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Autotune SUCKS


seti

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On 10/11/2012 at 8:37 AM, mark1101 said:

If you look at Thebes "top 10" article most "newer" artists using autoune are already producing heavily electronically altered music. Fine. I agree they may be using autotune for the reasons they cite.

All I am saying as that if a singer can't hit a note and instead turns to an artifical method to "fix that"..............it is a rip off to their fans and the hard earned dollars they pay to see their music idols.

Reba has admitted using autotume to help her stay on key in live performances..............citing in live performances she can't always here herself in the in ear monitors. The autotune only kicks in when she is off key.

That my friend is exactly what I call a rip off to your fans. It's a bunch of BS. She REALLY sings off key and covers it up so people will still pay good money to see her.

I pretty much came here to say this. If you are using Auto-tune as an instrument of artistic expression and are open about it like T-Pain and many electronic tracks that tweak vocals for effect then I am fine with it. As for traditional music I think it is a rip off and a scam. I spent over a grand on over 30 year old speakers that are 103 db sensitive so I can hear every crackle and nuance in a persons voice because I want to hear a human being express themselves in my living room, not some computer whitewashing the character out of it.

 

For example here is heavily filtered vocal that is part of the overall feel and message of the song:

 

 

 

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  • 7 months later...
On 8/31/2012 at 5:33 AM, seti said:

HOLY CRAP ON A CRACKER!!!!!!!!!

I just had to clean my desk of coffee spew. Bob Dylan through an autotune...

Iain,

 

I've been working on fixing a few albums that I did at the beginning of the "Missing Octave" thread a couple of years ago, re-doing those early attempts using the demastering skills that I've acquired since that early learning curve period.  Some of those early albums included auto-tune queens (...not Bob Dylan in this case).  I'm sitting here listening to one of those redone albums and I have to say that given that the recordings as reconstructed have a minimum DR rating of like 11 or 12, they're very entertaining if I don't to pay any attention to the histrionic lyrics--but which are much easy to hear now the tracks are demastered...I must admit.  When everything is in tune via your favorite: Auto-Tune and the mix is declipped and rebalanced, I don't have to grind my teeth...and it's actually pretty entertaining background music fill.

 

However, and as a counterexample of the success of demastering, I re-did a jazz lounge singer album--one that was making some rounds a couple of years ago on YouTube videos on big Western Electric iron horns--driven to extreme volume using thermionic gear.  It's a CD that required a lot of demastering to undo some pretty severe clipping and after-mixdown EQ.  I now have to cringe when the singer doesn't hit her pitch on certain tracks, instead of beforehand clinching due to the extremely emphasized sibilance highs that were apparently placed there to distract you from her [pitch challenged] performance. 

 

Auto-tune does have a useful application.  If you apply it to typical minor key Millennial pop tracks in small doses, it works pretty well.  (YMMV.)

 

JMTC ;)

 

lavigne2.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm= 41dyPywZXNL._CR0,0,500,500_UX128.jpg

 

 

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18 hours ago, Chris A said:

Iain,

 

I've been working on fixing a few albums that I did at the beginning of the "Missing Octave" thread a couple of years ago, re-doing those early attempts using the demastering skills that I've acquired since that early learning curve period.  Some of those early albums included auto-tune queens (...not Bob Dylan in this case).  I'm sitting here listening to one of those redone albums and I have to say that given that the recordings as reconstructed have a minimum DR rating of like 11 or 12, they're very entertaining if I don't to pay any attention to the histrionic lyrics--but which are much easy to hear now the tracks are demastered...I must admit.  When everything is in tune via your favorite: Auto-Tune and the mix is declipped and rebalanced, I don't have to grind my teeth...and it's actually pretty entertaining background music fill.

 

However, and as a counterexample of the success of demastering, I re-did a jazz lounge singer album--one that was making some rounds a couple of years ago on YouTube videos on big Western Electric iron horns--driven to extreme volume using thermionic gear.  It's a CD that required a lot of demastering to undo some pretty severe clipping and after-mixdown EQ.  I now have to cringe when the singer doesn't hit her pitch on certain tracks, instead of beforehand clinching due to the extremely emphasized sibilance highs that were apparently placed there to distract you from her [pitch challenged] performance. 

 

Auto-tune does have a useful application.  If you apply it to typical minor key Millennial pop tracks in small doses, it works pretty well.  (YMMV.)

 

JMTC ;)

 

lavigne2.jpg?w=300&q=55&auto=format&usm= 41dyPywZXNL._CR0,0,500,500_UX128.jpg

 

 

 

That sounds like a lot of work and worthy experiments. I don't disagree that autotune can be a very useful tool or sound effect. Wasn't this the original intent? It certainly wasn't invented to make Cher sound listenable... Just got shivers. 8-) I still consider it a plague and pure evil the way it is used in this day and age.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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...I thought that you'd love it, Iain....:emotion-25:

 

"Pure evil?"  I thought that the entire audio mastering industry is based on that...;)

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4 hours ago, Chris A said:

...I thought that you'd love it, Iain....:emotion-25:

 

"Pure evil?"  I thought that the entire audio mastering industry is based on that...;)

 

Preach it.  There are some exceptions but not enough....

 

 

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Can you show me where in the article it says Bob Dylan uses auto-tune?  All I found is where they implied he does not.  They said if he was starting out today, he probably would.

 

The article is striking because it shows the open disrespect the engineers have toward the artists who use it.  It also shows that the artists use it for the exact reasons I stated 5 years ago...........to make sure people keep paying their money to them.

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Hey Mark - I was merely messing with Iain--yet again (and it's one of the more notable episodes, I might add...). 

 

Fear not--Mr. Dylan's artistic integrity is intact:

 

 

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Wow.  Talking about feeling old.  I could only relate to the thread "Autotune" as FM tuner speak.  Yeah...really.  Then, there was discussion of America's Got Talent and such.  Not sure whether I am pleased that I have no idea what this thread is about, or just glad apparently good jazz and great chamber music (probably not calliope music ether CARL) are not affected by whatever plague it is you are discussing.  Sorry for the intrusion.  Carry on...

 

Dave

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