WEBVTT - Auto-Tune the TechStuff 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.920 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology with 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.880 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone, 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.160 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Poulette, and 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:21.919 I am the tech editor here at how stuff works 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:24.840 dot com. And sitting across from me, as he always does, 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:28.159 is senior writer Jonathan Strickland. And I would like to 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:31.880 rock and roll all night and party every day. Well, 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.760 and you can, thank you. Let's start off with a 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:45.760 little listener mail. This little listener mail comes from Charlie. Hey, Charlie, 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:50.080 sorry at a little unicorn moment there, says okay, you 0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:53.680 haven't seen that video? All right, Charlie the unicorn. We're 0:00:53.680 --> 0:00:57.240 watching it after this episode. Hi guys, I'm a big 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.880 fan and longtime listener. I've been noticing a lot of 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.520 positions have been using something known as auto tune more 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.440 prominently than ever lately. How does this work? Is this 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:09.600 a new technology? Keep up the great work, Charlie, so um. 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:11.840 Auto tune has been around for a while, as it 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:16.119 turns out, and another podcast covered this briefly, and it 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:19.720 wasn't high speed stuff. Although they do talk about autos 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:21.880 and tuning. It was stuff from the B Sides, which 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.080 had an episode about auto tuning, but we were going 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.920 to cover it as well. So auto tuning is also 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:31.200 known as pitch correction. Yes, it's when it's it's being 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.759 able to do digitally nudge a person's voice. So it's 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:38.559 closer to being on pitch um Now in the good 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:40.440 old days, and by the good old days, I mean 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:45.800 the old in the old days, what you would do 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.840 is you get a group of musicians in the studio 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.320 and you would start recording tracks, and whenever the lead 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.600 vocalist would uh would flub a note, you would just 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.160 make a mark of that and you would do another take, 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:01.480 and you do another take, and you do another take, 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:03.400 and even for the ones that sounded good all the 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.280 way through, you would do extra takes and then you 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:11.040 would cobble together the best sounding song from those multiple 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:16.160 takes using actual editing UH procedures. Yes um. Speaking as 0:02:16.160 --> 0:02:19.040 someone who's gone through this process, I can tell you 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:21.880 it's not not nearly as much fun as it sounds, 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:23.560 and it doesn't really sound like all that much fun. 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:27.320 And before digital techniques, we're talking about things like splicing 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.160 sections of tape together with you know, a razor blade 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.280 and and you know, splicing material, trying to get it 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:37.400 so that you have one long, continuous take that is 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.720 in tune right, and you have to be very careful 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.680 to make sure it's all matched up just right so 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.520 that you can't detect the break beaus taking pains, taking work, 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:49.400 and before that, you're pretty much just stuck with whatever 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.600 you got ding. Like if if if you were recording, 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.360 especially on something like say, I don't know a wax cylinder, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.640 it didn't matter if you flubbed it. That was how 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.560 that was gonna go out, warts and all all. But 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.359 But as as we began to get better at editing music, 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.600 are standards started to go up, and we began to 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.120 refuse to listen to music that seemed to have uh 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.480 some flaws, and that we the fewer the flaws, the 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:18.080 better in our opinion. Uh, in general, there's still people 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.880 out there who prefer the more genuine music, if you 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.960 want to call it that. I'm not going to get 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.480 into that argument, because, uh, there are those people who 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:28.760 love the super produced stuff, and they're the people who 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:30.600 love the strip down stuff. And I don't think anyone 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:34.200 is wrong. Um, and you know, it's all a matter 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.480 of personal opinion at any rate, So editing that was 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.160 the only way you could really get rid of a 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:44.960 flubbed note. But then a fellow by the name of 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.920 Harold Hildebrand, better known as Andy to his buddies, came 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:54.760 up with a special kind of software. It's this is 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:58.760 believe it or not, the oil industry's contribution to music. