NPR article on Auto-Tune

Drew Howard · Post by **Drew Howard** » 23 Nov 2008 9:46 am

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=97312511

"One producer estimated that it's used by at least 60 percent of today's recording artists."

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 23 Nov 2008 11:27 am

Only 60%??? Not Likely...

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 23 Nov 2008 4:40 pm

Heheheheh, I listened to the show on my player and enjoyed it and not trying to sound as a know it all (because obviously I sure don't)I really didn't learn anything new but I enjoyed the piece immensely especially the young singer doing her first debut tracks. She was very confident that they would not have to use the auto tune on her wonderful voice at all but only sparingly if they did LOL no make that ROTFLMAO!! If they release that cut without tuning it some no again make that a lot it will not get much airplay (my opinion only). I actually thought she sang very good but there were plenty of pitch problems. Now if you come from the same school I came from you don't mind a few minor pitch problems actually all of my singing heroes from the 50's 60's 70's all had a few pitch problems and that was just the way it was back then but today it's a different market!

The engineer kept talking about how they like to let the feeling come thru bad pitch and all well that's the biggest load of BS that I've ever heard. Here in Nashville or any other recording place such as John's place the producers and engineers wants and needs perfection.

Now mind me I'm not saying that their thinking is right or good but today everyone uses it. It is no longer used to make minor vocal tuning edits but used a a complete tool to make singers out of non singers. I'm not saying that everyone has to be completely worked over but many of today's artists do not sing on key as good as they seem to on the radio.

I am a technology supporter in the biggest way possible so please don't think I'm against auto tuners actually I even use one in my little home studio for vocals and even to create harmonies. So I am for the use of it big time and any other technology that helps us make better music

I just thought it was funny that the little gal making her debut album was so sure that her vocals would not need to be tuned

Very good post and an interesting listen thanks....

Big Bob

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 25 Nov 2008 3:40 pm

The thing about autotune is that it's just a tool. One guy can take a nailgun and make a fine piece of furniture and the next guy will nail his foot to the floor with it...just depends on how you use it. I use it almost daily in ways you would never notice--have saved many great performances with it.

The sad thing is how much it's lowered the bar with even good players. I constantly get the "oh, you can just tune that" or "just fly it in t the other chorus'" etc. Even a lot of novices ask what your protools and autotune capabilites are before booking any time. Fortunately I work mostly with quality clients--I do have a wonderboy that works here that is a whiz at editing and tuning and is waay fast at it--he doesn't like it either, but he gets it done quickly...

That 60% figure is waaay conservative....

Steve Hinson · Post by **Steve Hinson** » 25 Nov 2008 4:11 pm

I played on a thing recently where the work CD was just the artist and an acoustic guitar...the vocal had been tuned on the work CD...

Ulf Edlund · Post by **Ulf Edlund** » 26 Nov 2008 1:51 am

I'd guess a little over 100%

Justin Douglas · Post by **Justin Douglas** » 2 Dec 2008 7:02 am

i produce and engineer for a living and own a commercial studio in here in austin. i've worked with a lot of huge acts and a lot of nobodies, and auto-tune is about as ubiquitous as they come. personally i use melodyne, not auto-tune, as it's much less destructive.

i'm actually finishing up an indy rock/experimental album right now where we went in with the notion of using no auto-tune. we'd just record like it was tape - meaning lots and lots of vocal takes. it's a lot more work on the front end, but man do i love how natural and honest it sounds.

pitch correction is great in moderation in my opinion. if you get a singer to emote amazingly but it's a hair off pitch, you can correct it and keep the performance that you may loose with more takes. it's also great on this wonky 60s Gibson EB-0 bass i've got lying around!

Jeff Hogsten · Post by **Jeff Hogsten** » 2 Dec 2008 10:51 am

does melodyne change the sound, they say auto tune doesnt but it does, at least to my ear. THe problem is when these people get out live they cant pull it off. I know one person that has a great sounding voice. He went to nashville and came back with a great sounding demo. Live it is terrible. I know some people use it live to. I do a lot of southern gospel and some of them have very heavy vibrato and that makes it hard to use but then again Ive not tried very hard to learn

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 29 Dec 2008 11:22 am

I have an older rack version Antares ATR-1, it works very fine for subtle changes but I can't imagine anyone using it for an entire performance ! Geesh !

I have found that for a few notes here and there it is an awesome tool to save a great overall performance, but to use it to create a great performance it is a bust.