Weird Al Yankovic Explains Auto-Tune (VIDEO)

Auto-tune, the oft-judged process that allows singers to perform with perfect pitch despite not being able to sing, has always been a little confusing. How did it go from a hidden process meant to hide the terrible voices of beautiful pop stars to a technique that blatantly distorts the voice for the sake of parody? You have questions, Weird Al has answers. The satiric singer explained the process and history for the Rocket Boom audience this week, and while he gives it due respect, one can tell these nouveau song parodies irk him.


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Comments

[JohnMcGurk]

Auto-tune and the recent heavy use of techno-synth melodies are vomit inducing. Almost as bad as those generic house beats that strictly use hi-hat and bass drums.
*unce* *unce* *unce* *unce*

[deepfreezevideo]

Weird Al is God

[mick7191]

He looks more and more like Tiny Tim every day.

[JoeBlough]

But in a good way.

[mick7191]

I like Weird Al. He is an American classic.

[Dave Pursley]

The tremendous overuse of auto-tune has made me appreciate greatly REAL vocal ability!

The instant I hear that annoying sound, I change the station.

[LMPE]

Auto-tune is another way for people to create a facade. Weird Al needs to write a song about it.

[Pem3]

One good thing about losing my hearing my ears are auto tuning things with out a computer program.

[MagicalPossibilities]

Because of AutoTune we have had to endure Britney Spears for WAYYYY too long.

[rzzza]

autotune is the worst thing to happen to singing in a long while. rappers use it so much now, it irritates me.

[fanifesu]

now explain your hair to me al.

[yellowdoggie]

Al IS the hair and the hair is Al.

[Elahrairah]

In Mother Russia Al's hair tunes you.

[kareemachan]

LOL to both replies!

[Tyler-Durden]

WOW! not only was this short bit funny, it was actually enlightening.

i did not know what the name of that effect was. i just called it the Cher effect, because that's where i first heard it, and discovered that i hate it.

since Cher's track, i've despised hearing that audio effect every time i've heard it. it's like electronic nails on a virtual blackboard.

it's worse than when vocalists sing, "No, no, no, yeah, yeah"; or, "Boogie-oo­gie-oogie"­; or, "Oh Mickey, you're so fine; you're so fine you blow my mind"

now i know the name of my nemesis. and it is auto-tune.

[Pem3]

I agree with you there I did not know what the annoying sound that was assaulting my ears now I do!!

[DRaymond]

Frankly I expected something more biting from Weird Al.

Actually if anything will kill the ridiculous use of autotune it may very well be the copyright law. What is these auto-tune videos except pirating the entire melodic line from a song? sure that's what Weird Al does too, but he always gets permission first.

[InstantDogma]

We now have several generations of crappy musicians to go along with our hideously adolescent culture.

[patrickmcdougal]

waaaawaaaaa!
Im old and I this music scares me!!!

[NoSillyName]

More like "disgust".

[Elahrairah]

Waaaawaaaa!

Im young and I dont know what music is, because all of the musicians my age sing so poorly they must use a program to blend and hide their horrible voices... but they sure are popular enough to sell records! What does talent matter?

[jsarets]

In college, I co-produced a full-length orchestral indie pop album composed of over 20 different instruments played by student musicians including myself (keyboards and bass).

Autotune is a fantastic tool if you use it responsibly. We barely touched the lead vocals, because autotuned vocals sound ridiculous. We also never applied autotune filters at the track level.

Instead, we pitch-corrected individual notes, preserving the attack and decay transients of the instruments as played, and we maintained a tolerance band for leaving well enough alone.

Piccolo, flute, and violin needed a fair bit of work. We dubbed the tracks in sessions rather than recording all the musicians together (some of whom played multiple instruments), and it's very difficult to play these instruments in tune under these conditions, even for professionals.

We also found that the multi-band compressor plugin is quite useful in reducing the need for autotune when certain flaws stick out in the mix.

Most commercial pop/rock uses synthesizers when strings or horns are employed. As I see it, real instruments are always better, even when they've had some work done in autotune.

[yorkriver1]

While there are pop music examples of the canned approach to music and stardom, promoted by striking videos, there are many more examples of young musicians with great talent, using their natural abilities, just as you have described.
I remember about the time I despaired of finding young talented musicians, when boy bands and pop tarts were seemingly the only new music, suddenly, it seemed that several bands and acoustic accompanied voalists came to my attention.
The creativity and talent are amazing.
We have more young people listening to opera and classical music now than when I was growing up in mid 20th century.
Music is not in trouble, but one must find examples of groups/singers that don't make videos. Except Weird Al! He is so funny and a great satirist, too.

[KingElvis]

Weird Al looks so old now. I guess that means I'm old too.

But seriously, there's a question of why you would even want to try to make it in entertainment if you can't actually sing.

I do a singing impressions act (Sinatra and other 'crooners') and it's just that ACTUAL singing is really the point. If I was just lip synching I wouldn't get any enjoyment out of it at all.

I understand that music (music BUSINESS that is) had become mostly about scanty clad babes doing sexy dances, but you've got to wonder - why do they even WANT to sing if it's such an afterthought to shakin' their stuff?

Ironically, the practice evokes drag queen acts, where they're expected to lip sync. In that sense we should just be watching drag queens if we were really honest about what sells or what we actually want to see.
It's like there's got to be something you get out of singing to make you want to do it for a living

[vorpalmusic]

I agree with your sentiments generally, but there are notable exceptions. Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen can not sing, and yet the music they make is widely respected (to put it mildly). There are also other bands where the singer cannot sing very well or has almost no range and the lyrics are also meaningless that I think is still amazing music. Mazzy Star immediately springs to mind.

[Furby2]

Neil Young can't sing either, but he can write.

[efmo]

I think if you listen to Bob Dylan when he was young, he could sing (you might not like his voice, but he could sing.) Now he sounds very different, maybe the smoking affect?

[NoSillyName]

Amazing music is what is most lacking with the Pop Tarts.

[Lulubelle1]

The Buggles were prescient.

Video really did kill the radio star.

[NoSillyName]

Yep, with the immense assistance of MTV. Without that forum, it wouldn't have become so pervasive.

[Pem3]

I remember stating up with my sister when that video appeared on Mtv who knew it would lead to this.

[max renn]

dj rupture's essay at frieze magazine, on the use of auto-tune outside the united states, is very interesting.

recommended reading particularly for people who think that the american music industry is the only one there is, as the producers at rocket boom clearly do.

http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/pitch_perfect/