Pitch correction was once a taboo subject, vocalists hated to be tuned and the consumer hated artists who had been.
However, the technology has been around for some time now, having come to prominence in 1998 with Cher’s ‘Believe’.
The vocal effect used on this song, which uses a piece of software called autotune to dramatically alter the pitch of the vocals, is sometimes known colloquially as ‘the Cher effect’.
Each of the DAWs that support the Music Production course have their own brand names for their respective pitch correction functions, which are as follows:
This is a very extreme use of pitch correction and it’s quite possible to use the technique and still make the performance sound natural. While the processing can still be heard, today’s consumer is so used to the sound it makes that on the whole they are happy to accept it as the norm.
Some still believe that the invention of autotune has diminished the quality of music available today as it’s enabled those with lesser vocal talents to have careers that they would otherwise not have access to. Others see this as progression of technology, and the use of the software is a performance in itself.
There are several pitch correction plugins available such as Antares Autotune, Melodyne, Revoice Pro and Waves Tune, all of which will be paid upgrades. However, your DAW may have some pitch correction software installed as standard, so it’s worth taking a look through your plugins and experimenting with advanced editing functions such as elastic pitch.
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