Auto-Tune Your Voice

[Microsoft Man]

Have you ever wanted to auto-tune your voice? If your a person who has listened to popular singers such as T-Pain, you’ve probably heard this effect in action. Surprisingly, this technology was originally created to make minor corrections to a singer’s pitch, which allowed them to sing perfectly tuned tracks. Most people don’t see it that way and assume Auto-Tuning is just “skewing” a person’s voice, making a robotic sounding effect. I have to admit, auto-tuning your voice in order to distort it is quite entertaining. Since I am not a good singer I have no reason to correct my horrible singing voice. That leaves my with entertaining myself by distorting my voice.

Applying an auto-tuning effect to one’s voice isn’t hard or necessarily expensive. Surprisingly, it can be done using absolutely free software. Of course, if you feel you would rather buy a professional software, go right ahead. The cost for professional software can reach higher than $200, so why not try some free alternatives. For starters, you are going to need a sound-editing application. Audacity is an example of a free sound-editing application. I would recommend using Audacity version 1.3 beta or higher. The second thing you need is a free plug-in called Gsnap. Gsnap is a VST plug-in which must be installed into Audacity’s plug-in folder in order for it to function. The address path should be something like, “C:/Program Files/Audacity/Plug-Ins/”. Unfortunately, Audacity doesn’t natively support VST effects so it will require a VST Bridge Plug-in to be installed. After the bridge is installed Audacity should handle any VST effect installed into the plug-ins folder. Finally, the last thing required is a microphone. It doesn’t have to be expensive, a cheap microphone will work just fine.

Here are the steps to begin auto-tuning:

1. Have Audacity, the VST Bridge Plug-in, and Gsnap installed.
2. Start Audacity, and make a recording or open up a sound.
3. Go to the effects menu and select the GVST: Gsnap effect. From there you need to set all the settings to the following values:

Min Frequency: 80 Hz
Max Frequency: 2000 Hz
Gate: –80 dB
Speed: 1
Threshold: 100 cents
Amount: 100%
Attack: 1 or 2 ms
Release: 4 ms
Pitch Blend: 0 cents
Vibrato: 0 cents
Vib Speed: 0 cents
Calibrate: 440 Hz
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4. Press the OK button and allow Audacity to render the effect. (Tip: For a better sounding effect, go to the effects menu and repeat the effect.)

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• Download Audacity
• Download Gsnap​
• Download VST Bridge Enabler​

 

[Mike]

Thanks for such an interesting tutorial. Adobe Audition is another great audio editing tool, although its cost is pricey, whilst the Audacity software is free. I suppose in the studio they use even more advanced equipment to cut gold records these days. Yet its good to know some of us can still tell the difference, hmm?

 

[Jaydon H]

Great tutorial, Microsoft Man! I knew Audacity could add a lot of effects, but not auto-tune. I'll now be using this to annoy some of my friends

Nah, jokes. It's interesting to know that a free program can do so much!

 

[Mitchell_A]

As also, did not know you could auto-tune with Audacity, cheers!

 

[Mike]

Microsoft Man, this blog entry alone has over 23,000 viewers since you posted it. Whatever happened to you?

 

[Microsoft Man]

I'm still around, Mike. Life has gotten busy for me over the past year. I haven't had a lot of time to write anything new.