Who needs talent when there is autotune

[soniklife]

JT- I am with you all the way. I have been working in the music industry since 1998, starting out in manufacturing and writing freelance for music mags to working in publicity for two independent record labels (which I have been doing since 2001), so I have seen my fair share of talent versus manufactured garbage. Let is be known autotune is not only being used in pop music but even lots of mainstream rock AND independent rock, even bands that label themselves as "punk". It is actually really sad, and in some ways stuff like this makes me hate music at times.

Autotune I am certain was created just to do clean up in recordings, as there are lots of filters, plug ins and techniques in the world of digital recording that allow one to edit a performance without having the artist do it again until it is 100%. Almost like when artists "punch in" to fix mistakes. But like every tool that is created to assist it gets abused to the point where people look at it as a shortcut. Singing has become an absolute after thought in modern music as result. Living with an audio engineer I know there is talent required on the engineer's part to make the autotune not noticeable but I struggle to see where the talent lies within the performer when such editing tools and studio trickery is relied on.

Where are the great voices of today's music? Look throughout the history of American rock & roll, soul, jazz, and pop and there have been amazingly gifted vocal talents. Whether we are talking Billie Holiday, Sara Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Brian Wilson, Cat Stevens and even modern song writers like Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters,, Sun Kil Moon), David Bazan (Pedro the Lion), Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices), Sara Shannon (velocity Girl), Pam Berry (Black Tambourine, Glo Worm) etc. all have/had amazing voices that didn't require studio trickery. They all just sing from their hearts and what comes out is what you hear. No frills.

Maybe I am too passionate about music and just don't want to see music become some sort commercial, disposable wasteland of sounds devoid of any real talent behind them. Just my two cents.

[Ack]

I would like to take a moment and say that I really want to download that MP3, if only because of the ridiculousness of it.

Also, did any of you know he got caught with a hooker in Florida? They both got arrested for assaulting one another.

[Anubis]

modern song writers like Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters,, Sun Kil Moon), David Bazan (Pedro the Lion),

Yes. Lets add Jeff Mangum and Will Sheiff to that as well.

[soniklife]

modern song writers like Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters,, Sun Kil Moon), David Bazan (Pedro the Lion),

Yes. Lets add Jeff Mangum and Will Sheiff to that as well.

Definitely good call on Jeff Mangum. As I side note I know dude that is really good friends with Jeff and Jeff lived with him for a spell pre-"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" era. Some interesting stories, and he has a bunch of private recordings of shows and such from back then. Really cool stuff.

And I guess you can add John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats) to that list as well.

[Snickerd00dle]

that was funny, and good too, i think autotune has its place, but like all things can be misused

[marurun]

Time.com has a wonderful article on AutoTune.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... -1,00.html

Basically, it's used in almost every bit of music released today and in most cases is undetectable (except in that the singer's pitch is a little too perfect). One of the implications is that live concerts by artists who get by with AutoTune are either going to be lipsync concerts or VERY pitchy. Seriously, read the whole article. It's worth it.

[Anubis]

Interesting read.
I'm not surprised to hear that.

Also add, Sufjan Stevens.

[Gamerforlife]

I guess this is why I like Metal bands. Many of them display genuine talent, which few other genres of music seem to require these days. I'm assuming this auto-tune thing is not that prevalent amongst most metal bands as it seems like the sort of thing Metalheads would be quick to complain about. In fact, most metal sites I've seen seem to hate anything in metal that even remotely resembles mainstream or popular music.

[dsheinem]

Definitely good call on Jeff Mangum. As I side note I know dude that is really good friends with Jeff and Jeff lived with him for a spell pre-"In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" era. Some interesting stories, and he has a bunch of private recordings of shows and such from back then. Really cool stuff.

Oh!? I'm a huge Neutral Milk Hotel/Mangum fan as well - you wouldn't happen to have (or be able to get) copies of any of this stuff, would you?

[marurun]

I guess this is why I like Metal bands. Many of them display genuine talent, which few other genres of music seem to require these days. I'm assuming this auto-tune thing is not that prevalent amongst most metal bands as it seems like the sort of thing Metalheads would be quick to complain about. In fact, most metal sites I've seen seem to hate anything in metal that even remotely resembles mainstream or popular music.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the vocals on some of the more mainstream metal (yeah yeah, oxymoron, I know) albums were subjected to AutoTune. Properly configured all it does is adjust the singer's voice to make sure it stays on pitch. It'll still sound just like the singer's voice because it's just a little tweak. It's mis-use of AutoTune that screws with the fundamental sound of vocals. That said, it's a little unnatural for singers to be in tune, on pitch all the time. Sure, even Aretha Franklin can sound a little pitchy at times, but that's the nature of even the best human voices.