According to Antares, more than 90 percent of its Auto-Tune units are in the hands of hobbyists; amateur musicians and producers looking to smooth out their latest basement recording [source: Matson]. As hundreds of T-Pain copycats began permeating the airwaves, homemade Auto-Tune creations began exploding across the Internet.
One of the most prominent became 'Auto-Tune the News,' a YouTube series that uses Auto-Tune to turn news clips into pop songs. Produced by Brooklyn soul band the Gregory Brothers, the videos coaxed Auto-Tuned performances out of Barack Obama, Hugo Chavez and even Winston Churchill. Their biggest hit, however, was 2010's 'Bed Intruder Song.' The brothers took local news footage of Hunstville, Ala., resident Antoine Dodson delivering colorful warnings to a neighborhood intruder and Auto-Tuned it to create a catchy hit that reached No. 89 on the pop charts [source: Peters].
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Jul 11, 2009 Get exclusive videos from us for just $1/month - disclaimer: DON'T TAKE PILLS WITH GIN! (OR ELSE YOU WILL WAKE UP DEAD!!) the. Mar 12, 2010 Auto tune came from the 80's from Zapp and Roger- computer love, i wanna be your man Akon brought back auto tune-he still uses it because he can't sing. Most people who can't sing use the auto tune, just slightly because it can make their voice go higher than they can actually sing. 4 search results found for “dead of autotune”. Hip Hop News. Jay-Z Responds to T-Pain’s Diss, Saigon Speaks on Joe Budden’s Hardships. The Semester In Scribe: Death of Auto-Tune.
Advertisers also threw their hat into the Auto-Tune ring. In 2009, Wendy's aired their 'Frosty Posse' commercial featuring a gang of office workers belting out Auto-Tuned rhymes while break dancing down the street to grab a cup of soft-serve ice cream. Watching the commercial from his Manhattan apartment, rapper Jay-Z suddenly realized that Auto-Tune had finally gone too far.
Enraged by the ad, the rapper soon penned 'D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune),' a vicious musical attack on the digital craze. 'I know we facin' a recession, but the music y'all makin' gonna make it the great depression … get back to rap, you T-Painin' too much.' In interviews, Jay-Z claimed Auto-Tune was becoming a musical crutch that was spoiling otherwise good tracks. 'I just think in hip-hop, when a trend becomes a gimmick, it's time to move on,' he told a Chicago radio station [source: Reid]. Other musicians chimed in with their own Auto-Tune displeasure, most notably Death Cab for Cutie, who showed up to the 2009 Grammys wearing anti-Auto-Tune blue ribbons [source: Cross].
Hildebrand has declared his innocence in the Auto-Tune fight, saying it's akin to blaming General Motors for inventing car crashes. But, in response to Jay-Z, his company did publish a cheeky press release with a picture of an Auto-Tune box declaring 'the reports of [its] death have been greatly exaggerated.' Despite all the hype, the Cher Effect has never made much money for Antares. Download sylenth vst free download. Most of its Auto-Tune units continue to be purchased by studios and musicians looking to use the software for its intended purpose: smoothing out the vocals in music tracks.
Even if the Cher Effect disappears entirely from the music world, as long as singers are making mistakes, it looks like Auto-Tune is here to stay.
Is Auto Tune Evo Free
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More Great Links
Sources
- Antares Audio Technologies. 'Auto-Tune Dead? Not So Much.' June 30, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.antarestech.com/email/doa/Antares_Auto-Tune-DOA.htm
- Antares Audio Technologies. 'A Brief History of Antares.' (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.antarestech.com/about/history.shtml
- Berthelson, Brandy. 'Auto-Tune: Music's Dirty Little Secret.' Sept. 23, 2009. (March 8, 2011)http://joonbug.com/national/frequency/Auto-Tune-Musics-Dirty-Little-Secret/wBONVRNZ0V3
- Cross, Alan. 'The History of the Scourge That Is Auto-Tune.' Jan. 17, 2011. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://exploremusic.com/show/the-history-of-the-scourge-that-is-auto-tune/
- Diaz, Joe. 'The Fate of Auto-Tune.' Oct. 29, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/music-and-theater-arts/21m-380-music-and-technology-contemporary-history-and-aesthetics-fall-2009/projects/MIT21M_380F09_proj_mtech_3.pdf
- Dombal, Ryan. 'Neko Case.' April 10, 2006. (March 8, 2011)http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/6306-neko-case/
- DJ Skee. ' T-Pain video discusses autotune, his new album, music & haters.' Nov. 17, 2008. (Feb. 25, 2011)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45bKBvPCX18
- Freedom du Lac, J. 'Motor Mouth.' Nov. 9, 2008. (March 8, 2011)http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/07/AR2008110701033.html?hpid=features1&hpv=national
- Freeman, Michael. 'A brief history of Auto-Tune.' Feb. 2, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.state.ie/features/6599-a-brief-history-of-auto-tune
- Gompertz, Will. 'Who cares about autotune?' Aug. 23, 2010. (March 8, 2011)http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/willgompertz/2010/08/autotune.html
- Hansen, Liane. 'Taking Pitch Correction to the Limit.' Nov. 23, 2008. (Feb. 24, 2011) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97312511
- Matson, Andrew. 'Inventor of Auto-Tune: 'I'm Innocent!.' June 26, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011) http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1613694/jayz-blames-wendys-commercial-autotune-overload.jhtml
- McCall, Michael. 'Pro Tools.' June 10, 2004. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/pro-tools/Content?oid=1190101
- McNamee, David. 'Hey, what's that sound: Auto-Tune.' April 6, 2010. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/06/auto-tune
- Myers, Tim. 'A Brief History of Auto-Tune: The Good, The Great and the Unbelievably Incredible.' July 9, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.popsense.com/2009/07/brief-history-of-auto-tune-good-great.html
- Nova. 'Autotune: Expert Q&A.' July 7, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/hildebrand-auto-tune.html
- Nosowitz, Dan. 'The Secret of Auto-Tune: Kanye and T-Pain Are Not Good Singers.' Feb. 7, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://gizmodo.com/#!5148867/the-secret-of-auto+tune-kanye-and-t+pain-are-not-good-singers
- Radio Times. 'The vocoder in history: From spies to AutoTune.' June 30, 2010. (Feb. 24, 2011) http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2010/06/30/the-vocoder-in-history-from-spies-to-autotune/
- Raftery, Brian. ' Robo-Voice's Greatest Hits, or How Advanced Spy Tech Topped Music Charts.' Feb. 23, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/17-03/pl_music
- Reid, Shaheem. 'Jay-Z Blames Wendy's Commercial -- Partially -- For His 'Death Of Auto-Tune.' June 10, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011) http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1613694/jayz-blames-wendys-commercial-autotune-overload.jhtml
- Reid, Shaheem. 'Jay-Z Premieres New Song, 'D.O.A.': 'Death Of Auto-Tune.' June 6, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011) http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1613390/jayz-premieres-new-song-doa-death-autotune.jhtml
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- Westhoff, Ben. 'Please Let the Auto-Tune Jokes End: A Brief History of the Pitch-Correcting Software's Legacy.' April 27, 2009. (Feb. 24, 2011)http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2009/04/autotune_over.php
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updated 6/2/2009 10:01:02 AM ET2009-06-02T14:01:02
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The following sentence might come as a huge shock to teens and Millennials, so stop tweeting for a second, kids, and get prepared for a totally outlandish statement. Here it is: Once upon a time, pop singers were actual singers.
- Autistic ballerina dances her way into hearts In a popular YouTube video, the beaming little ballerina dances an entire four-minute routine seemingly perfectly, matchin..
- Autistic ballerina dances her way into hearts
Yes, I know. That’s hard to comprehend since the pop charts are now dominated by artists who use Auto-Tune, the software plug-in that corrects the pitch of those who can’t really cut it in the vocal department and turns their vocals into robo-voices. While everyone under 30 recovers from that revelation, here’s what I mean by “actual singers.”
Back in the day, pop artists like Frank Sinatra and the Beatles used to be able to record albums in just a few days. Country musicians like Patsy Cline and George Jones trudged through grueling tours in out-of-the-way rural locales yet still missed nary a note. R&B musicians like the Supremes and the Four Tops navigated their way through complex choreography but still belted out songs out like their lives depended on it.
And while today, we still have singers with massively impressive pipes, a whole lotta them could never have rocked it for real like the Motown gang. These days, artists are able to get by on looks, publicity and aid from Auto-Tune.
You can hear the robotic, processed sound of the plug-in on recent hit records like “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain, “Just Dance” by Lady Gaga and “Right Now (Na Na Na)” by Akon. It’s also heard on tracks by Kanye West, Britney Spears and Lil Wayne. When West attempted to sing “Love Lockdown” without the plug-in on “Saturday Night Live,” the results were none too impressive and got ridiculed online. You can hear 10 examples of “Auto-Tune Abuse in Pop Music” on Hometracked, a blog geared toward home recording enthusiasts.
