Friday, 8 April 2011

Poor Lead Singers Celebrate with an Autotune Plugin

By Andy Ainsworth


Are you a dreadful lead singer with dreams of making it as a pop star? Want to get around your dearth of ability? Now you can. Ever question why renowned singers sound cool on their records but atrocious during a live show. It is as basic as a little concept called autotune. An autotune plugin can assist any person obtain musical greatness-even if your skills are not up to par.

Here is what an autotune plugin can do: Perfects the pitch of sung or instrumental performances Corrects mistakes or inaccuracies so you don't need vocalize in tune Fixes timing problems in case you skip a word or a beat Distorts the human tone of voice to make you sound better than you essentially are Ability to instantly toggle amongst the time-shifted audio recording and the first recording Will record MIDI note data that is routed to it and can even present this on the Pitch Graph. Users can then make annotations about changes in real-time.

It is simple for any person to use, from the professionals to the amateurs. However, the question remains; is an autotune plugin only a tool for doctoring up substandard composition? Well, yes and no. While you can employ autotune for a variety of "aboveboard" reasons- like you recorded a near impeccable track with one or two mistakes-it can also be used to totally skew an original recording.

The inaugural major hit song that this software was used for was Cher's "Believe." After that, additional artists followed suit, realizing their dreams of fooling the public into thinking bad singers were good.

Other artists, however, have taken a stance in opposition to it. Country singers such as Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and Loretta Lynn have refused to employ AutoTune plugin technology. At the Grammy Awards in 2009, Death Cab for Cutie appeared wearing decorations that protested the use of AutoTune. Additionally, singer-songwriter Allison Moorer released a disc in 2002 that shed light on the row. The disc came with a decal that said, "Absolutely no vocal tweaking or pitch adjustment was used in the making of this disc."

One music writer went as far as to declare the autotune plugin was a "distinctively foreboding creation." For bad and good singers similarly, one thing is irrefutable: No need for gargling brine, practicing your pitch, and resting your pipes. Thanks autotune!




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