It all started with Cher’s hit song, Believe. Actually, it started before, but the producers of Believe overdid it (deliberately) and made people sit up and go “What the heck was that?”.

I am talking about auto-tune, of course. The instrument that magically polishes off vocal blemishes and even adds embellishments that are not humanly possible. If you have listened to a recent song and marveled at the extreme vocal refinement of the singer while hitting a particularly difficult note – I hate to burst the bubble – he or she may have had help.

And now similar technology is available to the common man. I recently tinkered around with a web application called UJAM and in 30 minutes flat produced this masterpiece. If I could do this with my limited talent and lazy-ass attempt, my guess is that more accomplished musicians should be able to get remarkably better results if they spend a little time on UJAM.

However, if your singing sucks, UJAM or even professional grade auto-tune equipment will not make you sound as good as this: