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As a full-time mixing engineer, auto-tune is intended to be an effect. Pitch correction is what this video is referencing. The problem is that everything we hear on the radio or from our favorite artists is pitch corrected so consistently that we’ve lost touch with what the actual human voice sounds like. This is why when we go to live shows we are almost always disappointed.
What exactly does a mixing engineer do? Do you have to know how to technically work with signals (sound -> digital) and use functions to alter those signals? Or it it less technical than (ie no Fourier or things of that nature)
@@dahleno2014 In a nutshell, it is my job to enhance the sonic qualities of the source audio as well as to control the dynamics of each instrument to fit each one into the song. It’s extremely technical, when well done, but also equally as creative. You can apply tried and true methods to achieve this but to really make a mix shine requires a trained ear and wise application of processing.
Thanks for clarifying this because what people call Autotune, I call a 'voice decoder'; this is an obvious audio effect, not to improve the vocal but make it different, the point is the effect whereas what people are calling Autotune you are saying is pitch correction, the difference in obvious, if you don't like the vocal effect that's fine but let's not pretend like the point is to obscure 'bad singing'.
Imperfections is what makes music unique, for example Kurt Cobain, his voice cracks add emotion and feelings to his music. It doesn't need to be perfect to be perfect.
I agree. I love music and I hate auto tune. Everytime I hear it I stop listening. Music is very much linked to my soul. And if I don't feel it I'm out. Started making my own just for the enjoyment.
Shakira said in some Rolling Stone Interview that she uses autotune because she can't pronounce Gs in English and it's easier to just have the engineer correct it. But maybe says Gs with her own accent would give her music more character, inspire some creativity in the lyrics ect.
Interesting. I will have to check out some of her English stuff. I have only listen to her Spanish music. It feels very weird to me to listen to her in another language because I have been listening to her since she got her start in the 90s. Back then, she only sang in Spanish.
Honestly I do think we should create categories for artist who want to take the time to perfect their voices. I’ve realized not everyone is interested in instant gratification and those people deserve to be celebrated for the hard work and dedication they put in. I personally feel like with out it we could loose a whole section of people who do it for passion and not just for money, clout, because it’s trendy, etc.
Yep. I legitimately have talent, there's nobody left to stick up for me, so I have to stick up for myself. I don't care what anyone thinks: if you use autotune or pitch correction you can't fucking sing
They use less of it in the Philippines, on certain networks and artist's live performances, which is one reason I follow Filipino singers. This is my favorite female singer, Jona Viray (she's Filipino) in a beautiful live concert performance, with only some reverb, in what seems like the venue video recording, or at least a professional recording, of Lady Gaga's I'll Never Love Again: ruclips.net/video/fOitELGlNlk/видео.html
The algorithm doesn’t always love it lol. I try to be calculated with my randomness. I wanna try even more broad topics but going too risky can hurt a channel permanently
I totally agree that autotune is one of many tools that artists can use to deliver a certain emotion. Actually being slightly flat or sharp depending on the melodic context can add more longing or brightness to something... just like a jazz/blues singer would. Awesome vid - lookin forward to the next one!
People rly need to know the difference between pitch correction software and “autotune”. Pitch correction done through melodyne requires 100x more work than Antares. The autotune aesthetic is ingrained with pop and pop rap now, which is fine. We’ve grown to accept and enjoy it immensely. But at the end of the day, the effort from the individual artist in the pursuit of perfection for rap and pop will always take the easy route with Antares software. It just make sense when the music is profit driven. More time spent in the studio is money lost
Pitch correction is the purpose of both Auto-Tune and Melodyne. Auto-Tune has the same graph mode that allows the user to correct notes manually in the same way as Melodyne. Vice versa, Melodyne has the option to tune every note automatically.
@@DeBlauweOlifant The main point is that Antares auto-tune is called "auto"-tune for a reason. You can use it in live performances to pitch correct in real time. Melodyne can only pitch correct pre-recorded vocals.
@@EvanWBetke yes, but the original post is implying that auto tune is the easy route, which is not necessarily true as the software can be used in the exact same way as Melodyne.
The songs, with one or two notes per verse missed, used to be part of a performer's signature voice prior to pitch correction software. If we want more of those, we need a bigger non-corrected music sector by whatever means it takes.
Perfect example of this is Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged album. She was dealing with a cold at the time, so her voice has notable cracks in it while she's singing. But that is exactly what adds to the emotion and rawness of the project, and is a classic project standing the test of time. Great video as always, Patrick!
That album is a perfect example of an artist being raw and emotional to the point where it makes you feel something, so yeah its definitely a perfect... it was considered bad by critics but it's definitely not
@@noname-ng6sj Foolish comment, imo. This was deemed “top 10 worst albums” by who exactly? Are you really validating tha opinions of tha same industry that compelled such a REAL, talented, and raw artist to leave that very industry due to what she has described as her various forms of mistreatment by said industry?!? Com’mon now. Do better.
@@neish9520 People want Britney back in the conservatorship because it means more horny music. So yeah. People will say autotune is best and good. No one wants to wait for greatness like Patrick said
Crazy thing is T-pain is a pretty damn amazing musician and vocalist even though people associate him with autotune. See his performances on the masked singer and his tiny desk NPR performance and you'll see what i mean. Autotune doesn't make you a good singer but used in the right way, it can definitely elevate you up
Honestly I don't care for auto tune that much but listening to songs that don't have heavy auto tune makes me feel connected. I love when artists sing from the heart and show off their amazing voice.
I feel like back then artists had to actually have talent and put much more effort into their craft than now. Their artistry defended itself without pitch correction tools, constant image changes, scandals etc. Most mainstream musicians aren't artists, they're just performers to me. I know autotune and similar stuff is almost inescapable at this point, but I respect everyone who refuses to use it and sings even better live than on their studio recordings. I think it shows that they truly love music and respect their fans.
It sucks it took the skill out of the whole thing. It’s as if it became industry standard to allow aim bot hacks in video game tournaments to accommodate those who have good game sense but bad aim. Like come on if you’re the best singer then you should be known as the most skilled singer and if you’re not that skilled then you can sing but you shouldn’t be allowed to use hacks to make yourself seem more talented than you are.
Billie Eilish is a great example. When her song "NDA" was released, she got a lot of criticism for using auto-tune in the chorus. She and her brother, Finneas, ended up having to explain how they decided to use auto-tune for artistic purposes. When I first heard the song, I immediately understood that, so seeing all the backlash she received was bizarre. Great video!
@@heinoustentacles5719because she is… they don’t use autotunnel on Billies music unless it’s for artistic purposes. They cut and paste dozens of recordings to get the pitch right if that’s their goal, and you can hear in her live performances that autotune is not what makes her a good singer
@@jemappellemerci I never said she wasn't authentic. I just meant that marketing oneself as such means that they can never vary from the path. Think about the ribbing a vegan would get if someone caught them eating a hamburger.
Billie Eilish makes some of the worst music I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. It all sounds like a soulless viral video. She doesn't make authentic music, she's a marketing gimmick. Ozzy said it best when he was asked about Billie Eilish "Who the F*ck is Billie Eilish". Even Ozzy in his old age after all of the substance abuse can still make thought evoking music like the song Life Wont Wait. Auto tube isn't the problem here. The problem is that social media is lowing the bar.
The bands we saw had no money, two backlines, 7 piece drum kit, 3 mics, 3 mic stands, 3 mic cables, rhythm, lead bass guitar. They tuned guitars BY EAR. The crushed it and were furious forces of nature in a live setting. You will have to wait until those of us who know better ('old people have been complaining about'') die and leave you to your ignorance.
My problem with autotune is that its simply slapped onto any vocal no matter what. Rap really suffered for it because now all the emotion and character has been removed. imo rappers should just use it sporadically throughout a song like if it was an effect.
as a huge metalhead but also a hiphop fan i love the idea of autotune in rap hiphop and pop music but metal is where you have to be an already super talented musician without relying on any effects so i can see why its loved in some genres and hated in others
It honestly just depends on the style of the specific artist/genre. As someone who also likes metal and im also huge into HC punk, it would sound very weird in such raw sounding genres that usually have heavily overdriven bass/guitars.
Well... yes you have to rely on your voice, but also most metal artists I know use heavy reverb and delay for the screams. Which is just another effect, not necessarily better or worse than the autotune
Modern metal music is editing hell btw. The more screams the less autotune is needed, yes. On the other hand drum replacement, drummers not playing their kit or part of their kit is not uncommon. Moreover guitar takes oft have to be edited and time aligned in order to meet the modern standard of metal production. I do not want to discredit metal at all but it is also edited to inhumane perfection. Tbh I like the sound of it too.
@@Lollokowns in raw black metal slam and deathmetal there is pretty much 0 editing other than mixing but with djent and deathcore alot of chopping up guitar tracks is used
I am a huge fan of a very broad range of music, from classic rock, classic hip hop, modern/alternative rock, modern hip hop, jazz, and country. Personally, I think T-Pain's utilization of AutoTune and bringing it out from the shadows was genius back in the mid 2000's. I was a huge fan when it was on the radio and still am today. At least for T-Pain, it brings another layer of character to his songs that would not be there otherwise.
As a hard working singer I can't agree more on your analysis. When you work hard on your singing it doesn't really matter what effects or plug-ins you use on it, but I mean, real musicians and real music lovers will obviously hear the difference, even if you're not topping any charts. Anyway, thank you for your work, I really appreciate it.
As an amateur sound engineer, there is nothing like mixing a song without using pitch correction, because i honestly perfection to me is what works best in the context not what will be perfectly accurate (Specially when listening stuff over and over when has nuance its more fun)
I work hard on my singing not because I want to sing without autotune always but just so that the autotune corrects me way less and I shouldn't actively hear it 😂
finally someone said it, talent isn't even a requirement anymore, just do what everyone is doing and try to get picked up by the algorithm, music isn't even art anymore its whatever the trends dictate
I know this video is a month old but Patrick you should know that this ad you pushed is claiming they are authentic Japanese knives but they are made in China, Scott Shafer made a video on it
@@liltree8382 anyone dumb enough to take out loans for a college major they couldn't afford deserves to be scammed. Etc. Not sure why people are OK with scam ads, auto scams, etc. but financial scams, those aren't OK... Just very odd.
Bro thank you. When people shit on auto tune all I can hear is "I don't understand how music works in the slightest". Not to say you can't dislike the way it sounds. But to suggest it's any different than any other tool in the studio is ignorant.
@@liltree8382 In its simplest terms, that being a device which takes an input and distorts the sound between its output, it is totally in in the same category- that being a tool. Especially considering you can use "auto-tune"/pitch correction in many different ways as demonstrated in this video. I get the impression you just felt like sounding smart by letting us know you know the names of the most basic effects in music. So I'll give you a lil congrats buddy :)
Another issue, especially in edm/hip is that the instrumentals are perfectly in tune 9/10 because they are made with VST's, synths, or are also pitch corrected as well. When you put a natural non-auto tuned vocal on an instrumental like that, it tends to clash and sounds very off putting. But in other genres where there is live instrumentation, it doesn't sound as bad because the singer is usually matching the tonality of the band/instruments, and the band is also matching the tuning of the singer as well.
My friend and I are currently in the process of going through all my vocal takes for an upcoming EP, and deciding which notes are better auto tuned and which are better left more raw. It’s a useful tool but the energy of the take has to be right at least
@@TheInsider300 we use software called Studio One, it’s expensive to buy but you can pay instalments monthly. Then we use Melodyne in Studio One, we have actual auto tune as well but we find it sounds too unnatural
People might still be up their own ass about the Astro world thing but we need to give Travis his flowers. He uses auto tune like an instrument. And masterfully at that.
I think the best thing about Auto Tune is that it has allowed artists who aren't great singers but can write GREAT songs, to get popular and spread their art in to the world. Its a double edged sword honestly
@@AFter-instrumentals bruh independent artists don't have a whole team to write songs, plenty of them are individuals doing everything from writing to mixing
@@nahbruh6231 not mainstream music, there's a team behind most popular songs. And also a team of songwriters, alot of the time (even rappers) are paid as a face
But they didnt need that before. You have Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, joy division, all the punk bands. They didnt need autotune before and they didnt need perfect pitch neither
Tupac's house of blues performance is the biggest example that in live performance you don't really need to be on the notes or delivering the same as the song available it's all about the experience and fun
Neil Young and Bob Dylan do beg to differ that you needed to be a great vocalist to have a career in the past. But truly, they are both exceptional in this regard.
Billy Corgan is not technically a bad singer, a nasal singer is not a technically bad singer, he sings trough his range with enough freedom. A shitty singer excuses himself with the "artistic uses of autotune" @@SaintKines
Hey man I need to say this, you are one of the creators that no matter what the video theme is I'll be there watching your video. Is hard for me to find creators like you these days.
Bladee is a great example of how autotune really can add emotion and atmosphere to songs. Using autotune isnt the problem. The problem is pitch correction
I'd like to mention David Bowie's "Cat People" song for this such thing. His raw emotion in that song is incredible especially when the song picks up tempo his high note is absolutely fantastic but it's clear he misses a few notes but that literally adds character because no human is perfect at all when singing. In fact that's what makes the song genuine and even better. I'd also like to mention the song "Dealer" by Lana Del Rey when she purposefully goes off key for the first note and slowly reels back in tune for the high note. I mean it's incredible. Auto tune really does take the fun out of pure music and the amount of possibilities a person has to perfect their music. But when it comes to concerts it's hit or miss. It all has to do how genuine your music is and how you go about making your music and that will be genuine. I will always push for genuine un auto tuned music but hey I like music that I like and that will be different from anyone else and so on.
I studied music and video production for my undergrad and currently produce music on the side for fun. Big picture, I think pitch correction software like Antares is a net good for everyone. You mentioned being worn down on stage and being fatigued can affect your singing. This is true just as much in the studio. You're doing multiple takes of each verse for multiple songs in a day. Pitch correction is a life saver in this case and makes everybody's life easier. Vocalists don't have to keep running back lines until they can barely talk. I can just apply some pitch correction and we're good. It speeds up the process. Back in the day, people didn't have access to this software but they also had lower recording quality. Songs sometimes sounded like a mess while frequencies bleeding together. This could make the vocal imperfections less noticeable but they're definitely there. Other software has just as much of an effect on vocals if not more than pitch correction. For my own vocals, layering and compression usually gets me 90% of the way there. Then I decide if I even want any pitch correction. I think auto-tune gets the brunt of the hate because it one of the effects people hear and know what it is.
@FennaBlue This is true and I agree. It's different these days but pitch correction doesn't magically make people sound good. You still have to have some talent.
@@melodramatic7904 Exactly, which is why I don't bother with the overwhelming majority of mainstream music these days. Just spent today listening to real singing, like that of Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Lead Belly. Very different voices, distinct sounds, different ways of conveying emotion.
Vocoders have been used since the 70s. It's often used in industrial music especially during the late 90s and early 2000s. I enjoy vocoding and auto tuning as an effect or different sound but I also enjoy music without auto tune. It's nice to have a variety of musical interests especially this day in age.
It's a crutch. Same with microphones too- so many "singers" today are so breathy and whispery, I doubt they have done the lung work needed to really project their voice to fill a room without speakers
Story from a Fully Independent artist/musician/singer/etc of 20yrs here (age 33 meow). I Discovered graphic autotune at age 14 in 2004. Once I got very good at using it about 2008ish and my voice developed more, got some vocal coaching it became the most USEFUL tool for me as a vocalist and producer. We all know that polished pop vocal productions (especially with large stacks) are inhuman and the bar has been set very high in the 2000s. Especially as a singer who plays all the instruments on my records, mixes and masters on top of my dayjob....graphic autotune is an anchor for me to have a "polished/modern" vocal. 99% of the time it's unnoticeable, and 1% of the time I use hard autotune for purposeful effect. If your voice is good enough and the take is practiced well, graphic autotune doesn't sound "like autotune" and just makes the vocal sound more polished. I am a perfectionist with performance, but I'm also realistic and have always treated the recording arts as a whole different ballgame to live performance. I love them both but they are just different fields...and why not make the true music you hear in your head, quality and all, in the recording? I've never had shame in using it, and never will. After all, if your voice is truly bad, you will notice and it may be unsalvageable. Learn how to use graphic mode in autotune correctly, obtain decent to fantastic voice, and you'll be able to make commercial-quality modern vocals pretty-much regardless of microphone. I mean, it's nice to have a C12 or U47 or a 251...but a C214 can bring you 99% of the way there, even a Shure sm7b or M80 can go really far depending on vocal type. Or you can super-hack, get a cheap tube microphone and replace the transformer but that's for a different topic. Point is I'm so very grateful to have taught myself and learned to use graphic autotune in a useful way- it has allowed me to remain efficient, use the most emotive takes, and compete commercially as an artist as a single person in my bedroom vs. a team at Electric Lady. You can be the judge too!
Nobody needs auto-tune! If you’re a bad singer, do something you are good at. If you’re a good singer and using auto-tune that’s a huge kick to your own face from yourself.
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is proof you don’t need to use pitch correction in a style where 9/10 artists do. He’s not a great singer, but he’s fantastic vocalist. Same with someone like a Bob Dylan or Lou Reed. I love auto tune, though. A lot of my favorite artists use it.
Why is this comment section so fucking awful? Watch any interview of him talking about this and he says he uses autotune, so technically it is on pitch and "he doesn't understand why people are saying it's off". Those are HIS OWN words.
@@noname-ng6sj I love Wicca Phase, he definitely has used and does use autotune/pitch correction, that doesn't mean he always uses it or always has. Suffer On is a good example of his voice with pitch correction, but take a listen to a lot of the tracks on secret boy, def not much pitch correction, if any. Listen to "Whats the point of anything" and tell me the vocals are pitch corrected. Also, i never said he was "off", not always at least. there is a lot more to be a solid singer than pitch. idk why you took this so negatively. he is one of my favorite artists.
I think this is partly why I like the sound of Brent Faiyaz’s music so much. To me, it doesn’t sound like he uses auto tune even on his recorded tracks. There’s so much swagger in his vocal deliveries that would be lost with the addition of auto tune. I do see the appeal of auto tune as well, but I think it’s overdone and people can actually stand out for the better by not using it, at least sometimes.
People will wait for greatness, cause when someone’s truly great it shines through. Also go to any local rock band show, some how their able to sing and play instruments and jump around for long periods of time and sing great. Imperfections are beautiful and unique
Not only is it the pitch correction but it's splicing takes and cutting up vocals to be flawless, removing any noises like breath intakes or other natural noises. I've been listening heavily to older pop, country, and rock from the 50s-70s, especially from artists who recorded in single takes and it's addicting how powerful the human connection is. Absolutely lacking in modern music.
Stole the words right out of my mouth. Today, I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, then Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Lead Belly. All men with rough voices that would never pass today's robotic standards. Yet they knew how to communicate emotion. Hendrix was blunt enough to say he couldn't sing, but who can deny the power of his voice on tracks like 'The Wind Cries Mary' or 'Hey Joe'?
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 Absolutely agree! I've been listening to Elvis and there's a sense of stakes too, when you hear a singer moving from note to note and they make it to that big jump. Exhilarating. Id choose that character and energy and emotion over a sterile edit any day.
@@lllSASlll Presley was a marvellous singer. His vocal performances for 'My Boy', 'Peace in the Valley', and his cover of 'Blueberry Hill' are my favourites.
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 Oh yes absolutely. I think a lot of it, like especially with the examples u gave also are singers focused on the live music experience first and foremost. Recording was meant to capture that, not the other way around. So instead of being a live show and it sounding worse than the recording, the live performance was an even more electric and amazing version of the recording. We've got it all backwards these days haha
You're on some drugs if you think there isn't cutting or rearranging of rock songs. Eminence Front is a good, but it's that the 11 minute version was likely a pre release brainstorm before the final release of the record version.
As a music producer auto tune really isn’t ruining music I love auto tune you can do so many things and make your voice sound different. It’s up to the singer if there really really good or just ok.
Ginuwine's random use of autotune during the last adlibs of "Differences" still baffles me. It went completely haywire during "i knew you were that special one"
Never used auto tune in my music, would love for people to finally give music without auto tune or pitch correction a chance..it hurts because we do spend years but when the world has deaf ears what do you do? I guess just wait till the right people find you
Your closing statement is 100% TRUTH. Auto tune is like a drug and a lot of these dudes just can't get off it. I see quite a few rappers out there who might need rehab, looking at you Lil Baby.
Honestly, I don't usually hear the difference between not using and using autotune. It's faint but it's not enough to ruin an experience. But I appreciate the human aspect of music more than anything else. Simply getting the emotion and feels of someone's voice is truly beautiful. I'd imagine that's why some of the greatest are those that don't use autotune. Music is for humans, made by humans.
You don't hear it much with good singers because they're close to the right pitch already... except in places where it makes them jump between pitches rather than a smooth transition or it makes held high note sound like something from an ancient game console. For some of the trap rappers though... you would rather go deaf than listen to them sing without autotune for an extended period. They're just total amateurs, would get kicked out of an elementary school choir.
Pitch correction doesn’t have to be that strong. You can subtly use melodyne to correct pitch but keep the character of performance. When it comes out sounding like a robot is when the note was corrected too far.
There wasn’t per se but producers DID use creative ways to achieve the same goal. Not as great as today but noticeable. That’s why I use to be so confused when I found out Autotune was created in 1997 when I could hear things like that from songs decades before
Great video. I don’t know why but i feel like one day people are gonna get bored of voices that don’t sound “human”. I predict that in the future voices with emotions and are not perfectly in tune will be more popular. Just a prediction tho.
You still need to be able to sing to use autotune because if the autotune has to adjust a note that is too far off, it will sound bad. That's why if a good singer uses autotune, it hard to tell, and a great singer, you wont notice, but a bad singer is very easy to hear. In my opinion, autotune helps more in the way that it lets the singer hear if theyre off note, than it does by correcting the note.
As a recording engineer and audio engineer i can say that autotune doesn't make my life easier at all ... just more people without any talent that all think that they will sound great after its mixed ... I'd rather use melodyne on a good artist than autotune on a bad artist
I know this video is old but this video makes me realize why sublime was so good with brad and maybe why all his songs are so good to me. You can hear how much emotion so the imperfections make it better. RIP Bradley Nowell
Autotune is a good tool. However, it's just that tool. A lot of pop artists are relying too heavily on it, and it's becoming more of a must than a tool you can use if you like the way it sounds. When it's used like that it just take away from the experience imo. You can really hear the extra takes a good vocalist goes through to get a line just right without autotune. Not to mention the audio glitches autotune brings. It bothers me a lot when I hear the choppiness of the autotune pitch shifting. That just shows the singer wasn't just off a bit, they did a half ass take and said "fuck it throw autotune on it."
As a musician, there's an appreciation for the talent it takes to write and perform a song. As a an audience member, I truly don't give a shit if the performance isn't perfect. I recognize how hard it is to do what they do, so it's entitled to have those expectations. I'd just listen to the mp3 recording in that case. I really just love hearing the artist as they are and I never think twice about a missed note. It feels lazy to accompany your own vocals over a mp3 track during performance; bruh, just sing/rap the damn song, I'm not judging if you're off, but I want to feel engaged with the artist. Auto-tune's sound doesn't appeal to me and makes everyone sound the same. Everything just sounds so corporate. The beats, the vocalist, all of it just has no soul, no diversity, just copying the last guy and hitting the same, old checkboxes for making a hit; it's just a gray, uniform mass. People make beats now and not music; they're more invested in making money, than engaging in art. I realize this is inflammatory and there's certainly artist in those genres who are talented, who stand amongst the rest, but they're just not the famous ones. I also should make clear this isn't an argumentative piece; this is pure opinion and I have no intention of changing anyone's mind. I just truly appreciate musicianship and artists who are willing to be themselves and be different, because they're doing for themselves and not for a paycheck; this is my reasoning for creating this comment. PS: I'm 27, so not a boomer, you can call me a neo-boomer. This may suggest I listen to classic rock, but no.
Nobody mentions Daft Punk. No because their whole image is about using autotune in stylistic and unique ways. Plus you compare a sitting Justin Bieber whithout a guitar, who in this situation shouldn't need autotune, to someone who dances and gestures around with big energy...there is a difference in the needs of autotune in these cases. Atleast there should be.
I’m a huge rap fan. For me, auto tune makes almost everyone sound the same. It’s hard to even distinguish one artist from another with auto tune (in rap.) I love unique voices and they’re largely absent in todays hip hop because of all the weird vocal effects.
I love autotune for the fact that it levels the playing field for the homies who aren't born with the advantage and aren't in the position financially or having the extra time to do so. It gives everyone a chance to enjoy something they may love without having to feel bad or dumb that they just started and are trying. Shout out TPain for spreading the love
@@Anonymous-ek2rh at the end of the day I think you're just mad one persone understands something the other doesnt- marketing. If they don't learn from each other that's on them. If you can't sing but make a career off of it I'd say you're a genius to me.
@@CoasterMan13Official lmaoooo 90% of people who sing now couldn't sing before and they sounded trash case in point snoop Dogg's daughter or mark Rubelet or whatever and now people can spend less time and effort on the technical stuff and just create and have fun. You're just trynna ruin the good energy for no reason lmao stop being bitter and drink water or some
@@ceegarcia3399 then develop a way for them that isn't "cheating" or shut up w that negative draining energy. If you hate it so much why are you investing time, effort and energy into it. I dont think you hate autotune I think you hate your self.
