On Autotune

A very insightful article on autotune and its use from the perspective of a musician/band (This article is originally by Paradise Fears btw) :) Enjoy!

First, almost every professional recording uses some form of pitch correction.

I say almost because there are exceptions to prove the rule, but I would venture to estimate 99% of the songs you hear feature vocals that have been tuned using some variant of autotune software. Even live recordings and live performances often feature tuning. I can’t tell you how many times people will compliment me for “not needing to use Autotune” on a recording that we used pitch correction for. Not because we needed to. Because we wanted to.

Second, what’s often mis-identified as autotune is just a choice of vocal effect.

Just as guitars have different effects that are used in different songs, technology has made possible an incredible number of ways to alter the sound of a vocal. An uneffected vocal, straight mic-to-speaker, would sound unnatural to you, because it lacks the natural reverb that you’re used to when you hear someone sing right in front of you. So already, you need to add a reverb effect to make it sound natural. From there, there are hundreds of adjustments you can make. And just like most electric guitar players consider the fine-tuning of effects to be a part of playing the guitar, I see vocal effects as a part of the artistry. The T-Pain effect is called “hard tune,” and that’s not because T-Pain is a poor singer, it’s an effect that’s used deliberately. And obviously people like it, because T-Pain has made a career of it.

Third, why would you ever prefer listening to something out-of-tune than something in-tune?

To say, “I don’t like how much autotune is used,” is to say “I don’t like how well-tuned this vocal is,” which is to say, “I would prefer hearing something that was out of tune.” Trust me - you don’t. No one likes seeing sausages being made, but everybody likes eating sausages. It’s not the process, but the product that’s important. If you like the way it sounds, why would youwant it to sound worse?

Worth noting, I do like the sound of a real, natural, authentic sounding vocal. There are some recordings where I love the subtle imperfections and slight misses, but even those vocals have generally undergone at least some amount of tuning, and on the whole, I would take something that’s in tune over something that’s out of tune any day of the week.

Fourth, auto-tune can’t make a bad singer into a good one. 

It’s a tool, not a crutch. There’s so much more to singing than just hitting the right notes, and in my opinion, a strict focus on just hitting the exact pitch for every note and nothing else will leave you with a dull, dry, personality-less vocal performance. Pitch correction provides the cover that vocalists need to take risks with nuance when they’re singing, and make the entire process more efficient.

Just some food for thought before you start bashing a singer for using autotune (a bit) in his/her music. Just sayin'

Source: http://paradisefears.tumblr.com/post/62024609002/too-much-autotune