Pitch correction is the process of correcting the intonation of an audio signal without affecting other aspects of its sound. Pitch correction first detects the pitch of an audio signal (using a live pitch detection algorithm), then calculates the desired change and modifies the audio signal accordingly. The widest use of pitch correctors is in Western popular music on vocal lines.
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Pitch correction was relatively uncommon before 1997, when Antares Audio Technology's Auto-Tune Pitch Correcting Plug-In was introduced. This replaced slow studio techniques with a real-time process that could also be used in live performance.[1]
Auto-Tune is still widely used, alongside other products such as Celemony's Melodyne. Pitch correction is now a common feature in digital audio editing software, having first appeared as a Pro Tools plugin and now being found in products such as Apple GarageBand, Apple Logic Pro, Adobe Audition, FL Studio & Steinberg Cubase. It is also available in the form of rackmount hardware, such as the TC-Helicon VoiceOne. A free VST plugin known as GSnap can also be used to get the same effect. In the Linux FOSS community, Autotalent and Zita-AT1 offer this functionality.
Besides correcting out-of-tune vocals, pitch correction has numerous other applications and is commonly used to add a harmony to certain words or phrases without re-recording those words or phrases again and again at the necessary pitches. Depending on the specific model used, various vocal effects can be added and the better quality devices can be adjusted to allow expression to remain in the music with some pitch correctors even possessing the ability to add vibrato.
With extreme parameter values, pitch correction has also become popular as a distinctively electronic voice effect. A notable example of Auto-Tune-based pitch correction is the Cher effect, named for Cher, who originated the effect in her 1998 hit song "Believe".[2] More recently, it has been used by composer John Boswell for his popular Symphony of Science and Symphony of Bang Goes The Theory (a BBC science show) mash-ups.
In 2010, Teddy Riley claimed that the processing of Michael Jackson's voice with Melodyne caused people to question the authenticity of the voice on the posthumous album Michael.[3] Riley claimed that because he did not have a "final vocal" from Jackson, Melodyne had to be used "to make his voice work with the actual music," "to get him in key" and this resulted in the vibrato sounding "a little off" or "over-processed."[3]
One criticism of pitch correction is that it allows recording engineers to create a perfectly in-tune performance from a vocalist who is otherwise not skilled enough to give one, adding a level of dishonesty to music.[4] This concept was featured in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "New Kids on the Blecch" in which a cartoon representation of a pitch corrector (labeled "Studio Magic") is used to replace the total lack of singing talent in a manufactured boy band of which Bart Simpson was a member.
In 2003, Allison Moorer attached stickers to her album Miss Fortune reading "Absolutely no vocal tuning or pitch-correction was used in the making of this record." [5]
Neko Case in a 2006 interview with Pitchfork Media gave an example of how prevalent pitch correction is in the industry:
I'm not a perfect note hitter either but I'm not going to cover it up with Auto-Tune. Everybody uses it, too. I once asked a studio guy in Toronto, "How many people don't use Auto-Tune?" and he said, "You and Nelly Furtado are the only two people who've never used it in here." Even though I'm not into Nelly Furtado, it kind of made me respect her. It's cool that she has some integrity.[6]
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