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Arghh - autotune

CapMan

CapMan

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I wonder if this awful tool might be even more detrimental to musical enjoyment than the overuse of dynamic compression.

Once you’ve heard that synthetic, robotic twang on a singer’s voice there’s no going back. Even in moderation you can hear it - what’s the point of loosing the natural voice to some air brushed facsimile .

I had the Andrea Bocelli family Christmas album on (don’t judge me) and his son sounds like a Michael Buble clone.

I’m going to stick to old jazz LPs as I know the singers were actually singing unaided , the drummers could play good time and feel without a click track and the band could play together live with appropriate dynamics .

Rant over - happy Christmas
 
The designer claims (and I have no reason to disbelieve him) that it was intended for minor tweaks after the fact to clean up a track that might otherwise have to be redone. Obviously, someone cranked the knob to 11, and here we are.
 
Must be doing something right, in that I have little interaction with autotune, but definitely don't care for it myself..
 
I have a track or two that uses it, somewhat sparingly by modern standards. It's just OK.
 
Just like heavy compression, autotune is now expected for pop music ... even people that can sing use it. I think most younger pop fans would find a dynamic non autotuned recording to sound strange and unfamiliar. Luckily good quality recorded music has been around for 70+ years so it is possible to find the recording style you prefer.
 
I drive my granddaughters around and they get to control the radio. A good deal of the music they listen to has promiscuous use of auto-tune. It makes all the vocals sound like the same electronic device.
 
Always good to check the 'artists' using autotune if they can sing live.
Recent pop music is full of autotune.
Luckily, I can't hear any of this in my library.
 
Liya said:
Always good to check the 'artists' using autotune if they can sing live.
Recent pop music is full of autotune.
Luckily, I can't hear any of this in my library.
Click to expand...
They use autotune live. Unless your library only has older music, classical, and jazz your library is full of it. And Im not so sure about classical and jazz anymore.

 
Anyone heard Cher’s Christmas single? Awful. Still at nearly 80 at least she has an excuse for not being able to sing.
 
antcollinet said:
Anyone heard Cher’s Christmas single? Awful. Still at nearly 80 at least she has an excuse for not being able to sing.
Click to expand...

Never been a Cher fan myself.....nor many pop singers for that matter.
 
I like autotune, when it is correctly applied!

 
It is possible there is some autotune in my stagnant CD collection.

When was it invented?

Maybe 1997.

Well, there's not much on the shelves from this century, so, maybe not.
 
MAB said:
It's reminds me of Kenny G and his obsession to never render a bad note.
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Whether someone thinks that is what music should be or not, could be argued forever; but working hard to attain what you perceive as perfection seems vastly different than processing everything through a program to try to keep it in tune.
 
fpitas said:
The designer claims (and I have no reason to disbelieve him) that it was intended for minor tweaks after the fact to clean up a track that might otherwise have to be redone. Obviously, someone cranked the knob to 11, and here we are.
Click to expand...
Well... there was Cher.



That same Cher who now has the distinction of having had a hit record in each of seven decades.
I report, you decide.
 
Cbdb2 said:
They use autotune live. Unless your library only has older music, classical, and jazz your library is full of it. And Im not so sure about classical and jazz anymore.

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Yes, you are right about them using autotune live. It is hopless.
Well, they are hopeless.
And 'older music, classical and jazz' is quite precise description of my music library.
Classical and jazz, I listen to, is almost exclusively instrumental, so no problem here and with my 'older music', I don't think they used autotune back then ;)
 
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