The AutoTuned News. Shawty.

April 22, 2009 6:00 PM

The AutoTuned News. Shawty.
posted by rxrfrx (69 comments total)

You kids these days, always acting like Akon and T-Pain invented the Cher-a-lator.
posted by dersins at 6:05 PM on April 22

The Global Warming/Katie Couric part was good as in bad as in good.
posted by defenestration at 6:06 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

What.. what just happened.
posted by odinsdream at 6:08 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

Not as funny at this.
posted by billysumday at 6:09 PM on April 22 [4 favorites has favorites]

When a beauty pageant contestant gets booed for not personally endorsing gay marriage, I think it's safe to say that we're on the cusp of real change.
posted by Joe Beese at 6:10 PM on April 22 [12 favorites has favorites]

The Katie Couric segment was magical.
posted by Science! at 6:13 PM on April 22 [12 favorites has favorites]

This guy had a great video auto-tuning the Palin - Biden debate. Does anyone have the link to it?
posted by Dia Nomou Nomo Apethanon at 6:17 PM on April 22

And, obviously, not as funny as Akon Calls T-Pain.
posted by rxrfrx at 6:20 PM on April 22

so tired of hip-hop and auto-tuning

so, so tired
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:24 PM on April 22 [3 favorites has favorites]

That's not singing. This is singing.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:29 PM on April 22 [6 favorites has favorites]

you just had to put the pedophile video in here, yes?
posted by rxrfrx at 6:35 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

Okay, that was borderline brilliant.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 6:45 PM on April 22

you just had to put the pedophile video in here, yes?

If by googling to find out what the hell you meant, then yes.

It is possible, however vanishingly small the prospect may seem, to not know a person-on-the-internet's life story when first stumbling upon their relatively humorous video. If I've unwittingly breached some horrid code-of-conduct due to my benighted and repugnant illiteracy, then please, mods, delete all my above comment in this thread forthwith, and with extreme prejudice. I don't want to give even the appearance of sanctioning child molesters in any way.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:45 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

The Katie Couric segment was magical.

Auto-tuned for truth.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:47 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

Devils Rancher, I think rxrfrx is referring to this.

I'm embarrassed I know this.
posted by ill3 at 6:50 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

I think rxrfrx is referring to this.

Yeah, well, his comment made me look that up. It sure wasn't intentional.

Where were we? Autotune. Hate it. HATE it. For serious.

It's worse than the mini-moog & the gated snare verb.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:56 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

"My brain says no, but my body says yes!"
posted by inigo2 at 6:57 PM on April 22

My favorite video in response to anti-gay marriage is this.
posted by MaryDellamorte at 6:57 PM on April 22

A fucking plus.
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 6:58 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

i would just like to contribute this link to this thread.
posted by Mach5 at 6:58 PM on April 22 [5 favorites has favorites]

It's worse than the mini-moog & the gated snare verb.

Ah, but is it as bad as an out-of-phase Stratocaster funk strum?
posted by The World Famous at 7:00 PM on April 22

My favorite video in response to anti-gay marriage is this.

Portia trumps you.

Portia trumps everyone, and everything.
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:11 PM on April 22 [3 favorites has favorites]

Ah, but is it as bad as an out-of-phase Stratocaster funk strum?

Get out! Nothing's worse than Keith Emerson going Oooh-WEEE-oooh-WEEEE-oooh *bzzzzt!* just because he can. Except Autotune.

Actually, now that I think about it, I really hate phase shifters, too. Still. Shaft. Bad muthaf*

but then, that was a wah wah
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:12 PM on April 22

Did someone say Wiener Dog on a Minimoog?
posted by The White Hat at 7:13 PM on April 22 [5 favorites has favorites]

Mach5: my favorite part about that video is when it says, "MP3 available on request...LOL"
posted by nosila at 7:15 PM on April 22

Actually, now that I think about it, I really hate phase shifters, too. Still. Shaft. Bad muthaf*

Not a phase shifter - an out-of-phase Strat. Like with the 5-way switch on the two or 4 position.

Like the strummy guitar at the beginning of Lucky Star. Worst. Guitar. Sound. Ever. No matter how awful autotune gets, it's not as bad as the mid-to-late-80s trend of the out of phase strat funk strum. It takes the James Brown guitar style and slides all sliders to full "suck" mode.

