Melodyne > Auto-tune

[El Dunco]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

And in another 5 or so, they'll be using it ironically.

You're being sarcastic right? That's why there's a T-Pain iPhone app and it's now the big 'thing' to autotune things that weren't originally sung.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

Since I never at all defended the artistic merits of the Cher effect, sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Navl4fYI-Zk#t=3m00s

Lead vocal in the last chorus - tasteful and effective, at least IMO.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMX3qv1N37s

Lead vocal in the entire song is hard-tuned, with artifacts all over; entire album has a very atmospheric/space-like/futuristic/whatever vibe and ambience, and the vocals being slightly inhuman really adds to it IMO.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHQWpOrT9yk#t=0m20s

Obviously tuned/glitched/effected vocals to kick off the song.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNGCJzPzAp0

Almost every clean vocal that Cynic does is effected - hard tuned and doubled by a pitch-shifted version of the vocal, one octave up, and one octave down.

Thanks. Some of those are quite interesting. There is a Meshuggah song from Catch 33 which was vocals only and had a pitch effect, but it sounded more like a vocoder filter. Minds Mirrors.

It starts to bother me however when it's like this all the way through. You can bet your bottom dollar SAFM 107.1 or NOVA 91.9 won't be playing Cynic anytime soon but they do play a Ke$ha level of annoying music non-stop.

 

[Virtual Kevorkian]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

Thanks. Some of those are quite interesting. There is a Meshuggah song from Catch 33 which was vocals only and had a pitch effect, but it sounded more like a vocoder filter. Minds Mirrors.

It starts to bother me however when it's like this all the way through. You can bet your bottom dollar SAFM 107.1 or NOVA 91.9 won't be playing Cynic anytime soon but they do play a Ke$ha level of annoying music non-stop.

Yeah, vocoder use is another thing that can be completely over done but is really cool when done right. See anything Imogen Heap has done for an example on that.

And yeah, it being completely overused in pop music is annoying, but I really wonder about anyone expecting 100% natural, pure musical honesty and integrity out of pop music.

It's always about the driver, not the car. Check out this Thrice mix by Andy Wallace, from 2003. Dustin is an awesome vocalist and the entire band is really good at what they do, and the mix sounds pretty natural and honest.




I have the multitrack files for this song - the vocals are tuned, the bass is pocketed, and the drums are quantized and have heavy use of sample replacement/augmentation. The same goes for Jimmy Eat World's song The Middle - sounds very natural and very much like a good rock band playing together, but the multitrack files have audible punch-ins, vocal tuning, etc, etc...

I don't want to fuel another "AT sucks and is evil" discussion, but again - AutoTune, like compression, sample replacement, eq, etc... are all tools, and each can be used or abused depending on who's running the show.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

You might find this article interesting. If you listen where it says you can hear the AT slipping up. The article made a couple of mistakes as it's obvious in a few songs that it's intentional but the others... it's kinda creepy actually.

http://www.hometracked.com/2008/02/05/auto-tune-abuse-in-pop-music-10-examples/

 

[Virtual Kevorkian]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

Honestly, most of those sound like human inflections to me. I work with AT all the time - I know what it sounds like when things get screwy, and only a couple of those sound like poor AT use to me. Some people have voices that actually sound like that; I can't wait to post my bands album next month and have you guys tear it apart for my obvious and abundant use of autotune, ignoring the fact that I may just have a young singer with some abrupt inflections. People are really too quick to jump on the "oh it's autotuned" bandwagon these days.

The biggest issue is that their statement about a warble being caused is only true if you're using the Auto mode of AT - you don't really get warbles in graphical mode, which is what anyone serious about tuning is going to use anyways.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

Haha. It's becoming the new 'it's photoshopped'. I don't think I've ever heard that happen to someone while singing. As a singer it hasn't happened to me. But I'll take your word for it.

 

[Virtual Kevorkian]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

What in specific? Once I'm done mixing this album, I'll post some clips of my singer that I would swear were autotuned if I hadn't recorded them myself.

 

[El Dunco]

Re: Melodyne > Auto-tune

What in specific? Once I'm done mixing this album, I'll post some clips of my singer that I would swear were autotuned if I hadn't recorded them myself.

The unintentional warble/yodel like their voice cracked or something.

Also people used to say 'it's photoshopped' in regards to a picture of which they doubted the authenticity. 'It's autotoned' in a music scenario bears an uncanny resemblence.