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Auto-Tune is an audio-processing software plug-in that allows musicians to adjust the pitch and frequency of their musical performances. Auto-Tune was invented by Dr. Andy Hildebrand in 1996, and has since become one of the most popular studio plug-ins and software kits in the recording industry. The plug-in is used primarily for vocal modification, but can also be applied to instrumental performances as well. It works by first measuring the artist’s pitch, which it does by recording and analyzing the repeating audio cycles that make up musical notes. The software then interprets and displays these cycles on a computer and allows its users to easily correct or modify their performance’s pitch. In the mid 2000’s, Auto-Tune became immensely popular as a vocal effect, and at the present day, it has permeated most pop and hip-hop music. However, despite its obvious popularity with listeners, Auto-Tune remains a subject of controversy; Many contend that it cheapens the integrity of the music, while others say that it is an innovation.

History
Auto-Tune is marketed by Antares Audio Technologies, a company founded by Andy Hildebrand in 1990 as Jupiter Systems. Hildebrand, a doctor of electrical engineering, spent the first half of his professional career (1967-1989) working with Exxon Production Research and Landmark Graphics as a geophysical researcher, where he used sonic methods to help locate oil. After retiring at the age of 40, Hildebrand began Jupiter Systems. Before Auto-Tune, Jupiter Systems was responsible for the creation of other plug-ins and editing software, including the “Infinity” seamless looper. The idea for the Auto-Tune was first suggested by a friend of Hildebrand’s; as he was at lunch with her and her husband, she explained to Hildebrand, “I wish I could have a box that could make me sing in tune”. While at the time this seemed impossible, Hildebrand soon designed and built that box.

Technology
Auto-Tune relies upon a technology called digital signal processing (DSP) to alter the tuning of a person’s performance. Although DSP was a technique developed specifically for geophysical purposes, Hildebrand applied the technology to audio processing to create Auto-Tune. Hildebrand says that Auto-Tune uses “a special algorithm designed for intonation correction”, and through this algorithm, the software can interpret the pitch of the singer’s voice. After this process, its users can then “nudge” notes into the desired pitch using the software’s “Graphical” mode or let the software correct each note to the nearest in-key pitch with “Automatic” mode. Through these two modes, it is possible for artists to perform both major and minor repairs to whatever they are recording.

Development
When it was introduced as a plug-in in 1997, it became an instant hit in the recording world, and soon was manufactured as a rack mount for live and studio performances known as the ATR-1. Hildebrand went on to create several other notable system plug-ins, and renamed the company Antares Audio Technologies in the late-nineties. Auto-Tune has since undergone many upgrades and transformations, the most current editions being Auto-Tune 7, Auto-Tune Evo, and an updated hardware system called the Antares Vocal Producer. Aside from these hardware and software versions of the product, Auto-Tune can also be downloaded as the “I am T-Pain” iPhone application.

Early Use
Immediately following its release, Auto-Tune became widely used by studio engineers as a sort of “trade secret”, and remained somewhat unknown to common listeners until 1998 when Cher released the song “Believe”. “Believe” was the first song to apply Auto-Tune as a vocal effect rather than just a doctoring tool, and it caught the attention of producers and listeners alike. This effect is generated by adjustment of Auto-Tune’s “Retune” speed. The retune speed is gauged from zero to 400, and it measures the rate at which the software produces the change in pitch ; Hildebrand says, “If you set [the retune speed] to 10, that means that the output pitch will get halfway to the target pitch in 10 milliseconds. But if you let that parameter go to zero, it finds the nearest note and changes the output pitch instantaneously”. Setting the speed to zero, as Cher’s producers did, resulted in the “jumpy and automated” tone that was the hallmark of “Believe”. Soon, other artists such as Madonna, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and many others began to follow in Cher’s footsteps and use Auto-Tune experimentally.

Growth
Not until 2003, however, did Auto-Tune begin to grow into the cultural phenomenon it is today. In this year, R&B and rap artist T-Pain, born Fajeem Najm, first experimented with Auto-Tune and realized how he could use the retune speed and other features of the software to create different sounds and add new character to his music. The cheery, robotic nature that Auto-Tune gave to his songs soon became extremely popular in pop and hip-hop music, and he quickly rose from the status of “nobody” into a superstar. From his debut album “Rappa Ternt Sanga” in 2005 till the present day, T-Pain has had 12 singles rank in the Billboard’s Top 10, as well as countless others hits in which he was featured as a guest vocalist.

As a result of his influence, other artists began to take an interest in Auto-Tuning as well, including Kanye West, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, and others. Kanye West, for example, collaborated with and learned from T-Pain during the recording of his album “808s and Heartbreak”, which used Auto-Tune for a more “angsty” and heartbroken tone than T-Pain’s music, and many critics considered it “one of the best albums of [2009]”. Because of T-Pain’s reanimation of the “Cher Effect”, the Auto-Tune has grown into a dominating force in contemporary pop, rap, and hip-hop.

Artists
Despite its well established popularity among listeners, there are still many artists who disapprove of Auto-Tuning. In 2002 country singer Allison Moorer capitalized off of the fact that her album "Miss Fortune" was produced without Auto-Tune. On the back of her album was printed the statement “Pro Tools was not used in the making of this album”.

Others, such as rapper and songwriter Jay-Z, criticize Auto-Tune through their music. In 2009, Jay-Z released his single “D.O.A.” or “Death of Auto-Tune”, which attempted to denounce Auto-Tune as a gimmick and draw artists and fans away from its misuse. Ironically, however, Jay-Z himself had experimented and recorded with Auto-Tune, and actually removed his Auto-Tuned tracks from off of his album before its release.

In a similar protest, Seattle-based indie rock group Death Cab for Cutie began a cause at the 2009 Grammys in which the band’s members wore light blue ribbons pinned to their suits to “raise awareness of Auto-Tune abuse”. Frontman Ben Gibbard related to reporters, “Over the last 10 years, we've seen a lot of good musicians being affected by this newfound digital manipulation of the human voice, and we feel enough is enough”. Gibbard continued, saying that he wanted to bring back the “Blue note, the note that's not so perfectly in pitch and gives the recording soul and real character. It's how people really sing”, and bassist Nick Harmer added the warning that “Otherwise, musicians of tomorrow will never practice. They will never try to be good, because yeah, you can do it just on the computer”. However, despite these frank criticisms of the Auto-Tune, it still remains as powerful and pervasive as ever within popular music.

The Recording Industry
Auto-Tune, which is generally seen as a studio magic, isn’t even fully respected by many producers. Producer Rick Rubin, for example, says that he prefers to take a “more natural” approach to the recording process, also adding that Auto-Tune tempts artists to not put forward a full effort due to the ease of recording only one take. However, there are still other producers who treat Auto-Tune with great respect, stating that Auto-Tune is incredibly useful in smoothing over small incongruities within individual songs as well as for perfecting already near-perfect songs. Producer Craig Anderson says that Auto-Tune “Gets no respect because when it’s done correctly, you can’t hear that it’s working. If someone uses it tastefully just to correct a few notes here and there, you don’t even know that it’s been used so it doesn’t get any props for doing a good job”. Its proponents also state that performers with fewer means will be able to accomplish more by using Auto-Tune because it cuts down on necessary studio time and allows for fewer takes so that artists don’t need to fret about budgeting.

Antares Audio Technologies
In spite of the mounting opposition to Auto-Tuning, Antares Audio Technologies remains supportive of the technology. When interviewed by Neil DeGrasse Tyson for Nova’s special on Auto-Tune, Hildebrand firmly stated that he sees no wrong in using pitch correction. When questioned on the ethics of correcting a singer’s pitch, Hildebrand suggested “To modify something isn’t necessarily evil. My wife wears makeup. Is that evil?”. Hildebrand also claimed that “If the singer doesn’t have a good tonality to their voice, [the Auto-Tune] isn’t going to make that better”. This thought is seconded by two of Hildebrand’s executes: Antares CEO Stephen Tritto, who said “I can’t even sing well in the shower, and Auto-Tune isn’t going to help me”, and Antares Vice President of Marketing Marco Alpert, who relayed “What we always say is a bad singer through Auto-Tune is just a bad singer who’s in tune”. Overall, the Antares company contends that tuning doesn’t necessarily equate with good singing, and “studio magic” won’t cure a bad singer.

While he maintains that to use it for modification isn’t inherently wrong, Hildebrand still admits surprise at the way the Auto-Tune has been used. When asked by Tyson about Cher’s “Believe”, Hildebrand said, “I couldn’t believe it. . . I didn’t think anybody in their right mind would ever use it that way”.

This considered, however, Antares Technologies realizes the popularity that this adaptation of his software had amassed and has begun to cater to it. Auto-Tune software has become extremely inexpensive, costing only $79.00, and at the moment there even exists the “I am T-Pain” iPhone application that lets users Auto-Tune their own voice like T-Pain. This extreme availability of Auto-Tune makes it even more prolific within pop music because virtually anyone can own the software and then manipulate their voices.

