Auto Tune How Singers Cheat

  
Auto Tune How Singers Cheat Rating: 5,0/10 2742 votes

A B Ebm Abm Db C Eb G F Gm Gb E D Bb Dm Em Bm Dbm Chords for It's not just Autotune - how singers cheat today (Pop Theory) with capo transposer, play along with guitar, piano, ukulele & mandolin. Jan 04, 2018  Ready to learn how to tune vocals like a pro? Click below to download your FREE AutoTune Cheatsheet, with the exact settings I recommend for the most transpa. It’s not just Autotune – how singers cheat today (Pop Theory) 26th December 2018 3rd January 2017. Save this video(0) Please login to save video. Auto Tune Hip Hop – Voice Changer for Singing hack hints guides reviews promo codes easter eggs and more for android application. Auto Tune Hip Hop – Voice Changer for Singing cheats tips and tricks added by pro players, testers and other users like you. Ask a question or add answers, watch video tutorials & submit own opinion about this game/app. Jan 08, 2017 Issues with Auto-Tune started soon after, with lines drawn between the purist and users camps. Many felt that using pitch correction was an artistic cheat, a way to bypass craft. The arguments resemble the resistance synthesizers received in the 1970s and 80s that led Queen to note that none were used on their albums.

Yeesh!!! What is this huge obsession with Autotune nowadays? Even talented singers use it and destroy their voices!!!

The Top Ten Singers with Too Much Autotune

1Will.I.Amwill.i.am is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and actor known for being the lead vocalist in The Black Eyed Peas. He was born in Los Angeles, California. He has released several solo albums such as 'Songs About Girls' and 'Will Power' .

Ugh, can't stand the Black Eyed Peas. He abuses te crap out of autotune and the latest music trend. - DCfnaf

How could you forget this guy? this guy uses loads of Autotune in a horrible way - christangrant

It's so noticeable! He just uses autotune too much! - TheFourthWorld

All the members of the Black Eyed Peas, actually. - Misfire

2Jacob SartoriusRolf Jacob Sartorius (known by his middle name), born October 2, 2002, is an American singer and internet personality, who rose to fame via social media from posting lip-syncing videos on musical.ly and his Vines (on Vine). In 2016, he released his debut single 'Sweatshirt', which reached the Hot 100 ..read more.

Someone please change that ugly image. Nevermind it changed back - ElSherlock

He should be in first place. Watch his music video for 'Sweatshirt' and then compare that to his real voice. The autotune is so bad that he sounds like a robot. He can't sing! - olliv

Autotune Sartorius is what he should be called. - CommunismNow

So cheesy and squeaky! Really ear-piercing.

3Future

Just listen his voice in Endgame of Tay Tay. Although I like it in the context of this song, it's pretty bad.

I'm mixed on autotune, the type of songs you have depends, trap (which is guiltily one of my favorite genres) suits autotune the most.
Fetty Wap is awesome and uses A LOT of autotune and can be really fun to listen to.
Future is from the exact same genre but he is pretty boring and lazy. So overall, it depends on the user. - AlphaQ

4Paris HiltonParis Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, socialite, television personality, model, actress, singer, DJ, and author.

She sounds like a whiny robot when she sings. Her singing is some of the worst I've ever heard. - DCfnaf

Duh, of course she is number one she sounds like a horny robot. - DaisyandRosalina

She's a fake Barbie doll in general, so the awful autotuned singing fits her. - Elric-san

DCfnaf, You Shouod Remix The Worst 2017 Movies List Just To Put Beauty And The Beast As A Dishonorable Mention Because Its Number 6 - VideoGamefan5

5Ke$haKesha Rose Sebert (formerly known as Ke$ha) was born on March 1st, 1987 in Los Angeles, United States. She is best known for her hits like Timber, Tik Tok, and We R Who We R. ..read more.

