by Carolco

auto-tune 24/7!

Image by A_minor
My Logic Pro/Auto-Tune Evo setup. We’re T-Painin’ all day, everyday in the studio!

You want to sing like T-Pain, Akon, or Kanye? Stop on by!

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Automatic tuning, or auto-tuning is used by singers to correct “mistakes” or wrong notes in a singers voice or even musical instruments when being recorded. When used properly, it can take a recording of a person’s voice who is not able to sing, and tune it so that it appears that they can actually sing. Not only can it be used to change notes, tune and pitch, it can be used to extend notes and distort the voice. Its use has been criticised by many people in the music industry. Lots of people think that auto tune is just used in rap for artists such as T-Pain and Lil Wayne but it is actually used across many music genres (sometimes you might not even notice it!) Other examples of famous people who have used auto-tuning are Britney Spears, Shania Twain, Akon, Cher, Tim McGraw, Kanye West, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Daft Punk and hundreds more.

Auto tuning can be really good for making a different sounding song, however songs that haven’t been auto tuned very well can sound terrible. It is also important to remember that although a very bad singer can be auto tuned to perfection after hours of careful work, it doesn’t always sound good, depending on the quality of the singer to begin with. If you have someone screeching down a mic making your ears bleed, there’s a slim chance you can edit the voice to sound good. A great example that comes to mind here is Katie Price!

Don’t be put off by the fact that auto-tuning appears to be hard because lots of famous singers use it, its not as hard as you’d think. One of the most commonly searched tutorials is how to sound like T-pain, and guess what? He doesn’t use a big fancy studio, he uses a MacBook Pro and Logic and sometimes, even Garage Band! So it is possible!

Ok, enough about everyone else, we are going to concentrate on you now. When you have your recording, whether it is vocal, instrumental or a combination of both, you need to find out the key of the song (if you don’t already know it) for effective use of auto tuning, otherwise it will sound bad and you don’t want that! (Quick note: Auto tune is called pitch correction in Logic. Just to avoid any future confusion!) When you have found out the key of the song, choose this as the key in Logic. To do this, it’s very simple; all you have to do is click on blank insert slot, click on pitch, then pitch correction and choose either stereo or mono. A box should then pop up. In the box, select the scale (minor and major are the most popular scales to use in pop songs). After that, choose the route note.

To get your voice sounding like T-Pain, turn up the response so that it is very fast. This will give a result of your voice going over multiple notes at once and making you sound like T-Pain. After that, take the pitch correction to the top of the signal chain, to do this, hold down command and drag it up. If it is after the reverb and echo, you may get some annoying popping noises, but that can easily be solved by dragging it in front of the reverb and echo.

You can also automate the auto tuning (choosing when it is on and off). To do this, select show automation, change from volume to pitch correction and then go to response. If you want to isolate a piece of your song and make it free from auto tuning, draw two dots on the time line and drag one up so that they make a vertical line. After that, click a third dot and drag the line back down to connect to the third dot.

Congratulations, you have now just auto tuned a song!

If you don’t find that the built in pitch correction in Logic works for you, or if you wanted to try something a little more advanced, you could always try the Antares plug in. This is available to use across most audio software (Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Garage Band etc.) There is a free demo available on their website which lasts for ten days so again, if the built in auto tune isn’t for you, then get the demo! Just Google “auto tune” and you will see the link!

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