Auto-Tune - A Form of Expression Or Abuse of Technology?
By: Kathy Johnston
Submitted: 2010-08-23 23:42:54 | Word Count: 404
The founder of Auto-Tune, Andy Hildebrand, has admitted that the current overexposed, musically glorified, animated vocal engineer is not being utilized in the way it was created and intended to be used. Auto-Tune is best known for giving hip-hop artists such as, T-Pain, Diddy, Kanye West and Akon the quirky robotic sound their music has become so popular for. Though, Cher is the first noted artist to get her hands on this vocal perfect-or , the hip-hop world has used it to turn rap artists into singers and has morphed those that can't hold a note into signed artists.
While you may only recognize Auto-Tune when it's being used to distort a recording artists vocal into an automated audiometric adventure, the box is also a career saver and maker for many of your favorite artists. By tweaking the notes and pitch, a singer (or anyone) can make their vocal performance literally sound perfect. Skeptical? Think back a few years to when a now prevalent artists vocal were far from faultless, whereas today they seem to have hit a precise stride. You know those artists that perform live to a booing crowd or worse a silent one, but on the album sound immaculate? But, is the use of Auto-Tune just a different sound that T-Pain revolutionized, innovated and popularized as a sincere and exclusive form of lyrical expression? Or, is it a tool that gives artists an unfair advantage?
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I think it's both. Auto-Tune, if being used to tweak an incorrect note here and there for the sake of saving studio time, is being justly employed. However, when it is used on every single song an artist puts out or when its evolutionary genius is being exploited to create a false sense of perfection than it has been abused, severely.
I'll be the first to admit, T-Pain offered a sound no one had, and since, has had veteran's Lil' Wane, Diddy and Kanye West follow in his comically vocalized footsteps. Diddy even paid him for lessons and rights. Auto-Tune needs some regulation and artists need to fess up about their imperfections if they want their respect back!
