamacii' post='60468' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:38 PM'][quote name=':Peach' post='60467' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:34 PM']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWEpEvixME (A tutorial-ish thing)



At around 2:50 the guy gives a demo of it live. I've done it before too.[/quote]

I was hoping that was the video you used. That guy is so goofy



"geez, you irritatin' me"

[/quote]

His goofiness is just so endearing xD

[neshcom]

[quote name='EmEl' post='60469' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:40 PM']Yeah, they use it live. My favorite story is about Kanye West cursing at a heckler at one of his shows.... but his autotune was turned on, so his anger was very melodious. His defenders say he was free-styling, but "eat shit and die" just doesn't sound the same under auto-tune.[/quote]

Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' /> Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' />



Catchy <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... umbsup.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[surasshu]

Autotune, like a Pokemon, evolved and the result is called Melodyne. It's an awesome piece of software in the hands of capable music producers, that allows you to work with recorded audio as though it is MIDI, giving unprecedented levels of control without relinquishing quality of sound.



In the hands of slimy pop producers... It is used as a more subtle autotune. Stuff like this is the result:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr0Wv5DJhuk



/shudder

[EmEl]

[quote name='///' post='60477' date='Feb 20 2009, 12:33 AM']In the hands of slimy pop producers...[/quote]



One day very soon our world will be this silly movie.

[AEUGNewtype]

I wonder if Tsunku uses it.

If the world is round.

Why would I wan't vocaloid guys singing about bitches and hos? Who thought this sounded good?

*raises hand*

Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' /> Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' /> Eat shit and die <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... stling.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' />

That is so awesome.



I think auto-tune is pretty fucking awesome cause I've liked the sound of vocoder vocals since the early 90s when I was listening to Roger and Zapp. A lot of the stuff T-Pain does sounds awesome and I think the new Kanye album kicks fucking ass (the article sadude posted sums up why very well,) just because of the vocoder "auto-tune" vocals. I'm not a prissy bitch about people altering their vocals, as they're one of the least important things in a song to me, and after being into the idol industry for so long, I don't expect the singers singing songs to be the ones with the talent in the whole production, so I'm not running around saying shit about how altering the vocals makes them less talented, cause I could care less as long as sounds good. I don't know why everyone is getting so up-in-arms about this crap. Music has changed with time and technology in many ways and some people just don't want to accept it.



Also, a lot of that article is copy-and-pasted on Wikipedia or vice versa.

[eri]

Don't ever link to Miley Cyrus again. Please.

[Fina]

It's kind of funny, I clicked the link to the Miley Cyrus video, and proceeded to listen to several of the videos on the side that were similar, most all were Disney vocalists, and they all definitely use autotune. I had always wondered what that computerized effect was, and I guess now I know. Somehow I figured it wasn't actually correcting them, just distorting their voice so you didn't have to sound strong. Interesting.



I'm kind of half and half on this. For pop songs I don't really care because, honestly, pop songs sound good with this sort of thing. But as long as I have Norah Jones or Regina Spektor, artists like that, who don't use it and can act as a breath of fresh air, I'm happy. I kind of like the imperfections sometimes, too. I think the article mentioned it, but it has a little more emotion to me.

[sadude]

[quote name='///' post='60477' date='Feb 20 2009, 12:33 AM']Autotune, like a Pokemon, evolved and the result is called Melodyne. It's an awesome piece of software in the hands of capable music producers, that allows you to work with recorded audio as though it is MIDI, giving unprecedented levels of control without relinquishing quality of sound.[/quote]

Melodyne is awesome! I used it a year and a half or so ago when I was trying to transcribe some H!P song's vocals into musical notation. It worked well, and provided great amusement to see how off-tune Koharu was. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /dance.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />

[Kurious]

Does this mean that when the free, open-source version of Auto-Tune/Melodyze shows up that there will be a whole lot more aspiring artists on the scene? I now want to hear some good imperfect pop. Any ideas?

