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Why Auto-Tune is not ruining music

By Steve Savage


Originally made famous as a special effect on Cher’s “Believe,” Auto-Tune — the program that can fix the pitch of a singer — has received a lot of bad press. A recent piece in Time magazine blamed it as the central reason “why pop is in a pretty serious lull at the moment” and listed it in its “50 Worst Inventions.” There have been demonstrations at the Grammy’s against Auto-Tune as though it was to blame for the onslaught of formulaic pop (2009, Death Cab for Cutie). Jay-Z had a hit with the anti-Auto-Tune song “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” despite its widespread use by fellow rap artists from T-Pain to Kanye West.

The same technological determinism has condemned every new music technology from the player piano to multi-track tape recorders to synthesizers and drum machines. Many thought recording itself contained the seeds of destruction for live music.

As a recording professional, I see Auto-Tune primarily is a tool that allows for the occasional pitch fixing of a small part of a vocal performance. Before Auto-Tune I had numerous debates with singers about a particular phrase that I felt was especially emotional and effective but had one slightly sharp or flat element. I’d say “But the performance is great! No one is going to notice that tiny pitch issue.” Often the singer “just can’t live with that line” so we’d record it again. (We’ve been fixing pitch in vocal performances by re-recording for a long time.) However, when we’d re-record the line, invariably it wouldn’t be quite as emotional or expressive, but it would be more in tune. The singer would be satisfied and I’d be disappointed. Now, thanks to Auto-Tune, I can pitch fix the little problem and save that great performance.

Additionally, Auto-Tune is harangued as special effect or as an obvious effect on a vocal. From the robotic vocorder effect to flanged vocals, from “telephone” vocals to vocals with a lot of repeating echoes, we’ve been creating obvious effects on vocals for a long time. Vocal effects are fun. They can be creative and expressive, or they can be overdone and clichéd, but they are hardly new.

Auto-Tune is sometimes used to fix an entire vocal performance, rendering it more accurately in tune than is natural. This may indeed make for a slightly less emotional performance, but it may also make for a slightly more engaging performance. It doesn’t rob the vocal of most of its expressive qualities: dynamics, vibrato, timbre, etc. It’s just a slight refinement and often just a matter of taste — not a wholesale destruction of musical expression.

New technologies allow for new forms of creativity. They are essential to the process of renewal, to the seeds of inspiration. Abused, used poorly, tried as shortcuts rather than creative outlets — these faults lie with user. Nevertheless, McLuhan taught us that “the medium is the message.” If Auto-Tune is inherently bad then you have to argue that recording is inherently bad. One may argue that there have been negative effects of recording — the professionalization of music performance, for example — but I’d say the scale falls heavily in favor of recording as a cultural gift, and Auto-Tune as well.

Steve Savage is an expert in the art of digital audio technology and has been the primary engineer on seven records that received Grammy nominations (including Robert Cray, John Hammond Jr., The Gospel Hummingbirds and Elvin Bishop). He also teaches musicology at San Francisco State University. Savage holds a Ph.D. in music and has two current books that frame his work as a practitioner and as a researcher. The Art of Digital Audio Recording: A Practical Guide for Home and Studio from Oxford University Press is the result of 10 years of teaching music production and 20 years of making records. Bytes & Backbeats: Repurposing Music in the Digital Age from The University of Michigan Press uses his personal recording experiences to comment on the evolution of music in the computer age.

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Recent Comments

  1. Excellent article. The best vocal takes are those that best capture the emotion of the song and that are the most compelling. An excellent take with slight pitch problems can be very subtly altered with Auto-Tune to create the perfect take from an emotional and technical standpoint.

  2. Eric

    You seem to be missing the point entirely. What people are reacting to when they lambast auto-tune isn’t the “fixing one note in an otherwise great vocal performance” thing you’re talking about.
    You hint at the real problem I and many others have with the current use of auto-tune in the phrase, “or they can be overdone and clichéd”. Yeah. Auto-tune as an “obvious effect on a vocal” is horribly overdone and clichéd.

  3. suthrnboy

    Your article is completely pretentious. It casually tosses aside the reasons most real people are disgusted with the ubiquitous Auto-Tune, namely, its ubiquitous-ness and the fact it helps no-talent hacks get music deals (as their engineers make it sound like the no-talent hacks can sing), and finally, every rapper under 20 years old insists on using Auto-Tune so they can sound like a robot. Its pathetic.
    Nice try, Mr Straw-man!
    Auto-Tune sucks, big time…

  4. suthrnboy

    @Gary Catona Voice Builder

    Thanks for repeating the exact same information the article presented! We appreciate it!

  5. […] my last blog posting I wrote in defense of Auto-Tune. So if it’s not Auto-Tune, then what is wrong with pop? To the extent that technological […]

  6. bruno coon

    I feel that with many types of music the instinctive use of micro-tonal elements brings additional emotional information that is culled by a strict adherence to the tempered scale. Any decent blues (Son House) or “Yes I’m Ready” (the 1965 Barbara Mason version) will make my point. I think it has a subtle chilling effect, like spreading mayonnaise on everything. I hope we get over the need to quantize and robo-tune the individuality out of our music, someday.

  7. […] and desolation of the landscapes. Some have also speculated on whether Romney’s singing was “auto-tuned” to be “out of […]

  8. Ellie

    I think your comments are excellently presented. Although auto tune has been abused by some “artists”, it has also been put to good use over the years. Very interesting. thank you!

  9. […] “Before Auto-Tune I had numerous debates with singers about a particular phrase that I felt was especially emotional and effective but had one slightly sharp or flat element. I’d say “But the performance is great! No one is going to notice that tiny pitch issue.” Often the singer “just can’t live with that line” so we’d record it again. (We’ve been fixing pitch in vocal performances by re-recording for a long time.) However, when we’d re-record the line, invariably it wouldn’t be quite as emotional or expressive, but it would be more in tune. The singer would be satisfied and I’d be disappointed. Now, thanks to Auto-Tune, I can pitch fix the little problem and save that great performance.” blog.oup.com/2012/06/why-auto-tune-is-not-ruining-music […]

  10. Djf

    Auto tune is ruining music….because you have artists who use it to correct so many “little pitch” issues through out the album and there recording career and use it to fall back on it and begin to rely on it too much and 99.9% of the time thats the issue then you hear them live and your just like “wtf were they wasted or what” cause most of the time from live to recorded its night and day especialy with alot of these huge artists like drake nicki minaj kanye west future and artists like that half the albums “corrected” they should be made to do thay line again and again and again until they get it right not “oh we will just auto tune it in” sometimes taking weeks just to get a track but its truley perfect and then when they perform live they learn this thing called consistency and proffesionalism and can give great performances kinda like say tech n9ne eminem crooked i royce da 5’9 logic kendrick lamar and j cole those are people who take time to dial there own skills in not a control knob like the ones i listed above and the recording gets easier and easier and better and better cause the artists being pushed so in my opinion it is ruining music its just a bandaid till you hear the person life and cant believe your ears

  11. Rufus Dufus

    One sided article. Autotune IS ruining music. Process of renewal? A process of renewal that involves talented control of voice is far better than the derivative bland emotionless junk that is being churned out at the moment, all of it with the same whingey unoriginal autotune style. You clearly have no taste whatsover. “Steve Savage is an expert in the art of digital audio technology” ?? He may well be but he is most certainly not an expert in what constitutes good music.

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