Its not always auto tune. Lumping auto tune with reverb, voice layering, and the likes is a gross over simplification. LOTS of artist use reverb, and clean up their voices. Lil Dicky for example, who does use blatant voice changes, but generally does straight vocals, you can hear if you listen closely what isn't autotune, but a little extra reverb. Since humans are able to note a difference in taste without understanding the chemistry behind an added ingredient, let's do the same thing and run through a brief history of rap’s use of Auto-Tune.
- Rappers Who Use Autotune
- Rappers Without Auto Tune
- Rappers That Use Autotune
- Rappers That Don't Use Autotune
What I find most fascinating about Antares Auto-Tune is that everyone and their mother knows what it is, despite the fact that it's just another digital audio plugin used in bedroom and professional studios alike. Even people who have no clue what an EQ or compressor does somehow at least know of the word 'Auto-Tune' and even the general effect it has on the human voice.
But even though Auto-Tune has evolved to become this cultural phenomenon, very few artists or producers truly understand how to get it to sound like the way it sounds on major records.
In case you don't know what it is, Auto-Tune, in a nutshell, is a pitch correction software that allows the user to set the key signature of the song so that the pitch of the incoming signal will be corrected to the closest note in that key (and does so in real time). There are other pitch correction programs out there that do similar functions: Waves Tune, Waves Tune Real-Time, and Melodyne (which is pitch correction, but not in real time), but Auto-Tune seems to have won the standard for real-time pitch correction.
Auto-Tune traditionally is used on vocals, although in some cases can be used on certain instruments. For the sake of this article we will be discussing Auto-Tune and its effect on the human voice. Listen to this early example from the 'King of Auto-Tune,' the one artist who did more to popularize its effect than any other, T-Pain.
Working as a full-time engineer here at Studio 11 in Chicago, we deal with Auto-Tune on a daily basis. Whether it's people requesting that we put it on their voice, something we do naturally to correct pitch, or even for a specific creative effect. It's just a part of our arsenal that we use everyday, so over the years we have really gotten to know the ins and outs of the program—from its benefits to limitations.
So let's delve further into what this software really is and can do, and in the process debunk certain myths around what the public or people who are new to Auto-Tune may think. If you were ever wondering why your Auto-Tune at home doesn't sound like the Auto-Tune you hear from your favorite artists, this is the article for you.
To set the record straight, as I do get asked this a lot of times from clients and inquiring home producers, there really are no different 'types' of Auto-Tune. Antares makes many different versions of Auto-Tune—Auto-Tune EFX, Auto-Tune Live, and Auto-Tune Pro—that have various options and different interfaces, but any of those can give you the effect you're after. Auto-Tune Pro does have a lot of cool features and updates, but you don't need 'Pro' to sound pro.
I wanted to debunk this first, as some people come to me asking about the 'the Lil Durk Auto-Tune,' or perhaps that classic 'T-Pain Auto-Tune.' That effect is made from the same plugin—the outcome of the sound that you hear depends on how you set the settings within the program and the pitch of the incoming signal.
So if your Auto-Tune at home sounds different from what you hear on the radio, it's because of these factors, not because they have a magic version of Auto-Tune that works better than yours at home. You can achieve the exact same results.
In modern music Auto-Tune is really used with two different intentions. The first is to use it as a tool in a transparent manner, to correct someone's pitch. In this situation, the artist doesn't want to hear the effect work, they just want to hit the right notes. The second intent is to use it as an audible effect for the robotic vocals you can now hear all over the pop and rap charts.
But regardless of the intent, in order for Auto-Tune to sound its best, there are three main things that need to be set correctly.
The correct key of the song. This is the most important part of the process and honestly where most people fail. Bedroom producers, and even some engineers at professional studios who might lack certain music theory fundamentals, have all fallen into the trap of setting Auto-Tune in the wrong key. If a song is in C major, it will not work in D major, E major, etc.—though it will work in C major's relative minor, A minor. No other key will work correctly. It helps to educate yourself a bit about music theory, and how to find the key of a song.
The input type. You have the option to choose from Bass Instrument, Instrument, Low Male, Alto/Tenor, and Soprano. Bass Instrument and Instrument are, of course, for instruments, so ignore them if you're going for a vocal effect. Low Male would be selected if the singer is singing in a very low octave (think Barry White). Alto/Tenor will be for the most common vocal ranges, and soprano is for very high-pitched vocalists. Setting the input type correctly helps Auto-Tune narrow down which octaves it will focus on—and you'll get a more accurate result.
Retune speed. This knob, while important, is really all dependent on the pitch of the input source, which I will discuss next. Generally speaking, the higher the knob, the faster it will tune each note. A lower speed will have the effect be a bit more relaxed, letting some natural vibrato through without affecting a vocalist's pitch as quickly. Some view it as a 'amount of Auto-Tune knob,' which isn't technically true. The amount of correction you hear is based off the original pitch, but you will hear more effects of the Auto-Tune the faster it's set.
So let's say you have all of these set correctly. You have the right key, you choose the right range for the singer, and the retune speed is at its medium default of 20ms. You apply it on the singer expecting it to come out just like the pros. And while their voice does seem to be somewhat corrected, it's still not quite corrected to the right pitch.
Here's why your Auto-Tune doesn't sound like the pros:
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.
Whether you're going for a natural correction or the T-Pain warble, this point still stands. If the note the singer originally sings is nowhere near the correct note in the key, Auto-Tune will try to calculate as best it can and round up or down, depending on what note is closest. And that's when you get undesirable artifacts and hear notes you weren't expecting to hear. (Here is an example of how it sounds when the incoming pitch isn't close enough to the scale, resulting in an oddly corrected pitch.)
So if you put Auto-Tune on a voice and some areas sound good, some sound too robotic and a bit off, those are the areas that the singer needs to work on. Sometimes it can be difficult for non-singers to hear slight sharp or flat notes, or notes that aren't in the scale of the song, so Auto-Tune in many cases can actually help point out the problem areas.
This is why major artists who use Auto-Tune sound really good, because chances are they can sing pretty well before Auto-Tune is even applied. The Weeknd is a great example of this—he is obviously a very talented singer that has no problem hitting notes—and yet his go-to mixer, Illangelo, has said before that he always uses at least a little bit of Auto-Tune on the vocals.
If you or the singer in your studio is no Weeknd, you can correct the pitch manually beforehand with a program like Melodyne, or even with built-in pitch correction tools in your DAW, where you can actually go in and change the pitch of each syllable manually. So if you find yourself in a situation where you or an artist you are working with really want Auto-Tune on their vocals, but it's not sounding right after following all the steps, look into correcting the pitch before you run it through Auto-Tune.
If you get the notes closer to the scale, you'll find the tuning of Auto-Tune to be much more pleasing to the ears. For good reason, T-Pain is brought up a lot when discussing Auto-Tune. Do you want to know why he sounds so good? It's not a special Auto-Tune they are using, its because he can really sing without it. Check it out:
Hopefully this helps further assist you in your understanding and use of Antares Auto-Tune, and debunk some of the myths around it. Spend some time learning some basic music theory to help train the ear to identity keys of songs, find which notes are flat and which notes are sharp. Once you do, you'll find you'll want to use Auto-Tune on every song, because let's face it—nearly a decade after Jay-Z declared the death of Auto-Tune on 'D.O.A.'—it still sounds cool.
To some music creators and fans, Auto-Tune is destroying American popular music. To others, it’s just a studio tool that makes people sound better. What is Auto-Tune? How do you use Auto-Tune properly? There are two sides to the argument. Which side are you on? But first, lets look at what Auto-Tune is and how it is used.
What is Auto-Tune?
