• By David Levin
• Posted 04.01.09
• NOVA scienceNOW

• Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Live
• Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Meme
• Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better At Night
• Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Without

Go with Major C, 10–200, still sound bad so change the Calibration A45 to 410Hz instead of 440HZ. Knowing my vocal and audio limitations, it’s a good bet that I’ve messed something up because 410 sounds way better than 440 in my case. Your project may be different. Add Studio Reverb to the track as well. Mar 10, 2020  Surprise your friends and sound like a real celebrity! Go to karaoke party and make everyone stay astonished with your rapping! Sing or rap, or even both, the choice is only yours! Download Auto Voice Tune For Rap – Singing App and 'change your voice' with music! Feb 03, 2017  50+ videos Play all Mix - How To Use Autotune The Correct Way & Make It Sound Good YouTube How to Use Auto- Tune Get the Hip Hop Autotune Effect. Aug 24, 2010  Auto-tune is a shortcut for unskilled singers to make their voices sound more feminine. Skilled guitar players use pedals for a variety of sounds, from clean, to. Nov 18, 2019  Produce high-quality auto tune and beats in the singing app to make your voice sound really good and where you can be your own backup singer. Sound like a real artist thanks to the 🔊 Auto Tune Voice Changer for Singing 🔊! Change voice for song with this sound editor echo!

Learning to sing like Aretha Franklin isn't something you can do overnight. But over the past decade, recording studios have been fudging things a bit with software called Auto-Tune, which enables them to change the pitch of sour notes. In this interactive, find out how it works and see if it can make even hopeless singers, like some on the NOVA staff, sound tolerable.

Learn what pitch is, then listen in as Auto-Tune corrects the bad pitch of several NOVA staffers.

Transcript

Pitch Perfect

(SECTION 1: THE BASICS)

DAVID LEVIN: Before we start, let's take a step back to the basics. To understand what Auto-Tune software can do for, well, untrained singers, you need to understand how the sound of a musical note is made.

It all starts with something vibrating – It could be the metal of a bell,

[bell rings]

or the skin of a drum,

[drum sound]

or a string on a guitar.

[guitar sound]

ANDY HILDEBRAND: With the human voice, it's the vocal cords vibrating over and over.

DAVID LEVIN: That's Andy Hildebrand – He invented the Auto-tune software.

ANDY HILDEBRAND: When you hear an 'A', you're hearing 440 vibrations per second.

[Singer singing A440]

DAVID LEVIN: A 'B' is about 492 vibrations per second,

[singer singing B492]

DAVID LEVIN: And a 'C' is around 587.

[Singer singing C587]

ANDY HILDEBRAND: That's about right.

DAVID LEVIN: So the faster the vibration, the higher the pitch. Simple enough. But pitch isn't the only thing that determines the way a musical note sounds. The shape of an instrument plays a role, too. That's why a bass…

[acoustic bass note]

…sounds different from a banjo,

[banjo note]

…even when they're playing the exact same note.

[acoustic bass and banjo together]

In humans, the size and contours of the spaces inside our heads and throats color the way our voices sound.

ANDY HILDEBRAND: The human voice resonates based on the shape of the throat, the nasal passages, and the speaker's mouth.

DAVID LEVIN: So no matter what note someone is singing, their voice is still unique and recognizable. Jonathan here…

JONATHAN: Hello.

DAVID LEVIN: …will always sound like Jonathan, and Cass…

CASS: Hey there.

DAVID LEVIN: …will always sound like Cass. Even if they sing at the same time.

[Jonathan and Cass singing together]

DAVID LEVIN: But what if they want to improve their singing voices? What can Auto-Tune do for them?

(SECTION 2: AUTO-TUNE AT WORK)

('DETECTING PITCH' BUTTON:)

DAVID LEVIN: The first thing that Auto-Tune does is figure out the pitch of a note that is sung or played into the computer. It's recorded as a red line on this grid.

An 'A', for example, would fall on this line. A B-flat would fall on the line above it, and a G-sharp would be on the line below. But singing those exact notes is hard, especially if you don't have any training.

('TWEAKING NOTES' BUTTON:)

DAVID LEVIN: So let's say you're trying to hit an 'A', and you're a little off.

[bad singer with warbly voice]

Okay, a lot off. Your pitch—that's the red line—wavers back and forth around the right note. Auto-tune can tell which parts of the sound are higher or lower than they should be, and it's able to nudge them back into tune.

[singer's voice corrected in Auto-Tune]

It can even help out if you sing the wrong note entirely. For example, if you hit an 'A' when you should have been singing a 'high G'—Auto-Tune can bump your voice up to the right note.

Here's a slightly better singer. Those red lines are the original pitch of her notes. The blue blocks show where it's been corrected.

[singer's voice in Auto-Tune]

It takes some serious mathematical processing for Auto-tune to make these corrections sound natural, though. If it only altered the pitch of someone's voice, it might sound like this:

[chipmunk voice]

ANDY HILDEBRAND: You get a chipmunk effect. It's not their voice anymore.

DAVID LEVIN: So Andy Hildebrand designed Auto-tune to avoid this problem. Rather than just shifting a singer's pitch, the software also models the shape of the singer's mouth and throat.

ANDY HILDEBRAND: So we, like, cut their neck off, listen to their vocal cords, change the pitch, and then glue their head back on. (Laughs) And we do that mathematically in real time. And that's how we can change the pitch of a singer without creating the chipmunk effect.

DAVID LEVIN: Auto-Tune can't make dramatic changes in pitch—say, going from 'middle C' to a 'high A' without sounding mechanical and robotic. But some musicians and record producers actually seek out these effects. They're using Auto-Tune to make new sounds.

