Auto-Tune

Alex H.

Alex H.

Moderator
Staff member
Okay, this is downright funny.

But then, it brings up a peeve at the same time. Auto-tune... the death of actual talent. This processor, while lots of fun when used with news clips or with Vince the Sham-Wow guy, is popping up more and more in mainstream music, and is really nullifying any need for actual singing abilities. Or am I just too picky?

Thankfully, my typical music library is full of folks who have no need for this waste of technology.
 
kgimedia said:
This awesome new technology was created in 1997 and is actually going out of favor not becoming more popular.

As usual some great info is available on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune
Click to expand...

I never asserted that it was new, so thanks for putting words in my mouth.

Yes, it's been around for a while and has been used in subtle ways to fix minor omperfections. The use cited here was sort of discovered by accident and, I do believe, first popularized on a track from Cher. EDIT: just checked the wiki link... it was Cher in 1998.

But it has been popping up more frequently in the last couple of years.
 
kgimedia said:
... is actually going out of favor not becoming more popular.
Click to expand...
I hate to disagree, but it is used CONSTANTLY in the music biz. On the Cher track and others it is obvious that it is being used, and it's being used as an effect, but it's original purpose was to fix just a few bad notes in an otherwise great performance. Pick any pre-fab pop artist and they are using it on all of their vocals; first, because they are generally lacking in real vocal skills and, second, it's a lot more economical to get a performance that's close and then Autotune it (fewer hours in the studio than when trying for hours to get great takes). If used "properly" you never know it's being used. It is also being used more and more for live performances.

Trust me, I used it for years when I was engineering music, my friends still in the music industry constantly complain about having to use it all the time, and my FOH mixer friends confirm the live trend. We all hate the damned thing and wish for the days of real talent.
 
unclebob6958 said:
I hate to disagree, but it is used CONSTANTLY in the music biz. On the Cher track and others it is obvious that it is being used, and it's being used as an effect, but it's original purpose was to fix just a few bad notes in an otherwise great performance. Pick any pre-fab pop artist and they are using it on all of their vocals; first, because they are generally lacking in real vocal skills and, second, it's a lot more economical to get a performance that's close and then Autotune it (fewer hours in the studio than when trying for hours to get great takes). If used "properly" you never know it's being used. It is also being used more and more for live performances.

Trust me, I used it for years when I was engineering music, my friends still in the music industry constantly complain about having to use it all the time, and my FOH mixer friends confirm the live trend. We all hate the damned thing and wish for the days of real talent.
Click to expand...

Yeah, its been used for years. Mariah Carey, etc. And its also true that when used properly like you say, it corrects for imperfections in the talents singing and "tunes" it to make it sound "perfect" some of these singers may not have used it before, but now that they get older I assume some are using it as they have lost complete control over there voice imo. Just opinions.
 
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