I can't take Autotune anymore

rampant overuse of Autotune in R&B music makes me want to kill myself. I just can't listen to it anymore. Akon, Chris Brown, and worst of all T-Pain. I don't get it. Why do people find it appealing to listen to a robot? Seriously, I'm not even sure if there is a T-Pain. He's probably a computer program. Moreover, do record execs really think this dreck will sell better than actual people with good voices? And don't tell me it's because of image. There are plenty of people who are hot AND can sing their way out of a paper bag. We didn't seem to have any trouble finding them before Autotune existed.

I don't listen to THAT dreck ... I listen to OTHER dreck ...

Actually, I truly enjoy about 15 minutes of hip-hop every Saturday night ... that's it ... So I guess I'm not bored with it yet ...

Can you post an mp3 so I can hear what you're talking about mintbeetle?

+1

mmm. I like autotune in moderation, but it sucks when they drench the entire lead vocal with it.

No! Save yourself!!

Chances are you've already heard Autotune without realizing it. It's all over popular music these days, and the better your ears are, the more you suffer. I don't think it's a matter of not being able to find people that can sing, I just think today's producers go overboard with the Beat Detective and pitch correction to make everything sound "perfect." These are the same guys who master their tracks to be as loud as possible until clipping is introduced... :poke:

The main difference I notice between commercial R&B and other genres is R&B producers seem to use the Autotune as more of a vocal effect, while in rock music for example they try to make it more subtle (but either way, it still sticks out like a sore thumb to me.) If you ever hear any songs on the radio by Green Day, Evanescence, or Nickelback (to name a few culprits) you will be hearing it.

Now I'm intrigued......I didn't know about this.

Can anyone point me to a particular obvious point in a song so I can see if I hear it?

erm.......Chers "I believe" the bit where she goes "I berleeeeeeEEeeeEEEeve"

or are you avvin a larf ?

erm.......Chers "I believe" the bit where she goes "I berleeeeeeEEeeeEEEeve" or are you avvin a larf ?

Polar69 - no, of course that's obvious but that's an intentional effect, not a correction of dodgy singing.

Am not 'avving a larf'

Ok ok........Loud and clear on this one.....very Cher-like.

I listen to Evanescence a lot, and am actually a bit of a fan.....I can't recall hearing anything similar. Can you tell me which song in particular?

This munt obviously couldn't sing Happy Birthday in tune.

Groovatious..........you live in the same city as me yes? Let me know some details of where/when you're playing - I'd like to hear you play sometime.

I don't know about the latter two, but I heard Green Day in concert, and Billie Joe Armstrong sang loud, clear and "in tune", whatever that means, the entire time. They are one heck of a great live band. If Billie Joe really uses Auto Tune on his recordings, it's a shame, because he doesn't need it.

Yeah, like this.

:poke: What?

hmm. See, now I'm wondering how this weird little effect could be used live... it's not in standard multi-effect units, is it? It could be fun to have the wet/dry mapped to a pedal, and then just use it for accents / breaks / etc.

As an obvious effect of course, used for emphasis. Not for underwater hip-hop robot voice. yikes.

Question: how would you rank the artistic value / musical usefulness of...

-- autotune

-- vocoder

-- talkbox

haha. That's a TalkBox, and that's a whole 'nother thing. (see above)

The TalkBox gives you a lot more control over the sound, by manipulating the sound you push through the tube. Auto Tune has a different "flavor" to it.

Besides, that's Mr. Wonder. He can do whatever he damn well wants.

I'm not sure if it's autotune or some sort of exciter but the processing on Shania Twain drives me nuts. I pointed it out to my wife (driving in her car, radio tuned to chick radio) and she absolutely couldn't hear anything awry. In fifteen years that sound will be soooooooooooo dated.

It's dated NOW.

I remember demoing autotune a long time back when the software plugin was first out. I ran some vox through it and got the effect and thought "huh..this could be fun for about 10 minuts..". Then I got bored and moved on.

Now its damn near the most annoying possible sound. It almost grates on my ears like a 303

No! Save yourself!! Chances are you've already heard Autotune without realizing it. It's all over popular music these days, and the better your ears are, the more you suffer. I don't think it's a matter of not being able to find people that can sing, I just think today's producers go overboard with the Beat Detective and pitch correction to make everything sound "perfect." These are the same guys who master their tracks to be as loud as possible until clipping is introduced... :poke: The main difference I notice between commercial R&B and other genres is R&B producers seem to use the Autotune as more of a vocal effect, while in rock music for example they try to make it more subtle (but either way, it still sticks out like a sore thumb to me.) If you ever hear any songs on the radio by Green Day, Evanescence, or Nickelback (to name a few culprits) you will be hearing it.

could not have said it better myself. Antares is the "808 cowbell" of the new millenium of pop-r&b.

How some of you guys are confusing the Frampton vocal sound with the Britney vocal sound is beyond me. Hearing something like Carrie Underwood when I walk into a store is like having a class IV laser bore a hole into my ear.

It's dated NOW.

yep. i try to explain this to some of my clients. i think there's a pitch-correction backlash in the works. buyers are going to start thinking,"why am i paying good money to listen to a singer who cannot sing?"

Yeah I know... talkbox takes excessive skill and autotune is excessive non skill.

However, the autotune function for T.Pain and others use it mainly for vocoding effect. I don't really mind it that much cuz it actually sounds pretty cool...

But for people that use autotune to try to "hide" their imperfections and make it subtle yet obvious... that's when I hate it.

It's dated NOW.

Nothing since 1987 sounds dated to me because I've probably never heard it before.