Poll: Your view on auto-tune

[GiantRaven]

Why the hell would they be? They're people actually playing instruments - the effects that get layered on top of that may or may not make the end result sound better or significantly more annoying, but that is still a bloody skill.

Talking into a microphone and having the output translated into a stupid robot voice on the other hand is not a skill

You are correct, it isn't a skill. It's an effect. Something that can utilised within the sound world to add aesthetic content to music. Why does 'skill' even enter the equation?

it doesn't sound good (not as the ubiquitous 'voice' of a song at least), and it's never an improvement over a decent natural voice.

I would say that this is a personal opinion (although one that I would be more inclined to agree with than disagree with).

but recording entire songs/albums/careers using nothing but "the auto-tone voice" is, as I earlier suggested, completely disgraceful

Songs? Albums? Really? Albums are often thematic in nature, especially when it comes to their timbrel content. If an artist wants to utilise an auto-tune over the course of an album, what's wrong with that? I agree about being over a career though, an artist should vary how they create music over the course of their career.

you can sing but for some bizarre reason think sounding like a pitch-perfect robot all the time is preferable, in which case you are simply crazy.

Because...you don't like how it sounds?

I generally find the sound of brass instruments distasteful and I don't go around stating that people who want to use them are crazy.

There is nothing whatsoever wrong with electronic composition and editing tools, except when they are used as a crutch for talentless hacks - if I can't play a bloody guitar, I really have no business calling myself a guitarist, now do I?

I agree wholeheartedly. But I don't think talented artists who want to utilise an auto-tune should take flak because of the talentless hacks.

 

[koriantor]

It has its uses.


As well as auto tune the news and the like.

Would I give those up if it meant getting rid of it completely though?
Fuck yes. It's just a crutch for poor musicians these days, and even when used subtly, it just makes it sound way too artificial and polished.

And don't get me started on the monstrosity that is ke-dollar-ha.

Daft Punk isn't autotuned. They use vocoders.

 

[Nouw]

It has its uses.


As well as auto tune the news and the like.

Would I give those up if it meant getting rid of it completely though?
Fuck yes. It's just a crutch for poor musicians these days, and even when used subtly, it just makes it sound way too artificial and polished.

And don't get me started on the monstrosity that is ke-dollar-ha.

Daft Punk isn't autotuned. They use vocoders.

Vocoders? What about One More Time?
[sub]If Wikipedia is to be trusted.[/sub]

 

[Outright Villainy]

It has its uses.


As well as auto tune the news and the like.

Would I give those up if it meant getting rid of it completely though?
Fuck yes. It's just a crutch for poor musicians these days, and even when used subtly, it just makes it sound way too artificial and polished.

And don't get me started on the monstrosity that is ke-dollar-ha.

Daft Punk isn't autotuned. They use vocoders.

Oh. Well then I guess I can say outside of parody songs, I abhor every instance of autotune I've heard in music!

 

[J-dog42]

If you can't sing without electronic assistance then you shouldn't be singing at all. At the risk of sounding old...I remember the days when you had to have talent to be famous.

 

[LightspeedJack]

It's ok in some instances such as the following, however I don't think its an excuse for people who can't sing to make shit music that the chart watching mouthbreathers lap up, e.g. Black Eyed Peas, T-Pian, Kesha.

Good examples:

 

[Luhrsen]

I don't usually like it. But the dog was great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk4bmK-acEM

 

[Luhrsen]

Grrr, stupid lost double posting. >.<

 

[Gaderael]

It has it's uses. It can make for an interesting effect when not overdone. Unfortunately, it's used for everything and makes the Biebers of the world sound like they can sing/rap/whatever.

99% of the time, I hate the god damned thing.

 

[neoman10]

Only good aspect of auto-tune

 

[koriantor]

SNIP

Vocoders? What about One More Time?
[sub]If Wikipedia is to be trusted.[/sub]

I checked out the page, and the source saying it was autotuned was dead. There was however a valid source saying

"We care less now than we used to about what critics say about our music. We liked the track, Romanthony liked it, we can be disappointed about what they said about the song, but still we liked it. It?s just music, it?s just entertainment, and as long as we believe in it that?s what is important. It?s what we wanted to do. We love to be able to use instruments the way we want to. Criticizing the Vocoder is like asking bands in the ?60s, ?Why do you use the electric guitar?? It?s just a tool... no big deal. Creation is interaction. The healthy thing is that people either loved it or hated it. At least people were not neutral. The worst thing when you make art is for people to not even be moved by it. Love and hate are interesting because it?s deep and intense. It?s one side of our music that people might be sensitive to and others might not.[7]"

Wikipedia is not to be trusted.

Trust me, I've got some experience with vocoders.

 

[iamthelizardqueen88]

I have only ever heard one single song with autotuned vocals, that i actually liked. And that was because it was used specifically for that single song to amplify the meaning and feel of it (the group never used it for any other song). And that was from a time when it wasn't popular yet.

So yeah, shoot it, then cut it to pieces with a chainsaw, then shoot it some more, then kill it again with fire, and then put the remains into a toxic waste dumb.

(sorry i picked your post) do you people even know exactly what auto-tune is or what its does? i can personally guarantee you every single one of you has listened to countless song with auto-tune you just didnt realize it was there. that whole over processed T-Pain voice isnt what auto-tune was ment to do in fact ive read a quote from its creator stating he never thought anyone in their right mind would use it like that. so i beg all of you learn what it is before you bash it. i have no problem with the bashing of the people who use it incorrectly but to bash the software its self and say it should go you should know doing so would change the music scene drastically and im not too sure thats a good thing

 

[someonehairy-ish]

I vote kill it with fire because as a result all the talentless leeches who make careers out of using that machine and miming when they call themselves performers would all burn with it.

Its ocassionally fun as part of a parody. I have no problem with certain other vocal effects designed to make your signing sound cool, eg vocal distortion- they are used more sparingly by the people that use them, and also they don't sort out your singing for you artificially, they just add effects. I could bear Autotune if a song had perhaps 1 verse of it or so, and it was used in such a way that it ADDED to the overall impact/musical value of the song, rather than just being an easy opt-out for talentless w***buckets.

 

[pigmypython]

Should be destroyed, that way you have to be marginally talented to succeed...(emphasis on marginally) plus I don't care for the sound much, but then I'm old and cranky.

 

[badgersprite]

I don't care. I really don't. I don't get how it bugs so many people considering 99% of the time it's used you're either not going to notice, or it will make the song better. If they are enhanced to the point of sounding like robots, then they're doubtlessly doing it that way for a reason, and you would probably like them even less if they weren't using it. I don't know, but to me it just sounds like people complaining about genres of music they don't like to listen to anyway.

Then again, I listen to dance and electronica, and voice effects like this have been used to enhance those songs for effect for ages. I think those songs would sound wrong if they weren't electronically enhanced, so that might have skewed my perspective a little.

 

[zehydra]

hate it. Although I don't mind it's use in the studio that much, I hate it when it's used in performance.

 

[euro2019]

I don't know why people rage so much about auto-tune. If the song sounds good listen to it! It's music, people worked hard (despite what ignorant morons might think) to make those songs. If they're hits I listen to them. I don't get a hard-on for "listening to certain artists". If they make songs that have a good beat (screw the lyrics), I'm in.

T-pain still makes good songs and just like a lot of artists 50% of them suck, so what? If the songs sell, obviously people enjoy listening to them.

Auto-tune still requires a certain degree of musical talent to pull off. Who cares if its their real voice or not? Do I listen to music to listen for "talent"? No. Do i listen to music to "hear a real and beautiful voice" sometimes. Not always. Besides if people would hop off mainstream media and MTV they'd find there's still plenty of good non-autotuned songs out there. Many seem to think that the only music thats popular is that which is heard on the radio and TV. NO. There's plenty of sites and online radio stations that have many listeners in fact that play real talented artists (thats not to say that people you hear on the radio and TV arn't talented. But they are milked to a certain degree and that's ok, what's wrong with people making a lot of money nowadays? "Because they don't deserve it" boohoo..go cry about it)

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

It's stupid and allows for general laziness from many artists...like Lil Wayne for example.