Looking at this from the perspective of an artist who started out opposed to autotune. (Mainly because I was just doing rap stuff) and eventually growing into learning how to use it as a tool to learn how to sing better. It's opened my eyes to a lot. I wanted to expand my sound and actually liked singing just never thought I was that good at it. However, if you have a near perfect version of your song to practice to with autotune and rehearse to it, sing it and learn it from recording to rehearsal, you start to exponentially see how much better you become by basically learning what the notes should sound like and what you could go for when learning songs with melodic flows or tricky melodies.
I’ve been waiting and stalling on making music, but deep down it is my passion and seeing this video just made me realized Im waisting my time. Thanks man. Felt like a sign.
Same , i probably made at least 500 songs by now 😅 I really should drop. But over the last year and a half I decided to focus on making instrumentals (perfecting my craft) and it's been a bit overbearing. I been getting good with the beats and learning mixing my own self and the beat itself , yet sometimes i wonder....what if i just dropped that certain song when i was 19 and started there.
@@h3llboyyy407 It's never too late. If you have 500 tracks you have a back log for months. Just start dropping stuff. A DistroKid account is cheap, there's no pressure to keep making so many songs for a minute, and you never know what will pop off. Even if you don't intend to do anything other than share tracks you made with other people, it's worth it imo. "Yeah my stuff's on Spotify/iTunes/etc"
I think the removing the soul in the voice is perfect in explaining modern music although it's incredibly rare that people stand out and can have that ability. It'd be nice if people got respect for not using these difficult setups to achieve greatness
I'm in the "target demographic" for most music, and I think the market for music artists is oversaturated, and a large part of it is thanks to autotune. It's like inflation. Because it's so easy to become a relatively successful artist, a lot of people are doing it and it makes truly talented artists stand out less against a sea of competitors. Name one TikToker that doesn't have a music career.
First, I want to say I like your take on this topic . I always thought it was a tool to tinker with like in some genres and experimental music. Sadly I feel it's been more over used recently and especially here in the states. I got into an argument with a coworker a few years back and it was over the recent Cinderella live action. I said that she wasn't good due to the auto tune and she stated everyone uses it. I replied that not everyone uses it and that you can feel the difference in sound.
I swear to God the only way to hear unaltered singing is going to be at completely obscure underground concerts with artists maybe 20 people know about.
A lot of people with no experience who are getting into music production think they can get by using pitch correction/auto-tune, when in fact hitting the right pitch is actually the easiest part about singing imo. As a self taught vocalist for 14 years, I started lessons 4 months ago and holy shit there's sooo much more to it than most think. Pitch is the part of the iceberg you can see, while under the surface is everything else (diet, sleep, practice, warming up, proper support, and a fuck ton of counter intuitive techniques etc), it's honestly a life style that you have to adopt. Auto-tune/PC only fixes one of those things, the rest are up to you to learn and master.
you can’t just slap auto tune over some talentless hack and have a consistently popular artist. you still have to know what you’re doing with the auto tune to sound good with it
4:25 "If human connection mattered, then electronic dance music wouldn't be as popular as it is." And now you are undermining the human creativity behind electronic music. It's not all just poppy generic beats. There is electronic music with complex, jazz-like, progressive and musically complicated riffing, and there's electronic music with unadulterated and soulful vocal tracks. You're doing exactly the same boomerish "auto-tune bad" reductionism you criticized in your opening.
@@liltree8382 I'm not defending autotune. I don't really like it that much. I'm defending electronic music. Do you understand what that is? Did you read the comment?
I hate when people don't understand "electronic music" Is like they never heared something from the genres it have, I was about to watch the video but after that phrase... I think i wont waste my time watching this thing.
You have to be tonally in tune with no more than one semi-tone interval off for Auto-Tune to sound magical. It'll never save a bad singer, majority of rap proves that point. It really just helps with gluing the retune speed faster especially if you work with several harmonies. Love the video.
I am a singer and have been in many choirs and groups over the years. I’ve met many professionals that show how they use pitch correction. It seems like cheating, but in this market you have to have perfect vocals. While Autotune makes a more robotic sound, Melodyne does the a similar thing but allows for you to modify it to sound more natural. Too many people don’t realize that many musicians are not THAT good. Now that there is even LIVE autotune, someone who is an average singer can become a mainstream pop star. Nothing annoys me more than people praising vocals that are on a track and autotuned with melodyne. Most people don’t realize the vocals they are praising are actually fake because melodyne can be convincing if the person is at least ok at singing. However, they are not necessarily good simply because the track sounds good. It’s concerning.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
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w vid
-what up dawg
Wsp
cool vid
Hum Pat the Kamikoto knife are TOTAL crap there a very good video from Shadiversity the only good thing about them is there Wet stone
As a full-time mixing engineer, auto-tune is intended to be an effect. Pitch correction is what this video is referencing. The problem is that everything we hear on the radio or from our favorite artists is pitch corrected so consistently that we’ve lost touch with what the actual human voice sounds like. This is why when we go to live shows we are almost always disappointed.
💯💯💯💯💯💯
What exactly does a mixing engineer do? Do you have to know how to technically work with signals (sound -> digital) and use functions to alter those signals? Or it it less technical than (ie no Fourier or things of that nature)
That's why people that really never needed it they shine still on the stage.
@@dahleno2014 In a nutshell, it is my job to enhance the sonic qualities of the source audio as well as to control the dynamics of each instrument to fit each one into the song. It’s extremely technical, when well done, but also equally as creative. You can apply tried and true methods to achieve this but to really make a mix shine requires a trained ear and wise application of processing.
Thanks for clarifying this because what people call Autotune, I call a 'voice decoder'; this is an obvious audio effect, not to improve the vocal but make it different, the point is the effect whereas what people are calling Autotune you are saying is pitch correction, the difference in obvious, if you don't like the vocal effect that's fine but let's not pretend like the point is to obscure 'bad singing'.
"People don't want to wait for greatness anymore"
That shit hits different.
No it doesn’t
Impatience will never lead to greatness.
This is an era of instant gratification and marketability.
@@liltree8382 watchu on about homie, your music is literally what this guy is talking about.
Auto tune will never sound great
Imperfections is what makes music unique, for example Kurt Cobain, his voice cracks add emotion and feelings to his music. It doesn't need to be perfect to be perfect.
Soo true man, imperfections is what makes music soon lovely and amazing, it touches soul
I agree. I love music and I hate auto tune. Everytime I hear it I stop listening. Music is very much linked to my soul. And if I don't feel it I'm out. Started making my own just for the enjoyment.
Kurt Cobain sounded awful.
@@AquarianX
🐱👃🦨
🤏🍤
@A Hogammer yes, because it's almost like he understood that those "imperfections" added so much to the feeling a song gave.
Shakira said in some Rolling Stone Interview that she uses autotune because she can't pronounce Gs in English and it's easier to just have the engineer correct it. But maybe says Gs with her own accent would give her music more character, inspire some creativity in the lyrics ect.
Shakira can't sing whatsoever, never mind her pronounciation of 'G' words!
Interesting. I will have to check out some of her English stuff. I have only listen to her Spanish music. It feels very weird to me to listen to her in another language because I have been listening to her since she got her start in the 90s. Back then, she only sang in Spanish.
but she uses autotune in spanish too so that's a bogus argument. im a fan so i understand why she does it, it's part of the style of modern music
Her songs are very creative and good already :)
well shes lying clearly lmao. its a cop out
Honestly I do think we should create categories for artist who want to take the time to perfect their voices. I’ve realized not everyone is interested in instant gratification and those people deserve to be celebrated for the hard work and dedication they put in. I personally feel like with out it we could loose a whole section of people who do it for passion and not just for money, clout, because it’s trendy, etc.
I think a lot of these shows like American Idol or the Voice have created a lane for that kind of music, and given many people careers
@tinkerella those singing contests put pitch correction on the voices of the contestants
Yep. I legitimately have talent, there's nobody left to stick up for me, so I have to stick up for myself. I don't care what anyone thinks: if you use autotune or pitch correction you can't fucking sing
@tinkerella so theirs still s chance or me?
They use less of it in the Philippines, on certain networks and artist's live performances, which is one reason I follow Filipino singers. This is my favorite female singer, Jona Viray (she's Filipino) in a beautiful live concert performance, with only some reverb, in what seems like the venue video recording, or at least a professional recording, of Lady Gaga's I'll Never Love Again: ruclips.net/video/fOitELGlNlk/видео.html
I love how random this channel is with content. Literally goes from disney star to gangster rap and am invested everytime.
The algorithm doesn’t always love it lol. I try to be calculated with my randomness. I wanna try even more broad topics but going too risky can hurt a channel permanently
Keep it going bro. I appreciate the content as i sit back and 420😅.
Same! Love the variety
The fact you put Travis Scott as someone who doesn't NEED autotune is fcking joke.... 🗑
Variety?
Post Malone is a great example of how a good artist can still sound unique live without blatantly hiding that their mic is autotuned.
