Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune, or autotune, is an audio processor introduced in 1997 by the American company Antares Audio Technologies.[1][4] It uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances.[5]
For broader coverage of this topic, see Pitch correction.Original author(s)
Auto-Tune was originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned. The 1998 Cher song "Believe" popularized the technique of using Auto-Tune to distort vocals. In 2018, the music critic Simon Reynolds observed that Auto-Tune had "revolutionized popular music", calling its use for effects "the fad that just wouldn't fade. Its use is now more entrenched than ever."[6]
In its role distorting vocals, Auto-Tune operates on different principles from the vocoder or talk box and produces different results.[7]
Reception[edit]
Negative[edit]
At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest against the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry.[32] Later that spring, Jay-Z titled the lead single of his album The Blueprint 3 as "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)". Jay-Z elaborated that he wrote the song under the personal belief that the trend had become a gimmick which had become far too widely used.[33][34] Christina Aguilera appeared in public in Los Angeles on August 10, 2009, wearing a T-shirt that read "Auto Tune is for Pussies". When later interviewed by Sirius/XM, however, she clarified that Auto-Tune could be used "in a creative way" and noted her song "Elastic Love" from Bionic uses it.[35]
Opponents of the plug-in have argued that Auto-Tune has a negative effect on society's perception and consumption of music. In 2004, The Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick called Auto-Tune a "particularly sinister invention that has been putting extra shine on pop vocals since the 1990s" by taking "a poorly sung note and transpos[ing] it, placing it dead centre of where it was meant to be".[36]
In 2009, Time magazine quoted an unnamed Grammy-winning recording engineer as saying, "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box." The same article expressed "hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade", speculating that pop-music songs have become harder to differentiate from one another, as "track after track has perfect pitch."[37] According to Tom Lord-Alge, the device is used on nearly every record these days.[38]
In 2010, the reality TV show The X Factor admitted to using Auto-Tune to improve the voices of contestants.[39] Also in 2010, Time magazine included Auto-Tune in their list of "The 50 Worst Inventions".[40]
Neko Case in a 2006 interview with Pitchfork gave an example of how prevalent pitch correction is in the industry: