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  <episode_youtube_id>fYzv-AVi78E</episode_youtube_id>
  <icon_small>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/333/thumb/t-pain-716283.jpg?1244384249</icon_small>
  <episode_icon_tiny>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/episode_icons/333/tiny/know-your-meme-auto-tune.jpeg?1264726723</episode_icon_tiny>
  <episode_duration>5:53</episode_duration>
  <origin>Antares Audio Technologies</origin>
  <icon_square>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/333/square/t-pain-716283.jpg?1244384249</icon_square>
  <featured_at nil="true"></featured_at>
  <episode_thumbnail>http://www.rocketboom.net/images/know-your-meme-auto-tune.jpg</episode_thumbnail>
  <photos_count>2</photos_count>
  <created_at>2009-06-07T14:17:32Z</created_at>
  <canonical_url>http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/auto-tune</canonical_url>
  <status>confirmed</status>
  <links>
    <wikipedia>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune</wikipedia>
  </links>
  <flags>
  </flags>
  <episode_icon_large>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/episode_icons/333/large/know-your-meme-auto-tune.jpeg?1264726723</episode_icon_large>
  <title>Auto-Tune</title>
  <tags>autotune, vocal effect, youtube, pop culture, music, t-pain, jay-z, cher, celebrity, hiphop, newscast</tags>
  <comments_count>31</comments_count>
  <content>&lt;h2&gt;About the Software&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ETUJ4S?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=rocketboom-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B001ETUJ4S&quot;&gt;Auto-Tune&lt;/a&gt; is an automated pitch-correction and audio-processing software created by Antares Audio Technologies, introduced in 1997.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At first, Auto-Tune was primarily used as a subtle way to cover the mistakes of a vocalist off their game; smoothly sliding the pitch to the correct note.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Then, in 1998, &lt;a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5xsiKBJGW4&gt;Cher&amp;#8217;s single Believe&lt;/a&gt; came out. People had heard vocoders in the past, but this was different. Cher&amp;#8217;s voice snapped from one pitch to the next, as if her vocal chords had been quantized, causing people to ask, &amp;#8220;What&amp;#8217;s that effect?&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was Auto-Tune, used excessively, to distort the tonal features of the voice.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Auto-Tune Spreads Online&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With &lt;a href=https://transactions.antarestech.com/secure/WebStore.aspx&gt;the expense of the Antares Auto-Tune plugin&lt;/a&gt; and the relative lack of social networking sites at the time, Auto-Tune remained something of a trade secret among many record producers who simply wanted to save time in the studio.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But as social communities, user-generated content, video tutorials, and open-source software development proliferated online in recent years, so did the availabilty, usage, and experimentation of Auto-Tune.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In 2005, rapper T-Pain made his debut with the album Rappa Ternt Sanga. The album used Auto-Tune heavily, on every song; giving T-Pain his signature sound. &lt;a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ichSb-1HSiY&gt;His first single Sprung can be viewed here&lt;/a&gt;, although embedding has been disabled.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2007, Auto-Tune Gains Momentum&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot; src=&quot;http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fig%2Fmodules%2Fgoogle_insightsforsearch_interestovertime_searchterms.xml&amp;amp;up__property=empty&amp;amp;up__search_terms=auto-tune%7Cautotune&amp;amp;up__location=empty&amp;amp;up__category=0&amp;amp;up__time_range=empty&amp;amp;up__compare_to_category=false&amp;amp;synd=ig&amp;amp;w=600&amp;amp;h=350&amp;amp;lang=en-US&amp;amp;title=Google+Insights+for+Search&amp;amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&amp;amp;output=js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a href=http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=auto-tune%2Cautotune&amp;cmpt=q&gt;Google Insights for Search&lt;/a&gt; 2007 marked the beginning of the public&amp;#8217;s curiosity about Auto-Tune.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Many would call it a gimmick, and many would be right. But regardless, T-Pain&amp;#8217;s followup 2007 album Epiphany debuted at #1, bringing the &amp;#8220;always on Auto-Tune&amp;#8221; artist to the masses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;object width=&quot;425&quot; height=&quot;344&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/Y6ljFaKRTrI&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;&quot;&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowFullScreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot;&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowscriptaccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot;&gt;&lt;/param&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/v/Y6ljFaKRTrI&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; width=&quot;425&quot; height=&quot;344&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2007 was also the year Portal was released, featuring the song &amp;#8220;Still Alive&amp;#8221; written by Jonathan Coulton and sung by Ellen McLain as GLaDOS.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The popularity of T-Pain, Portal and similar use of the effect by other popular artists such as Rhianna and Kanye West would cause many more to again ask &amp;#8220;What&amp;#8217;s that effect?&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
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&lt;h2&gt;Videos&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Youtube, many a &amp;#8220;How to get the T-Pain effect&amp;#8221; video was made. The conversation started between aspiring audio techs, but because of the versatility of the &amp;#8220;just add Auto-Tune&amp;#8221; formula, the conversation spread from serious projects, to silly ones.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Crying T-Pain Baby&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Auto-Tune the News&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;On February 9th, 2009 The Lonely Island and T-Pain&amp;#8217;s video &lt;em&gt;I&amp;#8217;m on a Boat&lt;/em&gt; was released. The video would attract over 21 million views.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;&lt;object width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;225&quot;&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowfullscreen&quot; value=&quot;true&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;allowscriptaccess&quot; value=&quot;always&quot; /&gt;&lt;param name=&quot;movie&quot; value=&quot;http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3718294&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1&quot; /&gt;&lt;embed src=&quot;http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3718294&amp;amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;amp;show_title=1&amp;amp;show_byline=1&amp;amp;show_portrait=0&amp;amp;color=&amp;amp;fullscreen=1&quot; type=&quot;application/x-shockwave-flash&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;true&quot; allowscriptaccess=&quot;always&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;225&quot;&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/3718294&quot;&gt;Auto Tuning&lt;/a&gt; from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/caseydonahue&quot;&gt;Casey Donahue&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com&quot;&gt;Vimeo&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rap Chop&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Winston Churchill Backed By Band from the Future&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;With both the mainstream media and a large chunk of user generated content now saturated in Auto-Tune, it seems that we&amp;#8217;ve reached critical mass.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Controversy soon arose surrounding Auto-Tune, involving vocalists who use auto-tune, and those who feel that Auto-Tune is a ripoff.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On June 5th, 2009, Jay-Z&amp;#8217;s &lt;em&gt;D.O.A. (Death of Autotune)&lt;/em&gt; was released online. Auto-Tune had obviously become saturated in both mainstream media and user generated content, and the anti-Auto-Tune movement now has a spokeman.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;On July 8th, 2009, legendary rapper &lt;span class=&quot;caps&quot;&gt;KRS&lt;/span&gt;-&lt;span class=&quot;caps&quot;&gt;ONE&lt;/span&gt; made his own Anti Auto-Tune video featuring underground rapper Buckshot.&lt;br /&gt;
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  <parent_id nil="true"></parent_id>
  <icon>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/icons/333/original/t-pain-716283.jpg?1244384249</icon>
  <summary>Auto-Tune is a pitch-correction plugin created by Antares Audio Technologies in 1997. It was meant to subtly correct a singer's off-key notes, but its usage has expanded far beyond its creators' intentions, pushed to near art-form status by Internet remix</summary>
  <episode>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYzv-AVi78E</episode>
  <episode_icon_medium>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/episode_icons/333/medium/know-your-meme-auto-tune.jpeg?1264726723</episode_icon_medium>
  <id>333</id>
  <favorites_count>6</favorites_count>
  <updated_at>2010-03-06T11:52:53Z</updated_at>
  <origin_year>1997</origin_year>
  <episode_icon_small>http://knowyourmeme.com/system/episode_icons/333/small/know-your-meme-auto-tune.jpeg?1264726723</episode_icon_small>
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