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121-524: Auto-Tune is audio processor software released on September 19, 1997, by the American company Antares Audio Technologies . It uses a proprietary device to measure and correct pitch in music. It operates on different principles from the vocoder or talk box and produces different results. Auto-Tune was initially intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned . The 1998 Cher song " Believe " popularized

242-514: A "nasal, depersonalized sound" and to process speech into melody. According to the Radiohead singer, Thom Yorke , Auto-Tune "desperately tries to search for the music in your speech, and produces notes at random. If you've assigned it a key, you've got music." Later in the 2000s, T-Pain used Auto-Tune extensively, further popularizing the use of the effect. He cited the new jack swing producer Teddy Riley and funk artist Roger Troutman 's use of

363-465: A "new, sophisticated, and mature" image. Cher adopted alluring, low-cut gowns that became her signature outfits. CBS head of programming Fred Silverman offered Sonny and Cher their own television program after he noticed them as guest-hosts on The Merv Griffin Show in 1971. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premiered as a summer replacement series on August 1, 1971, and had six episodes. Because it

484-521: A "serious rock and roller ... a crown that she'd worked long and hard to capture". Michael Bolton , Jon Bon Jovi , Desmond Child , and Richie Sambora produced her first Geffen album, Cher . Despite facing strong retail and radio airplay resistance upon its release, the album proved to be a commercial success, certified platinum by the RIAA. Cher features the rock ballad " I Found Someone ", Cher's first US top-ten single in more than eight years. By

605-486: A $ 2.5 million deal for Cher with Warner Bros. Records , and she began work on her first album under that label in 1975. According to Bego, "it was their intention that [this album] was going to make millions of fans around the world take her seriously as a rock star, and not just a pop singer." Despite Cher's efforts to develop her musical range by listening to artists such as Stevie Wonder , Elton John , James Taylor , Carly Simon , Joni Mitchell , and Bob Dylan ,

726-556: A Rock and Roll Singer, Papa Used to Write All Her Songs (1973), and Live in Las Vegas Vol. 2 (1973). Cher later commented on this period: "I could do a whole album ... in three days ... We were on the road ... and we were doing the Sonny & Cher Show". Cher and Sonny had had marital problems since late 1972, but appearances were maintained until 1974. "The public still thinks we are married," Sonny wrote in his diary at

847-537: A YouTube video commented on by various publications such as Wired . Starting in 2009, the use of Auto-Tune to create melodies from the audio in video newscasts was popularized by Brooklyn musician Michael Gregory, and later by the band the Gregory Brothers in their series Songify the News . The Gregory Brothers digitally manipulated the recorded voices of politicians, news anchors, and political pundits to conform to

968-681: A break, make a new contact, or get an audition." Cher met performer Sonny Bono in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector . Cher's friend moved out, and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to be his housekeeper . Sonny introduced Cher to Spector, who used her as a backup singer on many recordings, including the Ronettes ' " Be My Baby " and the Righteous Brothers ' " You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' ". Spector produced her first single, " Ringo, I Love You ", which Cher recorded under

1089-425: A choice about the direction of her singing career. Deciding to temporarily abandon her desire to be a rock singer, she signed with Casablanca Records and launched a comeback with the single " Take Me Home " and the album of the same name , both of which capitalized on the disco craze. Both the album and the single became instant successes, remained bestsellers for more than half of 1979, and were certified gold by

1210-575: A clothing line. Sonny and Cher's first album, Look at Us (1965), released for the Atco Records division of Atlantic Records , spent eight weeks at number two on the Billboard 200, behind the Beatles' Help! . Their material became popular, and the duo successfully competed with the dominant British Invasion and Motown sounds of the era. Author Joseph Murrells described Sonny and Cher as "part of

1331-472: A correction tool for poor vocals—its original purpose—some musicians intentionally use the technology to mediate and augment their artistic expression. When the electronic duo Daft Punk was questioned about their use of Auto-Tune in their single " One More Time ", Thomas Bangalter replied, "A lot of people complain about musicians using Auto-Tune. It reminds me of the late '70s when musicians in France tried to ban

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1452-509: A creative way" and noted her song "Elastic Love" from Bionic uses it. Opponents have argued that Auto-Tune has a negative effect on society's perception and consumption of music. In 2004, the Daily Telegraph music critic Neil McCormick called Auto-Tune a "particularly sinister invention that has been putting an extra shine on pop vocals since the 1990s" by taking "a poorly sung note and transpos[ing] it, placing it dead centre of where it

1573-558: A digital approach as the techniques of digital signal processing are much more powerful and efficient than analog domain signal processing. Processing methods and application areas include storage , data compression , music information retrieval , speech processing , localization , acoustic detection , transmission , noise cancellation , acoustic fingerprinting , sound recognition , synthesis , and enhancement (e.g. equalization , filtering , level compression , echo and reverb removal or addition, etc.). Audio signal processing

1694-483: A duo had also been unsuccessful, Kapp Records recruited Snuff Garrett to work with them. He produced Cher's second US number-one single, " Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves ", which "proved that ... Garrett knew more about Cher's voice and her persona as a singer than Sonny did", writes Bego. "Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" was the first single by a solo artist to rank number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at

1815-445: A group of girls, directing and choreographing their dance routines. Unable to convince boys to participate, she acted the male roles and sang their songs. By age nine, she had developed an unusually low voice. Fascinated by film stars, Cher's role model was Audrey Hepburn , particularly due to her role in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's . Cher began to take after the unconventional outfits and behavior of Hepburn's character. She

