The pitch correction software Auto-Tune by Antares (introduced in 1997) was developed by Harold Hildebrand, an American scientist working as a specialist in DSP (digital signal processing). His development of Auto-Tune goes back to hardware pitch shifters and harmonizers, which made it possible to correct vocal or instrumental passages in post-production or in real-time.

This opened up the possibility of editing the tuning of vocals and instruments and of thereby even achieving alienation (e. g. the 'chipmunk voice'). In the pre-digital era this effect was created by changing the audio tape speeds. In later digital effect processors from 1980, a differentiated pitch correction was possible regardless of the duration of a signal.

Today's (hardware) vocal effects processors such as the TC Helicon Voicelive 3 include pitch shifting, harmonizers, vocoders or Auto-Tune-like effects ("Hard-Tune"). Stepless pitch shifting can be achieved with the Digitec Whammy (since 1989), especially for electric guitars.

Auto-Tune was used in an extreme setting in the song Believe (1998), interpreted by singer Cher. Cher's voice jumps unnaturally within an interval.