('TO THE EXTREME' BUTTON:)

DAVID LEVIN: Auto-Tune creates an unnatural, robotic effect when its settings are pushed to the extremes. But that can sometimes be a creative tool. Musicians from Cher to T-Pain are using it on top-40 albums.

By shifting a note too high in Auto-Tune, you can give it a thin, ghostly effect:

[singer's voice processed into high, ghostly sound]

DAVID LEVIN: And by making rapid adjustments in a singer's pitch, you can make the voice sound robotic. You might recognize this one.

[Singer's voice processed into robotic sound]

DAVID LEVIN: Andy Hildebrand never meant for Auto-Tune to be used this way. But right now, Auto-Tunes signature effects are all over the radio.

AH: This effect is found in every music genre from Dollywood, to Reggae, to Country, Pop, Hip-Hop… everywhere.

DAVID LEVIN: That's great for top-40. But what about the NOVA staff? Can Auto-Tune help our amateur vocalists sound like the pros?

(SECTION 3: THE GRAND FINALE)

('ARETHA FRANKLIN' BUTTON:)

[Aretha Franklin singing My Country 'Tis Of Thee' at inauguration of President Obama]

('NOVA STAFF' BUTTON:)

[NOVA staff singing 'My Country 'Tis Of Thee' out of tune]

'NOVA STAFF AUTO-TUNED' BUTTON

Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Live

[NOVA staff singing 'My Country 'Tis Of Thee'; Auto-Tuned version]

('THE FINAL VERDICT' BUTTON:)

ANDY HILDEBRAND: Generally, a bad-sounding singer using Auto-tune is going to sound like a bad-sounding singer who happens to be in tune. We can't fix that. If they've got a poor tone quality, or a poor style, or don't support their diaphragm and get an even volume, we can't fix those things. (laughs)

Credits

Yes, it corrects pitch and yes, it can make you sound better.

Introduced by Antares Audio Technologies in 1997, Auto-Tune® is an audio processor that corrects pitch in vocal and instrumental performances by disguising inaccuracies in pitch.

Is Auto Tune good or bad?

The Good. While many critics note the main feature of auto tune is the distorting effect it has on songs, the fundamental purpose of auto tune is in fact as a correctional tool. Well because technology has been used to help artists well before auto tune came along and it actually works incredibly well in some cases.20 Sep 2015

Can autotune fix singing this bad?

Yes, Auto-Tune can help bad singers sound better, but it will not make a bad singer a good singer. There is much more to singing than pitch and even being “on pitch” is relative. Auto-Tune can help create emotion and confidence but it can really only work with what you start with.

Why do singers use autotune?

“It used to be that singers would have to sing a song over and over, and by that time you’ve lost the emotional content of the performance,” Alpert said. “Auto-Tune is used most often for an artist who has delivered a fabulous performance emotionally and there may be a few pitch problems here and there . . .11 Sep 2010

Do singers use Autotune live?

Yes, with the progression of vocal technology, companies like TC Helicon, ART and Boss have developed several Live Autotune & Pitch Correction Vocal Processors. These processors are essentially foot-pedals used on stage to turn on/off autotune. “Auto Tune” is often used to mean one of two uniquely different things.19 Jan 2016

Did Michael Jackson ever use autotune?

There is two parts of this that’s rather false, the first part has already been addressed, Jackson likely used autotune later in his life when it became widely used, but most of his career, autotune was in existence. He never needed it, just like a lot of talented singers today don’t need it.

How does auto tune work?

These digital signals can be altered so that a sound produces the correct musical note by using a phase vocoder. This works by first changing the duration of the sound without altering its frequency, and then changing the frequency to both hit the correct pitch and restore the original duration.

Who uses the most Autotune?

Top 10 Artists Who Heavily Use Auto Tune

• #8: Bon Iver.
• #7: Travis Scott.
• #6: Kesha.
• #5: Future.
• #4: Daft Punk.
• #3: Lil Wayne.
• #2: Kanye West.
• #1: T-Pain. Dubbed the king of Auto-Tune, R&B singer and rapper T-Pain inspired many pop artists to meddle with vocal synthesizers.

Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Meme

What singers use Auto Tune?

Here are a few examples of artists tastefully using Auto-Tune and why it works.

Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better At Night

1. Frank Ocean – “Chanel”
2. Beyoncé – “711”
3. Chance The Rapper – “Smoke Break” (feat. Future)
4. James Blake – “Put That Away and Talk to Me”
5. Kanye West – “Runaway”

Why do singers wear earpieces while performing?

That earpiece is called an in-ear monitor. It allows her to hear exactly what she wants. For example if you are a singer singing with a live band, there is a lot of noise onstage with you, especially from the drummer. It can be very hard to hear yourself which can make you sing louder and even shout.

Does Justin Bieber use autotune?

I’ve noticed when Justin Bieber sings live he uses this auto tune filter on his microphone but it sounds very natural. The only reason the average, non-musical person has ever noticed autotune is because producers decided to crank it up to ridiculous levels.

Auto Tune To Make My Sound Better Without

Do singers use pitch correction live?

With the demand and transition to listeners becoming used to pitch perfect vocals, some big time (Mostly pop) live acts have made the decision to apply 100% pitch correction to live vocals.

Can you autotune a microphone?

Autotune Pedals technically do not exist. However, Autotune Processors/Pedals do exist. These processors (often in the form of vocal pedals, brought on stage) work by taking the inputted signal from the microphone, then manipulating the sound wave based on the Musical key that has been programmed into the processor.