After Cher released a song back in 1998 titled Believe, it was the very first time anybody was going to hear autotune for the first time on a song. Autotune started gaining waves from that point, but the few who knew nothing about it always asked, what is autotune in singing? Autotune is one of the best voice effects artists make use of.
On the other hand, so many artists make use of autotune to the point where it is extremely noticeable, making their voice sound robotic. How does autotune work? This is yet another question newbies ask when trying to learn more about autotune, and we will be providing answers on this in this detailed post.
There are people who believe making use of autotune in singing is gently taking away or discouraging artists from sounding original, and this is simply because they would prefer to listen to an artist sing with his or her original voice. On the other hand, artists and some other opinions believe that making use of autotune is a way to make the voice sound better on a song.
No matter what people say about making use of autotune on a song, it will fall either on any of the two sides. Do you support making use of autotune or you don’t support making use of autotune on a song.
What Is Autotune In Singing?
Before we go deeper into what autotune means, let us talk to you about what autotune really means. To make this definition easy, autotune refers to a software music producers or sound engineers make use of when correcting a singers pitch. Surprisingly, there are sound engineers that make use of autotune during a live performance, and one cannot help but wonder why this is done this way.
The reason why a singer will opt to make use of autotune during a live performance is to ensure that he maintains clean and clear vocal skills. What you need to know about the autotune is it is a noticeable effect. It is quite obvious when a singer makes use of autotune on a song, and this is because autotune involves a computerized forming of a voice on a song so the singer can sound very pleasant.
People tend to confuse what the difference is between autotune and vocoder. What we want you to know is the two are not the same, even though vocoder is also used for creating robotic sounds when singing. Ever since autotune was introduced, so many artists have tried it out and some ended up liking the outcome of using it.
Some of the musicians that have made use of autotune at some point in their life includes T-pain who used autotune and was criticized by Jay-Z for making use of the effect, while other artists that have made use of it include Kanye West, Lil Wayne, And Snoop Dogg. Britney Spears and Keisha Cole are pop artists that have made use of autotune in music, and one of the benefits that comes with using autotune is it helps in replacing missing notes.
You do not have to worry about cleaning up tracks when making use of autotune as the effect makes the song come out flawless, and most of the times autotune has sounded good on a track, it is because a very good artist who knows how to sing made use of it. This doesn’t take away the fact that these artists will not go through one problem or the other at some point in their career.
What we really want you to get from all of this is the use of autotune is going to save a lot of musicians during a live performance like we mentioned earlier, and this voice effect is definitely going to leave the crowd thrilled at every point. In addition, autotune is simply used to shape something pre-recorded, and it also makes use of an effect called the phase decoder.
There are three crucial parts of the autotune which are the retune speed, musical key, and input type. The musical key is tasked with telling you what and what needs to be separated, and the key of what you want to separate should be already set before going ahead to make use of the autotune feature.
The input type refers to the autotune plugin that opens you to vocal options like the tenor, soprano, and the alto. You will be provided with several options when recording an instrument like the bass, guitar, and piano, and trust all recordings done with an autotune effect to have an accurate and outstanding sound quality.
Read This – Why Do Singers Use Autotune
How Does Autotune Work?
Reference point, scale, and notes are what autotune makes use of, and trust me when i say it is not going to correct anything that goes outside of these three. Having slight problems with pitch can cause an artist to make use of autotune at the end of a recording, and this makes the track outstanding so there will be no need to record again.
You will be surprised at how many songs have autotune on them already, and autotune remains the best option for al artists out there instead of making corrections upon corrections on a song. To keep it short and simple, autotune will correct pitches just as how an audio software work when an instrument is being played.
Making use of autotune takes away the stress of making or repeating recordings simply because you missed a note or two, and the use of autotune has brought to an end days where you have to record till you attain perfection. You do not have to make recordings anymore till midnight so you can have a perfect track when you make use of autotune.
Now, people tend to ask if making use of autotune is a bad thing. The fact is you will not get the beauty of an artist’s raw voice when this artist makes use of autotune, and this is one of the disadvantage that comes with making use of autotune.
Black Eyed Peas at some point were criticized for making use of autotunes, as their were claims that they all sounded like robots. The question is, can you say the use of autotune is good or bad when the effect is less noticeable on a song? Let’s be realistic, sound engineers have been using autotune to make songs come out perfectly well.
This is why so many people are of the opinion that anyone making use of autotune cheats in making music. This is because autotune makes you sound very perfect, but there are times when the artists that have made use of autotune attested to the fact that they made use of the effect because they needed help cleaning up their vocals.
Interesting Read – How Many Strings Does A Bass Guitar Have
Final Note
Should we look away from all of the benefits making use of autotune offers and label it a cheat code in music? One fact about autotune today is it has turned out to be a very vital or crucial part of the music industry, and maybe artists and sound engineers can reject claims about them making use of autotune since they are steadily getting criticized. What do you think? We will like to read your thoughts and opinion in the comment section.
