Autotune - ing the stars

[KungFuLio]

My roommate is convinced that Mayer used Autotune all over his latest record.

True...

there are guys that get paid to tune and keep it as transparent as possible

[percussion boy]

haha- i feel like the way i use auto tune is a punishment!

Yes -- And as usual, those who are most deserving go unpunished . . .



[edited to omit specific examples]

[onlyone]

this is an awesome thread.

autotune drives me nuts. too much perfection takes the human-ness out of a record, and that very human-ness is what makes a record great to begin with. the best records aren't perfect; they're filled with flaws. but those flaws don't detract from the great material and great performances.

besides that, it just doesn't sound that good to me.


oh, and i forget who posted it, but that 'special microphone' thing? HA-HA-HA!

[David Piper]

I'm not as opposed to Autotune as some...

I feel like it saves me a lot of time on background vocals, where they might be far enough back in the mix that you can get away with one or two artifacts. In a two part background vocal sometimes I'll allow myself to tune one part at a time, but never both at once. It makes the harmony seem more stable to me, without losing that human touch.

If I need to use it on a lead vocal, I use graphical mode. I don't feel too bad about maintaining the singer's inflection, but just moving whatever they sang up a few cents if they heard an entrance a little flat.

Sometimes I find there's one or two notes in a vocal that just rub me the wrong way with repeated listens, even though they don't immediately strike me as out of tune. I'll tune it a little, and the issue goes away.

Sometimes I'll think I need to tune something, and it will actually sound worse. Not because of artifacts, but because it actually sounded cool that they were sharp at an exciting part in the song, or maybe some other part was a little out of tune and the singer was doing a better job tuning their intervals to that instrument than autotune can.

Sometimes in bluegrass or country music, where people are going for that "high lonesome sound" with lots of upper harmonies and open 4ths or 5ths, I think the artifacts (no vibrato, a sudden gliss up to the note) actually make the singer sound more stylistically appropriate. I did a modern-sounding bluegrass song, put autotune on as an insert early in the rough mix process, forgot it was there until just before I did the final mix and took it off - and it sounded bad. Not because I had gotten used to it, it's just that on this particular singer it sounded reasonably transparent and was doing something good.

I think the vocoder sound is cool in hip-hop.

I hate hearing auto-tune artifacts in lead vocals of Nashville pop-country stuff.

I love the song Concrete Sky by Beth Orton but I hear tons of tuning on Ryan Adam's harmonies.

Whoever mentioned slowing the tape machine down is on the mark. I love the end of Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi (that bar of three is so cool...), but I don't think he possibly could have sung those notes after the key change.

[JGriffin]

I love the end of Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi (that bar of three is so cool...)

It is. Almost as cool as the 3/4 bar in "Heart of Glass."

[dave watkins]

hopefully the only thing i'll ever use auto tune on is turkeys.

[amoramens]

somebody brought up the question of whether this bothers less sophisticated listeners...I'm qualified to answer that. I don't have educated ears, I'm just amazed by y'all who can hear what kind of mic through what pre in what kind of room, etc.

So let me say that autotune drives me nuts. I'm on board with it as a selectively used 'effect.' Although even that is becoming annoying. Lil Wayne records actually make me angry.

But I didn't even know autotune existed until a few years ago, and now it's the bane of my previously blissfully ignorant listening. It just tears me up to hear a vocalist communicating through this medium we all love so much - suddenly ripped out of the record and replaced with a robot.

so, does it bother unsophisticated ears listening on low-end playback? abso-freaking-lutely.

[I'm Not The Platypus]

i sing pretty bad, so using it is risky

i do well by using it to get me just a little bit closer to the note

and i don't mess with the starts or the the ends of the syllables

also, if you never correct to the exact pitch, it's less obvious

but also less effective...cuz ultimately i am still sharp or flat

to sound like a robot: ring modulation!

[blackdiscoball]

As some one who works at a cheaper studio and has to record a lot of people with very little talent... I must say, I wish it never existed. It has its uses yeah, but when every kid comes in, sings awful and then tells me
KID WHO CANT SING: "you can fix it with that one program cant you?"....
ME: " errrr.... I can make it the right note, but your tone still sucks..."
KID WHO CANT SING" "so can you fix that?" .
ME" Yup, go to 5 years of singing lessons then come back and we will retrack it." This happens constantly... Dont get me started on drum editing...
KID WHO HAS NO RHYTHM: "why do the drums sound off..."

[blackdiscoball]

By the way I was just reading Eq and read this
Interviewer: Do you prefer the digital way of recording or the old days of analog?
Brian Wilson: Yes, because you can do pitch correction a lot better.


WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian wilson uses auto tune? I don't know if I want to be part of the music industry anymore....

[JGriffin]

There's no Easter Bunny either.

[Slider]

By the way I was just reading Eq and read this
Interviewer: Do you prefer the digital way of recording or the old days of analog?
Brian Wilson: Yes, because you can do pitch correction a lot better.


WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Brian wilson uses auto tune? I don't know if I want to be part of the music industry anymore....

Yeah, I even showed my girlfriend that quote. I'm still not sure if she truly understands why it's funny on so many levels.

[Brian]

Funny funny funny! I acn't believe it, people are getting irritated by autotune and have made the connection between autotune and talentless people making boring shite with perfect pitch.
I hate autotune.
Why?
Because I've worked with many singers who bust their asses to sing in pitch faithfully and dependably and they accomplish it with great finess.
Chaka Kahn sings like this, Roger Daltrey can sing like this, they took time to learn how and to rehears, practice, and perform. I don't appreciate the work that goes into making the Simpson girls sound like they can sing, they can't because they don't put in any work and if they do they have a crap coach. Jenny Peters used to sing like this, I know you don't know her, but, she's the voice on some hits, she did "guide vocals" for people who needed them. She could sing three notes that made you want to I ain't sayin it, but, she could. She knew exactly what she was doing and so do the rest that work hard at their craft.
Auto tune is the easy way too often for those who suck.
Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love,,autotuned, hell no!

[JGriffin]

Again, though, it's only a tool. Before Autotune existed there were other tools employed to achieve the same effect.

[Brian]

For me, it's the "hiding lazyness" factor that makes it dirty, and it always has been, even before autotune, and it was thankfully more conspicuous before autotune.
What I love about autotuners is that they suck and you would have to go in and pitch corrct by hand anyway if you want it to sound real-ish.

Overwork the engineer to correct for the lack of work on the part of the "artist" or "bullshit artists" as they that's what really are.
When you had to make a phone call and get a coach to come in and coach the part, the vocalist got a new tool. You employed another human being, fed another kid, educated another vocalist, and the results were better and spread out.
There is a thing called integrity and the use of autotuning shows none toward the "art" of making music, a human ability, which a good record is a celebration of.

Autotuning has diminished the art to computer generated garbage. Sounds nice, but it ain't Nazereth's version of "Hair Of The Dog" and it never will be.
With a coach mankind's abilities became more.
With autotune we learned to fool ourselves and others. Hardly elevating anything other than base behavior.
Before, it wasn't so easy and you weren't likely to engage in pitch correction unless it was soulless pop with a crackhead lead vocalist, (need I mention names? no) and everybody who loved that stuff was shallow and in it for nothing but a buck anyway. OK, that's a gross generalization, but, it was true for the most part.
This was a petty thing that turned into huge problem that no one wants to call it like it is or see it for what it has already accomplished, no one wants to add this two plus two.
It's a roadblock to ever turning music back into art again and it has turned recording into a grunt job of grunt work and no respect by anyone you would want to be respected by.

That's my opinion and it's based on my experiences recording and working in this business long before autotune.
Now they have a box for correcting pitch in a live show. I wish these bastards would all explode and melt and take the designer down with them. Live engineers used to have a code, we ain't playin that shite. All those hidden lipsyncers who's crap went suddenly out of sync, that was never an accident. Milli Vanilli's "take down" was no accident. Live guys were the last stand against that crap and we did not care if we ended a tour early by being the last man to stop the nonsense. We saw it coming and what it would do. Then came this autotune thing.
If you use it, what you're making is NOT music.
Just my opinion.