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As much as I've despised the rise of Auto-Tune, the vocoder effect that has the ability to magically transform a poorly sung hook into the centerpiece for a Top 40 single, I had to concede that its one saving grace was the fact that such an effect, that of rapidly shifting between vocal pitches, could never be performed naturally. So while I still couldn't understand why anyone would want to listen to a software-enhanced verse from T-Pain, I had to admit that the effect was something that human vocal cords would be unable to reproduce on their own.
It seems even that concession of Auto-Tune's merit was undeserved, as I discovered when one of my coworkers passed along a video of a man performing something called Tuvan Throat Singing (or more generically referred to as overtone singing), an apparently obscure singing technique that allows one's voice to produce more than one pitch at a time. This type of singing has been around for centuries, originating in a small region near Siberia, the former Tyva Republic. Wikipedia describes it as:
Throat Singing demonstration
This next video is an example of throat singing applied to a more familiar tune:
Throat Singing Amazing Grace
Perhaps the best example I could find on YouTube is this Travel Channel excerpt on Tuva, unfortunately they've disabled embedding so you have to actually click the link to hear it (wait for the :18 mark of the video).
If any of you are looking for further reading on the Auto-Tune phenomenon, Sasha Frere-Jones had an interesting article about it in the New Yorker this past summer. You can read it over here.
It seems even that concession of Auto-Tune's merit was undeserved, as I discovered when one of my coworkers passed along a video of a man performing something called Tuvan Throat Singing (or more generically referred to as overtone singing), an apparently obscure singing technique that allows one's voice to produce more than one pitch at a time. This type of singing has been around for centuries, originating in a small region near Siberia, the former Tyva Republic. Wikipedia describes it as:
The partials of a sound wave made by the human voice can be selectively amplified by changing the shape of the resonant cavities of the mouth, larynx and pharynx. This resonant tuning allows the singer to create apparently more than one pitch at the same time (the fundamental and a selected overtone), while in effect still generating a single fundamental frequency with his/her vocal folds.With a little practice and a Central Asian vocal coach, you don't actually need a computer and a $400 program to get a similar effect. While Believe is often referred to as the first example of the so-called "Cher Effect," it would seem that the technique is actually centuries old! Peep (starting at the :10 mark of the video):
Throat Singing demonstration
This next video is an example of throat singing applied to a more familiar tune:
Throat Singing Amazing Grace
Perhaps the best example I could find on YouTube is this Travel Channel excerpt on Tuva, unfortunately they've disabled embedding so you have to actually click the link to hear it (wait for the :18 mark of the video).
If any of you are looking for further reading on the Auto-Tune phenomenon, Sasha Frere-Jones had an interesting article about it in the New Yorker this past summer. You can read it over here.
12/22/2008 09:31:01 AM posted by Fresh