Auto Tuning the World

An auto-tuning machine.

A few days ago, a man specialized in electronic music and sound named Tyler Adams visited and gave out group an interesting lecture on his profession. The most interesting part of his lecture, in my opinion, was the subject of auto-tuning music. Auto-tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies that uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed many artists to produce more precisely tuned recordings. In addition to being used to subtly change pitch, with some settings it can be used as an effect to deliberately distort the human voice. Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios. 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.

Andy Hildebrand.

When a singer’s voice is filtered through Auto-Tune, the pitch is tweaked depending on what tone is pre-programmed into the software. The result the robotic-sounding effect familiar from Cher’s 1990s hit “Believe” and later pushed into more common usage by T-Pain. I personaly love all T-pain songs and Kanye West’s new soundtrack. They are both infamous users of the popular software. Auto-tuning can also be used for comedic effect in certain videos. I believe it is a wonderful and creative software that will revolutionize music and create a whole new trend.

T-pain; an artist who uses auto-tune.