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Top Ten Singers that Use Autotune but Can Sing Without It The Top Ten Singers that Use Autotune but Can Sing Without It 1 T-Pain Faheem Rashad Najm, better known by his stage name T-Pain, is an American recording artist and music producer from Tallahassee, Florida.
- May 26, 2015 Cher's 1998 hit 'Believe' debuted the use of a technology called 'Auto-Tune', a pitch correcting software that has since changed the music industry. Cher's 1998 hit 'Believe' debuted the use of a.
- Spring 1997: Antares releases Auto-Tune 1.0. It works by correcting the pitch of a vocal based on the key of the song. Summer 1998: Cher producers Mark Taylor and Brian Rawling discover that if you sing in a different key or dial the settings extremely aggressively.
When Auto-tune was released back in 1998, it was surprisingly well-received. Cher’s “Believe” was considered the first pop song to usher in the software of Auto-Tune. It received a Grammy for Best Dance Recording and appropriately marks the turn of the century within the music world. It set the precedent for what early 2000’s music would become. Auto-tune as well as other forms of voice alteration, have since become a mainstay in the music industry and has been found in even the more peculiar areas of the music community. Indie rock and rap. But before delving into its popularity, you have to consider its precursors.
The first instances of voice alteration date back to 1928, when Homer Dudley, an electroacoustic engineer at Bell Labs, began to develop the vocoder. The tool was made to alter voice pitch and frequency and to be used as a speech coder for US war efforts. Though arbitrary at the time, the end product was sufficient enough to be used during World War II.
Now the history of vocoders use in music is extensive and difficult to tackle outright. In the 50’s, a German scientist, Werner Meyer-Eppler, wrote a thesis on voice synthesis and began looking into electronic music as a whole. Around this time, electronic music innovator and founder of Moog Music, Robert Moog, began to make headlines as well. Moog’s innovative process to electronic music was paramount to the development of realistically all facets of electronic music today.
Moog began by creating theremins, an electronic instrument that is played without actual touch, then slowly ventured into the world of synthesizers. It wasn’t until 1968 that Moog developed the first musical vocoder. Through more development and fine tuning, the vocoder would basically receive a vocalist’s voice through a mic, then would be processed through the keys on a synthesizer. Essentially, one was able to use their own voice as a tangible instrument.
The invention, along with the advent of analog synthesizers, was immediately popular in the seventies and eighties. Styx’s “Mr. Roboto”, Phil Collins’ in “In the Air Tonight”, Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga”, these hits were widely popular and shows the swift and insurmountable impact the vocoder had once it became mainstream.
One of the keystones to early vocoder work is Kraftwerk’s 1974 album AutoBahn. Kraftwerk is groundbreaking in their own right and detailed the immense possibilities that synthesizers, and vocoders, had to offer. They showcase this in the opening title track, a twenty-two minute saga of synth use, as a staple in early synth work. Coincidentally, this is the first track the band ever uses vocals on. Kraftwerk’s lead singer, Ralf Hütter, implements the use of the vocoder through the song’s chorus, singing “Wir fahren, fahren, fahren, auf der Autobahn” or “We drive, drive, drive, on the Autobahn”. There is something about this album that is so wonderfully seventies, between the depiction of actual enjoyment of driving on the highway or Kraftwerk’s implementation of retro-futuristic ideas.
The vocoder since has evolved, as instrumentalists and innovators have given new means to alter one’s voice. It wasn’t until the seventies however, that we would begin to see the beginnings of modern day auto-tune. Antares Audio Technologies is the company responsible for today’s auto-tune and was created by Dr. Andy Hildebrand, an electrical engineer. Hildebrand got his degree from the University of Illinois in 1976 with a Ph. D. in electrical engineering and subsequently held a job at Exxon, working with “seismic processing research”. His bio from the Antares website reads “Andy and John (Hildebrand’s partner at Exxon) left Exxon about 1979 to start a geophysical consulting company named Cyberan.” The duo went on to create programs that would further seismic data analysis. Utilizing soundwaves and audio, Hildebrand was able to search for oil. Hildebrand combined the use of geographic sciences and audio engineering to determine the depths of oil while recording data pertinent to oil companies. Hildebrand furthered this work into Landmark Graphics Corporation, where he and his colleagues continued seismic processing.
Hildebrand left the company in 1989 and went on to pursue a music composition degree at the illustrious Shepard School of Music at Rice University. In 1990, Hildebrand formed Jupiter Systems, which would later be known as Antares Audio, in order to provide a platform for his computer software. He then went on to create his first form of Pro Tools plug-ins, such as the Multiband Dynamics Tool and the Jupiter Voice Processor, both of which would evolve into Auto-Tune in 1997.
