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Anthem Lights is an American Christian group originating from Nashville, Tennessee. The group has released one EP under their former name^[1] and six albums under their current name.^[2] The group's debut album was released May 10, 2011 by Reunion Records.^[3]

Free Auto Tune Singing

Beginnings[edit]

Anthem Lights began as a solo project for vocalist Chad Graham in the fall of 2007.^[4] Both he and Alan Powell were living in Los Angeles, writing music for Graham's solo project. As the final vocal work was being installed, Powell and Graham came to a realization that the songs being written would be more appropriate performed as a group.^[5] It was then that Powell and Graham decided to alert their contacts at Liberty University in an effort to recruit members for what is now a singing group.^[5] Powell and Graham's contacts came to a consensus that Kyle Kupecky and Caleb Grimm would be the best candidates for the project. After receiving notifications by e-mail, Graham flew from Los Angeles to meet with Kupecky and Grimm, who gladly accepted membership. Powell joined the group at the last minute.^[5]

The original name of the group was Yellow Cavalier.^[6] The group recorded one self-titled EP under this name in 2009. The EP was released independently on May 26, 2009. The group changed their name to Anthem Lights before any other projects were released.^[6]

Name change[edit]

The group's name changed to Anthem Lights sometime after their independent release as Yellow Cavalier. Months later, the group signed to Reunion Records. Vocalist Kyle Kupecky comments about the meaning behind the name:^[5]

These songs [and] this record is our anthem to the world saying, 'Listen, we know there's a lot of darkness in this life, but in the end, light is gonna win.' And we wanna be the light to people and just show them who the light of the world is.

On February 1, 2011, Anthem Lights released the Anthem Lights EP. Although it was the second EP by the group,^[6] it was the first on Reunion Records and the first under their current name.^[6] The EP received very positive reviews^[2][7] and chart success as 'Can't Shut Up,' the first track from the EP, peaked at No. 42 on Billboard's Christian Songs chart^[8] and at No. 27 on the CHR radio charts.^[9] The three-track EP is being deemed a sampler as all of the tracks on it will be featured on their debut album, which is also self-titled.^[2] The album was released May 10, 2011.^[6] The cover art is similar to the EP in that it is simply the official band photo under the official band logo. The only difference is the background color.

Anthem Lights performed on the Listen to the Sound Tour.^[10] The tour was headlined by Building 429, since the tour carried the same name as their latest album, and it featured Revive. Anthem Lights performed on the 2011 Rock & Worship Roadshow tour along with MercyMe, Jars of Clay, and The Afters.

The album You Have My Heart was released on February 4, 2014.^[11] The album Escape was released on October 14, 2014.^{[12][better source needed]}

On February 1, 2016, former singer-guitarist-pianist Alan Powell left the band to pursue his growing career in acting.^[13]

On April 7, 2017, they released their fourth album, Hymns. On October 12, 2017, they released their fifth album, Painted Skies. This is their first album with Spencer Kane.

On February 2, 2018, the band released a compilation album called Better Together: The Mixtape, which features an acoustic version of their song Better Together, along with solo music from each of the members, On March 16, 2018, they released their sixth album Hymns Vol. II.

Band members[edit]

Current members

• Chad Graham – vocals
• Caleb Grimm – vocals
• Spencer Kane – vocals
• Joey Stamper – vocals, piano, guitar, drums

Former members

• Kyle Kupecky – vocals
• Alan Powell – vocals, guitar, piano

Discography[edit]

Studio albums[edit]

Singers That Use Auto Tune

Studio EPs[edit]

Singles[edit]

