INVENTIONS

In a list of inventions that changed the world, this one might not get really high marks as a life-saver but it did effect many people.  It is auto-tune.  Like many inventions, it was originally intended for another use.

Andy Hildebrand was working as an engineer for Exxon.  He developed technology for them to recognize and measure seismic activity.  Exxon pulls things from the earth and needs to know if it is creating a quake.  Hildebrand then discovered that his equipment could also analyze and change the pitch of audio.  Voila!  Auto-tuning was born.

In the 1990's, Antares Audio Technologies ended up using Hildebrand's technology to develop it's Auto-Tune Audio Processor.  By the late 90's, many artists were using it to correct slight faults in the pitch of their voice and/or instrumental recordings.  Recording are made in several tracks.  First correct the instruments to the perfect key.  Then you could match perfectly, the voice to the instruments.  Recording were no longer off key they were being made more perfect.

One group of artists then started using the equipment to intentionally distort the voice tone to make wide changes in pitch or to make the voice sound robotic.  Before long, most of the audio files we purchased were changed from the original recording by this machine.

Does it make bad singers good?  Not really.    Does it make the industry fake or phony?  A little.  But does that surprise you?  No!
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