Zoom-in Online

This blog was submitted by Adam Brawerman, Zoom In Online's Music Channel assistant.

There is a not-so-new recording trick that I am hearing everywhere.  Around the office, blaring from a car waiting at a red light outside my apartment, and even on the new Bon Iver EP.  What I am hearing is an audio processing technique called pitch correction.  What was first invented as a tool to gently adjust vocal and instrument tracks that were slightly off key, has become an infatuation in the pop music world.  Artists and producers are maxing out the settings on pitch correction software so that singers sound like they have swallowed a keyboard that is now lodged in their vocal box.   When it was first invented in 1997, it was new, experimental, and somewhat cool.  Now it just sounds played out.

Antares was the first to create the plug-in called Auto-Tune that can be used on digital platforms, and continues to be one of the leaders in pitch correcting software.  Now some digital editing software, such as Apple Logic Pro and Adobe Audition, come with the plug-in already included.  Its settings allow you to determine the extent to which you would like the waveforms to be processed.  The software recognizes what pitch a note is being performed, and then alters it to the nearest "correct" pitch.  If you are going for a natural feel, you can set it to only make minor adjustments.  If you are T-Pain, you can set the thing at full blown robot mode and make your voice almost unrecognizable. 

The abuse (as I would like to call it) of this technique is most commonly traced back to Cher's hit, "Believe," in 1998.  In my opinion, using pitch correction as an effect is a poor man's talk box.  When I say poor man, I mean requiring no talent.  A talk box is a device that allows a musician to modify the sound of an instrument by changing the shape of their mouth.  This technique was popularized by Peter Frampton, but was also used to create a very similar effect as the pitch corrector by Roger Troutman in the remix of Tupac's song "California Love."  This song was made two years prior to Cher's "Believe."  Instead of just singing and letting software do all the work, Troutman uses a keyboard to manually change the pitch of his voice.  More accurately, he is using his mouth to change the sound of the keyboard, but result is pretty much the same.  In this way, there is much more room for improvisation and creativity. 

To me, music is all about imperfections.  The squeak of a finger sliding down the fret-board.  The crack of a singer's voice.  The occasional mistake.  These are all reminders that what you are listening to is human, and when things sound great, makes it all the more impressive.   My favorite quote by David Byrne is, "The better the singer's voice, the harder it is to believe what they're saying.  So I use my faults to an advantage."  I think today's artists should really take this to heart.

There is also an intersting article about how Auto-Tune was invented by Andy Hildebrand, and how it has affected pop music in the New Yorker.