How to Autotune Your Vocals Like T-Pain, Cher or Daft Punk
Ever heard a song by T-Pain on the radio and wondered how the robotic vocal effect is achieved? By the end of this tutorial, you will own the autotuning sound that is used on so many pop records right now.
Note: this article contains embedded audio that will not display in a feed reader. Click back to the site to read the tutorial with audio, or download the audio files at the bottom of the post.
Listen to some examples of this effect in action:
Cher – Believe (First Pop Instance of Autotuning)
You may assume that it takes a masterful engineer and a lot of money in hard effects to get that autotuned sound, but that’s not the case: using only a few steps and a simple plugin you will be well on your way. In this tutorial we’ll go one step further and show you how to create an autotuning effect that sounds as good as the pros.
This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of VST effects and FL Studio. You will need Antares AutoTune VST or a similar autotuning VST to perform this effect correctly, and of course, a microphone that is able to record into FL Studio. Besides that plugin, I will be using the effects packaged with FL Studio to finish shaping the sound.
Tutorial Setup:
- iMac Core2Duo 2.16ghz
- 2GB Ram
- Audio Technica ST90 Microphone ($25!!)
- Alesis IO 26
Step 1
Make sure you’ve purchased Antares AutoTune, a similar VST, or have picked up the demo. If you’re wary of purchasing this product, I’ve found that if you are working with any sort of vocals it pays for itself almost immediately.
We are going to setup a mixer channel in FL Studio to pickup our microphone. Mine is on Blobusound Channel 2, so I select that accordingly.
If done correctly, you should have activity on the input meter. If not, you’re going to need to check your ASIO/WDM settings, or make sure that you have a soundcard or interface that can support a microphone input.
Assuming you have activity coming in and that you can hear yourself, load Antares AutoTune onto the first slot of the mixer. Notice any difference? You probably can’t–we need to change some settings before going further.
This is the raw vocal I’ll be working with in this tutorial:
raw_vocal.mp3
Step 2
At this point, you’re going to want to change the “Input Type” at the top. This helps the tuning engine accurately adjust the incoming signal (in this case, your voice) to “tune” correctly. We are going to manipulate the tuning engine by changing it to “Alto/Tenor Voice”. This will trick the AutoTuner into shifting your voice upwards, and “filling in” your missed notes with a synthesized “voice.”
With the input type changed, it is now time to change the key and scale. T-Pain’s hit song ‘Buy U A Drank’ is in B-flat minor, so we’ll change the key to B-flat and the scale to minor.
You may notice some difference here, but the key to real auto-tuned vocals is to change the “Retuning” threshold to as fast as possible, in this case “0.” With it down at zero, when your voice fluctuates from note to note, it detects what note your voice is in, then jumps it to the next note in the scale, keeping it in key. With these basic settings in place, you should be singing your robotic heart out.
vocal_autotuned.mp3
But this is just the basic effect, and through my $25 “>Audio Technica mic, it is sounding a little dry.
Step 3
The spirit of this effect is to sound a little more robotic, so what we are going to do now is further create that robotic/artificial sound using other effects. These effects will change from microphone to microphone, so it is important to experiment until you get the sound you’re looking for.
The next thing in my FX chain after the auto-tuner is going to be an EQ plugin. I’ll be using this EQ to brighten up the highs, and exaggerate the artificial effect. Using EQUO, I’ve boosted all of the frequencies past 2.5khz to about 400%. This exaggerated EQ will add even more definition to the robotic effect. This may produce too much brightness on nicer microphones, so you may want to start at 400% and work your way down until you’ve got a reasonably bright vocal.
vocal_autotune_eq.mp3
Step 4
After the EQUO, I’ll add a Reverb effect to the chain. This is my standard vocal Reverb palette, and I’ve placed it at about 50% volume to make sure that it isn’t too overpowering on my vocals.
vocal_autotune_eq_reverb.mp3
Step 5
Optional: At this point, I’ve found that inserting the newly-added Soundgoodizer plug-in after the Reverb works very, very well on autotuned vocals. Give it a shot in the effects chain to get some interesting effects due to Soundgoodizer’s limiter. It also keeps the volume level high and limited, which adds to the artificial sound.
Step 6
After the Fruity Reverb, I’ll add what is probably the most important and delicate effect in the chain, a chorus. Refer to the settings snapshot to recreate this wonderful effect: it will give your vocal plenty of depth, and it has convinced many of my listeners that I am not, in fact, recording on a $25 microphone!
vocal_autotune_eq_reverb_chorus.mp3
Step 7
Moving on from there, my next effect is the Fruity Delay Bank. I’ve kept this one simple, and it will create a little more atmosphere along with the Reverb that was added earlier in the chain. Notice that I’ve used some pretty crazy volume/mix values for the effects. Sometimes an effect becomes too overpowering at full volume, so experiment with turning it down until you achieve a nice balance.
