AutoTune

[ReCycled]

I was curious about this technology and wanted to know how it was used and who used it. Well I found out a bit about it's uses, but the users are fairly secretive. Normally it's used to pitch correct any vocal used in studio recordings - and probably musical instruments too. Antares also pretends that it is used as a vocorder for that novelty - Cher (Do You Believe) - vocal effect first introduced back in the late 90s. Gimme a break. It's there for no-talent singers who can't get through one recording take and sing in key. I wouldn't be surprised if you could just talk into it, and it will do the rest. I've always wondered why there was such a "sameness" to the sound of pop music these days. All vocals, instruments and drum tracks perfecly in sync and on key. It's the new Muzak. Raises questions on what IS a musician or singer these days. My school says you have the ability, talent and experience to perform these tasks live or in the studio. That's your qualifications as a journeyman musician or singer. If you have all this software adjusting your bad singing or playing you are a fraud and a fake. If you remember, Milli Vanilli was shamed out of the music biz for faking vocals.

Oh and by the way Autotune can be used in LIVE concert, in addition to lip syncing and pre-recorded backing tracks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dqTrUpmwPg
http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/

 

[yahoo]

maybe i can use this on one of those karaoke nights

[QwazyWabbit]

I wonder what Bob Dylan and Neil Young would have done with this tech...

Yes, the show is the thing now.

How do you think the goofballs like Brittany Spears get by prancing around on stage singing "perfect" pitch and not running out of breath? Answer: Lip sync and Autotune.

I still wonder how much lip sync went on with Pink's performance at the Grammys.

[yahoo]

anyone evr really tried this thing? does it do it on real time? I may ask santa for this one

[yahoo]

I still wonder how much lip sync went on with Pink's performance at the Grammys.

let me see.. was that when she hang on a rope?

if it is.. Its obvious its a synch coz if it isnt surely the lost of breath and panting would be noticed.

[|iR|Focalor]

If you listen to mp3's through windows media player, you have the option of slowing down the playing of the song. This is usually the best way to tell if someone is using auto-tuning. You will be able to distinctly hear things like the quick and impossible shifts from note to note and primarily the very unnatural sounding vibrato added sometimes. At regular speed with multi-track and doubled or stereo vocal techniques, it isn't nearly as noticeable. But when you slow the playing down (using some program that will slow down the tempo without detuning), you can definitely hear it. It sounds somewhat similar to a improperly synched chorus effect.

[quadz]

anyone evr really tried this thing? does it do it on real time?

Yes, from what I understand, they provide real-time AutoTune plug-ins for desktop audio workstation software like Pro Tools and Logic Pro, etc.

Amazingly even in the 1980's an acquaintance who was a synthesizer enthusiast demoed this 'VoCoder' contraption to a friend and I, where you could speak or sing into a microphone, and press keys on the synthesizer (single notes or even full chords) and your voice would come out in that pitch.

Hmm, reading how a vocoder works, I imagine AutoTune must employ similar principles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocoder

The vocoder examines speech by measuring how its spectral characteristics change over time. This results in a series of numbers representing these modified frequencies at any particular time as the user speaks. In simple terms, the signal is split into a number of frequency bands (the larger this number, the more accurate the analysis) and the level of signal present at each frequency band gives the instantaneous representation of the spectral energy content. Thus, the vocoder dramatically reduces the amount of information needed to store speech, from a complete recording to a series of numbers. To recreate speech, the vocoder simply reverses the process, processing a broadband noise source by passing it through a stage that filters the frequency content based on the originally recorded series of numbers.

For musical  applications, a source of musical sounds is used as the carrier, instead of extracting the fundamental frequency. For instance, one could use the sound of a synthesizer as the input to the filter bank, a technique that became popular in the 1970s.

On a related 'note', here's a youtube video showing a different, non-realtime but extremely powerful pitch manipulation software called Melodyne.  The video shows how to recreate the GLaDOS voice in Portal:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oQn66gvwKA

[ReCycled]

Amazingly even in the 1980's an acquaintance who was a synthesizer enthusiast demoed this 'VoCoder' contraption to a friend and I, where you could speak or sing into a microphone, and press keys on the synthesizer (single notes or even full chords) and your voice would come out in that pitch.

Queen used that vocorder sound on their albums pretty early on. If you remember that song that starts "Is this the real life....?   Or is this fantasy?"

[yahoo]

Amazingly even in the 1980's an acquaintance who was a synthesizer enthusiast demoed this 'VoCoder' contraption to a friend and I, where you could speak or sing into a microphone, and press keys on the synthesizer (single notes or even full chords) and your voice would come out in that pitch.

Queen used that vocorder sound on their albums pretty early on. If you remember that song that starts "Is this the real life....?   Or is this fantasy?"

you're just caught in a landslide
and there is no escape from reality
 

[|iR|Focalor]

Open your eyes! Look up to the skies and see!!!

[[BTF] Reflex]

Ok,  I have to speak up for queen...

   "In the 1970s Queen enforced a strict no-synthesizer policy, as evidenced by the famous "No Synthesizers were used on this Album" sleevenote included on their early LPs. The first album to feature a synthesizer was The Game"

Read that sleevnote on 'A night at the opera' when I was 10

[|iR|Focalor]

Yeah. They just used massive amounts of tracks for vocals. If I'm not mistaken, Boston was one of the first (if not THE first) to showcase such studio wizardry to make the vocals and guitar so lush and thick sounding. Not an easy thing to do for vocals without the use of pitch correcting, especially if the vocalist is horrible. LOTS of takes if you want a perfectly seamless sound. You can cheat a little by piecing together portions of different tracks if you can't seem to get a phrase completely perfect in one full take. Back then, with only analog tape, it was a little tricky. These days, people have the luxury of recording everything digitally on computers which makes track editing a HELLUVA lot easier.

Boston - Smokin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFZC7uXQZc