When will Autotune fad die already?

It's already in full effect with bands like Iron Chic and the rest of the No Sleep, Run For Cover, Pure Noise Records scene.

Not a huge fan but whatever.

Obviously if someone feels they need it for a live performance or recording they're not qualified to make good quality performances and recordings. It's using technology as a crutch to lean on, and I can't wait till it's gone.

Having never heard of Iron Chic....I checked out all of 20 seconds on a tune on Bandcamp. That's a bit of a different thing--that's literally being sloppy and amateurish. That's not really the only other option to tuning and quantizing into oblivion.

As to my hope, or lack thereof....my greatest fear is that it's getting worse as insecure musicians become engineers....and engineers who deal with independent musicians (rather than producer or label) feel the need to "fix" things as if that's part of the engineer's call in doing the job. I get tracks that are obviously tuned all the time. I know that I could do a more transparent job for them....but, I HATE that. Not only the act of doing it, but the fundamental fact that I'm second guessing the artist's sense of pitch. It's not really a digital right or wrong thing...I've gotten tracks that if I were the producer, I'd have REtuned because they were already flatlined into tempered tuning and harmony vocals don't beat right unless they're just intoned--TO MY EAR. So, that's why I don't get into it. I have never heard a tuning plug in fix a bad vocal. Nor a mediocre one. I HAVE heard it ruin perfectly human ones. And make lousy ones...both lousy AND robotic. As if PITCH is singing. Tuning a bad singer just makes for a weirdly unnatural marriage of poor tone and phrasing AND razor sharp "I've practiced to long singing scales with a piano" intonation.

Then there's the outlook for making a living as a musician...as that dwindles...less and less people will spend any considerable time practicing and honing their skills on their instrument. I already hear a lot of people say "recording IS my practice"...no wonder they like having a home studio!

So, if the industry were still a consolidated thing and doing "ok"...I'd be more hopeful. Because, yes--I'd think taste and trends are cyclical. They would globally swing away from "that sound" at some point....but, it's fallen apart right at the height of digital manipulation at the same time that said digital tools are cheap and ever musician has them. Hell--it's built INTO Cubase now. Logic, too, I think, though I don't really do audio work in Logic...it's bad timing for the change. If amateur singer X is now recording themselves, and they think some tuning plug in will somehow make them more competitively viable (whatever THAT means to a singer)--they'll do it. Not a second thought. Then as more and more kids are raised hearing the human voice digitally tuned...I fear they will begin to hear that as "normal". Twenty, thirty years from now, they'll be on some kind of forum discussing what the best vintage Autotune version was for the sound of X...and if they can wire up grandpa's old laptop to run it. Can you imagine? $5k iLoks. A boutique market of people building Windows XP and OSX machines from landfills and installing vintage digital manipulation tools for "that sound".

Ok. Pessimism overload. Gotta sign off. Big week...keep discussing.

It's a "sound', so it'll be here for a while, because it's a "tell" to young listeners. It will diminish, but never completely go away. I don't mind if a good singer has a good performance and a couple of notes are corrected a bit, instead of comping from different takes, but that sound is flat out bad. Don't forget, the people listening and buying this kind of music are probably listening while enjoying their chicken McNuggets made from pink slime.

I'm still waiting for hip hop/rap to die...;-)

I think it's useful in the way I mentioned. Say a good vocalist does two or three takes of a song, and one is outstanding, but there's a couple of glitches. You have three choices, record another vocal, comp the tracks by cutting and pasting, or just tune the one or two off pitch notes. So it all depends on other factors, the vocalist's stamina/ voice condition after three takes, if it seems the great take is just unrepeatable, etc.

So using auto-tune is just one more tool to use, some use it wisely, some abuse it. If you used Logic, you'd might enjoy Flex Pitch, it sounds quite natural and you can keep all the nuance you need.

Good point Tony, I usually do that myself on my own tunes, just leave it alone, so I mostly agree. Sometimes time doesn't permit do-overs and I need something done, so a tweak or two doesn't offend my sensibilities, even if I'd prefer not to. So far I've never touched a note on any of the demos I've sung and posted, so I'm doing OK, but if I was making it official, and considering it a record, I'd either do a new vocal, or I might correct a note or two, but it depends..

Do any of you find Melodyne to somewhat soften vocals in a pleasing way?

Les

I have a theory as to why we are more "pitch" sensitive these days. When was the last time you recorded a session where everyone tuned to each other? In the days of strobe tuners, which few average studios had, everyone tuned to the piano in a studio. Which may or may not have been perfectly tuned. Didn't matter cause when everyone tuned by ear to a counterpart there would be variations between instruments. Plus a cent or two here, minus there. A wash of variant sound waves which is one reason why a symphony orchestra sounds so alive.

Said all that to say this, in this scenario, vocals don't need to be so precisely tuned. They "fit" better with other voices because there is a slight variance in all.

We all use tuners these days to tune instruments to the nuts. That's fine, we all do it because we can (and probably should) but doing this makes the slightest pitch variations stick out like a sore thumb.

May be way off the mark here and I can even shoot holes in this argument myself but it is food for thought.

I agree with you guys, except I'm talking about singers that are way more off than a slight variance. I certainly don't have perfect pitch, and I'm glad I don't, based on the experiences of one of my friends who does. I may have perfect relative pitch, but even there, I'm sure I'd be OK with what you guys are calling a slight variance.

Totally agree. It's the first time in human history where exact tuning has been available through generations.