To smooth everything out after the Fruity Delay Bank, I’ll throw a Fruity Compressor onto the channel and you are recording-ready and set to sound like T-Pain!
Listen to the final product:
vocal_autotune_eq_reverb_chorus_delay_compression.mp3
Download the Play Pack for this tutorial (1.4MB)
Contents:
- All audio files
- Printable PDF tutorial
- Bonus audio: autotuned vocal acappella.
Nic Bertino is a professional producer and recording artist from Sacramento, California with over 9 years of production experience.
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everybodys just starting to copy t-pain now
no, t-pain wasnt the start of the autotune effect. people may think that tho because he uses it so much because he obviously has a sh*tty singing voice and no talent. the music industry these days really pisses me off. its all about the money and who you know.
the first time i heard the autotune effect was in that Cher song, then in a kid rock song, and also famously by daft punk. if anyone should get the credit for this effect, its among them.
t-pain is the copy cat in this case.
How would i thank you for this ?! Your Awesome ~!.
hey is there a way to download antares aoutotune vst for free
i’m kinda short cuz of the economi
Thanks for the tutorial, works like a charm, but does anyone know how to mute the dry vocal and have fl only output the wet (autotuned) vocal? The wet output is mixed with my dry vocals so it doesnt sound as clear as it should…
The effect used on Cher’s vocals in “Believe” was not autotune but an effect box called Digitech Talkbox Pro. Rick Snoman tells us that in his book “Dance Music Manual”
I make beats/Hits,,,, can make beats for you in exchange for a registered FL 8 or 9 software, autotune 5, or cubase sx 3,
Please God, no more “Cher” effect………..
2009 = year of the autotune
THANKYOU SO MUCH, IT HELPED SO MUCH. (ofcourse with some YT help in the beginning XD)
Can I make this in Audition 3?
Auto-tune is a blight on the music scene. Much like emo, goth, c-rap, hip-hop.
We have people who can’t sing on key or sing live lip-synching at their concerts.
Show how little talent we need to see to call it entertainment.
I’m glad I grew up listening to artist that could really sing and could play their instruments. Todays music sucks.
“Auto-tune is a blight on the music scene. Much like emo, goth, c-rap, hip-hop.”
Hey, hey, now. Just because you don’t know what emo and goth is, doesn’t mean you have to bash it like that. C-rap? Do you perhaps mean crunk? Or were you referring to g-rap? Hip-hop is a genre with rap of various kinds being subgenres to that.
It seems to me that you’re just another ignorant metal mongoloid when you write stuff like that.
Daft Punk uses a talkbox, not auto-tune. I’m pretty sure no vocalist could sing “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.”
1st to the author, you have good skills, and are very informative, do not take my coming rant towards you, because it is infact towards what we call the “music biz”.
/rant on
So, now all we have to do if find our own “look”, write a few “songs” about money and women and liquor and bling, and we can soon retire!
I suspect the culling of actual musical instruments from modern “music” within the next decade.
What happened to music…oh yea, it died, because greed took over (just like everything else).
Bye bye, Miss American Pie.
garbage, complete garbage. learn to sing or play an instrument. if you don’t want to devote the time to learning how to make music you are not a musician. and learning how to autotune your voice has about as much integrity as learning to play air guitar or lip sync. i cant wait for this trend to die.
Horrible
this a best tutorials, i got others b4 n they wa plain shallow, av tried n really enjoyed. Infact i was doing nothing b4, cheers men, IP Records Kenya
Phat stuff, a enjoy it
Nic,
I am not a producer, sound engineer or anything of the sort, but I am looking for a service to autotune a video from work for a prank. I read your great tutorial and realized there is no easy way to do it (especially because I don’t know the first thing about music) and haven’t found any way on the internet to do it (like uploading my sound file, getting it processed and downloading it back). Would you be willing to autotune a short video (no more than a minute long) for me? Let me know if you are interested and what you would charge. You should be able to see my email in the comment details.
This rocks! Havent seen this guide before, Eqao really makes my mic sounds 10 times clearer and louder. This is amazing.
Actually I’m pretty sure T-pain and others don’t use this, it’s actually a talk box they use – as you can hear extra harmonies and sometimes full scales, which are almost impossible to sing that quickly.
Sorry to rain on your parade!
Haa, ok. Well it’s been well documented on TV, Radio and the Antares website, that T-Pain uses AutoTune. The iPhone app is based off of the plugin.
Sorry to piss on your party.
death of auto tune
t-pain wasn’t the first one to use auto tune tech. in the music industry. it was this old band. i forgot the name of the band but they were the first