THE AUTHENTICATION PROCESS
UNDERSTANDING TUNING
'Standard Pitch' (or 'Pitch Standard') is a tuning which was widely used in the early 1900's whereby the A4 (the fourth octave of the 'A' note, the 'A' above middle C) is tuned precisely to the frequency of 440hz. This allows every note to have the same relationship across all octaves, for all instruments. It may help to think of frequency as 'pitch', as the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch.
Standard Pitch was accepted as 'standard' tuning in the UK by the mid 1950's. It had been used consistently much earlier than this, but wasn't considered the standard. This tuning though is a compromise, as this is a system developed to allow one tuning to sound equally accurate in all keys. The nature of sound is not so 'cut and dried'.
THE ADVENT OF AUTO-TUNE & PITCH CORRECTION
'TUNING' THE VOICE
Auto-tune came to the public's awareness in 1998 with the success of Cher's release 'Believe'. Auto-tune is generally used for live performances in the industry as it is 'automatic' (hence the 'auto' of auto-tune). For studio releases, it's generally used artistically as it's application is unsubtle and abrupt giving auto-tune a very distinctive sound. It is calibrated to Standard Pitch by default.
Pitch Correction is a different process, as currently it is a post editing tool that is performed manually, not automatically. This allows more subtle tuning applications to be applied. Pitch Correction is calibrated to Standard Pitch by default.
The problem
sound moves…
Great singers hit the most accurate frequency which can move depending on mood, lyrical content and accompanying pitch. For example, a string sections ‘A4’ will vary from one violinist to another, they will not all play their 'A4' perfectly at 440hz. This variation causes the ‘fuller’ sound of the string section, as they are not all repeating exactly the same frequency. This varies due to individual finger position and individual applications of techniques, such as vibrato.
When a great singer sings along with the accompaniment, they will naturally match these pitch variations and fluctuations by matching the mean (average) frequency, whatever it may be. These pitches by their very nature will not fall perfectly on A440 Standard Pitch (Equal Temperament). As soon as the voice is independently calibrated to A440 Standard Pitch, it becomes separate of the accompaniment and can sound ‘out of place’ due to micro-tones (the spaces between the lines of A440) of expression being eliminated.
WHAT ARE WE LISTENING TO?
THE ‘INDUSTRY STANDARD’
It is commonly stated that Pitch Correction is now the 'Industry Standard', meaning more singer's voices are tuned than not. This results in these voices being calibrated to Standard Pitch, no matter how far from the relevant pitch the singer was with their attempt at hitting the mean frequency. As the mean frequency moves, as does the pitch of a singer's voice to communicate mood, calibrating the voice to Standard Pitch can start to sound 'robotic' and/or devoid of emotion.
THE RABBIT HOLE
'IS ANYONE SINGING NATURALLY ANYMORE?'
With Pitch Correction now being the Industry Standard, people are starting to ask whether their favourite singer is ACTUALLY singing what they're hearing. When Pitch Correction is applied, the original vocal is replaced with a new, digitally altered version calibrated to Standard Pitch. The original vocal ceases to be, and will never be heard. As you can imagine, it doesn't take much to abuse the technology and this is a common practice in the modern day music industry. This is where Authentic Vocal comes in.