Auto-Tune and "Real" Pop/Rock
discman -- Sun, 06/08/2008 - 07:43
In the June 9 issue of The New Yorker, Sasha Frere-Jones discusses the use of Auto-Tune to fix singer's pitch problems (and more). In the article, Andy Hildebrand, the inventor of Auto-Tune, was asked if Auto-Tune is evil. He says "Well, my wife wears makeup. Is that evil?" And Sasha then writes "Evil may be overstating the case, but makeup is an apt analogy: there is nothing natural about recorded music... recorded music is still a composite of sounds that may or may not have happened in real time."
You can here Sasha talk about and demonstrate Auto-Tune here:
http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/06/09/080609on_audio_frerejones
Is the movement of producers and engineers to drop the sense of the real a problem? Would we have some declared masterpieces (e.g. Sgt. Pepper's) without dropping the "real" goal? Is it just an example of a sometimes useful approach that like anything can be abused?
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Auto-Tune has been employed on mainstream records for years. I think some producers are keen on using it but there are others who hate it but are given no choice; the demands of the artist and label weigh heavily. Butch Vig has talked about the latter pressures and issues in interviews.
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback
Auto-Tune has been employed on mainstream records for years. I think some producers are keen on using it but there are others who hate it but are given no choice; the demands of the artist and label weigh heavily. Butch Vig has talked about the latter pressures and issues in interviews.
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback
I thought what was interesting was not Auto-Tune (as you say, it has been around for years), but this question of what we gain and what we lose when a recording is no longer about capturing a "sense of a real event"?
I think the idea of capturing "the real event" in pop (pop mind you, not rock) was lost years to most ago, but yes, you are right.
Bob Gendron
Music Editor, TAS and Playback