1936-476: A highly rated special with guests Flip Wilson , Elton John , and Bette Midler . The show was produced by Geffen and centered on Cher's songs, monologs, comedy performance, and her variation of clothing, which was the largest for a weekly TV show. Early critical reception was favorable; the Los Angeles Times exclaimed that "Sonny without Cher was a disaster. Cher without Sonny, on the other hand, could be

2057-503: A lag value, while subtracting the autocorrelation product of the sample that correspondingly got out of window. Originally, Auto-Tune was designed to discreetly correct imprecise intonations to make music more expressive, with the original patent asserting: "When voices or instruments are out of tune, the emotional qualities of the performance are lost." Auto-Tune was launched in September 1997. The Aphex Twin track "Funny Little Man", from

2178-450: A melody, making the figures appear to sing. The group achieved mainstream success with their " Bed Intruder Song " video, which became the most-watched YouTube video of 2010. The Simpsons season 12 episode 14, " New Kids on the Blecch ", satirizes the use of Auto-Tune. In 2014, during season 18 of the animated show South Park , the character Randy Marsh uses Auto-Tune software to make

2299-459: A month. They had one son, Elijah Blue , on July 10, 1976. Sonny and Cher's TV reunion, The Sonny and Cher Show , debuted on CBS in February 1976—the first show ever to star a divorced couple. Although the show was a ratings success on its premiere, Cher and Sonny's insulting onscreen banter about their divorce, her reportedly extravagant lifestyle, and her troubled relationship with Allman caused

2420-476: A musical expression of Wayne's loneliness and depression. Mark Anthony Neal wrote that Lil Wayne's vocal uniqueness, his "slurs, blurs, bleeps and blushes of his vocals, index some variety of trauma." And Kevin Driscoll asks, "Is Auto-Tune not the wah pedal of today's black pop? Before he transformed himself into T-Wayne on " Lollipop ", Wayne's pop presence was limited to guest verses and unauthorized freestyles. In

2541-578: A new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe , which featured pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the "Cher effect". The title track became the number-one song of 1999 in the US and the best-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK . She continued to make music, with the albums Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018) both debuting at number three on

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2662-549: A public backlash that eventually contributed to the show's cancellation in August 1977. In 1976, Mego Toys released a line of toys and dolls in the likeness of Sonny and Cher, which coincided with the popularity of The Sonny and Cher Show . The miniature version of Cher ended up being the highest selling doll of 1976, surpassing Barbie . Cher's next albums, I'd Rather Believe in You (1976) and Cherished (1977)—the latter marking

2783-400: A recording artist. In 1972, Cher released the all-ballad set Foxy Lady , demonstrating the evolution of her vocal abilities, according to Bego. Following the release of the album, Garrett quit as producer after disagreeing with Sonny about the kind of material Cher should record. At Sonny's insistence, in 1973 Cher released an album of standards called Bittersweet White Light , which

2904-401: A return to her earlier pop storyteller style at Warner's producers' insistence—were commercially unsuccessful; Orange Coast magazine's Keith Tuber commented, "A weekly television series ... can spell disaster for a recording artist ... Regular exposure on TV allowed people to see and hear these performers without having to buy their records ... That's what happened to Cher[.]" In 1977, under

3025-428: A small New England town in the comedy horror The Witches of Eastwick . In Norman Jewison 's romantic comedy Moonstruck , she played an Italian widow in love with her fiancé's younger brother. The two last films ranked among the top ten highest-grossing films of 1987, at number ten and five, respectively. The New York Times ' Janet Maslin wrote Moonstruck "offers further proof that Cher has evolved into

3146-434: A solo album. 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) was recorded without the guidance of Sonny and incorporates experiments in rhythm and blues and soul music . AllMusic 's Mark Deming proclaimed it "arguably the finest album of her career", and still "a revelation" decades later. Displeased with the 3614 Jackson Highway album, Sonny prevented Cher from releasing more recordings for Atco. Meanwhile, Sonny dated others, and by

3267-422: A solo artist, she encouraged him to perform with her because she suffered from stage fright , and he began joining her onstage, singing the harmonies. Cher disguised her nervousness by looking at Sonny; she later commented that she sang to the people through him. In late 1964, they emerged as a duo called Caesar & Cleo, releasing the poorly received singles " Do You Wanna Dance? ", " Love Is Strange ", and " Let

3388-504: A waitress. She changed her name to Georgia Holt and played minor roles in films and on television. Holt also secured acting parts for her daughters as extras on television shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet . Her mother's relationship with Southall ended when Cher was nine years old, but she considers him her father and remembers him as a "good-natured man who turned belligerent when he drank too much". Holt remarried and divorced several more times, and she moved her family around

3509-449: A young [Chaz] also appeared on the show. They seemed like a perfect family." Cher honed her acting skills in sketch comedy roles such as the brash housewife Laverne, the sardonic waitress Rosa, and historical vamps, including Cleopatra and Miss Sadie Thompson . The Bob Mackie -designed clothing Cher wore was part of the show's attraction, and her style influenced the fashion trends of the 1970s . In 1971, Sonny and Cher signed with

3630-625: Is also used to generate human speech using speech synthesis . Audio effects alter the sound of a musical instrument or other audio source. Common effects include distortion , often used with electric guitar in electric blues and rock music ; dynamic effects such as volume pedals and compressors , which affect loudness; filters such as wah-wah pedals and graphic equalizers , which modify frequency ranges; modulation effects, such as chorus , flangers and phasers ; pitch effects such as pitch shifters ; and time effects, such as reverb and delay , which create echoing sounds and emulate

3751-407: Is an American singer, actress, and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the " Goddess of Pop ", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice, for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment and for adopting a variety of styles and appearances. Cher rose to fame in 1965 as one half of