I actually own a late-80s Roland JC-120, and even that amp is hard to get to sound like that -- it's too warm sounding. They didn't have some easy way to get that horrible tone. They had to work for it.
posted by The World Famous at 7:48 PM on April 22 [1 favorite has favorites]

The video you linked to appears to be stolen (ahem, "rehosted") from the people who actually created it.

Could we maybe change the links?
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:53 PM on April 22

Gender:Unknown, Minor:No.

Sex offender, yes. Pedophile, maybe not.
posted by emelenjr at 8:01 PM on April 22

Yeah, I was about to post the same thing as CitrusFreak. (The weird thing about the "rehosted" version is that they didn't just put their logo at the end, they actually edited some of the content out.)

Here is the creators' YouTube channel.
Here's the first Auto-Tune The News installment.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:07 PM on April 22

Cool, I just linked to the original.
posted by mathowie at 8:11 PM on April 22

an out-of-phase Strat. Like with the 5-way switch on the two or 4 position.

Oh man, I've got a lousy Strat clone I rewired (very, very badly) with three in-off-out switches instead of tone controls and a 5-way. I can give you neck and bridge together out-of-phase. It's awesome... when it works.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:24 PM on April 22

Dirty. This posted while I was editing mine, so no flags popped up. What's etiquette for something like that?
posted by spaceboy86 at 8:28 PM on April 22

I'm with you, uncleozzy. My strat has three three-way mini-toggles in addition to the 5-way, and the 5-way is wired so that the middle position does the neck and bridge like a Nashville Tele instead of soloing the middle pickup like a strat. So I can get all kinds of out-of-phase.
posted by The World Famous at 8:29 PM on April 22

Just watched more of his videos. This guy is great.
posted by defenestration at 8:59 PM on April 22

Spaceboy86, you had some good links in your post...would you mind posting them here?
posted by Ian A.T. at 9:10 PM on April 22

Fuck, I HATE HATE HATE that Strat out of phase sound.

The 5-way switch is an invention of Satan. That is all.
posted by unSane at 9:38 PM on April 22

The 5-way switch might be singlehandedly responsible for music sucking for several years after its invention. Hendrix did not have a 5-way switch. David Gilmour would probably have been better off without one.

(But I actually use the out-of-phase positions quite a bit, and they can sound great if used right.)

We need an FPP about the switching and pickup configurations on electric guitars and the corresponding music styles.
posted by The World Famous at 10:10 PM on April 22

You need to watch his take on Winston Churchill's Great Declaration.
posted by Monsters at 10:43 PM on April 22 [10 favorites has favorites]

I smile.

[Also: how could Couric or her writers use a line like "Without it there could be a snowball effect" when talking about melting icecaps?]
posted by pracowity at 11:41 PM on April 22

Does Katie Couric sound anything like that? If she did, I would go out of my way to watch her.

If she doesn't, then the guys who made this are geniuseses.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:00 AM on April 23

Okay, I've watched the Churchill video over and over again. That's nought but epic win.
posted by Kattullus at 12:38 AM on April 23 [4 favorites has favorites]

Somebody is doing something with an AutoTune that I actually like...?

I feel kinda weird. Conflicted. A little unwell.
posted by louche mustachio at 12:45 AM on April 23

If Michael Gregory were a middle-aged British woman, he might have won American Idol last year.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:48 AM on April 23

dang, I had no idea the original link was jacked. Thanks for fixing.
posted by rxrfrx at 3:38 AM on April 23

Don't forget their MLK video and thid ode to a local park is pretty awesome too.
posted by delmoi at 3:54 AM on April 23 [4 favorites has favorites]

er, by 'thid' I mean 'this'.
posted by delmoi at 3:57 AM on April 23

Normally I'm completely against the entire Autotune phenomenon, but Katie Couric's autotuned voice is incredible and I'd buy an entire album of it. Somehow her voice combines with autotune and produces something magical, unlike the crap it makes of everyone else's voice...
posted by mmoncur at 4:00 AM on April 23

I actually kinda like autotune but I say that with the following 3 caveats:

1) Since I don't listen to much commercial radio, I rarely hear it.
2) I love robots.
3) I am well known for having bad taste.

