Why Are People Ignorant About Autotune

[Hamburger_Time]

I'm surprised that I've read through a thread about autotune and not seen one mention of Daft Punk. Okay, I know they use a vocoder, but still...
OT: It's alright when it's used as an instrument, but unfortunately many musicians use it as a lazy way to cover up their lacklustre performances.

 

[BonsaiK]

cough*justin beiber*cough* every single goddamned song*cough

I'm not a big Beiber fan, but being honest, have you ever listen to a video of him singing live. He pretty much sounds the same...

Duh, he's either lip syncing or has autotune on. He can't sing for shit. You can HEAR the autotune on his tracks.

Justin without Autotune:


He sings alright. Probably better than most people reading this.

Just because someone uses Autotune doesn't mean they NEED it. Some do, most don't.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Because nobody gives a shit about it. To everyone else it's just a music program, it's only ever known of when it makes something shit (or shittier). It's not something anybody needs to know or ever care to know, it's not ignorance it's just a lack of interest.

 

[gyroscopeboy]

I try not to listen to any type of music that uses autotune, but I admit that it can probably sound natural. Thing is, I prefer to listen to music from before things like autotune existed. I feel that music where the entire song has pitch correction is barely music at all, because it's not really the artist singing, it's a machine (in my opinion).

In the era pre-autotune, they would have definitely still comped the vocal...meaning they cut bits of tape up and stickytaped them back together to get a "perfect" performance...unless of course you're referring to early Beatles records before multitrack.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

I try not to listen to any type of music that uses autotune, but I admit that it can probably sound natural. Thing is, I prefer to listen to music from before things like autotune existed. I feel that music where the entire song has pitch correction is barely music at all, because it's not really the artist singing, it's a machine (in my opinion).

In the era pre-autotune, they would have definitely still comped the vocal...meaning they cut bits of tape up and stickytaped them back together to get a "perfect" performance...unless of course you're referring to early Beatles records before multitrack.

I don't think that any sort of pitch correction is bad, just that relying on it for an intire song is, to me, a poor choice.
see my earlier post, it better explains what I meant

This is reminding me of the time when someone accused MoS of using Autotune (which btw he doesn't). It wasn't pretty.

More topical, you can hear Autotune, though its worse when the person simply can't sing. Producers and ad executives have learned tha people will listen/watch/read anything regardless of quality because they are that stupid. So overproduced music with Autotune will always sell... until people get bored of that and its switched to music that sounds very indie but in fact is processed by producers cus that is selling at the time.

Course,

I try not to listen to any type of music that uses autotune, but I admit that it can probably sound natural. Thing is, I prefer to listen to music from before things like autotune existed. I feel that music where the entire song has pitch correction is barely music at all, because it's not really the artist singing, it's a machine (in my opinion).

So because a machine does it isn't music anymore? Yeah, I know it isn't your point, but its worth bringing up.

Music:
noun
1.
an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.
2.
the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or multiple lines (harmony), and sounded or to be sounded by one or more voices or instruments, or both.
3.
musical work or compositions for singing or playing.
4.
the written or printed score of a musical composition.
5.
such scores collectively.

Which is why I consider electronica music, I mean just cus a machine did it doesn't degrade it to 'noise'.

That is a good point, and I misspoke.

My point was that, if you're supposed to be singing, then one should rely on their own voice, not that of an electronic assistant. I do enjoy electronica/techno occasionaly (I'm not a complete musical luddite), but I feel that relying on autotune for one's voice is the easy way out. Some enhancement is fine, everyone makes mistakes, but using it for the entire song? I don't see the point unless you're specifically going for a 'machine' voice.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

People don't know or care how their entertainment is made, they just want to shell over their dosh for it.

And why should they care?

Does it really matter, if it actually sounds good? I enjoy the music, so why should I care if "no omg this artist is cheating they dont really sound like that omg".

Who gives a fuck and why does it matter?

When did I imply that it matters?

I personally have to know how my entertainment is made because I dabble in the creation of almost all media (except literature). Music is the only one I do well, but working on other forms of media I end up learning enough about the processes from reading that it still takes the mystery out of it.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I wouldn't hate an artist for using autotune, but if it seemed like they hadn't previously and I then discovered they did I would likely lose some respect for them. Using something like autotune on occasion can be a wonderful tool, but reliance on it is pathetic.

Woops, I meant "would you suddenly hate their music." I'll try make that more clear.

And my point still stands as it is. I wouldn't hate the music or artist, but I'd lose respect for it. It's like knowing that all the highest scores on the leaderboards are there simply because the user cheated with an aimbot or some other thing like that. It can still be impressive, but they didn't do it honestly, so I don't respect them for it.

 

[hyperdrachen]

I'm seeing a lot of hateful words strewn about, referring to "ignorant idiots" not being robustly educated in the music industry. Such a mean spirited insult implies you have found something objectively wrong with a person. If your interest in music has sparked the curiosity to educate yourself about genres, artists, and industry tools(funny enough autotune was originally developed to filter sonar signals in commercial applications), that's great. But it doesn't really matter on any objective level, someone that doesn't know autotune from melodyn isn't a mouth-breathing scum sucker. Though a bit more on topic, yeah if you're ignorant on a subject, it's considered distasteful to speak from your ass about it.

 

[MintberryCrunch]

The only song I listen to regularly which has noticeable autotune would be Fear Factory's 'Ascension'. And even then, the autotune is used for effect- it's MEANT to sound robotic and weird, and is used along with lots of reverb and delay to give the vocal part (kept in the background anyway) sounding far away and robotic.
Slightly more on topic, I'm very against autotuning- or at least autotuning, where it is obvious that the singer (*cough* Ke$ha *cough*) isn't even bothering to sing. If I can't notice it properly, I can live with it. Also, I think that some imperfections, such as one line in Nothing Else Matters by Metallica ('All these words I don't just say', I think) help to give the song more feeling somehow- just feels more human, you can tell nobody has messed with the sound.

 

[AlAaraaf74]

I am against rap and pop, so I am not familiar with how auto-tune works. All I know is that Kesha uses it and her voice still sounds like dying kittens.