Lol I know her older songs were at least 20% autotune, but it seemed more of like a stylistic choice rather than a 'I am talentless so I use this much auto-tune'. While I definitely don't think she is the best natural singer ever, her new album Rainbow is nothing like her old stuff and she actually shows she has real raw talent. So yeah lol, be kind to my Kesha baby! - Twixx

I notice that Ke$ha is just one of those 'talk singers' who puts no effort into their music. She basically just speaks into the microphone and then chooses to let autotune take care of the rest. This is evident when she sings live and does a poor job. - DCfnaf

If you think she can't sing, listen to 'The Harold Song.' It is pretty good. But she does use way too much autotune in her popular stuff. - 445956

Basically she talks and autotune does the rest. - DaisyandRosalina

6Lil WayneDwayne Michael Carter, Jr. is an American rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. He was discovered by Brian 'Baby' 'Birdman' Williams at a very young age, and was signed to Cash Money Records, where he would be one quarter of the rap group Hot Boys. In the years to follow, he would go on to find his own ..read more.

He uses way too much autotune. He is literally abusing it. His rapping and lyrics don’t make up for that either. - Userguy44

Lil' Wayne is using autotune in his rock-oriented album..but it doesn't work. We can tell that he has no talent whatsoever. - DCfnaf

Listen to How to Love. I apologize for the pain in advance. - cjWriter1997

He sounds weird with autotune - ElSherlock

7Submarine ManWater Handblast (born Ardy Robert Andrews) better known by his name Submarine Man, is an American rapper known for his songs that heavily feature lyrics about foot fetishes as well as heavily autotuned vocals.

He is so hard to understand that some of his songs are not available on any lyric websites.

He's not even a real music artist, he's supposed to be terrible. - DaWyteNight

Imagine taking this guy seriously

This guy is a joke artist - ElSherlock

8Travis ScottJacques Webster, better known by his stage name Travis Scott, is an American hip hop recording artist, record producer and musician from Houston, Texas.

Love him or hate him, he created one of the most iconic albums of the 2010s

He sometimes uses autotune - ElSherlock

Asstroworld sounds like it was made by a robot singing into a fan

Yeeeah! It's liit! Oh my God! Straight up! - DaWyteNight

9Britney SpearsBritney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer and actress who was born in McComb, Mississippi, and grew up in Kentwood, Louisiana. She performed acting roles in stage productions and television shows like 'The Mickey Mouse Club' as a child before signing with Jive Records in 1997 ..read more.

It's honestly not Britney's fault for her using autotune. When she was young, she used to have a 'baby voice', but she has became older and her vocals are getting deeper. That's why she isn't live all the time. #FreeBritney - Bizcut4life

Some Top 40 artists have catchy, maybe even iconic, songs. I cannot think of a single Britney song I like. - RubyParagon

She wasn't bad, but she completely wasted her natural vocals with her 'particular' tone and autotune. - DaisyandRosalina

When 'Womanizer' came on in the car, I was yelling at my mom to switch it, and for some stupid reason she told me it was good and stayed at the station. Thankfully we only listen to the claswic alternative station. - 445956

10Jason DeruloJason Joel Desrouleaux, better known by his stage name Jason Derulo (an alternate spelling of his surname), is an American singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is best known for his singles such as 'Whatcha Say', 'Ridin' Solo', 'In My Head', 'What If', 'Wiggle', 'Talk Dirty', 'Trumpets' and 'Want To Want ..read more.

Such a talentless man, I mean, I remember listening to 'It girl' in 2011 and that sounded good, but nowadays.. Damn, it is really really bad and each time worse. All that I can ask is how somebody like this has even been called to sing live at BBC's Live Lounge for exemple.

He can actually sing without it and sounds much better so it's a shame that he uses it so much. - DaWyteNight

The Contenders

11Eric BellingerEric Bellinger, Jr., born March 26, 1986, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer from Los Angeles, California.

All of his songs sound the same

This gon be your (least) favorite song! - DaWyteNight

12Selena GomezSelena Marie Gomez is an American actress and singer. She is best known for songs like 'Come & Get It', 'Good For You', 'Same Old Love', and 'It Ain't Me'. Selena Gomez's voice is mezzo-soprano but she usually sings in alto. She is best known for her role as Alex Russo in Wizards of Waverly Place.

She is one of the worst vocalists of our generation, she is just whispering. - DaisyandRosalina

'Without autotune, Selena Gomez sounds like she's trying to teach a goat how to talk'

She already sounds good with her real voice but for some reason she ruins it by using autotune lol

She can't sing without autotune - ElSherlock

13Lil MeerkatAmeeer Pipi, better known by his stage name Lil Meerkat is a Canadian rapper and singer-songwriter. He is known for his infamous remix of the popular Queen song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. He released his debut studio album 'Weeaboo Paradise, Vol. 1' in November 2018.

