Auto-Tune — one of modern history’s most reviled inventions — was an act of mathematical genius. The pitch correction software, which automatically calibrates out-of-tune singing to perfection, has been used on nearly every chart-topping album for the past 20 years. Along the way, it has been pilloried as the poster child of modern music’s mechanization. When Time Magazine it “one of the 50 worst inventions of the 20th century”, few came to its defense. Nvidia Mcp67 Lan Controller Phy Realtek Rtl8201cl Cp Pci Driver more. But often lost in this narrative is the story of the invention itself, and the soft-spoken savant who pioneered it.

For inventor Andy Hildebrand, Auto-Tune was an incredibly complex product — the result of years of rigorous study, statistical computation, and the creation of algorithms previously deemed to be impossible. Hildebrand’s invention has taken him on a crazy journey: He’s given up a lucrative career in oil. He’s changed the economics of the recording industry. He’s been sued by hip-hop artist T-Pain. And in the course of it all, he’s raised pertinent questions about what constitutes “real” music. The Oil Engineer Andy Hildebrand was, in his own words, “not a normal kid.” A self-proclaimed bookworm, he was constantly derailed by life’s grand mysteries, and had trouble sitting still for prolonged periods of time. School was never an interest: when teachers grew weary of slapping him on the wrist with a ruler, they’d stick him in the back of the class, where he wouldn’t bother anybody.