Autotune...I swear to God

Yes, agreed. I won't buy any of that type of software. Heck, I would rather not even build comps, but I always do. If I had it, I would end up using it.

I've stopped using it too, it corrupted some vocals, and I can't get them clean anymore. Maybe in an emergency, where a demo has one or two little notes that need help, but I'm coming around to where John is, try it again, and get my chops back first.

I discovered one cool thing to do with Logic's pitch correction though, (Flex Pitch), put it on a bass track, and correct pitch by 25%. It simply makes the bass sound like a higher quality bass that has less oscillation .

Years ago I had one of the hardware units. Maybe the software has improved,
but I thought it sounded terrible and couldn't stand alone.
With my old schools ways, if the vocals' off, sing it again. I'll do vocal comps, but if you can't sing,
find someone else to make you sound like you can.
I can't stand the chipmunk robot wannbe singers I hear on the radio.
They have no business being in the business.

And...we spend thousands on our vocal chain and BAAAMMMMM, as soon as AT or Melodyne hits a track, it gets hacked!

I've used it on badly intonate basses. It can work, but the trick is to set fire to those bassists for not hearing it (and the engineer for not hearing it..and the rest of the band for not hearing it).

Melodyne is a useful tool. If the Backing Vox all sang into one mic and the guy on the major third is a little flat - what else are you gonna do?

It's the ultimate audio fix-it-in-post tool. Movies didn't get better when post production advanced, it was unfortunate that audio guys expected otherwise. We can track faster and still get a professional seeming but mediocre/homogenous result, but we can't fix bad performance.

I loathe LOATHE HATE DETEST DESPISE REVILE Auto-tune!!!

I do a LOT of backing vocals on other people's records these days (not much call for 48 year old country-rock singers in today's disposable 20-something world, outside of live performances), and I spend HOURS on my BVox getting them as perfect as possible. I will sing each part again and again and again to get it right. Up to two hours on each part (3 parts or more, 3 tracks) per song. Like the rest of you, I find the sound of it grating and soulless. It boggles my mind how it has become the crutch for almost all vocals and the belief is that everything must be autotuned to be perfect. AT-ing removes the imperfections that ARE the perfection of great singing: Humanity and individuality.

50 years of amazing and magical music recorded without autotune, the last decade plus of the most forgettable music ever written, had autotune holding it's hand.... Hmmm

IMO 
autotune walks hand in hand with the Kardashian devolution, people have become myopically stupid, and can't even recognize competency anymore, let alone real talent! Now get off my lawn!!!

I just lost my coffee. That's the funniest thing I've read all week. You summed up my thoughts on the subject...maybe without even intending to.

It's a tool. Overuse it and it wrecks things. Use it right and it's a God-send. I use it a lot. It helps keep the talent centered and focused. If I know I can fix something, I can work them for an OVERALL emotional performance instead of grinding them on one line for half an hour. I'd agree about egregious over-useage, but as a tool, used correctly, at least in my world, it has made making music SO much better. I guess what I'm saying is, it's all in the producers hands to make things better or worse.

I will say that when I've messed with it, the graphic visual correlation between hearing myself going flat or sharp and seeing it simultaneously, made it a useful learning tool. But when employed, it has a "sound" that is inescapably synthetic...yuck! It's shocking how absurdly over used it is?? Do they make a T shirt that says "Autotune Sucks!"? I'd buy one 8)

You can make pitch correction pretty transparent in a spot treatment way. Cubase's built in is actually a good deal more transparent than the last time I used AT (which mind you was years ago and revisions back)--though less flexible in some ways. That's only an issue where you're doing an insert over all. Then, it's inescapable. But, that's ALWAYS been a useless thing, IMO.

Funny, I was listening to some old stuff of mine the other day...master candidate...anyway--I kinda thought I should try to recall the mixes and tune a vocal note. Why? Because I can hear the edit. I feel like I can more transparently correct that one note at the end of the line, sung years ago than the comp/edit I did on the old Akai system. And what's funny? Someone hearing it now will be like "I can hear the autotune"....when really what they hear is a kinda clumsy edit....but...let it go, yo....past is what it is....

But, the argument that it's "just a tool" ignores the negative impact of empowerment. Not unlike "guns don't kill people". It's both 100% true...and completely ineffective and pointless way looking at causal relationships and who gets to wield the tool and how.

Digital correction has NEVER made good music better. It HAS made great music worse. It has ruined perfectly good singers' who are insecure about their singing. It has taken at least one really GREAT Nashville singer and made her sound tone deaf on a record. Thank you, "producers" who "know better" what the "right" pitch was. See above about the flat major third. And unlike the loudness mastering, which we'll get beyond, and eventually, I'll get to hear things like the first Maroon5 record closer to it's mix dynamics...if you've tuned and beat detectived the content...it's done. That's the record.

Mark my words--click tracks and autotune are the gated snare reverbs and chorused guitars of the millenium. This too shall pass--and you will be embarrassed by your work during it. I know I am...

They used to call that "practicing", or honing ur craft 8)