Just listen to his Bohemian Rhapsody remix - ShrekTheGoat

Another joke artist - ElSherlock

14Miley CyrusMiley Ray Hemsworth (born Destiny Hope Cyrus), known as Miley Cyrus, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was born on November 23, 1992, in Franklin, Tennessee, to Tish Cyrus and Billy Ray Cyrus. Her voice type is Mezzo-Soprano and has 4 octaves. She became a teen idol starring as the ..read more.

Why does Miley Cyrus use such terrible autotune in her songs? She actually has a very talented voice, yet she wastes it for a fabricated media image and an uncontrollable butt and tongue as well as some alien-like autotune. - DCfnaf

She used too much autotune. Please, do not waste your talent. - MChkflaguard_Yt

She stopped using it - ElSherlock

Autotuned? Yes. But with too much autotune? No, she still can sing live. - DaisyandRosalina

She can sing, the problem is she covers her singing voice with the tech and that makes her sound like an alien. - DCfnaf

15QuavoQuavious Keyate Marshall, known professionally as Quavo, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as a member of the rap trio Migos.

Is Quavo even a human?

To be honest he should be #1.

He’s a robot

16Nicki MinajOnika Tanya Maraj, known professionally as Nicki Minaj (born December 8, 1982) is a Trinidadian/American rapper / pop music artist. Minaj is most known for her songs such as 'Anaconda', 'Super Bass', 'Starships' and her feature on 'Bang Bang'. ..read more.

If her voice makes my ears bleed, then isn't that a sign that she is using autotune? During her live performances, she has very questionable control with her singing voice. - DCfnaf

She sometimes uses autotune - ElSherlock

17Flo RidaTramar Lacel Dillard, better known by his stage name Flo Rida is an American rapper and pop music artist from Carol City, Florida. He is known for songs such as 'Low', 'Right Round', 'Sugar', 'Club Can't Handel Me', 'Good Feeling', 'Whistle', 'Wild Ones', 'My House' and 'GDFR.'

He uses loads of autotune and that's one reason why pretty much all of his songs are awful his only descent song is Got Me Runnin Around but that's with Nickelback and their part in the song is the good part the Flo Rida part is awful and ruins the song - christangrant

18Chris BrownChristopher Maurice 'Chris' Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actor. Born in Tappahannock, Virginia, he was involved in his church choir and several local talent shows from a young age. He is most well known for his physical assault towards the singer Rihanna in ..read more.

How is Mr. Clown so low on this list? He should definitely be in top 10! - DaWyteNight

Who wouldn't know that this guy uses autotune? - ElSherlock

Dis *cencored*drowned in autotune

19T-PainFaheem Rashad Najm, better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American recording artist and music producer from Tallahassee, Florida.

T-Pain is the king of autotune, and uses it so much in his songs that he sounds like a robot.

Believe it or not, T-Pain sounds amazing without Auto-Tune. I can assume he wasted his talent with Auto-Tune. - Mumbizz01

He sounds better without autotune - ElSherlock

He is the king of autotune. He is so autotuned that his voice sounds unrealistic. He can actually sing without autotune, I saw a performance of him without it and he sounds better.

20Katy PerryKatheryn Elizabeth Hudson, professionally known by her stage name Katy Perry, was born on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, California. She is a singer, songwriter, actress and an ambassador on one of the most popular companies of now, UNICEF. ..read more.

She is so squeaky at live performances

Sounds horrible with and without auto-tune. - DaWyteNight

She sounds a bit good without autotune - ElSherlock

21Dahvie VanityDavid Jesus Torres, better known by his stage name Dahvie Vanity, is an American singer-songwriter and rapper born on September 5, 1984, who is best known as one half of Crunkcore duo Blood on the Dance Floor and as the face and creative mind behind Industrial project Sinners are Winners. He is also ..read more.

