How long has vocal pitch correction been around?

[Edmond Dantes]

I am just wondering when the tweaking began. I mean what records can I listen to and admire the pure vocal talent?

[Benmrx]

Does using vari-speed on analog machines count? Because I've read stories of people as early as the mid to late 70's using vari-speed to slow the tape down, strictly so the singer could hit certain notes better.

I could be wrong, but as far as doing the whole "vocal-tuning" process digitally, I think it starting becoming pretty standard by the late 90's for serious pop stuff.

[Alex Niedt]

I think late 90's is when the general public became slightly informed, but it was going on before that.

[andymixer]

I know Mutt Lang was using Eventide harmonizers to tune vocals in the early 80's also have heard that all of Madonna's early vocals were being manipulated the same way. 12 bits at a time.

[JDN]

like everyone else said, it's been going on since evantides and such, as far as autotune, i guess the cliche cher example was an early example....to answer the question you were asking, pretty much as soon as autotune hit the scene is when pitch correction really came into full effect

[Chucho]

practising has been around for hundreds of years.

[DSMrehearsal]

1997

[Jamz]

Before Pro Tools there was Sound Tools. Used to pitch the vocals and process the audio. However, the first tuning method I used was the Eventide H-3000.
I forget what year they came out but it had to be late 80's early 90's when I bought one. You would roll tape and then have to spin the the dial on the H-300 on the fly to pitch the vocal. It was hit or miss at times. Also, left artifacts sometimes. Sounded like little "bubbles" in the audio.

[Musiclab]

we used to use eventide harmonizers, to tune, also samplers, I remember on one project sampling the vocal and using the pitch wheel, it was beyond insane. And before melodyne and autotune I was using the digital factory in Logic, as a matter of fact sometimes I still do

[cheeky b]

Originally Posted by Musiclab

we used to use eventide harmonizers, to tune, also samplers, I remember on one project sampling the vocal and using the pitch wheel, it was beyond insane. And before melodyne and autotune I was using the digital factory in Logic, as a matter of fact sometimes I still do

Regularly put the lead vocal in to an akai sampler(s) phrase by phrase and rode the pitchwheel into the sequencer - the art was to do the opposite bends in the rests between words so that the correct timing was maintained. Late eighties, early nineties???

[nandoanalog]

Originally Posted by Chucho

practising has been around for hundreds of years.

You took the words out of my vocals

[Cap'n Spanky]

I was listening to some Beatles and early Eagles the other day and I was in awe of their "auto-tune free" harmonies. For the Beatles, it was the remix of "Because" on the Love CD. It sounded perfect to my ears.

For me, staying in pitch when singing solo was not a huge deal. Even two part harmony is not super difficult. But it takes real talent to layer three, four, or more harmony parts and make it sound professional.

My hat is off to anyone to anyone who did it without Autotune. Unfortunately, it's becoming a lost art.

[Volodia]

It was much less common than today but in the old days they would copy the vocal to a 2 track and varispeed the offending note while punching it back .