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3872-418: Is in perfect pitch, perfect time and perfect tune. That's how ubiquitous Auto-Tune is." The Time journalist Josh Tyrangiel called Auto-Tune " Photoshop for the human voice". The big band singer Michael Bublé criticized Auto-Tune as making everyone sound the same – "like robots" – but said he used when recording pop music. Ellie Goulding and Ed Sheeran have called for honesty in live shows by joining

3993-469: Is noted for her trendsetting, elaborate outfits, political views, social media presence, philanthropic endeavors, and social activism, including LGBTQ rights and HIV/AIDS prevention. Cheryl Sarkisian was born in El Centro, California , on May 20, 1946. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling problems; her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch),

4114-414: Is now more entrenched than ever." Auto-Tune is available as a plug-in for digital audio workstations used in a studio setting and as a stand-alone, rack-mounted unit for live performance processing. The processor slightly shifts pitches to the nearest true, correct semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest note in traditional equal temperament ). Auto-Tune can also be used as an effect to distort

4235-403: Is often still desirable as it often produces nonlinear responses that are difficult to replicate with digital filters. A digital representation expresses the audio waveform as a sequence of symbols, usually binary numbers . This permits signal processing using digital circuits such as digital signal processors , microprocessors and general-purpose computers. Most modern audio systems use

4356-752: Is the general field of study of algorithms and systems for audio interpretation by machines. Since the notion of what it means for a machine to "hear" is very broad and somewhat vague, computer audition attempts to bring together several disciplines that originally dealt with specific problems or had a concrete application in mind. The engineer Paris Smaragdis , interviewed in Technology Review , talks about these systems — "software that uses sound to locate people moving through rooms, monitor machinery for impending breakdowns, or activate traffic cameras to record accidents." Cher Cher ( / ʃ ɛər / SHAIR ; born Cheryl Sarkisian ; May 20, 1946)

4477-414: Is used when broadcasting audio signals in order to enhance their fidelity or optimize for bandwidth or latency. In this domain, the most important audio processing takes place just before the transmitter. The audio processor here must prevent or minimize overmodulation , compensate for non-linear transmitters (a potential issue with medium wave and shortwave broadcasting), and adjust overall loudness to

4598-632: The Billboard 200 and becoming her highest-charting solo albums in the US. Cher became a television personality in the 1970s with her CBS shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour , watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and the namesake Cher . In 1982, she made her Broadway debut in the play Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in its film adaptation . Cher subsequently garnered critical acclaim for her performances in films such as Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985), and Moonstruck (1987),

4719-703: The Billboard 200 ; it was later described by AllMusic 's Tim Sendra as "one of the stronger folk-pop records of the era". In early 1965, Caesar and Cleo began calling themselves Sonny & Cher . Following the recording of " I Got You Babe ", they traveled to England in July 1965 at the Rolling Stones ' advice; Cher recalled, "[they] had told us ... that Americans just didn't get us and that if we were going to make it big, we were going to have to go to England." According to writer Cintra Wilson , "English newspaper photographers showed up when S&C were thrown out of

4840-556: The Boston Herald , the country singers Faith Hill , Shania Twain , and Tim McGraw use Auto-Tune in performance, calling it a safety net that guarantees a good performance. However, other country singers, such as Allison Moorer , Garth Brooks , Big & Rich , Trisha Yearwood , Vince Gill and Martina McBride , have refused to use Auto-Tune. Some critics have argued that Auto-Tune opens up new possibilities in pop music, especially in hip-hop and R&B . Instead of using it as

4961-528: The South Park song " Gay Fish ", and found that he had to sing off-key in order to sound distorted; he said, "You had to be a bad singer in order for that thing to actually sound the way it does. If you use it and sing into it correctly, it doesn't do anything to your voice." The singer Kesha has used Auto-Tune in her songs extensively, putting her vocal talent under scrutiny. In 2009, the producer Rick Rubin wrote that "Right now, if you listen to pop, everything

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5082-609: The Actors Studio , but never enrolled after her plans changed. She auditioned for and was signed by director Robert Altman for the Broadway stage production Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean , playing a member of a James Dean fan club holding a 20-year reunion. That year, Altman cast her again in the film adaptation of the same title. Director Mike Nichols , who had seen Cher onstage in Jimmy Dean , offered her

5203-605: The Black Eyed Peas ' number-one hit " Boom Boom Pow ", made heavy use of Auto-Tune on their vocals to create a futuristic sound. The use of Auto-Tune in hip hop gained a resurgence in the mid-2010s, especially in trap music . Future and Young Thug are widely considered to be the pioneers of modern trap music and have mentored or inspired popular artists such as Lil Baby , Gunna , Playboi Carti , Travis Scott , and Lil Uzi Vert . The effect has also become popular in raï music and other genres from Northern Africa. According to

5324-475: The Council of Fashion Designers of America . She is the only solo artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in seven consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2020s. Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour became the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist ever at the time, earning US$ 250 million (equivalent to $ 390 million in 2023). Aside from music and acting, she

5445-562: The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture . In 1985, Cher formed the film production company Isis. Her next film, Mask (1985), reached number two at the box office and was Cher's first critical and commercial success as a leading actress. For her role as a drug addict biker with a teenage son who has a severe physical deformity, she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress . During

5566-519: The Kapp Records division of MCA Records , and Cher released the single "Classified 1A", in which she sings from the point of view of a soldier who bleeds to death in Vietnam. Written by Sonny, who felt that her first solo single on the label had to be poignant and topical, the song was rejected by radio station programmers as uncommercial. Since Sonny's first attempts at reviving their recording career as

5687-598: The London Hilton [because of their outfits] the night they arrived—literally overnight, they were stars. London went gaga for the heretofore-unseen S&C look, which was neither mod nor rocker ." "I Got You Babe" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became, according to AllMusic's Bruce Eder, "one of the biggest-selling and most beloved pop/rock hits of the mid-'60s"; Rolling Stone listed it among " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time " in 2003. As

5808-492: The University of Surrey in 1987. LPC is the basis for perceptual coding and is widely used in speech coding , while MDCT coding is widely used in modern audio coding formats such as MP3 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC). An analog audio signal is a continuous signal represented by an electrical voltage or current that is analogous to the sound waves in the air. Analog signal processing then involves physically altering

5929-455: The Zach Sang Show in 2019, stating: "It doesn't mean you can't sing ... Auto-Tune can't make anyone who can't sing sound like they can sing ... It just tightens it up slightly because we're human and not perfect, whereas [Auto-Tune] is literally digitally perfect." At the 51st Grammy Awards in 2009, the band Death Cab for Cutie made an appearance wearing blue ribbons to protest

6050-481: The album of the same name and became Cher's third US number-one single. Both the album and the single were certified gold by the RIAA. In 1974, Cher released the song " Dark Lady " as the lead single from the namesake album . It reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cher's fourth number-one single and making her the female artist with the most number-one singles in United States history at

6171-461: The folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher before releasing her first solo top-ten singles " Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) " and " You Better Sit Down Kids ". Throughout the 1970s, she scored the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles " Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves ", " Half-Breed ", and " Dark Lady ", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in US history at

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6292-458: The talk box as inspirations. T-Pain became so associated with Auto-Tune that he had an iPhone app named after him that simulated the effect, "I Am T-Pain". Eventually dubbed the "T-Pain effect", the use of Auto-Tune became a fixture of late 2000s music, where it was used in other hip hop/R&B artists' works, including Snoop Dogg 's single " Sexual Eruption ", Lil Wayne 's " Lollipop ", and Kanye West 's album 808s & Heartbreak . In 2009

6413-405: The "Live Means Live" campaign. "Live Means Live" was launched by songwriter/composer David Mindel . When a band displays the "Live Means Live" logo, the audience knows, "there's no Auto-Tune, nothing that isn't 100 percent live" in the show, and there are no backing tracks . In 2023, multiple creators on the social media platform TikTok were accused of using Auto-Tune in post-production to correct

6534-505: The 1997 EP Come To Daddy , was one of the earliest songs to use Auto-Tune, released less than a month after Auto-Tune. The song "Fragments of Life" by the duo Roy Vedas was released on August 17, 1998, heavily using the distorted Auto-Tune technique. Cher 's producer, Mark Taylor , heard the song and brought the duo to assist in the production of a song for Cher utilizing similar distortion. Two months later, Cher's 1998 song " Believe " popularized distorted Auto-Tune vocals. While Auto-Tune

6655-512: The Good Times Roll ". Cher signed with Liberty Records ' Imperial imprint in the end of 1964, and Sonny became her producer. The single "Dream Baby", released under the name "Cherilyn", received airplay in Los Angeles. Imperial encouraged Cher to work with Sonny on her second solo single for the label, a cover version of Bob Dylan 's " All I Really Want to Do ". It peaked at number 15 on

6776-407: The RIAA. Sales of the album may have been boosted by the image of a scantily clad Cher in a Viking outfit on its cover. Despite her initial lack of enthusiasm for disco music, she changed her mind after the success, commenting, "I never thought I would want to do disco ... [but] it's terrific! It's great music to dance to. I think that danceable music is what everybody wants." Encouraged by

6897-670: The Take Me Home Tour), with additional dates in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. It yielded two television specials: Standing Room Only: Cher in Concert (1981) and Cher... A Celebration at Caesars (1983), the latter of which won Cher the CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Variety Program. In 1981, Cher released a duet with rock musician Meat Loaf called " Dead Ringer for Love ", which reached number five on

7018-559: The UK Singles Chart and was later described by AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco as "one of the more inspired rock duets of the 1980s". In 1982, Columbia Records released the album I Paralyze , later deemed by Bego as Cher's "strongest and most consistent solo album in years" despite its low sales. With decreasing album sales and a lack of commercially successful singles, Cher decided to further develop her acting career. While she had previously aspired to venture into film, she had only

7139-499: The UK and became her first million-seller solo single. Chér , also released in 1966, contains the Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition " Alfie ", which was added to the credits of the American version of the 1966 film of the same name and became the first stateside version of the popular song. With Love, Chér (1967) includes songs described by biographer Mark Bego as "little soap-opera stories set to rock music" such as

7260-621: The US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. Meanwhile, the Byrds had released their own version of the same song. When competition on the singles charts started between Cher and the Byrds, the group's record label began to promote the B-side of the Byrds' single. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds commented, "We loved the Cher version ... We didn't want to hassle. So we just turned our record over." Cher's debut album, All I Really Want to Do (1965), reached number 16 on

7381-429: The US top-ten single " You Better Sit Down Kids ". By the end of the 1960s, Sonny and Cher's music had ceased to chart. According to Berman, "the heavy, loud sound of groups like Jefferson Airplane and Cream made the folk-rock music of Sonny and Cher seem too bland." Cher later said, "I loved the new sound of Led Zeppelin , Eric Clapton , the electric-guitar oriented bands. Left to myself, I would have changed with

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7502-524: The album as a breakup album, Rolling Stone music critic Jody Rosen wrote, "Kanye can't really sing in the classic sense, but he's not trying to. T-Pain taught the world that Auto-Tune doesn't just sharpen flat notes: It's a painterly device for enhancing vocal expressiveness and upping the pathos ... Kanye's digitized vocals are the sound of a man so stupefied by grief, he's become less than human." YouTuber Conor Maynard , who received criticism for his use of Auto-Tune, defended it in an interview on

