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.

'...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

Executive Producer

Samuel Fine

Executive Editor

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Senior Series Producer

Vincent Liota

Senior Producer

Julia Cort

Supervising Producers

Stephen Sweigart
Joey David Jovanovich

Senior Editor and Colorist

David Chmura

Senior Researcher

Sharon Kay

Associate Producer

Fran Laks

Assistant Editor

Tung-Jen (Sunny) Chiang

Graphic Design

Brian Edgerton

Compositor & Animator

Yunsik Noh

Music

Rob Morsberger

Sound Mix

Bill Cavanaugh, RazorMix, Inc.

Assistant to Neil deGrasse Tyson

Elizabeth Stachow

NOVA scienceNOW Series Animation

Edgeworx

Associate Producers

Julie Crawford
Jonathan Loewald
Richard Marnell
Laura Willcox

Camera

Austin de Besche
Brian Dowley
Robin Hirsh
Stephen Kazmierski
Rob Lyall

Sound Recordists

John Cameron
James Lindsey
Len Schmitz
Chris Strollo

Animation and Graphics

Anthony Kraus
Sputnik Animation
James LaPlante
Dan Nutu

Researchers

Ethan Herberman
Eric Olson

ArchivalMaterial

AP Worldwide Photos
BBC Motion Gallery
CNN Image Source
Corbis
The Frederick News-Post and Randall Family, LLC
Getty Images
Josh Landis
National Science Foundation
NASA
Prelinger Internet Archives
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium
Steven Snyder
WTC: The First 24 Hours, Producers; Etienne Sauret & David Carrara

Special Thanks

Jason Bannan, FBI microbiologist
Carnegie Mellon University
Dave and Busters
Gemological Institute of America
Justin Goger Malo
George Gray, Gray Jewelers
Susan Hrishenko
Northern Arizona University
David Rasko
Sandia National Laboratories
University of Maryland School of Medicine

Neil deGrasse Tyson

is director of the Hayden Planetarium in theRose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.

NOVA Series Graphics

yU + co.

NOVA Theme Music

Walter Werzowa
John Luker
Musikvergnuegen,Inc.

Additional NOVA Theme Music

Ray Loring
Rob Morsberger

Post Production Online Editor

Spencer Gentry

Closed Captioning

The Caption Center

NOVA Administrator

Mykim Dang

Publicity

Carole McFall
Eileen Campion
Victoria Louie
Karinna Sjo-Gaber
Karen Laverty

Marketing

Steve Sears

Researcher

Kate Becker

Senior Researcher

Gaia Remerowski

Production Coordinator

Linda Callahan

Paralegal

Sarah Erlandson

Talent Relations

Scott Kardel, Esq.
Janice Flood

Legal Counsel

Susan Rosen

Production Assistant

Ryan Murdock

Post Production Assistant

Darcy Forlenza

AssociateProducer, Post Production

Patrick Carey

Post Production Supervisor

Regina O'Toole

Post Production Editors

Rebecca Nieto
Jason York

Post Production Manager

Nathan Gunner

Compliance Manager

Linzy Emery

Development Producer

Pamela Rosenstein

Business Manager

Joseph P. Tracy

Senior Producer and Project Director

Lisa Mirowitz

Coordinating Producer

Laurie Cahalane

Senior Science Editor

Evan Hadingham

Senior Series Producer

Melanie Wallace

Managing Director

Alan Ritsko

Senior Executive Producer

Paula S. Apsell

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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(Neil deGrasse Tyson singing) Courtesy T. Robin Hirsh

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Should You Sing With Auto Tune Or Read A Free