But now to discern the differences between vocoders, auto-tune, and talk boxes.
Auto-tune works simply as a pitch modifier, as this was its original intent. Vocalists who sing off-key can be corrected as auto-tune adjusts the singer’s vocals to the nearest pitch. Whether done live, or in studio, auto-tune is everywhere. Vocoders are more of an actual effect rather than a tool. With the vocoder, an input is put through a multi-band EQ, where it is then processed through various alterations the creator chooses. The Talk box on the other hand works similarly to a vocoder but uses a slightly different process. Notable from Peter Frampton’s popularization of the effect, talk boxes feature a small plastic tube that the vocalist speaks into. The talk box has its own speaker. Essentially, one runs their instrument through the talk box, which then amplifies out of your mouth and through a traditional mic. Your mouth acts as an amplifier in a sense.
The talk box has its own vast place in popular music history. It has since though taken a new shape in electropop and dancepop. See Chromeo and their song “Fall Back 2U” or French electronic house group Daft Punk and their hit “Robot Rock”. Both groups utilize the talk box to intensify their disco vibes and head bobbing dance grooves, separate from some of the more traditional classic rock uses of the talk box.
Which leads us to the present music industry and the immensely intuitive and groundbreaking ways artists are using the softwares and effects now.
Enter Justin Vernon, frontman and creator of indie rock stalwart Bon Iver. With his debut album For Emma, Forever Ago in 2008, Vernon showcased his ability to create atmospheric textures with limited computer use. On the opening track, “Flume”, Vernon simply uses backing guitar tracks and slight ambient noises to accompany his vocals. Vernon carries out this idea through much of the album as his acoustic guitar tracks with subtle dissonances and forlorn chords backtrack his vocals. Vernon almost implements vocoder-like abilities without the actual effect. In his debut album and follow-up self-titled album, Vernon records his vocal tracks over one another, creating a chorus of overlaying octaves and voices. His approach at singing is almost angelic at times. Vernon also implements reverb into his many voices, adding to the overall sound. Impassioned, Vernon is one of the greatest of today’s age at replicating his emotion into song. It’s as if there is no translation loss from thought to music, a direct connection of creation.
Vernon debuted an EP in 2009 titled Blood Bank. The first three tracks were reminiscent of the previous characteristics from his debut album while they still implored a similar charm. However, the final song on the album is what Bon Iver fans hype about most, “Woods”. “Woods” is rudimentary, singular, and basic in all the right ways. The song itself begins with a single auto-tuned vocal track. A four-line phrase is developed over and over again, each repetition bringing a new voice and adding to the overall texture. The result is an overwhelming cacophony of thickly layered vocals and a chorus of robotic, yet fervent music.
The track serves as a cornerstone of Justin Vernon’s increasing popularity and single-handedly ushers him within the contention of modern creative success. This garnered lots of attention for Vernon, particularly by the hip hop and R&B community. Rapper and hip hop artists alike were struck by the resounding beauty of Vernon’s vocals and began to collaborate with him on tracks. Most notably of these was rap genius Kanye West. West is infamous for his use of voice alteration and has extensively added modulation and distortion to many of his tracks.
On West’s 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Vernon appears on “Monster” and “Lost In The World”. “Monster” features a more aggressive Vernon while “Lost In The World” samples his “Woods” as he also supplies various “ohs” throughout the background.
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Kanye continued to collaborate with Vernon in his 2013 album Yeezus. Vernon supplied the choruses to “Hold My Liquor” and “I’m In It”. Kanye has a knack for extending vocals into beats and other unique ways, and when mixed with Vernon’s genuine tones, ingenuity ensued.
After his early work with Kanye, Vernon found himself immersed in hip hop.
Another artist often mentioned with Justin Vernon collaborations is Francis Farewell Starlite, a producer and vocalist for Francis and the Lights. Starlite invited Vernon to sing “Friends” on the album Farewell, Starlite. What emerged was a wonderful track that implemented synth-pop tones and arching Vernon vocal lines; an uplifting vibe. Starlite and Vernon soon find themselves on Chance the Rapper’s similar rendition to the song, titled “Summer Friends”. Chance raps over Vernon’s vocals and creates a balanced sound of harmony and rhythm.
Vernon can be found on Travis Scott’s “Naked” and P.O.S.’s “How We Land” to name a few more and even produced Vince Staples’ “Crabs In The Bucket”, the opening track to Staples’ latest album Big Fish Theory.
