What is AutoTune?

AutoTune was first released in 1997 by Dr. Andy Hildebrand. Long before he made music software, Hildebrand was an engineer who used digital signal processing to read seismic data for the oil industry — sending sound waves down through the earth and interpreting what came back to find what was buried below. A trained flutist, he eventually traded that world for music and founded Antares. The breakthrough came from a passing joke, when a friend wished aloud for something that could keep her singing in tune. Hildebrand realized the same techniques he'd used to map oil fields could track and correct the pitch of a human voice — and AutoTune was born.

In 1998, Cher's "Believe" put an entirely new sound on the radio. The "AutoTune Effect" became the most recognizable vocal in recorded music, and it never left. From Cher and T-Pain to Bon Iver, Imogen Heap, Charli XCX, and Post Malone, the artists who defined modern vocals got there with AutoTune — still the only authentic way to get that sound. Today AutoTune Pro is the industry standard for automatic and transparent pitch correction. It's the tool the world's biggest artists reach for to land a flawless take, whether the effect is something you notice or something you'd never know was there.

Today AutoTune Pro is the industry standard for automatic and transparent pitch correction. It's the tool the world's biggest artists reach for to land a flawless take, whether the effect is something you notice or something you'd never know was there.