I also like how open Post has been about using auto tune in the past.. he doesn’t shy away from it.
@@firstlast9846 exactly
i agree with you but how does someone blatantly hide something?
@@BallDankeys was just about to comment this lmao.
@@BallDankeys I don’t like him but I agree also t-pain is amazing with auto tune
I totally agree that autotune is one of many tools that artists can use to deliver a certain emotion.
Actually being slightly flat or sharp depending on the melodic context can add more longing or brightness to something... just like a jazz/blues singer would.
Awesome vid - lookin forward to the next one!
what do you think autotune is?
It's wack
lame
T-Pain may be the face of autotune, but he never actually used it as an auto-tuner.
He used it like a talkbox or a vocoder.
Wrong.
People rly need to know the difference between pitch correction software and “autotune”. Pitch correction done through melodyne requires 100x more work than Antares. The autotune aesthetic is ingrained with pop and pop rap now, which is fine. We’ve grown to accept and enjoy it immensely. But at the end of the day, the effort from the individual artist in the pursuit of perfection for rap and pop will
always take the easy route with Antares software. It just make sense when the music is profit driven. More time spent in the studio is money lost
Pitch correction is the purpose of both Auto-Tune and Melodyne. Auto-Tune has the same graph mode that allows the user to correct notes manually in the same way as Melodyne. Vice versa, Melodyne has the option to tune every note automatically.
@@DeBlauweOlifant The main point is that Antares auto-tune is called "auto"-tune for a reason. You can use it in live performances to pitch correct in real time. Melodyne can only pitch correct pre-recorded vocals.
@@EvanWBetke yes, but the original post is implying that auto tune is the easy route, which is not necessarily true as the software can be used in the exact same way as Melodyne.
mason, the worlds best selling album is not auto tuned nor pitch corrected!
The songs, with one or two notes per verse missed, used to be part of a performer's signature voice prior to pitch correction software. If we want more of those, we need a bigger non-corrected music sector by whatever means it takes.
Perfect example of this is Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged album. She was dealing with a cold at the time, so her voice has notable cracks in it while she's singing. But that is exactly what adds to the emotion and rawness of the project, and is a classic project standing the test of time.
Great video as always, Patrick!
exactly
That record is literally a top 10 entry on the list of "albums considered the worst of all time".
You really gonna use that as an example?
That album is a perfect example of an artist being raw and emotional to the point where it makes you feel something, so yeah its definitely a perfect... it was considered bad by critics but it's definitely not
@@noname-ng6sj Foolish comment, imo. This was deemed “top 10 worst albums” by who exactly? Are you really validating tha opinions of tha same industry that compelled such a REAL, talented, and raw artist to leave that very industry due to what she has described as her various forms of mistreatment by said industry?!? Com’mon now. Do better.
@@neish9520 People want Britney back in the conservatorship because it means more horny music. So yeah. People will say autotune is best and good.
No one wants to wait for greatness like Patrick said
There's always that one singer who is a great singer until you hear them live lmao
Devil wears Prada is the perfect group for this do not sound the same in live
But so good in studio smh
Any Mumble Rapper
A ton of artists that are mediocre live. Autotune hides a lot
Not with t-pain i guess?
god patrick’s editing/video layout makes these types of videos so calming and enjoyable to watch
right!! this video is perfect!! what is he trying to prove!? who cares!!!???? as long as the content is perfect, am i right guys!!?? YYYAAAYYYY!!!!
And also the intruiging background score too.... my manz on point
Gives me Vox's editing style.
Same as moon, same as KiraTV, same as SunnyV2, it's all connecting.
@@zynet_eseled RUclipsr’s editing all around are getting more professional.
Crazy thing is T-pain is a pretty damn amazing musician and vocalist even though people associate him with autotune. See his performances on the masked singer and his tiny desk NPR performance and you'll see what i mean. Autotune doesn't make you a good singer but used in the right way, it can definitely elevate you up
T-pain’s talent is severely underrated because all people think when they hear his name is auto tune.
If I'm not mistaken he tried going without it for an album early on in his career but people didn't like it.
Honestly I don't care for auto tune that much but listening to songs that don't have heavy auto tune makes me feel connected. I love when artists sing from the heart and show off their amazing voice.
I feel like back then artists had to actually have talent and put much more effort into their craft than now. Their artistry defended itself without pitch correction tools, constant image changes, scandals etc. Most mainstream musicians aren't artists, they're just performers to me. I know autotune and similar stuff is almost inescapable at this point, but I respect everyone who refuses to use it and sings even better live than on their studio recordings. I think it shows that they truly love music and respect their fans.
agreed
THIS!!!!
I don't think it has anything to do with loving music and respecting their fans but I agree
Very well said
It sucks it took the skill out of the whole thing. It’s as if it became industry standard to allow aim bot hacks in video game tournaments to accommodate those who have good game sense but bad aim. Like come on if you’re the best singer then you should be known as the most skilled singer and if you’re not that skilled then you can sing but you shouldn’t be allowed to use hacks to make yourself seem more talented than you are.
Billie Eilish is a great example. When her song "NDA" was released, she got a lot of criticism for using auto-tune in the chorus. She and her brother, Finneas, ended up having to explain how they decided to use auto-tune for artistic purposes. When I first heard the song, I immediately understood that, so seeing all the backlash she received was bizarre. Great video!
The backlash likely came because she markets herself as 'authentic'
@@heinoustentacles5719because she is… they don’t use autotunnel on Billies music unless it’s for artistic purposes. They cut and paste dozens of recordings to get the pitch right if that’s their goal, and you can hear in her live performances that autotune is not what makes her a good singer
@@jemappellemerci I never said she wasn't authentic. I just meant that marketing oneself as such means that they can never vary from the path. Think about the ribbing a vegan would get if someone caught them eating a hamburger.
Billie Eilish makes some of the worst music I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. It all sounds like a soulless viral video. She doesn't make authentic music, she's a marketing gimmick. Ozzy said it best when he was asked about Billie Eilish "Who the F*ck is Billie Eilish". Even Ozzy in his old age after all of the substance abuse can still make thought evoking music like the song Life Wont Wait. Auto tube isn't the problem here. The problem is that social media is lowing the bar.
@@jemappellemercisaying she's authentic is the same as saying she doesn't want to be treated as an object
The bands we saw had no money, two backlines, 7 piece drum kit, 3 mics, 3 mic stands, 3 mic cables, rhythm, lead bass guitar.
They tuned guitars BY EAR.
The crushed it and were furious forces of nature in a live setting.
You will have to wait until those of us who know better ('old people have been complaining about'') die and leave you to your ignorance.
My problem with autotune is that its simply slapped onto any vocal no matter what. Rap really suffered for it because now all the emotion and character has been removed. imo rappers should just use it sporadically throughout a song like if it was an effect.
as a huge metalhead but also a hiphop fan i love the idea of autotune in rap hiphop and pop music but metal is where you have to be an already super talented musician without relying on any effects so i can see why its loved in some genres and hated in others
It honestly just depends on the style of the specific artist/genre. As someone who also likes metal and im also huge into HC punk, it would sound very weird in such raw sounding genres that usually have heavily overdriven bass/guitars.
Well... yes you have to rely on your voice, but also most metal artists I know use heavy reverb and delay for the screams. Which is just another effect, not necessarily better or worse than the autotune
Modern metal music is editing hell btw. The more screams the less autotune is needed, yes. On the other hand drum replacement, drummers not playing their kit or part of their kit is not uncommon. Moreover guitar takes oft have to be edited and time aligned in order to meet the modern standard of metal production. I do not want to discredit metal at all but it is also edited to inhumane perfection. Tbh I like the sound of it too.
@@Lollokowns in raw black metal slam and deathmetal there is pretty much 0 editing other than mixing but with djent and deathcore alot of chopping up guitar tracks is used
@@hbc431 in death metal you definitely have a decent bit of drum synths. Like I love infant annihilator but they use it for there pedal a lot
T-Pain’s run with autotune in 08 Was DIFFERENT!!!
T-Pain's natural voice is. insane, he totally deserved winning the Masked Singer season 1.
I don't have a problem with Auto-Tune. I just have a problem with *too many* artists using Auto-Tune! It makes them sound indistinguishable.
True!
I love the irony of you showing artists who don't use auto-tune in a video titled "Why every artist uses auto-tune (yes, EVERY artist)"
I am a huge fan of a very broad range of music, from classic rock, classic hip hop, modern/alternative rock, modern hip hop, jazz, and country. Personally, I think T-Pain's utilization of AutoTune and bringing it out from the shadows was genius back in the mid 2000's. I was a huge fan when it was on the radio and still am today. At least for T-Pain, it brings another layer of character to his songs that would not be there otherwise.