Now Vernon’s initial project with Francis and the Lights is immensely important to Vernon’s later work. Used on “Friends” is a program similar to a vocoder titled a “Prismizer”, something Starlite dreamed up. Starlite was able to take Vernon’s vocals, post-production, and add choral harmonies to his voice. Whereas both vocoders and the Prismizer take vocals and layer them with textures, the Prismizer separates itself by its unique choral-like characteristics. With the vocoder, artists sing their pitch then add voices through keys on a synthesizer or through a computer, altering pitch and frequency.
The Prismizier doesn’t always have to sound robotic though. You can hear it used nicely on Chances’ track “How Great” where clean vocals are favored. Popular R&B crooner Frank Ocean also utilizes various forms of vocoders. You can hear it often, in songs such as “Provider”, “Chanel”, and even more heavily in “Nikes”.
Bon Iver received two Grammys back in 2012 for their success on their second studio album, Bon Iver, and has since furthered the indie music scene to new territories. Justin Vernon’s vocals were more polished and better produced and had an almost ten-piece band to back him up. Horns, percussion, two drum kits, multiple guitarists, this period of Bon Iver saw immense success. It wasn’t soon after however that Vernon would take time off with the band, citing he was “winding down” due to the stress brought on with the newfound publicity and the rigorousness of tours.
Bon Iver crept back onto the scene the September of 2016 to produce 22, A Million. A succinct 34-minute, 10-song album, 22, A Million captures Vernon and all of his creative talents. His third studio album is a step away from past projects. 22, A Million, features extensive use of synthesizers and voice alteration all while keeping that signature Bon Iver sound. Vernon, impacted from his work with Starlite, implements the Prismizer heavily throughout the album and can be heard as soon as the opening track. “22 (Over Soon)' sets the precedent for the rest of the album. You here the twang of his usual guitar accompaniment with sparse piano licks, gracing sax lines, and even a taste of sampling. What Bon Iver was able to do with the vocoder for this album however is something truly different. Vernon envelopes himself in this new identity.
On the ensuing track “10 Deathbreast” Vernon sets his vocals to a heavy, distorted drum beat. Vernon even alters the tone of his vocoder halfway through phrases, making his voice sporadic yet seemingly purposely place. The next track, “715 Creeks” may be Vernon’s most real. He invokes a melody that is reminiscent of a song Vernon did with James Blake title “Fall Creek Boys Choir”. The song consists of nothing but Vernon’s vocals, supplemented with heavy vocoder. Vernon carries through some phrases with larger, bigger dynamics and others with a whisper. The sense of longing, love loss, traversed masterfully through the tune.
Vernon follows with “33 “God””. This piece seems like Vernon’s getting up after a knockout. Slowed and sluggish at first, Vernon is reflective through a repeated piano progression and accentuated synth-like string sounds in the background. Heavy synthesized bass line and upbeat drums ensues and the song becomes one of the most grooving on the album. Shouts and ambient percussive sounds provide the piece with extra clamor.
The following track is a calmer break from the explosiveness that is the first half of the album. “29 #Stafford APTS” showcases continued strumming guitar. Vernon uses less vocoder through the verse and has Bon Iver drummer Sean Carey accompany with vocals. At times, the duo uses vocoders to create robotic vocal tones, a segue from the extended vocal harmonies.
Bon Iver is great at affectively adding bass lines to hits within the music. The appropriate placement of the bass figures impacts the songs in a powerful way and can be seen on “666 ʇ”. The seventh track on the album, and arguably most experimental, is a three-minute ambient soundscape. Though it lulls through the first two-minutes, the piece erupts into a chorus of sounds until a saxophone, laden with a vocoder, closes out the song, with a sporadic couple of lines.
“8 (circle)”, coincidentally the eighth track on the album, draws upon the spacious synth and sax accompaniment from “Beth/Rest” on the self-titled album. Through the next song, “____45_____” a saxophone is put through a vocoder, similar to some of the previous tracks, but is significantly more melodic and backtracks Vernon’s swooning chorus of “I been caught in fire”. A solo bajo line fades out as the song ends.
The album ends with “00000 Million”, and a fitting end to such music. The song doesn’t separate itself by instrumentation but places emphasize on vocals and lyrics and even features one of the few vocal lines that does not utilize a vocoder.
Justin Vernon and Bon Iver are epistemic of intuition and artistic integrity, though no one in the indie industry is pushing the acceptance of vocal alteration quite like indie and electropop artist The Japanese House.