Compilation appearances[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'Jesusfreakhideout.com: Yellow Cavalier, 'Yellow Cavalier EP' Review'. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
2. ^ ^abc'Jesusfreakhideout.com: Anthem Lights, 'Anthem Lights EP' Review'. jesusfreakhideout.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
3. ^'Jesusfreakhideout.com: Anthem Lights, 'Anthem Lights' Review'. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
4. ^'Anthem Lights Artist Profile - Biography And Discography - NewReleaseTuesday.com'. newreleasetuesday.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
5. ^ ^abcd'YouTube - Meet Anthem Lights'. youtube.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
6. ^ ^abcde'Jesusfreakhideout.com: Anthem Lights Discography, Yellow Cavalier, Anthem Lights Artist Database'. jesusfreakhideout.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
7. ^Anthem Lights EP by Anthem Lights | CD Reviews And Information | NewReleaseTuesday.com newreleasetuesday.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
8. ^Can't Shut Up - Anthem Lights | Billboard.com billboard.com. Retrieved April 22, 2011.
9. ^'Jesusfreakhideout.com: Music News, March 2011: POP GROUP ANTHEM LIGHTS ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM ON REUNION RECORDS, SET TO RELEASE MAY 10'. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
10. ^'Listen to the Sound Tour'. Archived from the original on September 2, 2015. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
11. ^'Anthem Lights - Timeline Photos'. Facebook. Retrieved January 10, 2014.
12. ^'Escape - Anthem Lights'. Apple Inc. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
13. ^'Spencer Kane Fills Open Spot in Anthem Lights'. New Release Today. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
14. ^ ^abAnthem Lights. 'Christian Albums'. Billboard. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
15. ^ ^abAnthem Lights. 'Heatseekers Albums'. Billboard. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
16. ^Anthem Lights. 'Christian Songs'. Billboard. Retrieved June 6, 2012.
17. ^Billboard (April 30, 2011). 'Christian CHR[TM]'. Academic OneFile. 123 (15): 48.
18. ^Billboard (May 5, 2012). 'Christian CHR[TM]'. Academic OneFile. 124 (15): 48.

This article is going to be about Auto-Tune. Go grab your pitchforks … I’ll wait.

For many of you, this is going to be a great article about the creative and practical uses of Auto-Tune in modern music. For another significant portion of you, this will be a great opportunity to make not-so-clever jokes like “the best technique with Auto-Tune is hiring a better singer!”

Love it or hate it, Auto-Tune is a thing. And there are things about this thing worth knowing. So here are a few modern techniques for Auto-Tune.

The Two Categories of Use

In my mind Auto-Tune (or pitch correction in general) is used in one of two modes:

Mode A: A tool for locking in a few stray notes that missed the mark in spite of an otherwise rockin’ performance.

Mode B: An effect used to create a tone, much like a phaser or flanger or reverb or distortion.

Mode A is pretty straightforward — if a dirty note slides on by, hit it with just enough tuning to lock it back in. Generally, using a graphical mode from Auto-Tune, Waves Tune, Melodyne, etc. is the best way to do this. Or simply using an automatic mode and automating the Bypass works as well, unless some serious shifting is required.

Mode B is more fun. Within the world of being effect-y, there are a couple of ways to go. Auto-Tune can be used as a post effect — that is applying it after the initial recording, or the vocalist can sing into the plugin and manipulate it. I’m a fan of the latter. A very good vocalist can control their pitch and delivery enough to play off of how the tuning mechanism reacts and get a number of fun effects from it. Controlled slides and ‘distunes’ (I’m making that a word) can make the happy accident of tuning distortion into a creative tool.

Auto Tone

In today’s music, I often think of Auto-Tune as a tonal device (hence my horrible pun). Most of the time I’m trying to get a bit (or a lot) of sparkly, phase-y distortion. This creation of synthesized harmonics makes a voice sound a bit synth-y, or robotic depending on the approach. For the most part, people just tend to slap Auto-Tune on there and find a retune speed they like and roll with it. I’m a bit more neurotic and like a more refined approach. I’m pretty decisive about whether I’m abusing Melodyne, modern Auto-Tune or the classic ol’ school Auto-Tune. They all have different tones and sometimes one is more fitting than the others.

Melodyne generally has the most transparent tone. It can thin the low-mid of a vocal a little, but sometimes that can actually be a good thing. When abused, it has a specific color but it’s a very evenly distributed harmonic thing that happens — hard to put into words but it feels very “consistent”.

The current version of Auto-Tune is also pretty transparent but does do the quintessential Auto-Tune sound. The classic Auto-Tune, version 5.1 most notably, is really the one that we think of when we think T-Pain — because the formant shifting is the least accurate.

Then there’s the question of how much abuse I want. Just a touch of glitter, or full-on Robotron.

If I want just a touch, one really easy technique is to use two instances of Auto-Tune, both set to very slow retune speeds. The reprocessing of the tuned vocal generates harmonics on top of harmonics allowing for a subtle yet ever-present flavor. Because I’m using slow tuning speeds it also means that the tuning effect is fairly homogenous.