As a hard working singer I can't agree more on your analysis. When you work hard on your singing it doesn't really matter what effects or plug-ins you use on it, but I mean, real musicians and real music lovers will obviously hear the difference, even if you're not topping any charts. Anyway, thank you for your work, I really appreciate it.
As an amateur sound engineer, there is nothing like mixing a song without using pitch correction, because i honestly perfection to me is what works best in the context not what will be perfectly accurate
(Specially when listening stuff over and over when has nuance its more fun)
I work hard on my singing not because I want to sing without autotune always but just so that the autotune corrects me way less and I shouldn't actively hear it 😂
finally someone said it, talent isn't even a requirement anymore, just do what everyone is doing and try to get picked up by the algorithm, music isn't even art anymore its whatever the trends dictate
I know this video is a month old but Patrick you should know that this ad you pushed is claiming they are authentic Japanese knives but they are made in China, Scott Shafer made a video on it
Anybody dumb enlighten to believe they selling original Japanese knives for cheap deserves to get scammed
@@liltree8382 anyone dumb enough to take out loans for a college major they couldn't afford deserves to be scammed. Etc.
Not sure why people are OK with scam ads, auto scams, etc. but financial scams, those aren't OK... Just very odd.
@@liltree8382really ?? And your not getting scammed by these manufactured artists? ..ohbpleaaaasssse
Bro thank you. When people shit on auto tune all I can hear is "I don't understand how music works in the slightest".
Not to say you can't dislike the way it sounds. But to suggest it's any different than any other tool in the studio is ignorant.
You’re a idiot if you think Auto-Tune is the same as reverb or delay 😂😂😂
@@liltree8382 In its simplest terms, that being a device which takes an input and distorts the sound between its output, it is totally in in the same category- that being a tool. Especially considering you can use "auto-tune"/pitch correction in many different ways as demonstrated in this video.
I get the impression you just felt like sounding smart by letting us know you know the names of the most basic effects in music. So I'll give you a lil congrats buddy :)
That Alicia keys clip literally sent shivers down my spine
I feel like the mixing and mastering is important as well to make the emotion of the artist come through!!
Auto-Tune fits really good when a song has an overall "electronic" feeling (e.g. Future or 808s) to match its very digital sound
wtf
@@userrick-n8y Why? I think it sounds heavenly on those kind of songs. Listen to Congratulations by Post Malone or Telekinesis by Travis…
Another issue, especially in edm/hip is that the instrumentals are perfectly in tune 9/10 because they are made with VST's, synths, or are also pitch corrected as well. When you put a natural non-auto tuned vocal on an instrumental like that, it tends to clash and sounds very off putting. But in other genres where there is live instrumentation, it doesn't sound as bad because the singer is usually matching the tonality of the band/instruments, and the band is also matching the tuning of the singer as well.
😂
Bob Dylan and Neil Young are perfect examples of bad singers, no auto tune but perfect music.
Didn’t you hear EVERY artist uses it apparently
@@DrWhiteDab they didn't even have auto tune when Bob Dylan and Neil Young were really popular.
Perfect? 😂😂
Bob Dylan has such a roughly textured singing voice, pitch is all over the place, but it compliments the music so well
@@Monkey_11 lol
My friend and I are currently in the process of going through all my vocal takes for an upcoming EP, and deciding which notes are better auto tuned and which are better left more raw. It’s a useful tool but the energy of the take has to be right at least
what tool website are you using? much appreciated
@@TheInsider300 we use software called Studio One, it’s expensive to buy but you can pay instalments monthly. Then we use Melodyne in Studio One, we have actual auto tune as well but we find it sounds too unnatural
Sounds like you think alot about your Sound and try to make the perfect Song (for you), that's super awesome! Keep it up ^^
People might still be up their own ass about the Astro world thing but we need to give Travis his flowers. He uses auto tune like an instrument. And masterfully at that.
Facts bro
Still be up their own ass? He and his organisers were negligent and people died because of it.
What is wrong with you?
I think the best thing about Auto Tune is that it has allowed artists who aren't great singers but can write GREAT songs, to get popular and spread their art in to the world. Its a double edged sword honestly
Nah, there's normally a whole group on one song
@@AFter-instrumentals bruh independent artists don't have a whole team to write songs, plenty of them are individuals doing everything from writing to mixing
@@nahbruh6231 not mainstream music, there's a team behind most popular songs. And also a team of songwriters, alot of the time (even rappers) are paid as a face
@@nahbruh6231 in mainstream rap and sing there's full teams
But they didnt need that before. You have Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, joy division, all the punk bands. They didnt need autotune before and they didnt need perfect pitch neither
Hate auto tune with all my heart and will never respect it, ever. South Park did a good episode on this with Stan’s dad Randy.
God me too.
Tupac's house of blues performance is the biggest example that in live performance you don't really need to be on the notes or delivering the same as the song available it's all about the experience and fun
Neil Young and Bob Dylan do beg to differ that you needed to be a great vocalist to have a career in the past. But truly, they are both exceptional in this regard.
Billy Corgan, Chino Moreno and many others have been very successful despite technically being bad singers
Billy Corgan is not technically a bad singer, a nasal singer is not a technically bad singer, he sings trough his range with enough freedom. A shitty singer excuses himself with the "artistic uses of autotune" @@SaintKines
Hey man I need to say this, you are one of the creators that no matter what the video theme is I'll be there watching your video. Is hard for me to find creators like you these days.
Bladee is a great example of how autotune really can add emotion and atmosphere to songs. Using autotune isnt the problem. The problem is pitch correction
I'd like to mention David Bowie's "Cat People" song for this such thing. His raw emotion in that song is incredible especially when the song picks up tempo his high note is absolutely fantastic but it's clear he misses a few notes but that literally adds character because no human is perfect at all when singing. In fact that's what makes the song genuine and even better.
I'd also like to mention the song "Dealer" by Lana Del Rey when she purposefully goes off key for the first note and slowly reels back in tune for the high note. I mean it's incredible. Auto tune really does take the fun out of pure music and the amount of possibilities a person has to perfect their music. But when it comes to concerts it's hit or miss. It all has to do how genuine your music is and how you go about making your music and that will be genuine. I will always push for genuine un auto tuned music but hey I like music that I like and that will be different from anyone else and so on.
So, in a nutshell, you hit on why music today sucks.
I studied music and video production for my undergrad and currently produce music on the side for fun. Big picture, I think pitch correction software like Antares is a net good for everyone. You mentioned being worn down on stage and being fatigued can affect your singing. This is true just as much in the studio. You're doing multiple takes of each verse for multiple songs in a day. Pitch correction is a life saver in this case and makes everybody's life easier. Vocalists don't have to keep running back lines until they can barely talk. I can just apply some pitch correction and we're good. It speeds up the process.
Back in the day, people didn't have access to this software but they also had lower recording quality. Songs sometimes sounded like a mess while frequencies bleeding together. This could make the vocal imperfections less noticeable but they're definitely there.
Other software has just as much of an effect on vocals if not more than pitch correction. For my own vocals, layering and compression usually gets me 90% of the way there. Then I decide if I even want any pitch correction.
I think auto-tune gets the brunt of the hate because it one of the effects people hear and know what it is.
I'd rather hear an imperfect voice that moves me than an emotionless voice with perfect pitch.
Back in the day, people worked on their entire physical stamina. They don’t have to now, which is why singers like Beyoncé and Adele sound like shit.
@FennaBlue This is true and I agree. It's different these days but pitch correction doesn't magically make people sound good. You still have to have some talent.
geddy lee spen 9 hours in one day singing the chorus to distant early warning, in order to get it right
@@melodramatic7904 Exactly, which is why I don't bother with the overwhelming majority of mainstream music these days. Just spent today listening to real singing, like that of Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Lead Belly. Very different voices, distinct sounds, different ways of conveying emotion.
Vocoders have been used since the 70s. It's often used in industrial music especially during the late 90s and early 2000s. I enjoy vocoding and auto tuning as an effect or different sound but I also enjoy music without auto tune. It's nice to have a variety of musical interests especially this day in age.
Most people don't even realize Auto-Tune is being used in live shows.
They don’t need auto tune. Artists before auto tune didn’t need it. Neither do they.
It's a crutch. Same with microphones too- so many "singers" today are so breathy and whispery, I doubt they have done the lung work needed to really project their voice to fill a room without speakers
Then no one will listen to them, we all know they make hit songs because of autotune
@@sun-deal the artists before auto tune didn’t need it, and neither do they.
@@sun-deal we’ve had MANY hit musicians before auto tune…..
