Auto-Tune: Used for robotic effect in "Sexy! No No No..."...

Given that Hildebrand’s technology was already working with detecting, analysing and modifying pitch, it wasn’t a huge leap to apply the same principles to the human voice, although the hard part was making the treated vocal sound believable and human. Hildebrand never intended music producers to use Auto-Tune’s pitch-shifting capabilities to make robot voices!

A spokesman for The X Factor, while not admitting the "autotune" charge, conceded that post-production work was necessary because the show used 48 microphones. It was, he said, for the viewers' benefit and such sound techniques employed were ...

AutoTune was initially intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned. Cher's 1998 song "Believe" popularized the use of AutoTune to deliberately distort vocals, a technique that became known as the "Cher effect".

Other than Kanye West, a few rappers have used this as a one-time thing (either to try something different or an attempt to get on the pop charts), examples being "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne (which had West on the remix) and "Sexual Eruption" by Snoop Dogg (the remix of which featured Robyn). Hip-hop/R&B artist T-Pain is the Trope Codifier, though arguably different than most usages since he uses it blatantly to sound like a robot and not just to make it sound like he can sing. He stated that he wants to move on from using Auto-Tune and instead start using different vocal effects called the "T-Pain Effect."

Producers can manually tweak pitch curves, adjust timing envelopes, and apply selective correction on a note-by-note basis. This offline process is ideal for productions where transparency and control are prioritized over immediacy.

The glitch indicates a back-and-forth processing decision, this only happens in auto mode. Auto-tune is to be applied to the audio once the vocal has been recorded. We recommend focussing on capturing the best vocal performance before thinking about tuning. Read further recommendations on how ...

The Guardian's Alexis Petridis, in a 2022 ranking of Girls Aloud's 20 best songs, placed "Sexy! No No No..." at number 11, calling it the band's "last really WTF?-sounding single"—a "broiling, warp-speed stew" blending a Nazareth sample from "Hair of the Dog," distorted guitars, and early Auto-Tune effects, though he critiqued its lack of a discernible melody, mitigated by its quick fade-out.[20] Earlier, in a 2012 Guardian readers' panel on the group's finest moments, critic Laurence Green deemed it the "pinnacle" of their partnership with Xenomania, lauding its Depeche Mode-inspired sensua

I've heard singers sing live without even a microphone and could still hear the "autotune effect" because... it's not really an effect as much as it is physics. Perfectly in-tune vocals will sound the same as perfectly tuned vocals, given the ...

Autotune or pitch correction software is something I use in my music productions in quite a subtle way, hopefully without it being too noticeable. But for many people, their use of autotune produces that very robotic, artificial sound we are all familiar with.