The Japanese House is the brainchild of Buckinghamshire native Amber Bain and utilizes vocoders as an accentuation of her voice. Although just a few years since their inception, The Japanese House is widely known for its vocoder use and continues to use rolling guitar licks and almost aqueous-like sounds to accompany their subdued lyrics.
In her debut EP Pools To Bathe In, Bain has just four tracks to get across her emotional grief and sentiment while also displaying her musical epistemology: synth-heavy verses, occasional clap tracks and most importantly, consistent use of a vocoder. Bain embraced her use of vocal alteration early on in her career and has continued its use since. Take the title track of her debut EP. The verse is filled with heavy vocals, but upon the arrival of the chorus, the song turns atmospheric as Bain relies on expansive synth and almost inaudible lyrics. “Still” on the same EP, is one of her most powerful tracks as she discusses topics of self-doubt, vagueness within relationship issues and impending dread of breakups, all while Bain’s extensive vocals emphasize the lonesome of her song.
The Japanese House is one the most prominent examples of utilizing vocoders as a creative decision. Occasionally, Bain uses these effects to emphasize her voice such as in the songs “Saw You In A Dream” or “Face Like Thunder”. Here, her voice is like glass, glossing over lyrics that tend to have an upbeat feel to them, compared to when her use of a vocoder totally encompasses her tone like in “Still” or “Clean”. For Bain, it seems that the more somber the track, the thicker her voice becomes.
Her EP was a microcosm of what her later work would become, each new release a succinct four-track EP that details loss and passion. With just four EPs to date, Bain’s portfolio is brief but showcases a truly incredible way of when vocoders are used at their fullest potential.
Thick vocoder use can also be heard in the haunting tunes “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap, “Hymn of Acxiom” by Vienna Teng, “woah” by Eden Project, and even Coldplay’s “Midnight”, as well as artists James Blake and Connor Youngblood who use it in more subtle ways.
As for the rap and hip hop world in general, there is no doubting voice alterations significant impact. As previously stated, Kanye is a large proponent of altering voice to gain specific effects. Moreover, Kanye favors using the human voice and all its components. Take “Two Words” on Graduation Day, where he recruits The Boys Choir of Harlem or “Jesus Walks” on the same album where West literally uses a choir to create rhythms and bass lines or even “Hey Mama” on Late Registration. A video by Vox on Youtube goes into this concept deeply, as Vox details the ways Kanye crafts vocals into unique way on these tracks.
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Though heard sparingly in his first three albums, such as in Kanye’s rendition of Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (which Kanye simply dubbed “Stronger”), auto-tune is used. Though it’s evident that Daft Punk’s hardy synth backdrop is the primary reason why voice modulation, its clear that Kanye would soon use the tool lengthily. Graduation is exemplative of West’s earlier uses of auto-tune, such as on the T-Paine featured “Good Life”.
When West released his fourth studio album 808s and Heartbreaks, he had already established himself as an innovator within the music industry, on this album particularly though, West draws upon the increasingly popular use of auto-tune and adjusts it to a very “Kanye-esque” sound. On “Love Lockdown” and “Heartless” you hear the new distorted take on Kanye’s voice that he seemingly so fondly used. He uses it to almost detail a certain emotion. The distortion becomes a new voice, a new feeling. A clean auto-tune is used on almost every song, while Kanye occasionally implements alterations to his voice. Whether it be distortion, overlaying, or a combination of the two, Kanye’s take on voice modulation is surely distinct.
It wasn’t till My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy that you hear West become more liberal with the auto-tune. Besides the tracks with Vernon as previously stated, Kanye uses throughout. Even on the opening track “Dark Fantasy”, you can hear voice alteration subtly in the background through the intro. Or take the more aggressive use of its possibilities on “Power”. Kanye’s use of the software is entirely too lengthy to detail in whole but it’s important to know that through the backlash that he, and many others who also use auto-tune, receive, he keeps on pushing the programs possibilities. Kanye’s not a great singer. If his voice sounds on pitch, that’s merely a biproduct of the creative decision to use voice alteration in the first place.
When Kanye released Yeezus it was also around the time that Kanye’s private and public life began to merge. The succession of Kanye’s albums is fascinating to witness when juxtaposed with what he he was going through with the media and such. Thus Yeezus, is, and was, wonderfully weird. Whether on “Black Skinhead” or “Hold My Liquor” West uses his darker, distorted use of voices to eventually end the album with an upbeat “Bound 2” that allows Kanye to say “all is good”.
