Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read

  

Program Description

  1. Dec 10, 2015 The best way to discern auto-tune and no auto-tune is to listen to many songs and see if you can hear the difference between MJ and Queen vs your singer vs Rebecca and T-Pain. Most singers are in-between, but when you’ve listened to a ton of old songs, you can probably hear when a sustained note needs to be held.
  2. Jan 09, 2014 With the turn of a dial, you can instantly make your voice sound like Barry White, like a high-pitched munchkin, or even choose the Live Harmony option to split up your voice so it sounds like.

(Program not available for streaming.) NOVA scienceNOW talks to the engineers behind Auto-Tune, the pitch-correction software that turns sour notes into sweet ones. Professional musicians from Madonna to Snoop Dogg use Auto-Tune, but can the software turn host Neil deGrasse Tyson into a singing star?

Transcript

Auto-Tune

PBS Airdate: June 30, 2009

The pitch of the vocalist prior to Auto-Tune processing must be close enough to a note in the scale of the key of the song for Auto-Tune to work its best. In other words, the singer has to be at least near the right note for it to sound pleasing to the ears.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Ourlove was like a supernova,'

Yeah,I sing.

'In the nebula of my soul.'

Okay,I'm not great.

'But now I find her heart is like a bigblack hole.'

Allright, I'm terrible. But here's what I'm wondering: if, digitally, you canremove red-eye, smooth over wrinkles, make people look thinner, then why don'twe have the technology to make me sing better?

ANDYHILDEBRAND (Antares Audio Technologies): We can fix Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: This guy invented away to do it.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: We can fix Neil's pitch. He'sstill going to sound like Neil, though.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Electrical engineerand inventor Andy Hildebrand designs pitch-correction software. He calls itAuto-Tune.

'Pitchcorrection?' Is that a euphemism for 'fixing bad singers?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes, we fix bad singers.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I visited Andy atAntares Audio Technologies in Scotts Valley California, where he and engineerJustin Malo...

JUSTINMALO: Hey,Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ...showed me how itworks.

Hummmmmmmmmm.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Great. There you go. You didthat.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: That wavy line representsthe exact frequency of my voice. This line shows where a perfect A should be,so, not too bad.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: He's right dead nuts on in tune.Look at that.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So how does acomputer know that?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: When you hear A, you'rehearing 440 vibrations per second.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So somebody at thebeginning of time said 440 vibrations per second is an A?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: A.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So, if you sing orplay a pitch at 440 cycles per second, the computer calls it an A and it restson this line. B-flat would go on the line above it, G-sharp below, and so on.

'Butnow I find her heart...'

Whenyou're out of tune, the notes don't fall so neatly onto the lines of the grid.

'...big...'

That'sawful.

'...blackhole.'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Well, it's creative, it'screative. Okay.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: '...supernova...'

Thoselines are me singing the word 'super.'

'supernova...'

Mypitch is all over the place. If anything, it's closest to this note, here.

JUSTINMALO: Neil,you sang an F, which normally is okay, if you're in the key of F. And we're not,so we moved your F to an E.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Supernova...'

SoJustin gently nudges it down to where an E would be.

'Supernova...'

You'rechanging the frequency of the sound that came out of my vocal cords.

JUSTINMALO: Actually,yes.

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON:Changingpitch isn't new. You can change someone's voice by fast forwarding on a taperecorder, but you'd sound like...

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas time ishere.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ...well, achipmunk.

Pitchcorrection software lets you change the pitch...

'Supernova...'

...whilekeeping the essential tone of a voice the same.

Andso, although few engineers are willing to admit it, pitch correction software,like Auto-Tune, has become an indispensable tool in most recording studios.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: It's been used by a lot ofpeople: Madonna...

MADONNA (Film clip): 'Music makes the bourgeoisie...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ...Celine Dion...

CELINEDION (Film clip): 'You got one heart you are following...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Reba McEntire usesit live?

REBAMcENTIRE (Film clip): 'Starting over again...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: You're telling me asinger can sing into a microphone a bad note, and out the speakers comes a goodnote?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Now, that's evil.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: To modify something isn'tnecessarily evil. My wife wears makeup. Is that evil?

Isthat okay, honey?

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Evil or not, therecording industry kept Auto-Tune on the down-low.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: The secret popped out of thebag when Cher did 'Believe.'

CHER(Film clip): 'Do you believe in lifeafter love?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: I couldn't believe it.

CHER(Film clip): '...aside and I can't breakthrough...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Rather thangradually and naturally reaching up to each note...

CHER(Film clip): 'I can feel somethinginside me say...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ...like this,Cher's producer forced Auto-Tune to jump suddenly from one pitch to the next.

CHER(Film clip): 'I feel something inside mesay...'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Is this some knobthat you turn?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: All right.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: And we can turn this knob tozero, which means 'move instantaneously to the new pitch.' And so, if we dothat, your voice would sound like this.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'But nowI find her heart...'

Didyou plan for people to use it that way?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: No. I didn't think anybody intheir right mind would ever use it that way.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Well a lot ofartists do.

Voice Changer

T-PAIN(Film clip): 'She got me doing the dishes

Anything she want for some kisses'

OJO(Film clip): 'I wasyoung and in love...'

SNOOPDOG (Film clip): 'She might be with him but she's thinkin' boutme, me, me.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: But it's mostlyused to tweak out-of-tune performances—a kind of cosmetic surgery.

Read

'...bigblack hole.'

Inmy case though, more like triple-bypass.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Try to change this to the keyof C.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Moving the tracesof my voice up in pitch or down...

Autotune Download

'...supernova...'

...Justincoaxes me into tune.

'Supernova

ofmy soul...'

Ittook several hours.

'...ofmy soul...'

Howwell did it work? You be the judge.

'Ourlove was like a supernova

Inthe nebula of my soul, but now I find

herheart is like a big black hole...'

JUSTINMALO: It'sa lot more pleasing.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I thought the firstone sounded pretty good myself, I don't know.

Kiddingaside, there's no substitute for training or talent.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: If the singer doesn't have agood tonality to their voice, we're not going to make that better.

Dous a favor. Don't go on American Idol.

Broadcast Credits

Auto-Tune

Produced and Edited by
Vincent Liota

NOVA scienceNOW

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This material is based upon worksupported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0638931. Anyopinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in thismaterial are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe National Science Foundation.

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Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read Aloud

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Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Reading

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(Neil deGrasse Tyson singing) Courtesy T. Robin Hirsh

Participants

Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read A Free

Andy Hildebrand
Antares Audio Technologies www.antarestech.com/