Auto Tune Simple Definition
With the return of The X Factor to TV screens, we look at the physics behind pitch correction.
Autotune (uncountable) Alternative form of auto-tune; Verb. Autotune (third-person singular simple present autotunes, present participle autotuning, simple past and past participle autotuned) Alternative form of auto-tune.
Back on the TV schedule for the autumn, the singing competition programme The X Factor was criticised last year after it emerged that the contestants’ voices were being altered via Auto-Tune.
Producer Simon Cowell subsequently banned any further use of the technology on the show.
Freebase(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition: Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune is an audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies, which uses a proprietary device to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music recording and performances through use of a phase vocoder. Dec 28, 2016 As there is only 1 (very good) answer so far I thought I could just elaborate a little. While you are working with audio; recording, editing or mixing within a Digital Audio Workstation, you can manipulate the sounds to a crazy degree. 1 Tune (something) automatically. ‘there's also an FM radio which can autotune stations and has a ‘record’ option’ ‘You can autotune up to 10 programmes at a time.’ ‘It's like a roadtrip to hell where the radio autotunes to whatever's heaviest.’. ‘The fake sky went dark and he sang in a numb and dire auto-tune tenor.’ ‘She embodies what is wrong with TV and the music industry - not a shred of talent required with reality tv and auto-tune.’ ‘Ever since she burst onto the music scene, she has been criticized for frequent use of auto-tune on recordings.’. Auto-tune definition: Verb (third-person singular simple present auto-tunes, present participle auto-tuning, simple past and past participle auto-tuned) 1. To tune (an engine, industrial process, etc.) automatically. (music) To correct the pitch of. Apr 23, 2017 They always use auto tune. They actually can't sing. If I had that microphone and equipment too, I could do just as well. It's all auto tune. There's no talent. Doesn't work.
But how does audio signal processing help to make singers’ voices sound better?
What would you do if I sang out of tune?
Few singers are perfect. Sometimes, the pitch of their vocal slightly misses the exact note they’re trying to hit.
If they are a little out of tune, the vocal track can still be rescued – or ruined, depending on your point of view – with a little help from the science of signal processing.
The pitch of a note is dependent on the frequency of the sound wave produced – the A above middle C is usually defined as 440 Hz. Therefore manipulating the frequency can produce a different note, or hit an exact note from a noise that is slightly off-key.
Easy Definition
Musical scales are divided into 12 pitches each separated by a semitone – the difference in note between two adjacent keys on a piano or frets on a guitar neck. The goal of pitch correction is to retune a slightly high or low note to the nearest semitone.
It allows both parameteric equalization and dynamic equalization. Dynamic equalizers are capable of producing a wide range of sound which allows it to be applied for varied purposes. Le sound spacemotor vst download.
In the system usually used by MIDI instruments in which pitch is assigned a number, with the 440-Hz A being 69 and each semitone increasing or decreasing the pitch number by 1, it is related to frequency f by a simple formula.
If an attempt at singing that A note actually came out at, say, 445 Hz instead, then using a computer to correct the frequency back down would ensure that the recording sounds in tune.
Sound engineers can’t simply change the frequency by itself, however.
Because the frequency of a wave is related to its speed via its wavelength, the duration of the sound would change too – this is why sped-up tapes sound chipmunk-like.

The frequency can be altered without changing the speed by going digital.
Music by numbers
Although it is possible to alter analogue signals – those based directly on the electrical signal generated by a microphone, or by a guitar pickup – a wider range of effects is possible when working with digital signals.
A digital signal uses discrete values rather than continuous ones, so converting an analogue signal requires taking sets of discrete points or samples. (Higher sampling rates more closely approximate the original sound).
These digital signals can be altered so that a sound produces the correct musical note by using a phase vocoder.
This works by first changing the duration of the sound without altering its frequency, and then changing the frequency to both hit the correct pitch and restore the original duration.
The name comes from its use of the signal’s phase information to manipulate the signal in the desired way.
It breaks an audio signal down into many small, overlapping frames and then changes the spacing of those frames to change the total duration of the sound. In practice, this is a complicated task that requires the use of the advanced maths of Fourier transforms to convert the signal into a form that can be manipulated in this way.
The sound is then resampled to take it back to its original duration and hit the desired note.
As guitarpitchshifter.com explains, if the aim was to double the frequency then this would be as easy as picking one out of every two samples and constructing a waveform from those. But to fit the signal back into its original length when not scaling by an integer, interpolation is used to determine which bits of the sample should go at which points.
For imperfect singers to remain perfectly in key, we have this piece of maths and physics to thank – or to blame.
The folowing links are external
noun
TrademarkA device or facility for tuning something automatically, especially a piece of computer software that enables the correction of an out-of-tune vocal performance.
- ‘Basically, the idea is you take real news and real newsmakers, and you put them through an auto tune.’
- ‘Turn on the radio and without turning the dial you find one-hit wonders, wanna-be gangsters, lying fools, and most importantly autotune.’
- ‘Sonically, the song is great, but for Brown to constantly drown his voice in auto-tune is getting annoying.’
- ‘There's no auto-tune crooning or overbearing electronica background music.’
- ‘However, he's a fan of Kanye's 2008 album, which made heavy use of auto-tune.’
- ‘The fake sky went dark and he sang in a numb and dire auto-tune tenor.’
- ‘She embodies what is wrong with TV and the music industry - not a shred of talent required with reality tv and auto-tune.’
- ‘Ever since she burst onto the music scene, she has been criticized for frequent use of auto-tune on recordings.’
- ‘It's hard to believe, in this day of auto-tune, that people are still acting surprised by her lip-syncing.’
- ‘The singer went on to explain that he should use auto-tune to 'catch mistakes' before they happen.’
verb
[with object]1Tune (something) automatically.
‘there's also an FM radio which can autotune stations and has a ‘record’ option’- ‘You can autotune up to 10 programmes at a time.’
- ‘It's like a roadtrip to hell where the radio autotunes to whatever's heaviest.’
- ‘Switch the box to 'game' when you're using it, switch to the TV/Cable input manually, and don't let your TV try to autotune its way to a signal.’
- ‘A kid should be taught how to auto-tune channels on the set.’
- ‘Also new in the latest update: a new channel info bar, and a setting to let you auto-tune to HD channels!’
- ‘DRM technology is more or less like 'a smart radio' that auto-tunes itself during emergency and natural disasters.’
- ‘However when I autotune the TV it only picks up the standard 5 terrestrial channels.’
- ‘Once your TV stops receiving signal from your current networks, head into your menu and start auto-tuning.’
- 1.1Alter the pitch of (a voice recording) by means of a computer program.
- ‘She sounds so good she almost sounds autotuned.’
- ‘While we may cringe at the autotuned quality of her voice, we can't help but agree with the lyrics.’
- ‘The only music available was the lute and your natural voice, so that ruled out autotuned pop stars.’
- ‘His acting sucks and his music is so auto-tuned a monkey could sing it.’
- ‘Maybe I will sing with them but you would have to auto-tune me!’
- ‘She's a fantastic singer (real pop music, instead of overly autotuned garbage!)’
- ‘She looks great but whoa.they really overdid it with the auto-tuning.’
- ‘The album is a bombardment of autotuned vocals with loud drums and techno beats.’
- ‘Her energetic stage presence made the songs work, and those falsetto notes needed no auto-tuning.’
- ‘The Gregory Brothers have become Internet famous for auto-tuning the news.’
Pronunciation
