According to wikipedia, Auto-tune is: a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies that uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed many artists to produce more precisely tuned recordings. In addition to being used to subtly change pitch, with some settings it can be used as an effect to deliberately distort the human voice.
Ironically, it also mentions the recent declaration of the "death" of Auto-tune by rapper Jay-Z, along with a quote from Kanye West: "We actually removed all the songs with Auto-Tune off of his album, to make the point that this is an anti-Auto-Tune album, even though I released an album that has all Auto-Tune!"
40 year old Jay-Z has announced, among other things, that only T-Pain, Lil' Wayne, & Kanye West " do it right" and are allowed amnesty to continue using the plug-in.
As a producer I look at Auto-tune in two ways: 1) like the definition says, it can be used as a pitch correction module to improve performance, or 2) it can be purposely used to distort the voice, or as I would actually say, create a new instrument which a fellow musician I know called quite logically: electric voice.
The term "electric voice" is applicable in order to fully understand my feelings about Auto-Tune (an effect that I currently utilize as what is called the "V-Vocal" plug in, on Cakewalk's Sonar 8). The perfect example is the history of the guitar in American music. Just imagine if Les Paul and Rickenbacker received protests by an elder musician such as Fletcher Henderson, proclaiming that "electrified guitar is dead! My next album will only feature acoustic guitars!" We would laugh at him today for being so out of sync with his times!
I have a very different appreciation for Auto-Tune. As a tool when used subtly, it can of course be a great help with any annoyances, pitch wise, and for that I think it's a helpful production tool. On the other hand, if a singer just cannot really sing in tune most of the time, and AT is being used as a crutch, then like the haters, I don't enjoy it too tough.
What I do like, is when AT is used as a new instrument, as with the "electric voice" example. Leave it to Hip-Hop to once again, as it did back in the 1980's with the SP-12, ingeniously pervert a new piece of musical technology for its own purposes. After all, who would ever have thought of testing the effects of AT on a rap verse (Lil' Wayne), retuning the various pitches of the speech patterns of rap? Hip-Hip of course! and when Kanye West wanted to experiment with melodies to hear his musical ideas (he never claimed to be a singer), AT was not only an effective tool, but innovated a brand new genre that other artists like Drake are now mimicking. Like it or not, music is moving forward. AT is a tool, an instrument, nothing more. Blame the player not the game, so to speak...and I personally like it.
Why? As someone raised up in the "purist jazz" tradition I have every reason to despise AT. Lots of my fellow performing musicians believe AT to be a tool of Satan. I have a different perspective. After countless years of pop and other musics being sung off-pitch, I for one, welcome the luxury to hear proper intonation in a melody. Exceptions? Sure.... noone wants to hear David Ruffin or Sam Cooke with auto-tune, but real singers are a rare breed these days in my humble opinion. I haven't heard many great singrs in pop culture in years and years. At some point it has to be less about ego and more about the listener and being kind to their ears, and AT makes those pitches sing out and reverberate in a new way. AT is the truth, literally. I also believe that the more the masses are exposed to the proper pitches of tones, the more they will attempt to sing or produce them. In short, Auto-tune is reteaching the masses how to HEAR! It's about time - they have become deaf for years. The long term effects I predict will be staggeringly positive.
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