[surasshu]

[quote name='sadude' post='60493' date='Feb 20 2009, 12:35 PM']Melodyne is awesome! I used it a year and a half or so ago when I was trying to transcribe some H!P song's vocals into musical notation. It worked well, and provided great amusement to see how off-tune Koharu was. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /dance.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':lol:' />[/quote]

That reminds me that I was going to touch on Tsunku, he does use Autotune but like Kanye he uses it as a sound effect (with the difference being that Kanye is one of the least talented and most obnoxious people in the history of music, while Tsunku is very talented). They touch up the vocals somewhat, but one of the charms of having young girls sing your songs is that some of that naivety travels into their singing, and that basically translates to "slightly out of tune" in musical terms. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':whistling:' />



Anyway I don't mind Autotune so much since if you use it, it's going to be obvious, so you kinda have to only use it when you want that specific effect. Of course there are acts like Rhianna who just say "fuck it, I can't sing worth shit" and use it on every song they make, but yeah... Anyway Melodyne makes it possible for singers to sound perfect without leaving the autotune-artefacts (unless your producer sucks like Miley's does). This makes it more treacherous, and people are more likely not to notice and be disappointed when someone isn't absolutely pitch-perfect in a live setting.

[Ap2000]

[quote name=':Peach' post='60467' date='Feb 20 2009, 04:34 AM']http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWEpEvixME (A tutorial-ish thing)



At around 2:50 the guy gives a demo of it live. I've done it before too.[/quote]



The guy is horribly annoying.

I never heard T-Pain, nor do I know that guy and after hearing... that... I'm happy I don't.

[tsukinobyouin]

[quote name='EmEl' post='60469' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:40 PM']Yeah, they use it live. My favorite story is about Kanye West cursing at a heckler at one of his shows.... but his autotune was turned on, so his anger was very melodious. His defenders say he was free-styling, but "eat shit and die" just doesn't sound the same under auto-tune.[/quote]



Kanye is a never ending source of entertainment. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':crazy:' /> I really need to pay attention to him more often.

[fpd]

It led to this gem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PszFo51u-qA

so I'm fine with it.

[neshcom]

[quote name='TnB' post='60538' date='Feb 20 2009, 09:56 PM'][quote name='EmEl' post='60469' date='Feb 19 2009, 10:40 PM']Yeah, they use it live. My favorite story is about Kanye West cursing at a heckler at one of his shows.... but his autotune was turned on, so his anger was very melodious. His defenders say he was free-styling, but "eat shit and die" just doesn't sound the same under auto-tune.[/quote]



Kanye is a never ending source of entertainment. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /laugh.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':(' /> I really need to pay attention to him more often.

[/quote]

Subscribe to the RSS of his blog. All of his posts are in capslock and sometimes he has pretty pictures. <img src='http://mm-bbs.org/public/style_emoticon ... /crazy.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':crazy:' />

[Pflaume]

I officially represent Kanye on this board. He is hilarious.



LOOK HOW FRESH MY SUIT IS

[ShinUkyo]

[quote name='sadude' post='60451' date='Feb 19 2009, 07:24 PM']I wonder if Tsunku uses it.[/quote]

Without question. Although again, it's the audio engineers who tweak this stuff. We can neither blame nor praise Tsunku himself for the practice. Even if he was opposed to auto-tuning, it wouldn't really matter. The engineers are the ones who institute it, and the multitude of other high-level producers at UFA can out-vote Tsunku on any given issue. Still, yeah, it makes the music sound better on their records. And it's also another reason we used to make fun of Sayumi. Both her and Koharu are terrible singers, and can't sing live. But we'd bring up how auto-tuning has actually managed to make some of Koharu's songs sound pretty good on CD. Yet Sayumi always sounds bad, even on CD. "No level of technology, not even leased out from NASA, could save that voice." And so forth.

[BeForJess]

I don't know, listening to the opening lines of Yuujou~kokoro no busu ni wa naranee~, I don't know if that was tweaked, because it was *that* bad. Her lines in the refrain, too. Ouch.



... Or maybe I'm just giving her too much credit. Her lines have sounded so much better lately that I almost forgave her for ruining so many good songs. Almost.

[Farrah]

Well, auto-tune doesn't make one sound GOOD... it just puts you in the right tune - so as long as Sayu is on key, well, auto-tune has done it's job XD