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.000 That is not the joke. It really is. Mr Hildebrand, 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.280 as it turns out, before he got into the world 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.800 of making musicians sound better than they really do, was 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:16.880 a geophysicist. He created seismic data processing software, and this 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.920 was a software that would sort of measure the the 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.840 the seismic vibrations for oil companies to kind of get 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.760 an idea of where the best oil deposits were, whether 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:28.800 or not that were any oil deposits, that kind of thing, 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:33.080 because it's it's called auto correlation. Basically, once this sound 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.320 goes into the ground, the reflections based on the material 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.480 uh that is made up and you know, in the 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.800 area that they're using the the sound give them an 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.640 idea of what the composition of of the earth is 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.960 underneath their feet essentially and can tell them where pockets 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.320 of oil are stored, so it gives them a good 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.360 idea of where to to drill. And he uh Andy 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:57.760 Hildebrand made a lot of money, a whole lot of money, 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:00.800 retired at forty Yeah and clear. Really the next step 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:03.320 for anyone who creates that kind of software is finding 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.719 a way to get people to sing better. Well, the 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:09.760 way I heard it, a friend challenged him, said, okay, fine, 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.960 you're so smart, you're looking for something to do. Why 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.840 didn't you fix it so I can sing better? And 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.680 so he did. Yeah. So this is using a method 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:24.839 called digital signal processing. And the idea here is that 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:29.320 every sound that you hear is is really due to 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:34.640 vibrations everything. Yes, every sound is something vibrating against something else, 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:38.000 and then eventually it becomes air molecules vibrating against one another, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.279 and then the vibrations hit your ear and uh, and 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.200 your brain manages to uh to translate this into sound 0:05:46.120 --> 0:05:51.320 what we perceive as sound. So uh, the the notes 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:57.040 that we hear are vibrations at particular frequencies, and in general, 0:05:57.080 --> 0:05:59.280 the higher the frequency, actually not in general, the higher 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.680 the frequency, the higher the sound, the pitch and the 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.760 sound right, so um, let's see if I can find 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.680 then the information I actually wrote down what the different 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.760 divisions were. I think four hundred and forty vibrations per 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.159 second is an A note. That is correct, So that's 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.880 your basic A. So you're basically is four vibrations per second. 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.800 And I'm I'm sitting here with a musician, so I 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.760 expect you to correct me whenever and I get things wrong. Well, 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.560 I had a tuning fork, but I had forgotten we 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:28.080 were doing this today, so I left her to have them. 0:06:28.080 --> 0:06:31.359 Oh that's a shame that would have been coming. Alright, 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.680 So four and forty isn't a and then you can 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.159 if you increase that the vibrations per second, you then 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:43.000 the notes go up. And uh so I actually, let's 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.159 say four vibrations per second would be a B note. 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.680 Five and eighty seven vibrations per second or thereabouts would 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:57.320 be a C note, which is not Shaving and haircut, 0:06:57.440 --> 0:07:03.200 all right, So that's about these days. Never mind, I 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:04.839 can't tell I was about to out one of our 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.240 one of our coworkers who did recently spend more than 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:10.000 a hundred dollars on a haircut. But I will not 0:07:10.080 --> 0:07:15.360 do that because this person will kill me anyway at 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.200 any rate. So, yes, the vibrations determine what the note is. 