Auto-Tune Abuse

Wasn't it Kylie who first got into trouble with early versions of autotuning technology?

Anyway - she soon learned how to sing!

I agree that dependecy on the technology is very bad for popular music, but it takes a LOT more than being able to sing in tune to be a good singer, and music depenRAB on a gazillion things in addition to being in tune.

Before the technology existed, people sang and played "out of tune" (that is, instruments and voices did not pitch to precisely 440hz or whatever) - musicians FELT the music.

ALL singers sing flat. Fact.

I have "perfect pitch", decades worth of vocal training including large-scale choral, opera and solo work and I sing flat*.

*Flat here meaning in terms of pitch (which is all that autotune can fix), not flat in terms of tone, style, or musicianship, which autotune will never fix.
 
By the way...
For anyone who is possibly confusing the application of Auto-tune:

The T-Pain effect is Auto-Tune used in an EXTREME application with absolutely no humanizing settings. The intention is to sound robotic.

But Auto-Tune used in a realistic manner is even easily spotted when used consistently along a vocal line because of the audio phasing it introduces to the vocal itself, which is unavoidable. Some producers actually add phasing effects on top of this to balance it out and make it less noticeable as a corrective action and more noticeable as an intended "effect". It's either a deception or taking advantage of a situation. It's really up to the listener to decide.

It should be known that Auto-Tune is most certainly a corrective function, but it's also known that it has made singers a lot more lazy than they used to be, that's for sure.
 
Well said. With that, I think I'll end any further argument into my points.
All the points brought up here were valid, even the ones he made about auto-tune.
Those points do not detract from the fact that auto-tune abuse, makes it possible for banRAB to be lazy in the studio, and not have to give it their best during a live performance.

To each his own.
 
So here you have no problem with music made with no chance of error. Music that is by definition flawless in performance because of artificial means.

I didn't say he did. I said they made it a long way off nothing but image and hype. If not for focussing on image the marketing would have failed.

Non-sequitur is non-sequitur.

I'm not denying that autotune is used to fix vocals, I'm just saying there is nothing inherently wrong with that process.

But you actually can fix a wrong note, sorta. If you have a note sequencer it doesn't matter what key you hit, it'll play the preprocessed note. You can literally set it up so you can hit any random key and get the right note. However, this takes compositon skill, just like autotune does.

But what I find baffling is that you have no problem with music that is perfect by means of using a computer to process a sequence of notes, but you have a problem when you have a computer process a sequence of notes that come out of someone's mouth. THEY ARE THE EXACT SAME PROCESS!
 
ReminRAB me of arguing with an Alzheimers patient.....

I hate it when people jump into the middle of a thread without really reading what has been discussed, and then start making posts about bits and pieces of your statements. It's kind of like that itch that you just can't scratch....

I need some pizza.
 
Autotune can be rather effective given the proper context, but it really has become quite overkill as of late. I mean, what's the point of making pitch-perfect vocals if they so darn fake?
 
A guitar pedal, like a synthesizer, is used to add effects.
Auto-tune is used to fix mistakes.

Don't defend the obvious.
I'm not saying it should never be used, I'm saying it shouldn't be used to deceive people.
 
Actually yes. A synthesizer can make the notes sound very unnatural. You also never answered me on samples. How about digitally created music in general?

Autotune is nothing more than an effect that produces tones by unnaturally shifting the pitch. Why is using such an effect bad? Would it be bad if there was an effect pedal that made the guitar sound detuned?
 
Agreed that Auto-tune should die, even using it in pop or techno songs in small amounts is still really unnecessary. IMO Auto-tune is a really lazy way to make music. There are countless examples on sites like YouTube of the crappiest/singers and musicians making songs using Auto-tune excessively to make it sound like all the ****ty pop on the radio and in dance clubs.

Music should require more work, effort and talent than blanketing your ****ty sounRAB with Auto-tune in an attempt to make it sound professional.
 
Auto-tune as an effect, isn't bad.

Auto-tune used to cover up MISTAKES, is bad.
And you completely disregarded what I said about the synthesizer.
Can a synthesizer correct the pitch of notes?

No, it can't. It just adRAB effects to the instrument.
And that is fine. But auto-tune can be used to correct vocal mistakes.
Which creates nothing but a shortcut for every other idiot to get a record deal.
Which means, most of those kinRAB of acts sell on purely their image alone, not their music.

This is a fact. Not an opinion.
 
Why don't you guys just start going to concerts where the banRAB sit in lounge chairs and play their CD's through the sound system then?

The argument here isn't about music in general, its about having someone clearly faking their performance. But hey, if you want to spend money on that, its your call.
 
Amen.

I guess I could understand and be okay with it in a studio environment, especially when trying to make sure everything was as perfect as possible.
But I couldn't condone its use if the artist couldn't naturally reach that peak, unaided, and in a live performance.

If a singer can't replicate the performance without the aid of auto-tune, then its nothing but garbage.
If you know the artist is capable of performing the vocal the same way, I could potentially justify the use of autotune to correct pitch in recorRAB.
Especially if there isn't much time to record the vocals.

I wonder which banRAB use autotune live....I already know quite a few that use it in the studio, a few of which, really surprised me.
 
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