Paula Abdul also uses Auto-Tune on her new song, “Here for the Music,” which she performed (i.e. lip-synched) on “American Idol” May 6. It was evident just how artificial Abdul’s vocals were when she was followed by Gwen Stefani, who gave a warts-and-all live vocal on No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.”
Country and rock singers are said to use Auto-Tune to protect themselves from hitting bum notes in concert. Pop singers use it when they have a hard time singing while executing complicated dance moves (raising the question as to why they’re letting their dancing take precedence over their music). Auto-Tune has become so ubiquitous that indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie wore blue ribbons at this year’s Grammy Awards ceremony to protest its overuse.
Building the ‘perfect’ beast
The prevalence of Auto-Tune comes from two longstanding pop music traditions — the desire to alter the human voice and the quest for perfection at the expense of real talent and emotion.
The prevalence of Auto-Tune comes from two longstanding pop music traditions — the desire to alter the human voice and the quest for perfection at the expense of real talent and emotion.
The first of these can lead to inspiring moments, as the New Yorker’s Sasha Frere-Jones noted in an essay last year. Pioneering voice tweakers include producer Quincy Jones, who punched up Lesley Gore’s vocals with double tracking on “It’s My Party,” and George Martin, who gave us a childlike sped-up John Lennon on “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Later on, Peter Frampton wowed audiences with his talk box guitar effect and a decade later, vocals were being put through harmonizers to get jarring outer space effects.
Of course, to pull off any of those effects, you had still had to be able to sing. With Auto-Tune you don’t.
Then there’s the quest for perfection. By the 1970s, producers were able to edit or splice together vocal takes from various tracks and eventually they started to use hardware that corrected vocal pitch to create “perfect” performances. When the sound editing program Pro Tools became the industry norm in the 1990s, kludged-together vocal tracks became the norm.
But too much meticulousness in pop music strips away passion. And the very reason we listen to music, noted the late rock critic Lester Bangs, is to hear “passion expressed.” Auto-Tune makes people sound like robots. And if there’s no feeling, why listen at all?
Some people apparently aren’t listening anymore. Sales of major label CDs are down. But more authentic sounding music still has fans. Paste magazine recently reported that indie music is selling more, and the one area of commercial music that’s remained popular is “American Idol,” where you can’t fake it (unless you’re Paula Abdul).
The producers speak
A lot of producers like to use Auto-Tune because it saves time, says producer Craig Street, who has worked with Norah Jones, k. d. lang and Cassandra Wilson. “If you have a smaller budget what you’re doing is trying to cram a lot of work into a small period of time,” Street says. “So you may not have as much time to do a vocal.”
A lot of producers like to use Auto-Tune because it saves time, says producer Craig Street, who has worked with Norah Jones, k. d. lang and Cassandra Wilson. “If you have a smaller budget what you’re doing is trying to cram a lot of work into a small period of time,” Street says. “So you may not have as much time to do a vocal.”
Craig Anderton, a producer and music writer, observes that Auto-Tune “gets no respect because when it’s done correctly, you can’t hear that it’s working.
“If someone uses it tastefully just to correct a few notes here and there, you don’t even know that it’s been used so it doesn’t get any props for doing a good job,” Anderton notes. “But if someone misuses it, it’s very obvious — the sound quality of the voice changes and people say ‘Oh, it’s that Auto-Tune — it’s a terrible thing that’s contributing to the decline and fall of Western music as we know it.”
One producer who dislikes Auto-Tune is Jon Tiven, who cut his musical teeth in the punk rock era with his band the Yankees, and went on to produce soul singers Wilson Pickett and Don Covey as well as Pixies founder Frank Black. Tiven thinks Auto-Tune has led to the destruction of great singing.
“I don’t know how many levels you want to drop the bar for what it takes to become a successful musical person,” Tiven says. “You could sacrifice on some levels, but it would seem to me one of the first things you would really be hard pressed to sacrifice is if the person could sing in tune or not.”
Street says the like or dislike of Auto-Tune largely comes down to aesthetics, and likens people’s feelings about listening to unnatural sounds with the way some people feel about unnatural body modifications, such as breast implants.
And that makes sense. After all, today we have models and actors whose faces and bodies were never intended by nature, reality TV that’s not real, and sports “heroes” whose strength comes from pills not practice. It’s totally understandable that the commercial pop world would embrace an unnatural aesthetic. Whether audiences will someday want pop singers who are first and foremost singers remains to be seen.
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