7623-412: The best thing that's happened to weekly television this season." Cher lasted for less than a year, replaced by a new show in which she professionally reunited with ex-husband Sonny; she said, "doing a show alone was more than I could handle." According to The Ringer 's Lindsay Zoladz, "[Cher] found the network censors to be more watchful than they were when she was married to Sonny ... When she

7744-698: The box." The same article expressed "hope that pop's fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade", speculating that pop-music songs have become harder to differentiate from one another, as "track after track has perfect pitch." According to Tom Lord-Alge , Auto-Tune is used on nearly every record these days. In 2010, the reality TV show The X Factor admitted to using Auto-Tune to improve the voices of contestants. Also in 2010, Time included Auto-Tune in their list of "The 50 Worst Inventions". Used by stars from Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne to Britney Spears and Cher, Auto-Tune has been criticized as indicative of an inability to sing on key . Trey Parker used Auto-Tune on

7865-416: The continuous signal by changing the voltage or current or charge via electrical circuits . Historically, before the advent of widespread digital technology , analog was the only method by which to manipulate a signal. Since that time, as computers and software have become more capable and affordable, digital signal processing has become the method of choice. However, in music applications, analog technology

7986-432: The country (including New York, Texas, and California). They often had little money, and Cher recounted having had to use rubber bands to hold her shoes together. At one point, her mother left Cher at an orphanage for several weeks. Although they met every day, both found the experience traumatic. When Cher was in fifth grade, she produced a performance of the musical Oklahoma! for her teacher and class. She organized

8107-629: The critically and commercially unsuccessful movies Good Times and Chastity to her credit, and the Hollywood establishment did not take her seriously as an actress. Cher later recalled, "I was making a fortune on the road, but I was dying inside. Everyone kept saying, 'Cher, there are people who would give anything to have standing room only at Caesars Palace. It would be the pinnacle of their careers.' And I kept thinking, 'Yes, I should be satisfied' ... But I wasn't satisfied." She moved to New York in 1982 to take acting lessons with Lee Strasberg , founder of

8228-461: The desired level. Active noise control is a technique designed to reduce unwanted sound. By creating a signal that is identical to the unwanted noise but with the opposite polarity, the two signals cancel out due to destructive interference . Audio synthesis is the electronic generation of audio signals. A musical instrument that accomplishes this is called a synthesizer. Synthesizers can either imitate sounds or generate new ones. Audio synthesis

8349-434: The divorce proceedings, Cher had a two-year romantic relationship with record executive David Geffen , who helped free her from a restrictive business arrangement with Sonny. Under the terms of this arrangement, Cher was required to work exclusively for Cher Enterprises, a company 95% owned by Sonny and 5% by his lawyer. She was considered an employee of the company, with no control over her career and finances. Geffen secured

8470-417: The duo produced and starred in the film Good Times (1967), which was commercially unsuccessful. Cher's next album, Backstage (1968), in which she explores diverse musical genres including Brazilian jazz and anti-war protest settings, was not a commercial success. In 1969, she was dropped from Imperial Records while Sonny and Cher had been dropped from Atco; however, the label wanted to sign Cher for

8591-483: The duo put together a nightclub routine that relied on a more adult approach to sound and style. According to writer Cintra Wilson, "Their lounge act was so depressing, people started heckling them. Then Cher started heckling back. Sonny ... reprimanded her; then she'd heckle Sonny". The heckling became a highlight of the act and attracted viewers. Television executives took note, and the couple began making guest appearances on prime-time shows, in which they presented

8712-413: The end of the 1960s their relationship had begun to unravel. According to People magazine, "[Sonny] tried desperately to win her back, telling her he wanted to marry and start a family." They officially married after she gave birth to Chaz Bono on March 4, 1969. The duo spent $ 500,000 and mortgaged their home to make the film Chastity (1969). Written and produced by Sonny, who did not appear in

8833-510: The first time. She was so special ... She was like a movie star, right then and there ... She said she was going to be a movie star and we knew she would." Despite not being an excellent student, Cher was intelligent and creative, according to Berman. She earned high grades, excelling in French and English classes. As an adult, she discovered that she had dyslexia. Cher's unconventional behavior stood out: she performed songs for students during

8954-566: The human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly, such that the voice is heard to leap from note to note stepwise, like a synthesizer . Auto-Tune has become standard equipment in professional recording studios . Instruments such as the Peavey AT-200 guitar seamlessly use Auto-Tune technology for real-time pitch correction. Auto-Tune was developed by Andy Hildebrand, a Ph.D. research engineer who specialized in stochastic estimation theory and digital signal processing . He conceived

9075-716: The kind of larger-than-life movie star who's worth watching whatever she does." For that film, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical . By 1988, Cher had become one of the most bankable actresses of the decade, commanding $ 1 million per film. That year, she released the fragrance Uninhibited, which earned about $ 15 million in its first year sales. In 1987, Cher signed with Geffen Records and revived her musical career with what music critics Johnny Danza and Dean Ferguson describe as "her most impressive string of hits to date", establishing her as

9196-527: The last of which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress . She contributed to the soundtrack for her next film, Mermaids (1990), which spawned the UK number-one single " The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss) ", and made her directorial debut with a segment in the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996). During the 2010s, Cher landed starring roles in the films Burlesque (2010) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). In 2018, she