Story from a Fully Independent artist/musician/singer/etc of 20yrs here (age 33 meow). I Discovered graphic autotune at age 14 in 2004. Once I got very good at using it about 2008ish and my voice developed more, got some vocal coaching it became the most USEFUL tool for me as a vocalist and producer. We all know that polished pop vocal productions (especially with large stacks) are inhuman and the bar has been set very high in the 2000s. Especially as a singer who plays all the instruments on my records, mixes and masters on top of my dayjob....graphic autotune is an anchor for me to have a "polished/modern" vocal. 99% of the time it's unnoticeable, and 1% of the time I use hard autotune for purposeful effect. If your voice is good enough and the take is practiced well, graphic autotune doesn't sound "like autotune" and just makes the vocal sound more polished. I am a perfectionist with performance, but I'm also realistic and have always treated the recording arts as a whole different ballgame to live performance. I love them both but they are just different fields...and why not make the true music you hear in your head, quality and all, in the recording?
I've never had shame in using it, and never will. After all, if your voice is truly bad, you will notice and it may be unsalvageable. Learn how to use graphic mode in autotune correctly, obtain decent to fantastic voice, and you'll be able to make commercial-quality modern vocals pretty-much regardless of microphone. I mean, it's nice to have a C12 or U47 or a 251...but a C214 can bring you 99% of the way there, even a Shure sm7b or M80 can go really far depending on vocal type. Or you can super-hack, get a cheap tube microphone and replace the transformer but that's for a different topic. Point is I'm so very grateful to have taught myself and learned to use graphic autotune in a useful way- it has allowed me to remain efficient, use the most emotive takes, and compete commercially as an artist as a single person in my bedroom vs. a team at Electric Lady. You can be the judge too!
Nobody needs auto-tune! If you’re a bad singer, do something you are good at. If you’re a good singer and using auto-tune that’s a huge kick to your own face from yourself.
Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is proof you don’t need to use pitch correction in a style where 9/10 artists do. He’s not a great singer, but he’s fantastic vocalist. Same with someone like a Bob Dylan or Lou Reed.
I love auto tune, though. A lot of my favorite artists use it.
Why is this comment section so fucking awful? Watch any interview of him talking about this and he says he uses autotune, so technically it is on pitch and "he doesn't understand why people are saying it's off". Those are HIS OWN words.
@@noname-ng6sj I love Wicca Phase, he definitely has used and does use autotune/pitch correction, that doesn't mean he always uses it or always has. Suffer On is a good example of his voice with pitch correction, but take a listen to a lot of the tracks on secret boy, def not much pitch correction, if any. Listen to "Whats the point of anything" and tell me the vocals are pitch corrected. Also, i never said he was "off", not always at least. there is a lot more to be a solid singer than pitch. idk why you took this so negatively. he is one of my favorite artists.
@@noname-ng6sj like you're angrily tweaking for what?
T Pain’s tiny desk proves definitively he had talent before auto tune.
SANGER turned RAPPER! He told us all along
I think this is partly why I like the sound of Brent Faiyaz’s music so much. To me, it doesn’t sound like he uses auto tune even on his recorded tracks. There’s so much swagger in his vocal deliveries that would be lost with the addition of auto tune. I do see the appeal of auto tune as well, but I think it’s overdone and people can actually stand out for the better by not using it, at least sometimes.
I agree bro
People will wait for greatness, cause when someone’s truly great it shines through. Also go to any local rock band show, some how their able to sing and play instruments and jump around for long periods of time and sing great. Imperfections are beautiful and unique
Not only is it the pitch correction but it's splicing takes and cutting up vocals to be flawless, removing any noises like breath intakes or other natural noises. I've been listening heavily to older pop, country, and rock from the 50s-70s, especially from artists who recorded in single takes and it's addicting how powerful the human connection is. Absolutely lacking in modern music.
Stole the words right out of my mouth. Today, I was listening to Jimi Hendrix, then Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Lead Belly. All men with rough voices that would never pass today's robotic standards. Yet they knew how to communicate emotion. Hendrix was blunt enough to say he couldn't sing, but who can deny the power of his voice on tracks like 'The Wind Cries Mary' or 'Hey Joe'?
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 Absolutely agree! I've been listening to Elvis and there's a sense of stakes too, when you hear a singer moving from note to note and they make it to that big jump. Exhilarating. Id choose that character and energy and emotion over a sterile edit any day.
@@lllSASlll Presley was a marvellous singer. His vocal performances for 'My Boy', 'Peace in the Valley', and his cover of 'Blueberry Hill' are my favourites.
@@Musicienne-DAB1995 Oh yes absolutely. I think a lot of it, like especially with the examples u gave also are singers focused on the live music experience first and foremost. Recording was meant to capture that, not the other way around. So instead of being a live show and it sounding worse than the recording, the live performance was an even more electric and amazing version of the recording. We've got it all backwards these days haha
You're on some drugs if you think there isn't cutting or rearranging of rock songs. Eminence Front is a good, but it's that the 11 minute version was likely a pre release brainstorm before the final release of the record version.
As a music producer auto tune really isn’t ruining music I love auto tune you can do so many things and make your voice sound different. It’s up to the singer if there really really good or just ok.
Great video my man ✊🏽
Keep up your hustle ✊🏽
Ginuwine's random use of autotune during the last adlibs of "Differences" still baffles me. It went completely haywire during "i knew you were that special one"
Never used auto tune in my music, would love for people to finally give music without auto tune or pitch correction a chance..it hurts because we do spend years but when the world has deaf ears what do you do? I guess just wait till the right people find you
Your closing statement is 100% TRUTH. Auto tune is like a drug and a lot of these dudes just can't get off it. I see quite a few rappers out there who might need rehab, looking at you Lil Baby.
I hate his mewling baby voice
Honestly, I don't usually hear the difference between not using and using autotune. It's faint but it's not enough to ruin an experience. But I appreciate the human aspect of music more than anything else. Simply getting the emotion and feels of someone's voice is truly beautiful. I'd imagine that's why some of the greatest are those that don't use autotune. Music is for humans, made by humans.
You don't hear it much with good singers because they're close to the right pitch already... except in places where it makes them jump between pitches rather than a smooth transition or it makes held high note sound like something from an ancient game console. For some of the trap rappers though... you would rather go deaf than listen to them sing without autotune for an extended period. They're just total amateurs, would get kicked out of an elementary school choir.
Pitch correction doesn’t have to be that strong. You can subtly use melodyne to correct pitch but keep the character of performance. When it comes out sounding like a robot is when the note was corrected too far.
...which is the point?
Was auto tune in 70s and 80s music. It’s just shows how low standards for talent are these days.
There wasn’t per se but producers DID use creative ways to achieve the same goal. Not as great as today but noticeable. That’s why I use to be so confused when I found out Autotune was created in 1997 when I could hear things like that from songs decades before
"You wouldn't have a career if you werent a good vocalist" john lydon would like a word
Great video. I don’t know why but i feel like one day people are gonna get bored of voices that don’t sound “human”. I predict that in the future voices with emotions and are not perfectly in tune will be more popular. Just a prediction tho.
You still need to be able to sing to use autotune because if the autotune has to adjust a note that is too far off, it will sound bad. That's why if a good singer uses autotune, it hard to tell, and a great singer, you wont notice, but a bad singer is very easy to hear. In my opinion, autotune helps more in the way that it lets the singer hear if theyre off note, than it does by correcting the note.
As a recording engineer and audio engineer i can say that autotune doesn't make my life easier at all ... just more people without any talent that all think that they will sound great after its mixed ... I'd rather use melodyne on a good artist than autotune on a bad artist
Imagine saying everything before 1997 is garbage because they didn’t have auto tune and anyone who prefers that sound doesn’t understand music.
I know this video is old but this video makes me realize why sublime was so good with brad and maybe why all his songs are so good to me. You can hear how much emotion so the imperfections make it better. RIP Bradley Nowell
Autotune is a good tool. However, it's just that tool. A lot of pop artists are relying too heavily on it, and it's becoming more of a must than a tool you can use if you like the way it sounds. When it's used like that it just take away from the experience imo. You can really hear the extra takes a good vocalist goes through to get a line just right without autotune. Not to mention the audio glitches autotune brings. It bothers me a lot when I hear the choppiness of the autotune pitch shifting. That just shows the singer wasn't just off a bit, they did a half ass take and said "fuck it throw autotune on it."
As a musician, there's an appreciation for the talent it takes to write and perform a song. As a an audience member, I truly don't give a shit if the performance isn't perfect. I recognize how hard it is to do what they do, so it's entitled to have those expectations. I'd just listen to the mp3 recording in that case. I really just love hearing the artist as they are and I never think twice about a missed note. It feels lazy to accompany your own vocals over a mp3 track during performance; bruh, just sing/rap the damn song, I'm not judging if you're off, but I want to feel engaged with the artist. Auto-tune's sound doesn't appeal to me and makes everyone sound the same. Everything just sounds so corporate. The beats, the vocalist, all of it just has no soul, no diversity, just copying the last guy and hitting the same, old checkboxes for making a hit; it's just a gray, uniform mass. People make beats now and not music; they're more invested in making money, than engaging in art.
