autotune. please don't

Tentative Andy

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
Bump.
I dislike roughly 80-90% of the uses of autotune that I hear, and I really can't make sense of why. In general I tend to enjoy vocal treatments that clearly sound artificial, synthetic, even sometimes trashy, but autotune is proving to have a strong instinctive turn-off factor for me. I guess it might be down to the fact that is seems to be wanting to sound classy/sophisticated but clearly isn't managing to. Might be way off with this though. Been listening to some vocal-led bassline mixes today, and they're full of horrible AT treatments which IMO really mar the whole vibe.
 
F

faustus

Well-known member
SIZZLE said:
I love me some autotune. It's like the drum machine of vocals. Cheap, inhuman and soulless but allowing for a whole lot of musical possibilities never imagined.

Let me put it this way. Working with a singer who CAN sing, with Autotune there suddenly opens up a whole new range of melodic possibilities that weren't there before. Just like samplers and computer sequencing made the possibility of fast repetitive beats no drummer could maintain a reality.

Listen to someone like Busy Signal or Munga and their use of it. They're using it to write these crazy falsetto lines that no adult male singer could hit or maintain but become possible through autotune. It's broadening musical possibility. Also by giving better pitch to the people who can't sing properly (in a naturalistic style) I think we will be exposed to a whole new range of singers
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^ i agree
 
D

droid

Guest
SIZZLE said:
Listen to someone like Busy Signal or Munga and their use of it. They're using it to write these crazy falsetto lines that no adult male singer could hit or maintain but become possible through autotune. It's broadening musical possibility. Also by giving better pitch to the people who can't sing properly (in a naturalistic style) I think we will be exposed to a whole new range of singers and singing possibilities, harmonies etc that will be very interesting.
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I don't think we will TBH, its been around for 10 years or so, plenty of time for revolutionary developments but Cher still seems to be the basic template... if anything, its narrowing musical possibilities.

Any vocal FX which becomes widespread (see also the vocoder) results in the homogenisation of the voice... in dancehall for example, where vocal dexterity and diversity were once prime attractors, every 3rd tune now features indistinguishable auto-tuned vocals. I'd rather listen to Sizzla torturing his vocal chords with dodgy out of tune falsettos than the smooth, generic Busy signal version anyday...
 
M

muser

Well-known member
The big difference with the vocoder and auto tune is that vocoders incorporate characteristics of something else with the voice so it still has a 'organic' feel (in a unatural sort of way) or just some depth in the sound. Auto tune almost does the opposit it completley takes away any subtle characteristics in the singing, sonically all it does is squash the voice into flat digitallized tones. In my mind its like the musical version of a Rustlers buger or diet coke, nasty shit.
 
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cobretti

cobretti

[-] :: [-] ~ [-] :: [-]
I'm not a big fan of autotune, but it does sound alright on some tracks, like Kanye West - Paranoid. T Pain gets away with it too because he's a king.
 
S

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
cobretti said:
T Pain gets away with it too because he's a king.
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Ever seen him live though? He gets his DJ to play the vocal version of the track and runs around the stage screaming "Ayy!" over top of it. This goes on for the entire performance.
 
G

gumdrops

Well-known member
i -somehow- quite like autotune. when i hear it on dancehall records now (not that im a dancehall expert or anything but you only have to listen to a bit of robbo ranx or goldfinger or whoever to hear a good number of autotuned dancehall songs) or grime (i cant stand it in grime) it gets me quite annoyed as it just seems to be used lazily. but when i hear kanye do it (i think hes kinda made a virtue of it and uses it as more than just a gimmick) or even t pain, i quite like it. i even like it when i hear others in R&B use it (its not like R&B is about grit or anything, what diff does a bit of vocal processing/fx make?), though id like to hear someone do something more dark and sci-fi with it.
 
D

droid

Guest
Best Kanye autotune track:

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Full audio:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
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D

droid

Guest
Killer new autotune dancehall hit:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I assume everyone's seen this?

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
DJ Rupture said:
A few months ago I heard a song from the Côte d’Ivoire. Twelve minutes long, Champion DJ’s ‘Baako’ is built around a baby crying through Auto-Tune. The software bends the baby’s anguish into eerie musicality. The ear likes it. The mind isn’t so sure. ‘Baako’ is disturbing. The aestheticized cry no longer corresponds to any normal emotion. Before Auto-Tune, we had no melodious screams.
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Is that tune what Flying Lotus has been using recently, or has he got some other baby crying autotune sample? It seems unlikely. I'd like to hear the whole tune, that sample is mad.
 
4linehaiku

4linehaiku

Repetitive
He only plays about 2 minutes of it unfortunately. Think I have to donate to hear the rest? Not sure.
It's rather grating after that long anyway, so I'll probably cope without the remaining 8 minutes.
 
cobretti

cobretti

[-] :: [-] ~ [-] :: [-]
Yeah that tune is nuts. First I saw, Diplo & Switch were playing it at SXSW, then a week or so later FlyLo dropped it at a gig here in Glasgow. In any case, the whole crowd is baffled as to what the fuck is going on. It does have an eerie quality to it, especially when it starts looping. It stops sounding like a baby crying altogether.
 
R

raffia

Member
auto

I really like auto tune..its like android emotion or something....hard to get right tho, like on a song like kanye's 'love lockdown' i love it all except for the chorus which sounds 'orrible.
 
M

muser

Well-known member
droid said:
Killer new autotune dancehall hit:

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Click to expand...

Heres more genius from the kid with diplo and switch, had me in stitches. :D

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 
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