9317-446: The leading exponents of the rock-folk-message type of song, a hybrid combining the best and instrumentation of rock music with folk lyric and often lyrics of protest ." Sonny and Cher charted ten Billboard top 40 singles between 1965 and 1972, including five top-ten singles: "I Got You Babe", " Baby Don't Go ", " The Beat Goes On ", " All I Ever Need Is You ", and " A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done ". At one point, they had five songs in

9438-564: The lunch hours and surprised peers when she wore a midriff -baring top. She later recalled, "I was never really in school. I was always thinking about when I was grown up and famous." At age 16, Cher dropped out of school, left her mother's house, and moved to Los Angeles with a friend. She took acting classes and worked to support herself, dancing in small clubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip and introducing herself to performers, managers, and agents. According to Berman, "[Cher] did not hesitate to approach anyone she thought could help her get

9559-468: The making of the film, however, she clashed with director Peter Bogdanovich , and was ultimately omitted from the Oscar nomination list. She attended the 58th Academy Awards in a tarantula-like costume, later deemed by Vanity Fair 's Esther Zuckerman as Cher's "Oscar revenge dress". "As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress," Cher declared before presenting

9680-463: The massive computational effort required. Hildebrand found a mathematical method to overcome this, "a simplification [that] changed a million multiply adds into just four". According to the Auto-Tune patent , the referred implementation detail consists, when processing new samples, of reusing the former autocorrelation bin, and adding the product of the new sample with the older sample corresponding to

9801-409: The movie, it tells the story of a young woman, played by Cher, searching for the meaning of life. The art film failed commercially, putting the couple $ 190,000 in debt with back taxes. However, some critics noted that Cher showed signs of acting potential; Cue magazine wrote, "Cher has a marvelous quality that often makes you forget the lines you are hearing." At the lowest point of their career,

9922-536: The name Bonnie Jo Mason. The song was rejected by many radio stations programmers as they thought Cher's deep contralto vocals were a man's vocals; therefore, they believed it was a male homosexual singing a love song dedicated to the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr . Cher and Sonny became close friends, eventual lovers, and performed their own unofficial wedding ceremony in a hotel room in Tijuana , Mexico , on October 27, 1964. Although Sonny had wanted to launch Cher as

10043-475: The nominees for Best Supporting Actor . The incident garnered her much publicity. Cher's May 1986 guest appearance on talk show Late Night with David Letterman , during which she called Letterman "an asshole", attracted much media coverage; Letterman later recalled, "It did hurt my feelings. Cher was one of the few people I've really wanted to have on the show ... I felt like a total fool, especially since I say all kinds of things to people." She returned to

10164-409: The part of Dolly Pelliker , a plant co-worker and Meryl Streep 's lesbian roommate in the film Silkwood . When it premiered in 1983, audiences questioned Cher's ability as an actress. She recalls attending a film preview during which the audience laughed when they saw her name in the credits. For her performance, Cher received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won

10285-410: The performance among "David Letterman's Top 10 Musical Moments" in 2015. Cher starred in three films in 1987. In Suspect , she played a public defender who is both helped and romanced by one of the jurors in the homicide case she is handling. Alongside Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer , she starred as one of three divorcees involved with a mysterious and wealthy visitor from hell who comes to

10406-401: The pitch of singing videos presented to appear as live, casual performances. The US TV comedy series Saturday Night Live parodied Auto-Tune using the fictional white rapper Blizzard Man , who sang in a sketch: "Robot voice, robot voice! All the kids love the robot voice!" Satirist "Weird Al" Yankovic poked fun at the overuse of Auto-Tune, while commenting that it seemed here to stay, in

10527-408: The popularity of Take Me Home , Cher planned to return to rock music in her next album, Prisoner (1979). The album's cover features Cher draped in chains as a "prisoner of the press", which caused controversy among feminist groups for her perceived portrayal of a sex slave. She included rock songs, which made the disco release seem unfocused and led to its commercial failure. Prisoner produced

10648-530: The producers initially claimed the effect was achieved with a vocoder . It was widely imitated and became known as the "Cher effect". According to Pitchfork , 1999 " Too Much of Heaven " by the Italian Europop group Eiffel 65 features "the very first example of rapping through Auto-Tune". The Eiffel 65 member Gabry Ponte said they were inspired by Cher's "Believe". The English rock band Radiohead used Auto-Tune on their 2001 album Amnesiac to create

10769-531: The record. They attacked me. It was like, 'How dare Cher sing rock & roll?'" Black Rose disbanded in 1981. During Black Rose's active period, Cher was simultaneously doing a residency show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, earning $ 300,000 a week. Titled Cher in Concert , the three-year performance residency opened in June 1979 and eventually became Cher's first world concert tour as a solo artist (also referred to as

10890-443: The resulting album, Stars , was commercially and critically unsuccessful. Janet Maslin of The Village Voice wrote, "Cher is just no rock and roller ... Image, not music, is Cher Bono's main ingredient for both records and TV." The album has since become a cult classic and is generally considered among her best work. On February 16, 1975, Cher returned to television with a solo show on CBS. Called Cher , it began as

11011-456: The rubric "Allman and Woman", she and Allman recorded the duet album Two the Hard Way . The couple toured Europe to support the album, though audience reception was mixed. With a combination of Cher fans and Allman Brothers fans in attendance, fights frequently broke out at venues, prompting Cher to cancel the tour. Their relationship ended soon after the tour's cancellation, and their divorce

11132-595: The same time as on the Canadian Singles Chart . Billboard called it "one of the 20th century's greatest songs". It was featured on the 1971 album Chér (eventually reissued under the title Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves ), which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its second single, " The Way of Love ", reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and established Cher's more confident image as