How is this autotune abuser not in the top 10? Makes Kesha sounding like a natural singer. - Userguy44

He sounds terrible with autotune and he is an already awful singer - ElSherlock

Of all singers, why wouldn't I think to add Dahvie Vanity? - DCfnaf

Sound like what happened if emos used autotune. - AlphaQ

22RihannaRobyn Rihanna Fenty is a Barbadian-American pop singer. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, she first entered the music industry by recording demo tapes under the direction of record producer Evan Rogers in 2003. She ultimately signed a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings after auditioning ..read more.

Rihanna's voice isn't great to begin with, but when she uses autotune it's even worse. Just listen to the chorus of Live Your Life by T.I. or Disturbia if you want to give your ears a punishment. - DaWyteNight

Listen to Disturbia - ElSherlock

She sounds horrible. the end

23Rebecca BlackRebecca Black is a YouTube personality and singer who's infamous for her single 'Friday,' which was once the most disliked video on YouTube. She has also released other songs, including 'My Moment' and 'Saturday'.

Only in Friday - ElSherlock

HOW IS SHE NOT NUMBER ONE - THICCBOI

24Dua LipaDua Lipa (born 22 August 1995) is an English singer and songwriter. Dua Lipa was born in Westminster, London, to Albanian parents.

Have you heard her voice? In all her songs, her voice has this flat robotness to it. You can hear the autotune in her voice.

She overuses it - ElSherlock

25HalseyAshley Nicolette Frangipane, known by her stage name Halsey, is an American singer and songwriter. She was born on September 29, 1994 in New Jersey. She started her career by releasing songs on SoundCloud, and now she is a well-known pop singer with hits like Bad at Love, and Now or Never. She had originated ..read more.

Listen to Without Me, autotune is fie but this girl is untalented. - AlphaQ

The way she sings isn't natural and too robotic.

Listen to Without Me. - Userguy44

Her voice sounds too robotic with autotune - ElSherlock

27Danielle Bregoli

100% Stupid Teenager which does not deserve to be famous!

Talentless singer - ElSherlock

28Lady GagaStefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. ..read more.

Similar to Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, who has a talented singing voice, chooses to use autotune and a fabricated media image to win people over. She's still got a great voice nonetheless. - DCfnaf

Her sounds good without autotune - ElSherlock

See Miley. - DaisyandRosalina

29Kanye WestKanye Omari West is an American rapper, songwriter, and fashion designer. He was born on June 8, 1977 in Atlanta, Georgia. After West's parents divorced, him and his single mother moved to Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 10, West temporarily moved to Nanjing, China, because his mother was teaching ..read more.

Not sure if he uses autotune - ElSherlock

30Lauren MayberryLauren Eve Mayberry (born 7 October 1987) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and journalist. She is best known as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the Scottish synthpop band Chvrches. In the band, Mayberry co-produces, co-writes, and sings as the lead vocalist, while also playing drums and keyboards. ..read more.
31Kim KardashianKimberly Noel 'Kim' Kardashian West is an American reality television personality, actress, socialite, businesswoman and model.

In 'Jam' she doesn't even sing like a human. - DCfnaf

She isn't a singer - ElSherlock

She's a singer? :(

32Amy LeeAmy Lynn Hartzler, known professionally as Amy Lee, is an American singer-songwriter, classically trained pianist and composer. She is also the lead singer to the Arkansas band Evanescence.

On Fallen and in some parts of the self-titled album she used Autotune, however in The Open Door the vocals were not Autotuned or pitch corrected at all, there was an interview with the producer where he confirmed that. On Synthesis some pitch correction was used but no actual Autotune was used.
The reason she sounds different live than on the albums is because she actually sings live- most singers lip sync to a backing track instead of actually singing live, but Amy's live performances are actually live hence why they sound different, and not as good as in the studio.

She used some pitches but her voice is generally natural in her songs. - AlphaQ

Auto-tune all over, plus a bunch of other electronic effects and enhancements. Her real voice is not that great.

She doesn't use autotune. - Userguy44

33The-DreamTerius Youngdell Nash, better known by his stage name The-Dream, is an American singer, songwriter and record producer.
34China Anne McClainChina Anne McClain was born on August 25, 1998 in Atlanta, Georgia . She is of African-American descent . China Anne McClain is a singer for her band, McClain, which she is in along with her sisters, Lauryn and Sierra . China Anne McClain is known for her starring roles in Disney's Ant Farm, and Tyler ..read more.