At this point in Kanye’s career it seems he could release anything and fans would enjoy it, which is probably not too far from the truth. The Life Of Pablo released February 2016, and opens with a more mature Kanye. It features an evident use of auto-tune and a wonderful feature of Chance the Rapper later in the song. Kanye, essentially, is all over the place on this album.
Auto-tune and vocoders can be heard through many of raps foundational artists such as on 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s “California Love”, which utilizes auto-tune for a catchy hook. Also on Snoop Dogg’s “Sexual Eruption” and Outkast’s “Synthesizer”, which features funk hero Geroge Clinton. It is even heard more subtly like in Rihanna’s 2008 hit “Disturbia” and Kesha’s 2010 pop hit “Tik Tok”.
The use of vocoders, and more particularly auto-tune, is a widely known practice. Thus, topics are impossible to discuss without the acknowledgement of T-Pain.
There is one name that is almost entirely synonymous with Auto-tune, and that is T-Pain. T-Pain released his first studio album Rappa Ternt Sanga in 2005 and featured infamous hits “I’m Sprung” and “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)”. Rappa Ternt Sanga peaked at 33rd on the Billboard 200 in 2005. Since, T-Pain has graced listeners with banger after banger. Whether his own songs, or just featuring on others’, T-Pain had a knack for producing top hits during the latter 2000’s.
By 2008, T-Pain had released his third studio album THR33 RINGZ, cementing himself as a R&B and hip hop mainstay. The album featured the widely popular “Can’t Believe It” with Lil Wayne. This song combed two of rap’s most prominent rappers and vocalists and represented T-Pain’s peak. The song peaked at seventh on the charts and marked the second time T-Pain worked with Lil Wayne.
The surrounding success from THR33 RINGZ, and past albums paved the way for T-Pain to even have his own app. The “I am T-Pain” allowed for fans to create quick snippets of voice recordings and videos with their voices being processed through auto-tune, furthermore increasing the association between the vocal effect and the singer.
After THR33 RINGZ success, T-Pain’s luster wore off. His 2011 album rEVOLVEr didn’t receive nearly the same amount of recognition as his past music. It did well, with songs like “5 O’Clock” and “Best Love Song”, but T-Pain seemed in uncharted territory. It seems T-Pain had attempted to change his sound, and rightfully so, but it stuck too close to the usual and norm of 2011 pop. It wasn’t outlandish or rashly sexual as his older music, which very well could have been on purpose. You hear a gentler, more mature T-Pain.
And so many fans have the idea that T-Pain is just a pawn of not just auto-tune, but restricting himself to naughty pop hits. He’s albums can often can so much more. Of course, his features on “Low” and his collab with Jamie Foxx’s “Blame It” are classics, instant drink bangers, but T-Pain actually does a wonderful job at combining standard R&B rhythms with impassioned, auto-tuned voice.
rEVOLVEr was his last album he released, but T-Pain still collaborates and remains active. In 2014, T-Pain performed on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series on YouTube. Garnering over 11 million views, the video inspired T-Pain to pursue a short acoustic concert. The auto-tune king is taking a break from his signature sound.
Thanks to rap artists such as Migos, Travis Scott, and Future, auto-tune will live on through many different facets. Though hardly up and coming, these rappers represent the future of rap and that auto-tune will remain a favored tool in the genre.
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On Travis Scott’s “90210”, you hear an almost Kanye-like way on his use of auto-tune. Scott’s voice is noticeably more synthesized and joined with a bit more bass in the vocals themselves. The song makes for a mildly upbeat tempo. Scott’s voice loses the synth sound later in the song and reverts to his usual use of auto-tune, while piano, congas, and a distorted voice supply the driving energy for the piece.
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You can hear lots of uses of auto-tune through Future’s albums HNDRXX, Future, among others. Particularly on a song like “Rent Money”, Future’s use of auto-tune sometimes seems more functional rather than featural. Future first hit the scene with his 2012 album Astronaut Status, and though his aesthetic seemed geared toward space-like feels, it hasn’t always been evident in the music. Nonetheless, like many artists, Future’s sound and individuality is inseparable from auto-tune.
It seems that voice alteration founds its way into rap and indie rock due to a few shared characteristics. One, both genres are inherently passionate. This is not to say that other forms of arts do render such passion, but there is something about both rap and indie rock that is so raw, pure, and idiomatic. Their art is unapologetic and unabashed. Opinions thrown out.
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Secondly, the genres carry the same weight in importance of the voice. The voice is at the root of all tonal music and is the most important instrument within it. Traditional instrumentalists put in vast amounts of time to play as natural and clean as the human voice. It is what they aim for. And when the goal is human voice, what is more charismatic than altering the voice to accentuate itself?