11253-466: The same way that Miles equipped Hendrix to stay pop-relevant, Wayne's flirtation with the VST plugin du jour brought him updial from JAMN 94.5 to KISS 108 ." Kanye West 's 808s & Heartbreak was generally well received by critics, and it similarly used Auto-Tune to represent a fragmented soul, following his mother's death. The album marks a departure from his previous album, Graduation . Describing

11374-407: The show in 1987, reuniting with Sonny for the last time before his death to sing an impromptu version of "I Got You Babe". According to Rolling Stone 's Andy Greene, "they weren't exactly the best of friends at this point, but both of them knew it would make for unforgettable television. Had YouTube existed back then, this would have gone insanely viral the next morning." Rolling Stone listed

11495-546: The singing voice of Lorde . In episode 3, " The Cissy ", Randy shows his son Stan how he does it on his computer. Audio processor The motivation for audio signal processing began at the beginning of the 20th century with inventions like the telephone , phonograph , and radio that allowed for the transmission and storage of audio signals. Audio processing was necessary for early radio broadcasting , as there were many problems with studio-to-transmitter links . The theory of signal processing and its application to audio

11616-431: The single " Hell on Wheels ", featured on the soundtrack of the film Roller Boogie . The song exploits the late 1970s roller-skating fad and contributed to its popularity. In 1980, alongside Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder , Cher wrote her last Casablanca disco recording, "Bad Love", for the film Foxes . She formed the rock band Black Rose that year with her then-lover, guitarist Les Dudek . Although Cher

11737-647: The song knocked the Beatles off the top of the British charts, English teenagers began to emulate Sonny and Cher's fashion style, such as bell-bottoms , striped pants, ruffled shirts, industrial zippers and fur vests. Upon their return to the US, the duo made several appearances on the teen-pop showcases Hullabaloo and Shindig! and completed a tour of some of the largest arenas in the US. Their shows attracted Cher look-alikes—"girls who were ironing their hair straight and dyeing it black, to go with their vests and bell-bottoms". Cher expanded her creative range by designing

11858-456: The sound of different spaces. Musicians, audio engineers and record producers use effects units during live performances or in the studio, typically with electric guitar, bass guitar, electronic keyboard or electric piano . While effects are most frequently used with electric or electronic instruments, they can be used with any audio source, such as acoustic instruments, drums, and vocals. Computer audition (CA) or machine listening

11979-451: The synthesizer... They didn't see that you could use those tools in a new way instead of just for replacing the instruments that came before." T-Pain , the R&;B singer and rapper who reintroduced the use of Auto-Tune as a vocal effect in pop music with his album Rappa Ternt Sanga in 2005, said, "My dad always told me that anyone's voice is just another instrument added to the music. There

12100-520: The technique of using Auto-Tune to distort vocals. Cher's song was produced with the assistance of the musical duo Roy Vedas , who had released two months earlier the song "Fragments of Life", which features the technique. It has since been used by many artists in different genres, including Daft Punk , Radiohead , T-Pain and Kanye West . In 2018, the music critic Simon Reynolds observed that Auto-Tune had "revolutionized popular music", calling its use for effects "the fad that just wouldn't fade. Its use

12221-403: The time, "[and] that's the way it has to be." In February 1974, Sonny filed for a separation, citing "irreconcilable differences". A week later, Cher countered with a divorce suit and charged Sonny with "involuntary servitude", claiming that he withheld money from her and deprived her of her rightful share of their earnings. The couple battled in court over finances and the custody of Chaz, which

12342-420: The time. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, Cher released the successful disco album Take Me Home (1979). Her music career revival in the late 1980s saw the releases of rock -inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded hit singles such as " I Found Someone ", " If I Could Turn Back Time ", and " Save Up All Your Tears ". Cher reached

12463-459: The time. Later that year, she released a Greatest Hits album that, according to Billboard magazine, proved her to be "one of the most consistent hitmakers of the past five years", as well as a "proven superstar who always sells records". Between 1971 and 1973, Sonny and Cher's recording career was revived with four albums released under Kapp Records and MCA Records: Sonny & Cher Live (1971), All I Ever Need Is You (1972), Mama Was

12584-473: The times because the music really turned me on. But [Sonny] didn't like it—and that was that." Their monogamous lifestyle during the period of the sexual revolution and the anti-drug position they adopted at the height of the drug culture lost them popularity among American youths. According to Bego, "in spite of their revolutionary unisex clothes, Sonny and Cher were quite 'square' when it came to sex and drugs." In an attempt to recapture their young audience,

12705-415: The top 50 at the same time, a feat equaled only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley . Together they had become, according to Time magazine's Ginia Bellafante , rock's "it" couple. Cher's following releases kept her solo career fully competitive with her work with Sonny. The Sonny Side of Chér (1966) features " Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) ", which reached number two in the US and number three in

12826-466: The use of Auto-Tune. Later that year, Jay-Z titled the lead single of his album The Blueprint 3 as " D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) ". Jay-Z said he wrote the song because of personal beliefs that the trend had become a gimmick that had become too widely used. Christina Aguilera appeared in public in Los Angeles on August 10, 2009, wearing a T-shirt that read "Auto Tune is for Pussies". When interviewed by Sirius/XM , she said Auto-Tune could be used "in

12947-712: The vocal pitch correction technology on the suggestion of a colleague's wife, who had joked that she would benefit from a device to help her sing in tune. Over several months in early 1996, Hildebrand implemented the algorithm on a custom Macintosh computer. Later that year, he presented the result at the NAMM Show , where it became instantly popular. Hildebrand's method for detecting pitch involved autocorrelation and proved superior to attempts based on feature extraction that had problems processing elements such as diphthongs , leading to sound artifacts . Music engineers had previously considered autocorrelation impractical because of

