I'll plead ignorance...what is Autotune?

[darnright]

I've heard about it on here, but have no idea. Sorry.

-dave

[aleclee]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotune

[DLT]

Hey...I wonder if I could use one of those things in a live performance?

[blueslegend8]

the demise of the music industry (or what's left of it).....

[juice]

It bends a pitch a little bit to whatever note you want (usually used for vocals). It's possible to use it live, but it can be somewhat detectable, since it kinda makes the voice sound a little robotic IMO. I think it sounds pretty cool if the pitch is raised a lot though... It was generally made famous by T-Pain, who always uses it.

[astrozombie]

It bends a pitch a little bit to whatever note you want (usually used for vocals). It's possible to use it live, but it can be somewhat detectable, since it kinda makes the voice sound a little robotic IMO. I think it sounds pretty cool if the pitch is raised a lot though... It was generally made famous by T-Pain, who always uses it.

its only detectable depending on how fast you set the rate at which it tunes.

usually rappers have it dimed, thats what gets the robot sound.

if its set at around 12-1 o clock, its almost unnoticeable in most cases.

[Wattage]

only the greatest thing since sliced fingers

[korovamilkdud]

Poop.

[Jake]

A way to help vocalists hit notes they otherwise can't.


I'm for the conservative use of autotune.

[TimmyPage]

Autotune is what makes modern music so awesome. I bet you the Beatles and Led Zeppelin would have sounded 200 times cooler with it.

[DrNewcenstein]

It's yet another tool to keep people with no talent hogging all the airwaves. While it's a neat effect when used as an effect, that's all it should be used for. If you cannot hit the note on your own, you have no talent (or a producer/band who is too stupid to retune their instruments to fit the singer's key).

[YHWH]

It bends a pitch a little bit to whatever note you want (usually used for vocals). It's possible to use it live, but it can be somewhat detectable, since it kinda makes the voice sound a little robotic IMO. I think it sounds pretty cool if the pitch is raised a lot though... It was generally made famous by T-Pain, who always uses it.

... Cher started that annoying Autotune crap circa '98...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Believe_(Cher_song)

[sosomething]

if its set at around 12-1 o clock, its almost unnoticeable in most cases.

Unless you know what to listen for.

Then you hear it everywhere now.

Wanna REALLY know what autotune sounds like?

Linger on an episode of "Glee" while flipping through channels.

[Sludgenutz]

Insane Clown Posse: What is an Autozone?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-vAZezhzfY

YUCK!

[ginormous]

Country pop, tweener pop, "talent" show contestants, and so many other vacuous self-important wastes of time are using pitch-correction software it's hard to keep track. Even the so-called "real" artists don't always know when it's in the mix.

The funny thing is, people are acting like it's a brand-new thing. Pitch correction has been around since the days of analog magnetic tape. Some engineer figures out "hey, if this guy's singing flat, maybe if I slowed down the tape just a little...!" So he drags his thumb on the supply reel when an artist needs help hitting a high note, and gets the timing just right, so the playback sounds like the artist is nailing it. After that, variable speed controls become a built-in feature on pro tape machines.

I assume there are some who remember the old Eventide Clockworks 1745M and the H949; they were among the first studio rack devices to use RAM for signal processing, and they featured pitch-shifting for manually tuning sound in real time.

There are so many OCD music company execs and "hit" producers willing to let the over-processing become the feature, rather than the song, that the unsuspecting public is led to believe that's the way people are supposed to sound when they're singing. It's a frikkin' iPhone app, fer crapsakes!

[Rich_S]

Colorful candy coating for Poop.

Fixed.

[korovamilkdud]

Fixed.

Thank you Richard.

[mrturtle_91]

As others have said, it's one thing to use it as an effect, but to use it all the time...There are way too many band out there who have no talent and are using autotune to get ahead. If you don't have the talent, then don't fake it.

[Reload in 5]

The record industry wants artists with "the look" and the willingness to do whatever they want and the ability to sing.
Add autotune and now you only need the first 2.

[Diego]

It's a priceless tool as a subtle pitch correction that can save a lot of time on the studio. That's OK. But nowadays it's being abused as an effect, giving a robot effect that I personally can't stand.

I hope that robot effect becomes cheesy quickly, so that music producers and engineers start to use it the way it's supposed to be used, again.