Auto-Tune

Auto-tune is the name of a software tool (usually provided as a sound-editing software plug-in) that changes the pitch of a voice to sound more melodic and on key. The general term for changing a pitch in this manner is pitch correction, while Auto-Tune is the name of a specific software product. It is used often in current popular and hip-hop music. One of the first uses was by Cher in her song "Believe." Many artists jumped on the Auto-Tune bandwagon after that; some using Auto-Tune to correct unintentionally off-key vocals, as it was before Cher in 1998, while others used it for a techno effect, like Cher did. In 2005, a rapper named T-Pain came on to the scene, using Auto-Tune for almost everything. Artists like Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, Shmoyoho (on YouTube), and even YouTube amateurs like TheAutoTuneKing77 and AsianGlow. Shmoyoho and other remixers were known for taking every-day sounds, like cats meowing, babies crying, and common media like Winston Churchill speeches, and turning them into songs. In 2009, famous rapper Jay-Z did a song called Death Of Autotune, calling Auto-Tune a gimmick. People ended up making Auto-Tune remixes of that, and just thought of Jay-Z's song as a satire on Auto-Tune.

See also

Vocoder, for an older way of making a sound very similar to Auto-Tune