by Jnmarseille13 (October, 10th, 2024)
by Jnmarseille13 (October, 10th, 2024)
“All these auto-tune rappers nowadays”, “Yeah she just uses Auto-Tune and it does all the work for her”… I’m sure anyone who’s into music production knows how ignorant those comments sound! So I thought it’d be nice to state some facts about Auto-Tune, and show everyone that it’s not just some magic tool…
This one is pretty obvious… or not. Nowadays, many beatmakers, producers, singers and musicians (including myself) sometimes act as if we were “self-proclaimed audio engineers”. Why? Because many notions we use in our DAWs are also used in audio engineering ; things like : stereo panning, equalization, compression and I could go on and on… Also, studio gear has become so affordable and digitized that we’re able to easily build our home studios, which was not possible decades ago. However, even with all the knowledge one can have about mixing, we all know that an actual professional engineer will always provide much better results.
Well, in the 70s, this question didn’t even exist. Studio gear (mostly analog) was too expensive and too big to fit in a house anyways. And recording on analog tape (and not on a software) itself is a skill that takes time and dedication to learn. So, only audio engineers with degrees and/or experience would handle recording, mixing and mastering sessions. No DIY. So, bands could always expect to get out of there with high quality mixes.
That’s right. We’re talking about a vocal FX that does automatic pitch correction. What it means is that, when someone sings naturally, they will sing different notes that may vary or not be fully right. The automatic pitch correction FX will force every note to be in a chosen key.
Auto-Tune is the name of one of the most popular pitch-correction FX plugins, made by a company called Antares Audio Technologies, in 1997. It was popularized by T-Pain (american rapper) who was openly using it (pushing all the settings to the extremes) and was known for the robotic sound effect on his voice.
There are many other automatic pitch correction programs nowadays, but Auto-Tune remains the most popular one. This is the reason it became the norm, when talking about pitch correction.
Sometimes, using Auto-Tune just won’t work completely for you. There might be that one little word that just can’t seem to be corrected the way you want. Here’s a tip then : use a pitch modification tool like Melodyne. This type of tool gives you the ability to edit the vocals manually, instead of automatically like Auto-Tune, and gives you much more control (but it takes a lot more time too). This is very common in the Pop scene.
So, as you can see, a lot of the things people think and say about Auto-Tune are simply inaccurate. If you’re an artist using Auto-Tune, then there is no shame in using a product that was made to enhance your skills, whatever people say about it!
“All these auto-tune rappers nowadays”, “Yeah she just uses Auto-Tune and it does all the work for her”… I’m sure anyone who’s into music production knows how ignorant those comments sound! So I thought it’d be nice to state some facts about Auto-Tune, and show everyone that it’s not just some magic tool…
This one is pretty obvious… or not. Nowadays, many beatmakers, producers, singers and musicians (including myself) sometimes act as if we were “self-proclaimed audio engineers”. Why? Because many notions we use in our DAWs are also used in audio engineering ; things like : stereo panning, equalization, compression and I could go on and on… Also, studio gear has become so affordable and digitized that we’re able to easily build our home studios, which was not possible decades ago. However, even with all the knowledge one can have about mixing, we all know that an actual professional engineer will always provide much better results.
Well, in the 70s, this question didn’t even exist. Studio gear (mostly analog) was too expensive and too big to fit in a house anyways. And recording on analog tape (and not on a software) itself is a skill that takes time and dedication to learn. So, only audio engineers with degrees and/or experience would handle recording, mixing and mastering sessions. No DIY. So, bands could always expect to get out of there with high quality mixes.
That’s right. We’re talking about a vocal FX that does automatic pitch correction. What it means is that, when someone sings naturally, they will sing different notes that may vary or not be fully right. The automatic pitch correction FX will force every note to be in a chosen key.
Auto-Tune is the name of one of the most popular pitch-correction FX plugins, made by a company called Antares Audio Technologies, in 1997. It was popularized by T-Pain (american rapper) who was openly using it (pushing all the settings to the extremes) and was known for the robotic sound effect on his voice.
There are many other automatic pitch correction programs nowadays, but Auto-Tune remains the most popular one. This is the reason it became the norm, when talking about pitch correction.
Sometimes, using Auto-Tune just won’t work completely for you. There might be that one little word that just can’t seem to be corrected the way you want. Here’s a tip then : use a pitch modification tool like Melodyne. This type of tool gives you the ability to edit the vocals manually, instead of automatically like Auto-Tune, and gives you much more control (but it takes a lot more time too). This is very common in the Pop scene.
So, as you can see, a lot of the things people think and say about Auto-Tune are simply inaccurate. If you’re an artist using Auto-Tune, then there is no shame in using a product that was made to enhance your skills, whatever people say about it!