Auto-Tune: The music industry's biggest controversy: retouched voice vs. natural voice

Cher with his song “Believe” In 1998, she was the first to commercially record a melody using the device of the Auto-TuneFrom that moment on, it has become very popular, especially in the urban genre.

In this way, this trick in music, also known as “cher effect” It's become like the Photoshop of artists. It has been controversial since its inception; some use it to fix imperfections, others to create them.

So even if you don't believe it, many of the artists you listen to will surely have used the Auto-Tune for his musical compositions.

What is Auto-Tune?

He Auto-Tune it's a audio processing software for to fix or correct the musical tuning of a melodyIn other words, it allows artists to cover up imperfections in their voices.

This program was developed by the geophysicist and musician Andy Hildebrand. But it was designed to interpret data generated by seismic waves during the exploration of underground oil deposits. In his analysis, he realized that this program could be used to detect and modify voice tones in an audio file. This is how his company Antares Audio Technology gave life to Auto-Tune.

With the simplification in the instructions of a algorithmThe program saves a lot of money and time. Previously, you had to make multiple recordings of a song and then put them all together to achieve the desired sound.

How do you hear it in music?

Now, the musical system is composed of 12 notes, which are in turn separated by intervals known as semitones. Typically, most songs include a group of these notes called scales.

So, when a person is out of tune, they are singing a note that doesn't match the scale they are intoning. This means that the note can be above, below, or between the semitone. In this way, Auto-Tune, allows you to graphically view where the analyzed note is located and correct the place it should take to maintain harmony.

For this reason, it allows for recordings to be produced with more precise tuning in real time. Therefore, the melodies will sound more harmonized. Also, the Auto-Tune It is frequently used to distort the voice.

It's become so popular that there are now Auto-Tune apps for iOS and Android smartphones. With these, you can record your songs and correct them to give them a better musical pitch.

Controversy in its use

In any field you get detractors and sympathizers, and this could not escape the Auto-TuneOf course, among the supporters are singers who don't sing and those who crave perfection in music, even though the melodies are sung and performed by human beings.

It is worth noting that intonation correction has existed since the 1940s and 1950s. At that time, the following were used: Fairlight synthesizers and the vocal harmonizers like the Harmonizer, just to name a few. But their use is now more common.

Obviously, music, a recorded song, will go down in history. Therefore, many people believe it should sound as good as possible, regardless of whether it sounds different live. On the other hand, there is another group that thinks the opposite: that recorded music should sound as similar as possible to live performances.

Detractors

There are quite a few personalities who are against it. Auto-Tune, just as the music critic did Neil McCormick from the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, said it was a sinister invention that had been adding extra shine to pop lyrics since the 1990s.

On the other hand, the band Death Cab for Cutie upon delivery 51st Grammy Awards In 2009, she displayed blue scarves as a form of protest. That same year, at a presentation of Christina Aguilera He wore a T-shirt with the message “Auto-Tune is for Pussies,” which translates as the Auto-Tune It's for cowards. He later added that it wasn't all bad if used creatively, adding that he had used it in two of his songs.

The following year, the television program The X Factor, acknowledged that he had used it to enhance the voices of some participants. In addition, that same year 2010, the Time magazine included the Auto-Tune as the 50 worst inventions in history. For this reason, the app has been classified as demonstrating an inability to sing harmoniously.

In favor

For other critics, the Auto-Tune has helped to open new possibilities in the music of the genres pop, hip-hop and R&B. While it's not only used to fix poor vocals, it's also used to enhance artistic expressions.

Another genre that uses it is reggaeton, even when they're speaking live. Examples like Malula, Pitbull, Bad Bunny, Ozuna, and Bad Gyal, just to name a few, have integrated this tool into all their songs. So much so, that they don't even leave it out to speak in the middle of concerts, masking their true voices.

Also the electronic music benefited, as they can adjust strident melodies for the backgrounds of the pieces. An example is the band Radiohead, with several of his songs on the album Amnesiac, to obtain a nasal sound.

The first time

As mentioned above Cher, was the first singer to use it commercially. But the duo Roy Vedas They were the first to use this technological gadget.

He Auto-Tune It's here to stay, used to make corrections to vocals and instruments. Some artists use them frequently, others intensively.

Obviously, the debates will continue, just as they did when computers entered the world of audio. And to think it all started when a woman proposed to Andy Hildebrand At a dinner party, I wanted to make a sound box that would allow people to sing in tune. Now, let us know in the comments, what do you think about it? Auto-TuneHow far will it go?

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