Course 11: Auto-Tune

Auto-Tune has become one of the best-selling plugins ever produced, due in part to its powerful ability to modify audio. It has become a much sought-after technology for vocal effects after R&B singer T-Pain brought it back to life so to speak. It combines the idea of vocoder technology and envelope followers to first analyze and then synthesize audio signals so they are limited to a certain pitch set by the user.

Auto-Tune has revolutionized the music industry, making pitch-perfect vocals more accessible than ever before. This technology works by analyzing audio signals to figure out how quickly they’re vibrating and in what pattern. When it comes across a repetitive waveform (that is, a signal producing a single consistent tone or note), it calculates the time it takes for one full cycle of the sound wave and then uses that number to determine the frequency, allowing it to make adjustments accordingly.

If the audio contains noise besides what is intended for tuning–like breath or other background sounds–Auto-Tune isn’t able to tune that signal accurately. It can only work on a single pitch at once too, meaning any unison trembling will slip through without getting corrected. Nevertheless, thanks to this cutting-edge tech, artists need not worry about pesky pitch issues performing their next hit single!

Think of it as having an expert engineer at your fingertips, smoothly reforming any audio into something new and exciting! You will cover the techniques and uses for auto-tune in course 11, including what it is and basic terminology. You’ll also learn the commonly used controls and functionality, including input types, retune speed, vibrato, pitch correction reference, humanize, and more.