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.200 And so let's say that you're trying to sing an 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:24.160 a note. Now, if you're trying to sing an a note, 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.760 what's happening is your vocal cords are vibrating to generate 0:07:27.840 --> 0:07:32.280 this and that's what's generating the sound. Right. So uh, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.440 most of us are not capable of holding an a 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:39.800 note perfectly, um, for any extended time. I mean we're 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.520 gonna are are It's going to wander a little bit. Yes, 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:45.480 I I tend to Uh, I tend to sing a 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.080 little sharp, to be honest, Yeah, I tend. I tend 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.760 to sing in a different key, but at any rate, 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.760 so uh, or sometimes my wife prefers it if I 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:59.120 sing in a different state. Um. But the so if 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.320 you if you visual is each note with a line 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:03.640 going to the right. So let's say you know you 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.040 have a B C yeah, and you have the lines 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.320 to the right, uh, and you think of the person singing, 0:08:11.680 --> 0:08:13.560 it tends to look kind of like a sign wave. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:16.040 I mean, it usually tends to hover around the note, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:18.000 unless the person is a terrible singer, in which case 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:19.800 it may not be anywhere close to the note they're 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.160 supposed to be singing generally, if you can never mind. Yeah, 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:24.960 I see, I see what you're see what I'm saying. 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:26.960 So let's say let's say I'm trying to sing an A, 0:08:27.200 --> 0:08:30.000 but I have terrible pitch and I'm tone deaf, and 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.720 I'm actually singing what is closer to a B. Well, 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:36.840 I would say, I would argue even that someone who 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.480 is a really good singer is going to waiver in 0:08:39.559 --> 0:08:44.000 pitch somewhat because the vibration of your vocal chords depends 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:47.079 a lot on how much air uh you're putting in, 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:50.200 and if you are running out of breath, yeah, it 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:53.320 tends to peter l your your attending. Yeah, the pitch 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:56.360 of your voice is going to change. So so, I mean, 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:58.360 even even the best singers are going to have this problem. 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:00.760 So what Hildebrand did was he decided to create some 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.520 software that could nudge this these these variations around a 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:08.080 note or sometimes you know, hitting the wrong note entirely 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.680 and put them where they're supposed to be, so kind 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:15.360 of smoothing out the peaks and valleys across the line 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.120 so to to make it a more a more consistent note, 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:21.800 or to even shift it up or down the scale 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.680 so that it hits the note it's supposed to be on. Now, 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.000 you can only do this a little bit within within 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.400 a couple of notes of where you're supposed to be 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:35.920 without its sounding artificial, right, And there's there's a lot 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.720 of other little factors in there, because the the auto 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.400 tune software gives you some control over how quickly the 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.120 pitch shifts up. But you can you can actually set 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.760 the range, uh the key that you're supposed to be 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:52.680 singing in, so it can it can. It has some 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:56.120 idea of what you're trying to do, so you can. 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.920 You can have an auto detect, like if if you 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:01.240 put on auto detect. Essentially, what the software does is 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.720 it assumes whatever note you're singing closest to is the 0:10:04.760 --> 0:10:07.679 note you wanted to sing. Yes, So if you are 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:11.880 at least a decent singer, the auto function of auto 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:14.680 tune should get you pretty much where you wanted to 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:16.480 be in the first place, even if you were, you know, 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.800 a little off. You can also do it manually, however, 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:22.480 so let's say that that someone has hit just you know, 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.680 just really misjudged it. They're singing the national anthem and 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.400 when they get to uh uh the Land, you know, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.400 the Land of the Free, and they hit that high note, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.200 it's just way off. Well, then you might need to 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.280 manually put it closer to the note it's supposed to 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.280 be on. So it doesn't sound terrible, right, it doesn't 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:45.880 work so well live, well it can not the manual. No, no, live, 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.480 it's auto. But now that that isn't that. One of 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.600 the things that impressed me about the auto tune software 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:52.439 is that it can be used live. It could be 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:54.679 used in real time. Now granted that's when it's using 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.200 the automatic feature, not the manual functure. As you were 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:01.840 pointing out, you are correct. Otherwise you would have like 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.480 the highest paid sound engineer on the planet, like rapidly 0:11:05.520 --> 0:11:11.040 switching the the pitch. So yeah, the software has this 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.240 very complex algorithm and it can it can. The cool 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:17.880 thing is it can it can adjust the pitch without 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:21.880 really affecting the tone of the voice. Now, this is 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:25.000 a lot different from the old way of changing the pitch, 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:28.600 which was just essentially playing it faster than you had before. 