13068-512: Was a former model and retired actress of Irish, English, German, and Cherokee ancestry. Her paternal grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide . Cher's father was rarely home when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old. Her mother later married actor John Southall, with whom she had another daughter, Georganne, Cher's half-sister. Moving to Los Angeles, Cher's mother began acting while working as

13189-448: Was a ratings success, the couple returned that December with a full-time show. Watched by more than 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was praised for the comedic timing, and deadpan Cher mocking of Sonny about his looks and short stature. According to Berman, they "exuded an aura of warmth, playfulness, and caring that only enhanced their appeal. Viewers were further enchanted when

13310-486: Was a time when people had seven-minute songs, and five minutes were just straight instrumental. ... I got a lot of influence from [the '60s era]. I thought I might as well turn my voice into a saxophone." Following in T-Pain's footsteps, Lil Wayne experimented with Auto-Tune between his albums Tha Carter II and Tha Carter III . At the time, he was heavily addicted to promethazine codeine , and some critics see Auto-Tune as

13431-417: Was also inspired by Marlene Dietrich , Bette Davis , and Katharine Hepburn . She was disappointed by the absence of dark-haired Hollywood actresses whom she could emulate. She had wanted to be famous since childhood but felt unattractive and untalented, later commenting, "I couldn't think of anything that I could do ... I didn't think I'd be a singer or dancer. I just thought, well, I'll be famous. That

13552-414: Was commercially unsuccessful. That year, lyricist Mary Dean brought Garrett " Half-Breed ", a song about the daughter of a Cherokee mother and a white father, that she had written especially for Cher. Although Garrett did not have Cher as a client at the time, he was convinced that "it's a smash for Cher and for nobody else", so he held the song for months until he got Cher back. "Half-Breed" was featured on

13673-490: Was designed to be used subtly to correct vocal performances, the "Believe" producers used extreme settings to create unnaturally rapid corrections in Cher's vocals, thereby removing portamento , the natural slide between pitches in singing. Though Auto-Tune had been commercially available for about a year, according to Pitchfork , "Believe" was the first song "where the effect drew attention to itself ... announcing its technological artifice". In an attempt to protect their method,

13794-405: Was eventually granted to Cher. Their divorce was finalized on June 26, 1975. In 1974, Cher won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour . The same year, Sonny premiered a solo show on ABC , The Sonny Comedy Revue , which carried the creative team behind the Sonny and Cher show. It was canceled after 13 weeks. During

13915-559: Was finalized in 1979. In 1978, the singer legally changed her name to Cher, with no surname. The same year, she began a two-year live-in relationship with Kiss member Gene Simmons . She briefly returned to prime time television with the ABC specials Cher... Special (1978)—featuring a 15-minute segment in which she performs all of the roles in her version of West Side Story — and Cher... And Other Fantasies (1979). A single mother with two children, Cher realized that she had to make

14036-1023: Was largely developed at Bell Labs in the mid 20th century. Claude Shannon and Harry Nyquist 's early work on communication theory , sampling theory and pulse-code modulation (PCM) laid the foundations for the field. In 1957, Max Mathews became the first person to synthesize audio from a computer , giving birth to computer music . Major developments in digital audio coding and audio data compression include differential pulse-code modulation (DPCM) by C. Chapin Cutler at Bell Labs in 1950, linear predictive coding (LPC) by Fumitada Itakura ( Nagoya University ) and Shuzo Saito ( Nippon Telegraph and Telephone ) in 1966, adaptive DPCM (ADPCM) by P. Cummiskey, Nikil S. Jayant and James L. Flanagan at Bell Labs in 1973, discrete cosine transform (DCT) coding by Nasir Ahmed , T. Natarajan and K. R. Rao in 1974, and modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) coding by J. P. Princen, A. W. Johnson and A. B. Bradley at

14157-501: Was meant to be". In 2006, the singer-songwriter Neko Case said a studio employee once told her that she and Nelly Furtado were the only singers who had never used it in his studio. Case said "it's cool that she has some integrity". In 2009, Time quoted an unnamed Grammy-winning recording engineer as saying, "Let's just say I've had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood cast albums. And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through

14278-581: Was my goal." In 1961, Holt married bank manager Gilbert LaPiere, who adopted Cher (under the name Cheryl LaPiere) and Georganne, and enrolled them at Montclair College Preparatory School , a private school in Encino , whose students were mostly from affluent families. The school's upper-class environment presented a challenge for Cher; biographer Connie Berman wrote, "[she] stood out from the others in both her striking appearance and outgoing personality." A former classmate commented, "I'll never forget seeing Cher for

14399-401: Was single or casually dating, Cher always seemed to pose more of a threat to the status quo than she did when she was Sonny's wife." On June 30, 1975, four days after finalizing her divorce from Sonny, Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman , co-founder of The Allman Brothers Band . She filed for divorce nine days later because of his heroin and liquor problems, but they reconciled within

14520-466: Was the lead singer, she did not receive top billing because she wanted to create the impression that all band members were equal. Since she was easily recognized when she performed with the band, she developed a punk look by cutting her trademark long hair. Despite appearances on television, the band failed to earn concert dates. Their album Black Rose received unfavorable reviews; Cher told Rolling Stone , "The critics panned us, and they didn't attack

14641-539: Was the subject of The Cher Show , a jukebox musical . Having sold 100 million records, Cher is one of the world's best-selling music artists . Her accolades include a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, a Grammy Award , an Emmy Award , an Academy Award , three Golden Globe Awards , a Cannes Film Festival award, the Billboard Icon Award , and awards from the Kennedy Center Honors and

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