Before we weigh in on other side, let’s be specific about what Auto-Tune is. As you probably already know, Auto-Tune is an app that corrects pitch. Engineers use it subtly during live shows to keep the vocals clear and in key. And it’s used as an obvious effect, creating a kind of computerized vocal sound. A famous example of the latter is actually the song that brought Auto-Tune to a massive audience — Cher’s 1998 monster hit Believe.
(Don’t confuse Auto-Tune with the vocoder, another effect that creates robotic-sounding vocals—compare Cher’s track with another late 90s hit, Daft Punk’s Around the World.)
Since the 90s there has been an incredibly long list of artists who use Auto-Tune. In hip-hop, you can hear it on songs by Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and Drake. T-Pain used Auto-Tune so much that Jay-Z criticized him in his song D.O.A. — or “Death of Auto-Tune.”
Art rockers Radiohead used it on their seminal 2001 album Amnesiac. It’s all over the albums of pop singers like Britney Spears and Keisha. Crooner Michael Bublé criticized it, but then in the same interview admitted that he uses “as a means to get onto Top 40 radio.”
How to Use Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune uses a set reference point, a scale or note, and everything outside of this reference will be digitally corrected with autotune.
The most common and reasonable time to use Auto-Tune is when a vocalist delivers an emotional performance but has a few problems with pitch. The overall track is great and there is no need to re-record the song, but there are a few pitch problems that autotune can correct. You would be surprised but Auto-Tune happens on a large number of songs. Instead of a vocalist having to sing take after take ruining their voice, minor pitch problems can be corrected. This is similar to how audio software works when an instrument is played. If the instrument misses one or two notes, there is no need to re-record the whole track. Long gone are the days of re-recording tracks in full until they are meticulously perfect, playing late into the night and then into the next day.
So is it a good thing or a badthing?
Rappers Who Use Autotune
On the “con” side, Auto-Tune has taken pop music away from the beauty of the human voice. T-Pain’s signature sound gets annoying pretty quickly. And one critic said that when Black Eyed Peas use it, which is a lot, it sounds like “music robots make when they’re trying to sell products to other robots.” Also, it was the imperfections that made a song, some favoring live performances because of the inconsistency in the vocals. Historically, it was an art to sing every note on tune and those out of tune actually made it unique.
But is it so terrible when it isn’tnoticeable? After all, engineers have been using technology to improve vocaltracks for about as long as there have been vocal tracks.
Is Auto-Tune “Cheating” for Artists?
People may be right when they thinkof it as a kind of cheating. Then again, it was an open secret in the industrythat 80s recording artists like Madonna and Paula Abdul needed help — a lot ofhelp — with their vocals. Auto-Tune is just the latest kind of fakery.
Auto-Tune is everywhere for threereasons: it makes singers sound better, some people like that robotic sound,and it helps make hits. And since the music business is a business, that thirdreason is probably the biggest.
There is a lot to be said for theunadorned human voice. But we have to admit that anytime we amplify or recordmusic, we’re always trying to make it sound better — with the best equipmentand yes, the best effects.
So Auto-Tune is really like anyanother effect. There is nothing wrong with using it judiciously. In fact, itcan save a lot of time and money in the studio. Rely on it too much, and yourisk sounding kind of ridiculous.
Either way, Auto-Tune is here tostay. That is, until the next big game-changing piece of technology comesalong.
Final Thoughts
Rappers Without Auto Tune
Is Auto-Tune a useful tool? Is it an effect? It can be all of these things. Auto-Tune can correct the pitch of a singer’s voice or it can make the singer sound like a robot. It is to be used by the audio engineer, and it is up to the listener whether they accept the use of Auto-Tune as a parlor trick or amazing effect. Auto-Tune has become mainstream, and maybe in the future, artists and audio engineers will advertise that it was not used. Dr Seuss told a story about the Sneetches and how when one Sneetch got a star on their belly, they were unique. Then every Sneetch followed suit and got a star on their belly. The reverse happened and those not adding a star to their belly became the unique ones. The same can be said about Auto-Tune.
Rappers That Use Autotune
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Rappers That Don't Use Autotune
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