Auto-Tune: Notable Exceptions

Last post on the topic whose name shall not be mentioned. Here are 2 auto-tunes (...) approved by yours truly. First one is by the Black Eyed Peas ... just kidding.


Kool Keith - Executive Suites (2009)

First impression: This might be Kool Keith's most accessible and catchy song to date. On second thought, everything about it is so over the top (including the not-so-subtle integration of auto-tuned vocals) that I'm getting highly suspicious. With all its subtlety and ambiguity, it is a far more intelligent (and hilarious) comment on an auto-tuned world than Jay-Z's and KRS-One's banalities. As Hegel would have said, Kool Keith is on some determinate (as opposed to abstract) negation shit. Plus it's a dope song which leaves me with high expectations for the upcoming album scheduled for october 13th.


Newcleus - Programmed for Love (2009)

Electro pioneers Newcleus return with some surprisingly new school sounding material. Big pounding drums and a distorted bass provide the backdrop for a soulful tune full of ambient sounds and effects. The use of Auto-Tune is very subtle: not as a means in itself, a bland l'art-pour-l'art gesture, but as a way to enhance and underline the dreamy and meandering character of the vocals.

So can we please get back to talking about vocoders now?

Why I am glad Auto-Tune didn't exist in the 80s

I really don't want to mention Auto-Tune. Ever. But it's like tourette, I can't help lashing out against it. So I'd better make it quick & painful: There is one more Auto-Tune related post coming up and then I'm done for good.

Death Of Auto-Tune (Bonus Beats): A Brief Guide To Robot Voices

When KRS One and Buckshot dropped their anti Auto-Tune lamentation "Robot" a while back, they mentioned some pioneers of Auto-Tune that they exempted from their critique:

- Roger Troutman
- Afrika Bambaataa (Planet Rock)
- The Jonzun Crew (Pack Jam)
- Kraftwerk

One thing that these four have in common is: None of them has ever used Auto-Tune. So instead of lumping all robotic vocals together and calling them Auto-Tune, it might be instructive to have a look at the various types of voice modulation. Once you understand how they work it's actually not too hard to spot the differences (I am looking at you, KRS and Buckshot).


1. Auto-Tune


Auto-Tune is a device that tunes your voice. If used moderately - as in most of today's pop music - you won't even notice it's there. What you will notice though is the radical use of it as an effect to alter the sound of your voice. The human voice sings legato, meaning there is a smooth transition between notes of a different pitch. When you erase the transition and force the vocals to directly jump to the next note, the result will be an unnatural robot-like staccato effect that you know from too many bad songs. I will spare you the listening example.

How to recognize:
- flat and artificial sound of the voice
- sudden pitch shifts that create a stuttering effect

2. Talk box


A talk box involves two sound sources: your voice and a synth (or any other instrument). Or rather, the synth is the only sound source while the voice is only used as an effect. This is how it's done: First you play a sound or a melody on the synth. At the same time, the sound is sent into your mouth through a plastic tube. You use our mouth to shape the sound by "talking" without actually speaking - much like when you are at a concert or in a club and shape the surrounding noise by opening and closing your mouth, making "wah wah" without actually speaking.

It takes a lot of practice and articulation to get a good result, but when it's done correctly it produces a very distinct sound. Multiinstrumentalist and musical genius Roger Troutman was the master of the talk box, and I'd like to say DJ Quik is keeping his legacy alive. Posting the mandatory Roger Troutman video would be too obvious, so here is another one that I bet you all know (plus you can really see the talk box at work):




And here's a recent talk box tune that was definitely inspired by Roger Troutman:




And forget what I said before - here's the man himself:

How to recognize:
- metallic robot sound, often in the higher pitch/frequency area
- mostly monophonic (meaning there's only a single melody and no chords involved)
- can have vibrato and smooth transitions between pitches

3. Vocoder


This is basically the same principle: Two sound sources (voice and synth), one of which is used to shape the other. Technically it is a little different: First you speak into a microphone. The vocoder will analyze and filter your voice, pass it on to the synth and blend the two together to create the final sound. Vocoder voices can have a large variety of expressions, from deep and raspy to ethereal and dreamy sounds.

How to recognize:
- can have a full and polyphonic sound
- will generally sound clearer and more articulate, especially when consonants are involved

4. Speech Synthesis


Speech synthesis is the artificial creation of human speech: You type a text and the computer converts it into a sound that resembles the human voice ... or rather an artificial, robotic version of the human voice. Here's a beautiful example of speech synthesis (for the nerds: correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 1981 Computerwelt uses a vocoder for the chorus while this one has speech synthesis throughout the whole song):



P.S. The time is 6:57 a.m.

How to recognize:
- some words might not sound right and odd pronounciations might occur
- often there is only one pitch, creating a monotonous intonation

Stop the Madness

Graphic aural content - viewer discretion is advised:




...

And for further entertainment, here's some 80s throwback stuff. If you make it to 4:05, you will be rewarded with 10 seconds of maximum hilarity.

The Blueprint 3

So Jay-Z's new album leaked a couple of days ago.

Fun Fact: While there is a song called "D.O.A." (Death Of Auto-Tune) on it, a lot of the hooks sound so sterile and polished that I am guessing there are at least a good 5 songs that actually use Auto-tune. One of the songs doesn't even try to hide it. Which is such a blatant disregard for consistency that I am almost tempted to read it as an ironic comment on hip hop's obsession with realness. But I guess it is quite unintentional (which makes it even more ironic).

The music is not that interesting, so I'd rather talk about the cover art. Here are two recent album covers which might have inspired it:


The idea of three horizontal bands of color representing the number 3 is especially compelling. Stripes have a long tradition in the history of modern art - Abstract Expressionism, Minimal and Concept Art have all utilized monochrome stripes on a light/white ground.


While Agnes Martin's (top left) grids of lines are so low contrast that they seem to blend into the background, always on the verge of disappearing, John McLaughlin (top right) used to paint deep black rectangles on white canvas - somewhat reminiscent of asian calligraphy, or at least: a reduced, geometric version of it. Daniel Buren (bottom left) is often referred to as the "stripe guy". Buren's all-over paintings only have vertical stripes, but his companion Michel Parmentier (bottom right) also turned them horizontal.

Of course, red stripes on a white surface can also be seen as a reference to another iconic piece of art. Take a guess:


(Click on the picture)