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:33.320 Are you're thinking like those three rodents of recent movie fame, 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:36.600 the Chipmunks. Yeah, alright, so we're going to give Liz 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:39.600 a little challenge here. We're going to we're going to 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.079 speak in our normal tone of voice, but we're going 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:49.640 to do so slowly so that Liz can speed it 0:11:49.960 --> 0:12:03.400 up later from or of voluble statter speaking there anyway, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.440 So by by speaking that up, Liz could could adjust 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.120 the pitch of our voices. But of course that means that, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:13.120 you know, the whole tone sounds different and it's going 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.280 much faster than before. The neat thing about auto tune 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.719 is it doesn't adjust the speed of the voice. It 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.160 doesn't really affect the tone that much, unless again, you're 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:25.400 trying to push it much further up or down the 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:29.120 scale than where it originally started. Um, so it makes 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:32.760 it sound more natural. Now, this method has been in 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:36.400 use for years to just kind of tweak notes here 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:38.160 and there. It wasn't really used as kind of an 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:43.000 artistic thing until more recently. Yes, Actually, I I'll never 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:47.280 forget the first time I heard Shares Believe and I thought, 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.480 could anyone make a more annoying song than that? It 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.480 turns out yes, because I had not heard peanut butter 0:12:54.640 --> 0:13:00.280 jelly time at that point. Peanut butter, yes. But uh, 0:13:00.800 --> 0:13:04.480 but but in in the case with Share, she actually 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.480 took a feature of the auto tune software that was 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.920 never really intended to be used as as a performance 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:15.040 thing and turned it into a performance And you remember 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.320 when you were talking about how you adjust the speed 0:13:17.440 --> 0:13:21.959 when the pitch changes, she essentially switched that to zero. Yes, 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.160 there's a there's a range that the software has between 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:27.240 zero and four hundred milliseconds, which is four tenths of 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:30.760 a second. Especially and uh, you have the option that 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.960 that's how long it takes for the pitch to shift 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.439 to what it thinks it's supposed to be right, And 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:38.520 and you may think, well, why would you want to 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.520 set that at four hundred? It makes it create a 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.120 more natural sound, because we you know, we don't tend 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.800 to sing notes perfect notes one right after the other, 0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.719 especially jumping around a lot, unless you're talking about like 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.440 uh an Aria by Mozart and which case, I mean, 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:58.120 those are amazing, but most of us can't sing those. 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.440 Most of us, when we sing, we tend to slide 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:03.760 a little bit from one note to the next. And 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:07.800 if you take that that sliding out, it suddenly sounds 0:14:08.000 --> 0:14:11.960 robotic and unnatural. But if your share and you're creating 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.880 this song. Believe that turns out to be the effect 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:16.400 you wanted to go for in the first place. So 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.080 you turned this thing that would normally be considered a 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.560 total a total mistake. You wouldn't want it to be 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:24.760 in there because you wouldn't want people to detect that 0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:28.760 you had electronically altered your voice and turn it into 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:31.880 a performance. And it ended up working out very well 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:33.640 for her and got a lot of radio play and 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:38.640 slowly made me go crazy. Yeah, and of course then 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:41.520 you had I wondered what did that now? Yeah, that 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.760 was definitely a contributing factor. I can't lay all the 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.040 blame and shares feet. No, but it's uh, but that 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.240 explains why her voice sounds like it is snapping from 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.160 pitch to pitch without any kind of any kind of 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:59.480 glas Sando without any kind of you know, break glas 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:05.320 Sando music theory coming in here, so you know. On 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:09.040 on the other hand, there are artists who have essentially 0:15:09.080 --> 0:15:11.200 made their living off of this. That would be you 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:15.760 know Pain Yes, who not only made