Who to Blame for Auto-Tune
Monday, May 7, 2012 at 8:35AM
There are no words strong enough to express how much I despise Auto-Tune. I hate it's fake, robot-y sound. Even more, though, I hate how it's used to make marginal singers sound like pros. The phrase "polishing a turd" is never more apt.
The guy who invented this technology couldn't have seen this coming. Andy Hildebrand was an engineer at Exxon who was charged with finding a way to better interpret seismic data when it came to searching for new fileds of oil without having to drill first. He came up with a form of signal processing and audio interpretation that made this possible.
But because he was a music fan, Hildebrand recognized that his invention had other uses. After studying music composition, he founded Antares Audio Technologies in 1990 and began concentrating on adapting his discoveries to musical sitatuations.
Then came T-Pain and Cher and--well, you know the rest.
Hildebrand is unrepentent for unleashing this hideous scource. I quote:
"Cheating" in the old days used endless retakes to get a final result. It's easier now with Auto-Tune. Is the actor who plays Batman "cheating" because he can't fly?
First, you f**kwad, Batman doesn't have superpowers. He can't fly. Second, yes, it's cheating because it allows singers who can't sing to sound like they can. It gives them talent they don't have. It's like giving a student a test that self-corrects when they provide a wrong answer.
Yet there are people willing to defend this technology. Fine. I'm a hater and I'm gonna hate. And I'm not alone.
Reader Comments (4)
I'm all behind you in this Alan!
Technologie in music, when properly use, can be incredible. But the auto-tune is by far the sadest thing to happen to music... after Lil' Wayne of course! :D
I reserve my auto-tune hate for the people who can't sing in key and cheat. There are a few producers, Kanye comes to mind, who do some pretty creative stuff with it though. Great post, glad you said it!!
You are not alone, Alan. As a crutch for mediocre singers with their hearts set on stardom, it's the bane of music's existence. As a studio effect, it can yield interesting results. The Mars Volta's "Tetragrammaton" comes to mind. Thank you for this article.
Here's what it boils down to. There are talented artists. There are untalented artists. With any technological advancement, there will be more talented artists. But unfortunately, there will also be a lot more shitty artists.