I realize this is inflammatory and there's certainly artist in those genres who are talented, who stand amongst the rest, but they're just not the famous ones. I also should make clear this isn't an argumentative piece; this is pure opinion and I have no intention of changing anyone's mind. I just truly appreciate musicianship and artists who are willing to be themselves and be different, because they're doing for themselves and not for a paycheck; this is my reasoning for creating this comment.
PS: I'm 27, so not a boomer, you can call me a neo-boomer. This may suggest I listen to classic rock, but no.
I think their certainly is a level of help it gives artist but when a good artist uses it correctly it can make them sound even better.
I'm so happy that you showed Matt Schultz and Cage the Elephant that is one band that really brings the energy in their live performances
Nobody mentions Daft Punk. No because their whole image is about using autotune in stylistic and unique ways. Plus you compare a sitting Justin Bieber whithout a guitar, who in this situation shouldn't need autotune, to someone who dances and gestures around with big energy...there is a difference in the needs of autotune in these cases. Atleast there should be.
Auto tune is to good singers like digital art is to actual artists
I’m a huge rap fan. For me, auto tune makes almost everyone sound the same. It’s hard to even distinguish one artist from another with auto tune (in rap.) I love unique voices and they’re largely absent in todays hip hop because of all the weird vocal effects.
I love autotune for the fact that it levels the playing field for the homies who aren't born with the advantage and aren't in the position financially or having the extra time to do so. It gives everyone a chance to enjoy something they may love without having to feel bad or dumb that they just started and are trying. Shout out TPain for spreading the love
@@Anonymous-ek2rh at the end of the day I think you're just mad one persone understands something the other doesnt- marketing. If they don't learn from each other that's on them. If you can't sing but make a career off of it I'd say you're a genius to me.
If you can't sing, don't. There's no such thing as "leveling the playing field", autotune is just cheating. Plain and simple.
@@CoasterMan13Official lmaoooo 90% of people who sing now couldn't sing before and they sounded trash case in point snoop Dogg's daughter or mark Rubelet or whatever and now people can spend less time and effort on the technical stuff and just create and have fun. You're just trynna ruin the good energy for no reason lmao stop being bitter and drink water or some
Auto-tune is just cheating. It’s not to be glorified into something it isn’t.
@@ceegarcia3399 then develop a way for them that isn't "cheating" or shut up w that negative draining energy. If you hate it so much why are you investing time, effort and energy into it. I dont think you hate autotune I think you hate your self.
Damn, str8 out points of facts , enjoyed this vid🔥
He's full of S
Looking at this from the perspective of an artist who started out opposed to autotune. (Mainly because I was just doing rap stuff) and eventually growing into learning how to use it as a tool to learn how to sing better.
It's opened my eyes to a lot. I wanted to expand my sound and actually liked singing just never thought I was that good at it.
However, if you have a near perfect version of your song to practice to with autotune and rehearse to it, sing it and learn it from recording to rehearsal, you start to exponentially see how much better you become by basically learning what the notes should sound like and what you could go for when learning songs with melodic flows or tricky melodies.
I’ve been waiting and stalling on making music, but deep down it is my passion and seeing this video just made me realized Im waisting my time. Thanks man. Felt like a sign.
Same , i probably made at least 500 songs by now 😅 I really should drop. But over the last year and a half I decided to focus on making instrumentals (perfecting my craft) and it's been a bit overbearing. I been getting good with the beats and learning mixing my own self and the beat itself , yet sometimes i wonder....what if i just dropped that certain song when i was 19 and started there.
@gnome from pinkerton thanks man
@@h3llboyyy407 It's never too late. If you have 500 tracks you have a back log for months. Just start dropping stuff. A DistroKid account is cheap, there's no pressure to keep making so many songs for a minute, and you never know what will pop off. Even if you don't intend to do anything other than share tracks you made with other people, it's worth it imo. "Yeah my stuff's on Spotify/iTunes/etc"
@@AlecGrey59 Same to you - just do it. Failure.. Success.. it's all worth the experience. Just try it.
Good luck!
I think the removing the soul in the voice is perfect in explaining modern music although it's incredibly rare that people stand out and can have that ability. It'd be nice if people got respect for not using these difficult setups to achieve greatness
It's interesting to think that the newer generation has been conditioned to hearing only perfect pitched music.
It would sound weird without auto tune
@@Trapstar_17 i mean, they didn't have autotune for the first 80 years recording music
@@PatrickCc wow I didn’t think you read comments
"But people don't want to wait for greatness anymore" that's such a depressing line
I'm in the "target demographic" for most music, and I think the market for music artists is oversaturated, and a large part of it is thanks to autotune. It's like inflation. Because it's so easy to become a relatively successful artist, a lot of people are doing it and it makes truly talented artists stand out less against a sea of competitors. Name one TikToker that doesn't have a music career.
Exactly.
0:17 wtf vro 🔥
Autotune is a wonderful tool in my opinion. As long as they’re releasing good tunes, nothing else should matter. That alone is a talent.
No it’s not fml🤦♂️ overproduced music written by ten people is awful.
@@tylerseabook9423 they didn’t say anything related to that bro
@@tylerseabook9423 different topic.
yeah, there are a lot of not that known artist that make amazing stuff with the autotune
@@tylerseabook9423 my guy, that's what mainstream music is always gonna be
First, I want to say I like your take on this topic . I always thought it was a tool to tinker with like in some genres and experimental music. Sadly I feel it's been more over used recently and especially here in the states. I got into an argument with a coworker a few years back and it was over the recent Cinderella live action. I said that she wasn't good due to the auto tune and she stated everyone uses it. I replied that not everyone uses it and that you can feel the difference in sound.
I swear to God the only way to hear unaltered singing is going to be at completely obscure underground concerts with artists maybe 20 people know about.
A lot of people with no experience who are getting into music production think they can get by using pitch correction/auto-tune, when in fact hitting the right pitch is actually the easiest part about singing imo. As a self taught vocalist for 14 years, I started lessons 4 months ago and holy shit there's sooo much more to it than most think. Pitch is the part of the iceberg you can see, while under the surface is everything else (diet, sleep, practice, warming up, proper support, and a fuck ton of counter intuitive techniques etc), it's honestly a life style that you have to adopt. Auto-tune/PC only fixes one of those things, the rest are up to you to learn and master.
you can’t just slap auto tune over some talentless hack and have a consistently popular artist. you still have to know what you’re doing with the auto tune to sound good with it
4:25 "If human connection mattered, then electronic dance music wouldn't be as popular as it is."
And now you are undermining the human creativity behind electronic music. It's not all just poppy generic beats. There is electronic music with complex, jazz-like, progressive and musically complicated riffing, and there's electronic music with unadulterated and soulful vocal tracks. You're doing exactly the same boomerish "auto-tune bad" reductionism you criticized in your opening.
Your point actually makes auto tune seem worse
@@liltree8382 I'm not defending autotune. I don't really like it that much. I'm defending electronic music. Do you understand what that is? Did you read the comment?
I hate when people don't understand "electronic music" Is like they never heared something from the genres it have, I was about to watch the video but after that phrase... I think i wont waste my time watching this thing.
Auto-tune sucks no matter what
It's really cool to see the argument against legalizing steroids in sports appearing in a completely separate field.
You have to be tonally in tune with no more than one semi-tone interval off for Auto-Tune to sound magical. It'll never save a bad singer, majority of rap proves that point.
It really just helps with gluing the retune speed faster especially if you work with several harmonies. Love the video.
I cant picture eminem using it
6:14 Bands like Slipknot that jump around while playing will disagree.
I'm a R&B singer. I use auto tune just for creative purposes but I don't need it
I am a singer and have been in many choirs and groups over the years. I’ve met many professionals that show how they use pitch correction. It seems like cheating, but in this market you have to have perfect vocals. While Autotune makes a more robotic sound, Melodyne does the a similar thing but allows for you to modify it to sound more natural.
Too many people don’t realize that many musicians are not THAT good. Now that there is even LIVE autotune, someone who is an average singer can become a mainstream pop star. Nothing annoys me more than people praising vocals that are on a track and autotuned with melodyne. Most people don’t realize the vocals they are praising are actually fake because melodyne can be convincing if the person is at least ok at singing. However, they are not necessarily good simply because the track sounds good. It’s concerning.
"give a depressed girl auto-tune she thinks she can sing" -wise kid on tik tok