STEVE EMBER: The Gregory Brothers is a band based in Brooklyn. It lets users record and play back their voice using this Auto-Tune effect. There is even an iPhone app called I Am T-Pain. One of the most well known users is the artist T-Pain. The singer Cher is said to have been the first major artist to use this extreme Auto-Tune effect in her nineteen ninety-eight song “Believe.”īARBARA KLEIN: Many hip-hop artists have made use of this Auto-Tune vocal effect. Or, it can be set to correct a pitch in a way that makes a robotic sounding effect. MARCO ALPERT: “The key issue is how quickly it makes that change.”īARBARA KLEIN: The correction rate can be set so that a correction is not easy to identify, like in the example we heard earlier. If the singer has trouble reaching those notes, Auto-Tune can change the incorrect pitch into the correct target pitch. STEVE EMBER: If a performer sings the correct musical notes, Auto-Tune does not change anything. It’s listening to the pitch that the voice is singing and it’s comparing that pitch to what’s called the target pitch.” MARCO ALPERT: “At its simplest level, basically Auto-Tune is constantly monitoring the pitch of whatever it is you are tuning, let’s assume it’s a voice for the purpose of this. We asked him to explain how Auto-Tune works. STEVE EMBER: Marco Alpert works at the California-based company. Here is the same song after being corrected with Auto-Tune. The recording came from the company Antares Audio Technologies, which makes Auto-Tune.
That was an example of a singer purposely performing off key.
Their effects can be experienced in nearly all current popular music and digital photography.īARBARA KLEIN: The best way to explain how Auto-Tune works is to listen to an example of its pitch correction ability.
These programs have changed the way people make music and take pictures. Adobe Photoshop is a computer editing program for digital images. Auto-Tune is a software program that can correct the sound quality of musical recordings. Today we talk about two hugely influential computer software tools. STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS, in VOA Special English.