Comments on: Let’s Kill the Cher “Believe” AutoTune Myth Forever (Or Not)

By: Scuwat

Scuwat — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:52:07 +0000

IM T PAINNNN YOU KNOW ME

CONVICT MUSIC LIKE OOOHH WEEEEE

ok i think its safe to say everyone can stop complaining about how its clichèd to call it the Cher effect (when in fact it is the Cher effect) and start complaining about how annoying it is that everyone has begun to use the “T-Pain Effect” (AutoTune - just a different artist connected to it)

By: proof

proof — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:53:14 +0000

Here you go, the mystery is SOLVED forever. An actual show and tell video in the studio with the producer of the song. I always thought it was so stupid how people that cher “couldn’t sing” because they were actually noticing the drastic pitch jumps which were actually done on purpose for an effect. It’s beyond me how most people don’t realize the technology has been out there a long time to make artists who can’t sing in key sound seamless and perfect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5a7z8j3Rao

By: » Peter Frampton, Meet Peter Drake - Dissociated Press

» Peter Frampton, Meet Peter Drake - Dissociated Press — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:18:40 +0000

[...] sound just a little like a robot on certain notes. Kid Rock probably used it first, trying to copy the effect on Cher’s “Believe”, and now everyone from Britney Spears to Akon uses it. People who sort of know what they’re [...]

By: Wiz

Wiz — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:31:43 +0000

This song would be close to - if not - totally impossible to do live for Cher or anyone else. Even with Vocoder midi data controlling the box.
You can bet your studio shes not singing this one Live when it sounds like the original.
If it sounds very different and - Live - sure.

By: Marko LeBlanco

Marko LeBlanco — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:56:40 +0000

LOL. Peter Kim just got powned!

By: Marc Doty

Marc Doty — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 17:12:12 +0000

Dear Peter Kirn:

Before you get too smug about your assertion, I suggest you return to the very SOS article you reference… here is what it says:
Cher’s ‘Believe’ (Dec 1998) was the first commercial recording to feature the audible side-effects of Antares Auto-tune software used as a deliberate creative effect. The (now) highly recognisable tonal mangling occurs when the pitch correction speed is set too fast for the audio that it is processing and it became one of the most over-used production effects of the following years.

“In February 1999, when this Sound On Sound article was published, the producers of this recording were apparently so keen to maintain their ‘trade secret’ process that they were willing to attribute the effect to the (then) recently-released Digitech Talker vocoder pedal. As most people are now all-too familiar with the ‘Cher effect’, as it became known, we have maintained the article in its original form as an interesting historical footnote.”

We can’t stop talking about it until you get it right.

The AutoTune effect bears no resemblance to a vocoder effect at all, and it’s embarrassing that anyone would suggest so… especially condescendingly.

By: Guest6

Guest6 — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:14:28 +0000

Doesn’t Cher perform this song ‘live’? Or is she just lip syncing then?

By: NM

NM — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:58:47 +0000

Its even mentioned in the Autotune 4 manual as the cher effect (page 10 retune)

By: Guest 2

Guest 2 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:30:01 +0000

And by the way, if anyone is interested in using pitch correction in their studio, there are several options (including TC Electronic, Antares, etc.). I have tried them all extensively. The most superior, most intuitive, and most natural sounding is called Melodyne, which I now use exclusively.

By: Guest 2

Guest 2 — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 07:26:09 +0000

I am very frustrated at the assocation between pitch correction (particularly Antares Auto Tune) and the “Cher effect.” It’s very likely that (at least in the latter parts of the song) that Auto Tune or an almost identical technology was used to create the extreme pitch changes. However, what we’re all overlooking is how pitch correction had become the norm for major label records by ALL artists (most noticeably on country records) by the beginning of 1998, just one year after Antares released the first version of Auto Tune. You don’t hear a “Cher effect” (as society is calling it) on other songs because the pitch transitions aren’t exaggerated. But believe me: every major lable release since 1998 (or at least 99.9%) have mild pitch correction on the vocals. Pitch correction is like any recorded effect: it’s there to enhance. It can’t replace a good performance. Anyone who thinks it can, must also think that throwing a chorus pedal on a bad guitarist makes him sound like Hendrix.

I happen to like the extreme pitch effect occasionally. Daft Punk used it a couple times, in addition to their use of Vocoders. It’s a modern (perhaps futuristic) sounding effect. But it’s most pleasing to those who already tend to embrace technology-influenced music. I like over-compression too, when it’s combined with phat analog processing (tube overdrive, etc.).

Another effect that can be used to acheive the effect is Roland’s Voice Transformer. Combined with Midi keyboard control, I acheived soem interesting results on an album I produced (surprise surprise) in 1999.

I do wish we’d stop calling it the Cher effect, and that people would drop the pre-conceived notion that pitch correction use is equivalent to lack of talent. But people are stupid, as a rule.