several songs featuring 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:19.880 auto tune, but also the was the name behind the 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.720 iPhone feature that allows people to download the the app 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:29.480 The t paining app and and do live auto tuning 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:33.400 of their own voices, and he's unapologetic about about using 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:37.720 the software. Um, it's a performance, it's it's like any 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.400 other tool. Now. Now, some people even argue that anyone 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.520 using auto tune is cheating. Yeah, and that's that's what 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.040 some of the detractors say. But what he's doing with 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:51.840 it is on purpose, So it's you know, he's like, no, no, 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.280 this is my Yeah, I intended to do that. That 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.360 was the whole purpose of it, which I think that's 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.000 totally legitimate. I mean, it's just like taking a musical 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:01.760 instrument and playing in a way different than than the 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.400 way it was originally intended. That doesn't make it invalid. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.880 It just means that you're innovative. Right, So the same 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:11.359 thing I just like share, I think was truly innovative 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.640 with that the way she she used auto tune. I may, 0:16:14.760 --> 0:16:16.640 I may hate the song, but I can't argue with 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:19.080 the fact that it was innovative. I could have done without. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.640 The seven fifty or so songs that I've heard since 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:25.080 then that are all using auto tune in that way 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.080 is no longer innovative. It's just a different way of 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:30.800 performing and they think of it as cheating. Now, granted, 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:32.160 lots of artists have been using this, a lot of 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.720 producers have been using as It's very possible that some 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:36.880 artists don't even know it was used on their their 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.400 particular records. Um, they probably do, because suddenly they aren't 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.920 having to do a lot of uh retakes and overdubs. 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:48.120 They're doing, you know, one or two takes per song 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:51.440 and heading for home. And that's down on the amount 0:16:51.440 --> 0:16:53.800 of studio time that you need to spend, and you 0:16:53.840 --> 0:16:58.000 know that's expensive. And hilder Brand points out that auto 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.840 tune does not make you a singer. Um. Auto tune 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.520 can help correct pitch, it can help you be you 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.919 can help you sing on pitch, and it will help 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.600 help you sing the right notes. But if your vocal 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:14.240 tone is not a good pleasing vocal tone, such as mine, 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:17.640 what my my singing tone is pretty terrible. Um, even 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:20.359 with auto tune, my singing is not gonna be great. 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.960 It's just gonna be the right notes, which granted, is 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.160 an improvement, but it's not gonna be something you're gonna think, Hey, 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:30.359 this is who I want to be listening to on 0:17:30.480 --> 0:17:33.359 that five hour flight that I got coming up. Can 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:36.840 you can you auto tune karaoke? You could, you could 0:17:36.840 --> 0:17:39.520 do and yeah, why not? You could have a microphone 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:41.920 built in with the auto tune and you could you 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:46.280 could have it automatically auto tune your your your vocals. 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:50.280 That's got cheating, I mean considered cheating. Yeah, well I 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.840 don't considering some of the people I've heard sing karaoke, 0:17:53.080 --> 0:17:57.080 I be willing to entertain some cheating. And I know 0:17:57.200 --> 0:17:59.680 the people who have heard me sing karaoke would entertain 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.119 some eating. Um. And we were actually thinking at one 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.159 point of having Liz auto tune some of some of 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:09.639 us bits of bits of what we were doing here. Oh, 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:12.639 you know, it's funny. We I'm surprised we haven't mentioned 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.720 other phenomena that have used auto tune, not just in 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.040 the music industry, you mean, like auto tune the news. Yeah, 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.080 there's this great YouTube series where these guys have taken 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.680 news clips from you know, any like Usually it's about 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:29.480 a week long period, but they take they take big 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:32.080 news clips and then they put it through auto tune 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.399 and turned them into songs and they cut the news 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:39.200 clips up so that it makes it more Yeah, yeah, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.880 so that you get phrases and things, and sometimes they'll 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:44.840 have someone repeat something five or six times to make 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:48.359 it more like a song. They are absolutely hysterical videos. 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.240 There's also I've seen the auto tuning of the baby crying. 