Also, the Churchill thing is brill. He kinda butchered MLK, though.
posted by DU at 4:53 AM on April 23

Really? I burst into tears watching the MLK one.
posted by Astro Zombie at 5:21 AM on April 23 [4 favorites has favorites]

As a result of a strangely growing compulsion to hear Couric auto-tuned, my productivity today is now on very thin ice.

I too love bad taste and have well known robots.
posted by rudster at 5:48 AM on April 23

This video, from Vimeo, is great because it highlights the absurdity of the autotune sound (in a relatively "normal" setting). It starts off slow, so bear with it.
posted by flippant at 6:06 AM on April 23

The Churchill and MLK things were so gutsy, becase you have the ability to so royally fuck up the beauty of the speeches. Churchill mesmerized me and MLK gave me chills. While I think that what they are doing is a bit one not, the do that one note really, really well. More, please.
posted by piratebowling at 6:39 AM on April 23

I'm with Astro Zombie. The MLK one was brilliant. I cried, oh yes I did.
posted by shmurley at 7:37 AM on April 23

To be clear, the MLK one is good but not nearly as good as the lyrical delivery of the original.
posted by DU at 7:41 AM on April 23

I'm at work so I can't watch these with audio right now, but didn't CNN actually do this in some form at some point?

During the 2008 US primaries, I remember an interview with Ron Paul, and a Hillary Clinton speech, which were both oddly modulated, as if someone had AT'ed the audio with a very slow attack. Subtle yet noticable.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Or should I take this up with the Tinfoil Council on Chemtrail Affairs?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 7:45 AM on April 23

This is the fourth time Michael Gregory has been front paged on mefi - An Ode to Jimmy Smith Park and possibly Appalachian State University is HOT, HOT, HOT and certainly the VP debate highlights in song and dance. Metafilter was the top hit when I searched for some background information on Jimmy Smith Park. The intertubes: not so useful sometimes, but still lots of fun.

I think everyone not so secretly luvs autotune.
posted by zenon at 9:33 AM on April 23

Eh, auto-save is the next autotune.
posted by jeremias at 12:40 PM on April 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

The tambourine and cowbell get me every time.
posted by minifigs at 3:35 PM on April 23 [1 favorite has favorites]

Chills after MLK.
posted by mdonley at 3:49 PM on April 23

Yeah, that MLK one was awesome.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:57 PM on April 23

I've just now been reading about the I Have a Dream speech. I had no idea it was partially improvised -- that most of the "I have a dream" lines were spoken extemporaneously, in response to someone, perhaps Mahalia Jackson, calling out "Tell them about the dream, Martin!"

I'm floored by that. Those are the lines that define -- in fact, name -- the speech.
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:16 PM on April 23

The White Hat: "Did someone say Wiener Dog on a Minimoog?"

Did someone say cat on a syntheiszer in space (a.k.a. "The Last Thing You See Before You Die")?
posted by WCityMike at 3:21 AM on April 24

Why do both the MLK and Churchill songs cut off like that? Has anyone found a full version? I'd love a complete mp3 of the Churchill track.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:17 AM on April 24

We Republicans came to power to change government, and government changed us. You can't just sprinkle sugar on a piece of shit and convince people that it tastes goooood!

I fucking love this man.
posted by dirigibleman at 12:32 AM on April 26

MP3s for downloading! Churchill, MLK and Autotune the News 2.
posted by Kattullus at 1:49 PM on April 26

Also, goddamn it looks like I can't make it down to New York for the CD release party as I have a kickball game the next day.
posted by Kattullus at 1:51 PM on April 26

In honor (?) of Obama's first 100 days, they've posted an Autotuned retrospective of his administration first three months.

(Okay, I mentioned this before, but seriously: why do they intentionally cut off the last few seconds of all their videos?)
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:56 PM on May 4

Auto-Tune The News #3, the best yet. Especially the Dick Cheney bit. And the Ron Paul one. And the Karzai/Zardari/Clinton one. And the rest, too.
posted by Plutor at 11:06 AM on May 18

Oh, and the twist ending, too.
posted by Plutor at 11:08 AM on May 18