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PBS Airdate: June 30, 2009. NEIL DeGRASSE TYSON: 'Our love was like a supernova,' Yeah, I sing. 'In the nebula of my soul.' Okay, I'm not great. 'But now I find her heart is like a big.

/ Auto-Tune: NOVA scienceNOW talks to the engineers behind Auto-Tune, the pitch correction software that turns sour notes into sweet ones and which is used by everyone from Madonna to Snoop Dogg. But can Auto-Tune turn host Neil deGrasse Tyson into a singing star? Oct 25, 2015  Nothing is sacred when it comes to the simultaneously glorious and atrocious powers of Auto-Tune: not even scientists. Boswell’s brand-new video, Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Emily.

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World Famous Astrophysicist Dr. Neil Tyson Full Interview by OStateTV. Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Why Newt Gingrich Moon Colony Rhetoric is Unrealistic. Auto-tune-style video sampling audio clips from Carl Sagan's Cosmos, The History Channel's Universe series, Richard Feynman's 1983 interviews, Neil deGrasse Tyson's cosmic sermon, and Bill Nye's Eyes of Nye Series, and combining with images from The Elegant Universe (NOVA), Stephen Hawking's Universe, Cosmos, the Powers of 10, and more.

Program Description

(Program not available for streaming.) NOVA scienceNOW talks to the engineers behind Auto-Tune, the pitch-correction software that turns sour notes into sweet ones. Professional musicians from Madonna to Snoop Dogg use Auto-Tune, but can the software turn host Neil deGrasse Tyson into a singing star?

Transcript

Auto-Tune

PBS Airdate: June 30, 2009

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Ourlove was like a supernova,'

Yeah,I sing.

'In the nebula of my soul.'

Okay,I'm not great.

'But now I find her heart is like a bigblack hole.'

Allright, I'm terrible. But here's what I'm wondering: if, digitally, you canremove red-eye, smooth over wrinkles, make people look thinner, then why don'twe have the technology to make me sing better?

ANDYHILDEBRAND (Antares Audio Technologies): We can fix Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: This guy invented away to do it.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: We can fix Neil's pitch. He'sstill going to sound like Neil, though.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Electrical engineerand inventor Andy Hildebrand designs pitch-correction software. He calls itAuto-Tune.

'Pitchcorrection?' Is that a euphemism for 'fixing bad singers?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes, we fix bad singers.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I visited Andy atAntares Audio Technologies in Scotts Valley California, where he and engineerJustin Malo..

JUSTINMALO: Hey,Neil.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..showed me how itworks.

Hummmmmmmmmm.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Great. There you go. You didthat.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: That wavy line representsthe exact frequency of my voice. This line shows where a perfect A should be,so, not too bad.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: He's right dead nuts on in tune.Look at that.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So how does acomputer know that?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: When you hear A, you'rehearing 440 vibrations per second.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So somebody at thebeginning of time said 440 vibrations per second is an A?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: A.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: So, if you sing orplay a pitch at 440 cycles per second, the computer calls it an A and it restson this line. B-flat would go on the line above it, G-sharp below, and so on.

'Butnow I find her heart..'

Whenyou're out of tune, the notes don't fall so neatly onto the lines of the grid.

'..big..'

That'sawful.

'..blackhole.'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Well, it's creative, it'screative. Okay.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: '..supernova..'

Thoselines are me singing the word 'super.'

'supernova..'

Mypitch is all over the place. If anything, it's closest to this note, here.

JUSTINMALO: Neil,you sang an F, which normally is okay, if you're in the key of F. And we're not,so we moved your F to an E.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'Supernova..'

SoJustin gently nudges it down to where an E would be.

'Supernova..'

You'rechanging the frequency of the sound that came out of my vocal cords.

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JUSTINMALO: Actually,yes.

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON:Changingpitch isn't new. You can change someone's voice by fast forwarding on a taperecorder, but you'd sound like..

ALVINAND THE CHIPMUNKS (Audio recording):'Christmas, Christmas time ishere.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..well, achipmunk.

Pitchcorrection software lets you change the pitch..

'Supernova..'

..whilekeeping the essential tone of a voice the same.

Andso, although few engineers are willing to admit it, pitch correction software,like Auto-Tune, has become an indispensable tool in most recording studios.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: It's been used by a lot ofpeople: Madonna..

MADONNA (Film clip): 'Music makes the bourgeoisie..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..Celine Dion..

CELINEDION (Film clip): 'You got one heart you are following..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Reba McEntire usesit live?

REBAMcENTIRE (Film clip): 'Starting over again..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: You're telling me asinger can sing into a microphone a bad note, and out the speakers comes a goodnote?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Now, that's evil.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: To modify something isn'tnecessarily evil. My wife wears makeup. Is that evil?

Isthat okay, honey?

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Evil or not, therecording industry kept Auto-Tune on the down-low.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: The secret popped out of thebag when Cher did 'Believe.'

CHER(Film clip): 'Do you believe in lifeafter love?'

ANDYHILDEBRAND: I couldn't believe it.

CHER(Film clip): '..aside and I can't breakthrough..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Rather thangradually and naturally reaching up to each note..

CHER(Film clip): 'I can feel somethinginside me say..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: ..like this,Cher's producer forced Auto-Tune to jump suddenly from one pitch to the next.

CHER(Film clip): 'I feel something inside mesay..'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Is this some knobthat you turn?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Yes.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: All right.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: And we can turn this knob tozero, which means 'move instantaneously to the new pitch.' And so, if we dothat, your voice would sound like this.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: 'But nowI find her heart..'

Didyou plan for people to use it that way?

ANDYHILDEBRAND: No. I didn't think anybody intheir right mind would ever use it that way.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Well a lot ofartists do.

T-PAIN(Film clip): 'She got me doing the dishes

Anything she want for some kisses'

OJO(Film clip): 'I wasyoung and in love..'

SNOOPDOG (Film clip): 'She might be with him but she's thinkin' boutme, me, me.'

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: But it's mostlyused to tweak out-of-tune performances—a kind of cosmetic surgery.

'..bigblack hole.'

Inmy case though, more like triple-bypass.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: Try to change this to the keyof C.

Neil Degrasse Tyson Arrested

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: Moving the tracesof my voice up in pitch or down..

'..supernova..'

..Justincoaxes me into tune.

'Supernova

ofmy soul..'

Ittook several hours.

'..ofmy soul..'

Howwell did it work? You be the judge.

'Ourlove was like a supernova

Inthe nebula of my soul, but now I find

herheart is like a big black hole..'

JUSTINMALO: It'sa lot more pleasing.

NEILDeGRASSE TYSON: I thought the firstone sounded pretty good myself, I don't know.

Kiddingaside, there's no substitute for training or talent.

ANDYHILDEBRAND: If the singer doesn't have agood tonality to their voice, we're not going to make that better.

Dous a favor. Don't go on American Idol.

Youtube Neil Degrasse Tyson Videos

Broadcast Credits

Auto-Tune

Produced and Edited by

Vincent Liota

NOVA scienceNOW

Executive Producer

Samuel Fine

Executive Editor

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Senior Series Producer

Vincent Liota

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Special Thanks

Jason Bannan, FBI microbiologist
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Gemological Institute of America
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George Gray, Gray Jewelers
Susan Hrishenko
Northern Arizona University
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University of Maryland School of Medicine

Neil deGrasse Tyson

is director of the Hayden Planetarium in theRose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History.

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This material is based upon worksupported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0638931. Anyopinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in thismaterial are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views ofthe National Science Foundation.

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(Neil deGrasse Tyson singing) Courtesy T. Robin Hirsh

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