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:54.000 The baby's crying, but they put it through auto tune. 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:56.080 And here's the thing is that auto tune it is 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.680 a software suite that you can purchase. But um but 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.760 you can download a demo version and try it out 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.320 for a while on your computer. It's only gonna last 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.840 for a trial period, and then you are going to 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:10.320 be prompted to purchase it. And then of course there's 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:12.479 the app on the iPhone that you can get. Um, 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.560 so you can. That's that's considerably cheaper at yeah, yeah, 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:18.960 so but you can. You can play around with this 0:19:19.040 --> 0:19:22.960 stuff and uh and and kind of see, you know, 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.880 how how it is that the big names are able 0:19:25.960 --> 0:19:30.159 to get that really great produced sound on their tracks. 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.720 I would never have expected this to come from a 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:38.359 geologic technology. No. I I had real money on astrophysics, 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:45.760 but not geophysics. Maybe quantum physics. Maybe you know that's 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:50.600 that's funny because technically it's called pitch quantization. Yeah, I 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:53.639 I read through kind of now now, when when asked 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.640 exactly what sort of things go into his uh calculations, 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:02.240 Hildebrand said, and this is a direct quote out multiplications, additions, 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:05.119 and a few divisions, but designed by an extensive theoretical 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.520 foundation and digital signal processing, encompassing the physical principles of 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.679 sound production, physics of hearing, disciplines of modeling, filtering, linear 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.200 systems theory, estimation theory, numerical analysis, calculus, music theory, and 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:20.400 other disciplines pretty much including the pretty much, yeah, pretty much, 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:23.119 it's right there, it's right there. Yeah. No, that was 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:25.679 a direct quote that wasn't a frequently asked questions section. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.119 He he actually seems to be a sort of a 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:31.399 humorous kind of guy. He did, well, I mean you 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:35.680 have to after after and he specifically stated that he 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.400 had never intended anyone to use it in the way 0:20:38.480 --> 0:20:41.199 that t Pain and Share have used it and numerous 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.680 other people at this point, however, it was always meant 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:46.159 to be kind of a behind the scenes, you no 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:52.199 way of just just tweaking a track, rather than an outright, uh, 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:54.000 you know, the cat is out of the bag kind 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.600 of thing. I do think. Uh. This this has led 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.040 to the rise of music that is maybe just a 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:03.480 little bit too perfect for some people. So speaking of 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.960 the people who are remember how we were saying some 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.040 people really like low fi, some people really like hi fi. Right, 0:21:10.840 --> 0:21:14.040 I've had people say that song is just too perfect 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.240 for me. Well, they could always listen to me sing 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:22.480 and they'll be cured of that right away. Amen. Um, so, 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:26.800 do you have anything else to add for our discussion 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.399 on auto tuning? And not really? Um, it's just kind 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:32.600 of uh, it's kind of funny. It's pretty much baked 0:21:32.640 --> 0:21:35.359 into most studios at this point that that they have 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.680 it there, but um, you know, it's it's pretty ubiquitous 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:43.880 at this point, right. So, Um, here's where I'm gonna 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.359 throw it out there, and Liz, I'm gonna apologize to 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.240 you because you're gonna have to hear this unfiltered. In fact, 0:21:50.280 --> 0:21:52.520 if you want to play it unfiltered once and auto 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.840 tuned once just to let people know how horribly I sing, 0:21:56.680 --> 0:21:59.120 go for it, all right, guys. This song, by the way, 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.640 has been in the public domain for about five years, 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.359 so I don't want to hear anything from you. Guys. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.560 You know you should have warned me. I would you 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:12.560 like to step out of the room. Um, alas, my love, 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:19.439 you do me wrong to cast me off discourteously. Alas, 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:25.840 my love, you do me wrong to cast me off discourteously. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.400 There we go. That's all I'm gonna do. I don't 0:22:29.440 --> 0:22:31.960 want to hit you too hard. That's bad enough right there. 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:37.840 I could have done no never mind best copyright. So yeah, 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:40.359 that was written, by the way, by Henry the Eighth, 0:22:40.520 --> 0:22:43.200 by the grace of God, King of England and France, 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:48.960