Auto Tune

[Dodie16]

I'm subscribed to the Rocketboom Institute on Youtube. A few days ago I was notified of a new video that they have on their channel about Auto Tune. Auto Tune is where you can fix the pitch of your voice so it sounds better if you hit a wrong note while singing. A lot of music artists and studio producers have used this to correct some mistakes in some of thier recordings, or sometimes they use it as just another effect to add some more interest to the song.

Some people aren't so fond of this particular effect. They believe that it just makes musicians seem like cheaters since they can just correct thier voice with just a bit of tweaking from a program like this.

I personally think it's pretty neat. I am especially fond of those parody videos that are on Youtube that use Auto Tune to turn just ordinary talking into a more musical experience.

My top two faves! You may have already seen them, but here they are just in case you haven't:

Rap Chop!
Billy Mays Infomercial Ballad

I don't think I'm too fond of it in the music that you hear on the radio though. It sounds really "processed" and unnatural to me, but it's still a neat effect.

Well, I'm just wondering if there's anyone out there who has any likes or dislikes of artists using Auto Tune for thier music, or maybe you have a favorite song or video that you would like to share.

Here's the link to the RocketBoom vid I was talking about:
YouTube - Know Your Meme: Auto Tune with "Weird Al" Yankovic

[Pete]

I'm really not a fan of it in the music industry. I understand that artists have that need to put the best product out there, but I think that music sounds a little more natural and more organic when you can hear that raw emotion in a song. AutoTunes really just pretties things up, and can make people sound A LOT better than how they really do.

Plus, if I'm not mistaken, Metallica's St. Anger was done using Auto Tunes, and the drumming speeds amounted to something that was pretty much humanly impossible. Things like that, to me, are the equivalent of a baseball player taking steroids. I understand it's all for the fans, and ultimately to make money, but at some point I would hope the artists would realize that it's not even them anymore.

And that Billy Mays vid sounds like a mashup between Daft Punk and John Tesh haha.

And speaking of bands like Daft Punk, who rely on those vocals, then that's alright. If you're shooting for that style of music, then by all means go for it. You're not fooling the fans, and it's pretty honest and up front. I just have a problem when traditional artists decide to pretty up their voices just for the sake of selling more records.

[Che]

YouTube - Auto-Tune the News #2: pirates. drugs. gay marriage.

I really like what the people in the link I posted are doing with the autotune. It DOES sound cool. However, when every single song on the radio just uses autotune it gets pretty old. I start to think about people who can actually sing and make you get a good feeling with their natural voice.

ps The Katie Couric part is amazing.

[Polk]

I've linked this remix of Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking before, and it's just getting redundant at this point, but now there's actually a thread relevant to the song. Melodysheep posted a second one, now with 100% more Bill freaking Nye. Not as good as the original, but still damn cool.

As for the discussion at hand, if you do something interesting with it, it can be a really cool effect. Like Pete said, if you just use it to hit a note you can't normally reach, it's a bit like cheating.

And Che, god damn that video is great.