Melodyne Into Auto-Tune

However, sometimes I want a much more printed effect that still stays on the vocal in a consistent way. I find that by coupling Melodyne with Auto-Tune I can get a very even, yet very effected sound.

A great example of this is the vocal tracking for “Comentale” by Ozuna and Akon.

Light Auto Tune For Singing Group

The chain for both vocals was Melodyne first in graphical mode just getting the notes a bit closer to center, and then Auto-Tune with a pretty fast retune speed to create the effected tone. The only place the Auto-Tune really ever varies tonally is when Akon does his faster note runs. When he does this I prefer to let the Auto-Tune glitch up a little because I like the texture it creates. Kon is very smart about where he places these glitches in his delivery — which I’m going to touch on again in a moment. As a side note, both Ozuna and Akon sang into Auto-Tune Pro during the recording in order to make the sound very deliberate — with Ozuna set to the regular mode and Akon set to the “classic” mode. The whole process is a lot more calculated than simply slapping Auto-Tune on there.

That said, sometimes you can just slap Auto-Tune on there.

Automating Auto-Tune

Sometimes I don’t want Auto-Tune to act evenly on everything. As I mentioned before, Akon is very particular about how he blends his voice with Auto-Tune. He will go out of his way to glitch it on purpose in order to create captivating moments. When he does this I take that as a cue to automate the settings on Auto-Tune to emphasize the effect.

Basically, I’m just picking up what he’s putting down. A lot of people associate Kon with heavy Auto-Tune, but when I think of his style I really think of someone with a masterful delivery above all else. He shapes his vocal tone and personality very carefully. For an artist who does this, I actually don’t like the Auto-Tune to be overly heavy. My default here is “classic” Auto-Tune (that 5.1 algorithm sound) with a retune speed of 12ms (maybe less for a more serious song, maybe more for a more club-oriented song). Admittedly this is pretty fast because I do want that distinct tone. But it’s not the T-Pain 0 millisecond sound. On certain runs or moments, I’ll automate the retune speed either very fast to bring out the glitches, or slow it down to keep things a little more subtle.

Manual Formant Shifting

Formant shifting is an underutilized effect. When we speak, our vowel sounds are determined by the shape of our mouths. These harmonic signatures, determined by mouth shape, are called formants. In order to preserve the sound of a voice during pitch correction, the formants have to be adjusted accordingly.

Pitch correction software generally does this automatically — but sometimes it’s not 100% spot-on. So most pitch software will allow us to manually adjust formants when needed to compensate. Higher formants refer to brassier tones like “a”, “ah” and “e” sounds, while lower formants refer to rounder tones like “oo”, “oh”, and “uh”. Sometimes it’s fun to abuse this formant shifting to create a variety of textures. We can do this on background vocals to make them sound less like the lead and more like different voices. Or, we can do this on a lead to make it sound like a singing chipmunk or Frankenstein’s monster.

Getting Creative

What’s the fun in writing an article if we can’t be a little creative? Here’s some next level stuff that my weirdo brain likes to get into.

The first thing that tickles my fancy is the relationship between pitch correction and reverb. You may notice that if you’ve ever printed or committed Auto-Tune it will not null against the original track. That means that the same track printed through Auto-Tune is not technically the same thing as the track with active Auto-Tune on it.

Ok … so what?

Well, the discrepancy between the two comes down to phase rotation. The micro-timing of the track changes, which changes the phase of the signal. Phase is an extremely important aspect of determining spatiality. Because I often use outboard reverb I found that if I print the reverb back in, and subsequently commit my Auto-Tune settings after the reverb print, the vocal will actually feel a bit more forward and disconnected from the reverb and have a stronger front to back image. Weird little quirk.

We can also do a doubler effect by making three instances of our source track and pitch correcting a left pan version up a few cents higher, and the right pan version a few cents lower, keeping the main version right in the center. This works very similarly to a classic doubler but because there’s movement in the pitch we get a bit of a phaser quality as well as an image that actually expands and contracts a bit. It’s a bit more movement-driven, which can be good or bad depending on what we want.

Lastly, I really like delays into Auto-Tune. We can get the glitchiest sound in the world and it sounds very futuristic and cool as a delay. Great for something we want to have a hint of sci-fi sound to it.

Conclusion

Auto-Tune is part of our musical landscape. Personally, I prefer to look for ways to expand the use of the tool rather than try to fight the cultural wave.

How do you find yourself using Auto-Tune? Have any of your experiments gone right?

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