X Factor Producers Charged with Using Auto Tune to Make Reality Stars Sound Better
X Factor producers have been charged with enhancing competitors ‘ vocals to make them sound better – but what’s “autotune” and how does it work? If you have ever removed red-eye from an image, or utilised a spell checker to fix an essay, then you know how PC software can… Well, “boost” your raw material. Autotune performs precisely the same function with music, by smoothing out flat or sharp notes to make vocalists pitch perfect. It’s really a brand – owned by Antares, a company based “a stone’s throw” from Silicon Valley in California – and there are a good deal of competing products that do a similar job.The show which has released lots of free music over the years is now being criticised for its approach.
All of them need the user to know what key they were ( meant to be ) singing in. The software then scans their vocals, finds any notes that do not stick to that scale and pulls them back to the “correct” pitch.
But even the planet’s best vocalists slide between notes – and if the autotune settings are too stern, they eliminate those interim notes, making a robotic, stepping-stone effect. In a number of cases, most particularly Cher’s Believe, the dials are purposely turned to eleven to make an other-worldly, tin man vocal. But autotune is usually much more refined.
