Topic by James 2010-03-10 09:38:06

  • James
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It's amazing what staying up until 1:30 in the morning will do to you. I was listening to the radio, and I was struck by a very interesting realization. I spent a minute or two flicking through stations, and I couldn't help but notice just how much AutoTune is used these days.
For those who don't know, AutoTune is software that when used as intended, corrects a singers pitch. Many of today's so called singers just run there vocal tracks through this AutoTune, and the end result is a less human, more robot sound.
This brings me to my question. What are your thoughts on AutoTune? I, for one, think it's getting a bit overrated in the mainstream music. However, I must admit that I wouldn't mind running a little vocal through it, and hearing what it sounds like (I can't sing if I tried).

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Reply by PolygonAlchemist 2010-03-10 18:26:50

  • From: Florida, USA
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Eh. It's a fad.  Ten years from now people will look back at it with the same "What the hell were they thinking?" that we do many past music fads now.

Thing is, the technology has been used for a long time, in more controlled ways, to make pop singers sound better but without the robot sound. The use of technology to improve singing quality won't go away,  but I think the using it as an effect will be passe soon enough.

I know some people get really angry at it, calling it "cheating" by pretending you can sing. But when it's such a blatant effect like that, I don't really buy it. It's far more dishonest for a pop singer to have an expensive team painstakingly tweak their vocals and pass it off as their actual voice.  But as it is, Autotune is just an effect.  Just something that'll become a trait of late '00's / early '10's popular music.

And yea, it is fun to play with, in the same way that a voice modulator is. I don't really think it makes you sound like you can sing,  just makes you sound like a robot.

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Reply by cx2 2010-03-10 20:33:38

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I noticed something similar when comparing a Madonna song (fairly smooth voice) with a youtube of a live performance (fairly rough sounding). Her age showed in her voice a lot in the live version, and that's where things fall down. All the effects in the world won't help when you're live, unless you're really good at miming.

I'll also point out that when somehting is fairly new there are always people who go over the top with it. When it becomes more normal and the novelty wears off it becomes just another tool like everything else.

cx2
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Reply by James 2010-03-14 07:06:13

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Ok. Let's take another question. Would you want singers to AutoTune themselves live?

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Reply by icemaster 2010-03-28 21:48:13

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Well actuelly autotuning oneself live wouldn't be any hard these days, due to ableton live and all this other stuff mainly receptor etc. Fortunately vocoder has earned it's position already in the industry, so autotune isn't a danger for it.

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