Listen to Whats My Name, then you'll see she uses way too much auto tune.

You guys are insufferable. Autotune does not equate to having a terrible live-singing voice and sounding decent on the studio version. This is a huge misconception. Studio vocals are filtered whereas live vocals are not. So it's filtration that's the issue, not autotune. The only people on this list who identifiably use autotune are Kesha, Will.i.am, and T-Pain. In the case of Kesha it's often used for effect.

I have Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus on the list, they use autotune, and they can sing. - DCfnaf

35Sabrina CarpenterSabrina Ann Lynn Carpenter is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She stars as the young version of Chloe Goodwin in The Goodwin Games and as Maya Hart in the Disney Channel series Girl Meets World. She plays Jenny Parker in the Disney Channel Original Movie Adventures in Babysitting . (She) ..read more.

She doesn't use autotune - ElSherlock

She barely uses autotune

37KimbraKimbra Lee Johnson, known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand recording artist based in Los Angeles.
39Emma Watson

Auto Tune How Singers Cheat Money

Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson is a British actress, model, and activist. Born in Paris and brought up in Oxfordshire, Watson attended the Dragon School as a child and trained as an actress at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts.

She doesn't look like a singer - ElSherlock

Beauty and the Beast haters?
Either way, does have autotune. - DCfnaf

BRUH HER MUSIC HELLA LITðŸ'¥ðŸ'¥ðŸ'¥ðŸ'¥
Lol I'm kidding but she was pitch corrected in B&TB(2017). Good remake movie though

40Tessa Brooks

If you listen to 'Powerful Emotions' you don't need to dig ANY deeper you can already hear how much auto tune was put in.

41Lil PumpGazzy Garcia (known professionally as Lil Pump, born August 17th, 2000) is an American rapper, producer and songwriter. Gazzy began his career in 2016 with a collaboration freestyle with Smokepurpp, which was eventually posted in Soundcloud to popular success. He broke out to mainstream the following ..read more.

'I Love It' lol more like I hate it - B1ueNew

Listen to his song 'I Love It' - ElSherlock

43Rose Mulet
44Justin BieberJustin Drew Bieber (born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. He currently resides in Ontario, Canada and is Christian. He is the son of author Pattie Mallette. ..read more.

I don't even like him and baby sounds cheesy

He used autotune a few years ago - ElSherlock

DISGUSTING.

45Taylor SwiftTaylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. ..read more.

Without editing of her voice she can't sing or sustain higher notes. She runs out of breath way too fast - THICCBOI

She sometimes doesn't use autotune - ElSherlock

46Ariana GrandeAriana Grande-Butera, known professionally as Ariana Grande, is an American singer and actress. She was born on June 26th 1993 in Boca Raton, Florida to Joan Grande and Edward Butera. She is best known for her role as Cat Valentine on the Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious and its spin-off show Sam & Cat. ..read more.

She sounds so much better without autotune since her vocals sound really good - ElSherlock

YT has videos with the autotune removed from her songs, and there is a huge difference.

There are mic feeds and there are clearly no signs of editing. If she edits her voice its not more than the standard which is as low as possible - THICCBOI

In my opinion she doesn't use auto tune.

47Isabela MonerIsabela Moner is an American actress and singer. She is known for her lead role on the Nickelodeon television series 100 Things to Do Before High School and for her role as Izabella in the 2017 film Transformers: The Last Knight.
48Sophia GraceSophia Grace Brownlee and her cousin Rosie McClelland, both from Essex, England, make up the duo Sophia Grace & Rosie.

Listen to 'Girls Just Gotta Have Fun' - ElSherlock

49CherCher is an American singer and actress. Her song Believe was the first song to use autotune. Described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry, she is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety ..read more.

She made autotune - ElSherlock

She invented it. - Userguy44

She was the first singer to make a massive hit song with it but she did not invent it. - Powell

Auto Tune How Singers Cheat List

Auto-Tune is one of the most widely used plug-ins in music production. This tutorial shows you the power within this amazing audio processor.

In the 22 years since it’s inception (1997), Auto-Tune has been the industry standard for tuning vocals, and for good reason. From my own personal experience, it’s still my go-to tuning software, as it can keep up with my own workflow, and does exactly what I need it to do. There are many other tuning softwares available, but none have the proven to me better. In the past 20 years, I’ve never had a single negative comment, or even anyone notice that I’ve used a tuning software, which is exactly as it should be. There are many people out there wanting to lay blame on the tools for their work sounding robotic, or unnatural. I may take some heat for saying so, but this doesn’t have to be the case if you learn how to use your tools properly; pay attention to what the settings do. If something doesn’t sound right, keep tweaking until it does. It’s as simple as that. Now I must say though, there is a limit to how much tuning or editing you CAN do to a less than perfect performance. A common saying in the industry comes to mind - “You can’t polish a turd”. I could probably write an entire book on tuning vocals, but the intent here is to give you an inside look at the most commonly used parameters and how to use Auto-Tune in a more effective way….

Lady gaga oscars auto tune. The Correction Modes In Auto-Tune

There are two correction modes and ways to use Auto-Tune. There’s Auto Mode, also know as “lazy mode”, and Graphical Mode, also known as “Auto-Tune”. Auto Mode basically runs in real-time, and analyzes the audio as it passes through. It then determines what to do to the audio, as it passes through. Adjusting your settings can help it to do a better job of tuning, but nothing replaces your own ears on what needs to be tuned, and what does not. The only time I personally use Auto Mode is when I have several songs that need to be mixed in a very short amount of time, and there simply is not enough time, or budget, to properly tune the tracks. Graphic Mode is a bit more involved, but yields MUCH better results! Graphic Mode basically works like this: You capture (track pitch) the performance once into the plug-in, so it can be analyzed, displayed and edited. (Same for most other professional tuning software) Then, you choose which notes are to be tuned, and how, and which are to be left alone. This is far superior to every single bit of audio being automatically adjusted. By the way, if what you are trying to achieve with Auto-Tune is the T-Pain, or CHER effect, use Auto Mode with a very fast Retune Speed, and you can skip the rest of this article.

Auto Mode

Auto Mode is the default mode when opening Auto-Tune. It is designed to automatically analyze audio as it passes through, and tune up or down to the nearest note everything that passes through. With that being said, there are some very important things to pay attention to, as they will help you get much better results. Paying attention to a few of these settings following, you can minimize Auto-Tune attempting to tune things that should not be, such as vibrato and notes that are intentionally slurred from one note to another.

Input Type: This basic setting help Auto-Tune focus on specific frequency ranges and types based upon the type of content you are trying to tune. Always start here!

  • Soprano -For high or female voices
  • Alto/Tenor -For normal voices
  • Low Male -For Barry White
  • Instrument -For violins, violas, and other types of monophonic instruments
  • Bass Inst -For lower pitched instruments, and yes, it is quite common to tune a bass guitar.

Scale: Setting the scale to the actual key of your song will most certainly help minimize errors in automatically tuning. Chromatic is the default scale, and probably most popular, but setting the proper key of your song will narrow down the choices of tuning from eleven notes down to the seven within a given key. For example, you have a song in the key of “C”, which has no sharps or flats. A singer sings a little bit sharp on a trying to sing a “C”. If the note sang is closer to “C#”, Auto-Tune will try to tune the note up to “C#”, resulting in an improperly tuned note. When setting the scale to C Major in this same scenario, the singer would have to sing past “C#” for it to create and error and try to correct to a “D”. This is another great starting point for Auto Mode usage. As you can see from the picture to the right, there are many other scales to choose from, and yes, Auto-Tune is used world wide, and there are many other scales available to those around the world using alternate tuning and scales.

Retune Speed: This is one of the most important settings to pay attention to, as it sets how fast Auto-Tune will tune a note, similar to a glide or fade time from non-tuned to fully tuned processing. Setting a very fast time will remove any variations in pitch, but can yield some very unnatural results. But then again, this is a big part of creating the T-Pain/Cher effect. If this is what you are looking for, absolutely start here with a very fast time!

Humanize: This allows sustained notes to have a slower Retune speed than the shorter duration notes. Typically you would start a setting of 0 while setting the Retune speed, making sure all notes that need tuning are being tuned, then adjusting the Humanize will help with sustained notes from not sounding overly tuned, while still being fast enough to tune shorter duration notes.

Natural Vibrato: This is independent of your pitch settings and is used solely to tame natural vibrato of a performance. Leaving it at it’s default setting of 0, will not affect the original vibrato, but adjusting will minimize the amount of vibrato allowed. Once again, this is independent of pitch controls.

Targeting Ignores Vibrato: Turning this on can help with what Auto tuning tries to tune and what it ignores. If you have a track with a lot of vibrato, try turning this on and see if it helps. This is something that would typically be used with a lead type of vocal, allowing the natural vibrato to be ignored. Backing vocals typically shouldn’t have as much vibrato, therefore, minimizing vibrato is preferred.

Target Notes Via MIDI: This is quite fun to play with, along with fast Retune speeds. When engaging, Auto-Tune does nothing until a MIDI note is present from a keyboard or MIDI track, then it tunes to the MIDI notes present. You can then play in a melody from a MIDI device, and the track will be tuned to what you play.

Graphic Mode

Graphic Mode is the mode you will use the most often when quality is the primary concern. The advantage: Graphic mode allows you to specify which notes are to be tuned, and which are not, along with independent settings for each note to be tuned, instead of the global settings to be used for every note passing through in Auto Mode. Ready to get started?

Correction Mode to Graph: Pretty self-explanatory, slide or click the correction mode from Auto to Graph.

Options

Click on the options button next to correction mode to get here:

Enter buffer seconds: The default here is 240 seconds, which is 4 minutes at 44.1k or 48k sample rate, based upon your session settings. A minute song would require 300 seconds. There’s no need to set a really high buffer amount, as it uses much more RAM from your system. The max setting of 14400 would yield 4 hours on one track! If any of you actually need that much, I’d like to know what project you are working on.

Default Retune speeds: After learning a bit about retune speed from Auto Mode, you can set the default retune speeds for various tune settings in which I will discuss shortly here, but this is where you set your defaults.

Track Pitch in Autotune

Auto Tune How Singers Cheat Codes

The first thing we need to do is capture, or “Track Pitch”, our audio track into Auto-Tune so that it can analyze it, draw a graphic representation of the audio pitches, and respond appropriately. This allows Auto-Tune the time to not only respond quickly, but also to ramp in tuning before a note needs to be tuned, which is impossible in Auto Mode, as it is only running in real-time. So to get started:

  • Click on the “Track Pitch” button: It will turn “Red” when enabled to track pitch.
  • Play the track: Play your song from beginning to end, or section by section. As long as all the information that needs to be tuned is tracked in, you can then proceed.
  • Turn off the “Track Pitch” button: Self-explanatory, but necessary to start tuning.

Decisions decisions!

You have two options now for tuning. You can draw or auto-create lines/curves or notes. The difference is that notes are typically easier to work with and treat an area of audio as a block, or note, and a line or curve allows you to treat bends in between specific notes with a little more intent.

The Tools

There are a few tools to start with here and I’ll describe them briefly from left to right.

  • The Line Tool is used to draw multi-segment lines on the pitch graph. It is typically used when you want to hold a straight pitch, or bend evenly from one pitch to another.
  • The Curve Tool is used when you would like to free-hand draw in pitch correction. I personally find this one quite difficult to use.
  • The Note Tool is used to draw notes. These are constrained to specific pitches and cannot vary off of them. I tend to use these more often than the line tool.
  • The Arrow Tool is the most commonly used tool, as it is how you select and edit existing lines or notes.
  • The Scissors Tool is used to cut existing lines or notes into separate pieces for individual editing. I typically use this when notes or lines have been generated automatically, and need to be separated. We’ll take a look at automatically generating lines or notes shortly.
  • The Magnifying Glass is used for zooming. Simply click and drag a box around what you would like to zoom into, and release to zoom.
  • The I-Beam Tool is used to select an area of time to be used edit with in, or generate data between. This is also a commonly used tool.
  • The Hand Tool is used to move the display. Click and hold on an area of the screen, and then drag the screen to an area you would like to see. I find the scrolling functions on apple mice work quite nicely for this same purpose, so this one doesn’t get used much.

Manual Editing/Drawing of Lines and Notes in Auto-Tune

In this example above, after capturing (Track Pitch) a vocal into Auto-Tune, I selected the Line Tool, and then clicked on “Snap to Note” which forces any segments of a line to snap to a specific note. Upon clicking the last segment, it must be double-clicked to end the line. After drawing this line, it is still selected, and retune speed can be set for this line independently of other lines. If it is not selected for some reason, using the Arrow Tool, click on the line to re-select it, and then you can adjust the retuning speed. The advantage of using the Line tool is that, as shown, the bend from one note to another can be drawn in as well.

In this example to the below, I selected the Note Tool, and then drew in some notes. I’ve found that drawing notes from where they are on key, or crossing through the desired key, on the beginning and end of a note give the best results. The advantage of the working with Notes is that Notes can be moved from one pitch to another much easier than trying to move a line.

Automatically creating Lines and Notes in Auto-Tune

Select an area: Using the I-Beam Tool, select an area that you wish to generate notes or Lines/Curves> Personally, I like to select the duration of the entire song, and then fix the points that are not created to my satisfaction, rather than manually create each event, one by one.

Down at the bottom of the plug-in next to “Track Pitch” are the option for “Make Curve” and “Make Notes”, which are how we can auto-create “Notes” or “Line Curves”.

Make Curve: Clicking the Make Curve button will automatically draw a curved line, matching exactly the pitches captured in from the Track Pitch function earlier. As you can see to the right, there are green lines overlapping the detected pitches, and anchor points on either side of each detected event. These anchor points can be moved independently by clicking on, and dragging each anchor point up or down. This is particularly useful is in key, but starts drifting sharp or flat as a note is being held out. You need to use the Arrow Tool to manipulate these points.

In the example below, an area was first selected using the I-Beam Tool, then using the Arrow Tool, the Curves were moved up together to another pitch, keeping all the bending between notes still intact. If only part of a curve or line is to be moved, the line can be separated into two segments by clicking at the desired split point using the Scissors Tool. Now the segments can be individually manipulated.

In the example below, the “Make Notes” button was pressed after selecting the same area as described above. The advantage with working this way is that the only things being tuned, or manipulated are the notes that are being sustained, and the bending in-between notes is left alone. I find it particularly advantageous to modify these notes using the Arrow Tool. What I’ve found to give the best results is to drag the edges of each note to a crossing point, where the original audio is on, or crossing through, the correct pitch. By starting and stopping the tuning process on these points that are already in tune, I’ve found that I have much more transparent tuning, and less “T-Pain” sounding tuning.

Auto Tune How Singers Cheats

Hopefully this is enough to get you started in Auto-Tuning, and has shed some light onto the mysterious world of tuning. Honestly, Auto-Tune has saved so many projects from bankrupting, and allowed thousands of productions to keep amazing performances, that in the past would have been performed over, and over, and over, and over again, until finally in key. Did anyone happen to think about the feeling, or emotion, left in a recording that an artist just finished singing for the 150th time? Yes, it may finally be perfectly in tune, but is the emotion of the singer still representing the initial idea of the song, and convincing all the listeners that this is a happy song. I think Elvis left the building about 145 takes back…. My point is, if a take sounds and feels great, but has a little pitch problems here and there, it’s worth tuning vs. beating the life out of a part until it is performed technically correct.

Until next time, happy tuning!

Mihai BoloniCreative Director & Avid Expert Pro Tools instructor
Mihai has made it his life's work to help others in the audio industry. Mihai gained experience as an audio engineering Full Sail Instructor in early 2000's and joined ProMedia in 2002. Since then, he has become one of Avid's Top Leading and most experienced and in-demand Instructors Worldwide, with clients who come to him form all over the world. Corporate clients include MTV, PBS, NBC, Telemundo, The Voice's Chief Engineer Mike Bernard, Atlanta Public School System, countless professors from leading Universities, CNN, Turner Broadcasting, and the top producers, artists, and engineers in leading studios and record labels. For over 20 years, Mihai has continued to work as an Audio Engineer, Record Producer, Songwriter (ASCAP), Dog Lover, Record Label Owner, and Expert Level AVID Certified Pro Tools Instructor.

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