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Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without needing to sing in tune. While its main purpose is to slightly bend sung pitches to the nearest true semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest tone in traditional equal temperament), Auto-Tune can be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly.

Auto-Tune is available as a plug-in for professional audio multi-tracking suites used in a studio setting, and as a stand-alone, rack-mounted unit for live performance processing. Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios.

Auto-Tune was initially created by Andy Hildebrand, an engineer working for Exxon. Hildebrand developed methods for interpreting seismic data, and subsequently realized that the technology could be used to detect, analyze, and modify pitch.

In popular music
Auto-Tune was used to produce the prominent altered vocal effect on Cher's "Believe", recorded in 1998, the first major hit song to employ the software for this purpose. When first interviewed about this, the sound engineers claimed that they had used a vocoder (although they did not specify that it was Auto-Tune, a phase vocoder), in what Sound on Sound perceived as an attempt to preserve a trade secret. After the massive success of "Believe", many artists imitated the technique, which became known as the "Cher Effect". It was evident in songs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Some notable examples are Gigi D'Agostino's "La Passion" and Janet Jackson's US #1 hit "All For You", among many others. After years of relative dormancy, the effect was revived in the mid-2000s by R&B singer T-Pain, who elaborated on the effect in contemporary popular music by making active use of Auto-Tune in his songs. This technique has since gone on to be very widely imitated by numerous other modern R&B and pop artists. T-Pain has become so well associated with Auto-Tune that he has an iPhone App named after him that simulates the effect called "I Am T-Pain". T-Pain's use of Auto-Tune has been cited as an influence on other urban artists' works, including Snoop Dogg's single "Sexual Eruption", Lil Wayne's single "Lollipop", and Kanye West's album 808s & Heartbreak.

According to the Boston Herald, country stars Faith Hill, Shania Twain, and Tim McGraw have all confessed to using Auto-Tune in performance, claiming it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance. However, other country music singers, such as Loretta Lynn, Allison Moorer, Dolly Parton, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, Garth Brooks, Martina McBride, and Reba McEntire, have refused to use Auto-Tune.

The Auto-Tune effect is used overtly by many post-hardcore bands who use it as a creative tool, rather than to correct vocal imperfections. The bands Attack Attack!, I Set My Friends on Fire, and Abandon All Ships have used Auto-Tune in combination with heavy synth as part of a genre that combines a hardcore sound with an electronica style. Additionally, the hard rock band Avenged Sevenfold used an older "Cher-style" vocal correction in the chorus of "Lost" on their 2007 self-titled album.

Auto-Tune the news
In 2009, the use of Auto-Tune to create melodies from the audio in video newscasts was popularized by Brooklyn musician Michael Gregory and later the band The Gregory Brothers. The Gregory Brothers digitally manipulated recorded voices of politicians, news anchors and political pundits to conform to a melody, making the figures appear to sing. The group achieved mainstream success with their Bed Intruder Song video which became the most-watched YouTube video of 2010.

Criticism
As early as 2002, the CD Miss Fortune by singer-songwriter Allison Moorer was released with a sticker stating that "Absolutely no vocal tuning or pitch correction was used in the making of this record". At the 51st Grammy Awards in early 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest the use of Auto-Tune in the music industry. 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 far too many people had jumped on the Auto-Tune bandwagon and that the trend had become a gimmick. 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 said that Auto-Tune wasn't bad if used "in a creative way" and noted her song "Elastic Love" from Bionic uses it.

Opponents of the plug-in argue Auto-Tune has a pervasive negative effect on society's perception and consumption of music. A Chicago Tribune report from 2003 states that "many successful mainstream artists in most genres of music—perhaps a majority of artists—are using pitch correction".

In 2004, UK's 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".

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." Timothy Powell, a producer/engineer stated in 2003 that he is "even starting to see vocal tuning devices show up in concert settings"; he states that "That's more of an ethical dilemma—people pay a premium dollar to see artists and artists want people to see them at their best."

The American television series Glee has become noted for regular use of the system in its songs. E! Online's Joal Ryan criticized the show for its "overproduced soundtrack", in particular, complaining that many songs rely too heavily on the software.

In 2010, some people accused the British television reality TV show The X Factor of using Auto-Tune to improve the voices of contestants, especially Gamu Nhengu. Simon Cowell, one of the show's judges, ordered a ban on Auto-Tune for future episodes.