Auto-Tune has become an essential tool for many artists who implement its use in song recordings and even live shows. This audio processor allows for instantaneous shifts in pitch and quality for the vocalist, which has caused contrasting opinions to form within audiences. While many people excuse the use of Auto-Tune, many others dislike it. To understand this divide in thought, we need to go through the main pros and cons that Auto-Tune has on the industry.
There is no denying that Auto-Tune is an incredibly useful tool for artists to implement with their singing. Its primary purpose of correcting pitch has helped with lining up the vocal performance with the instruments, ensuring that both play into each other without overlapping their presence. The technology has come a long way, to the point where it can be done in real time for concerts and other live performances. The synthetic sound of Auto-Tune has also become an artistic choice made by many kinds of genres, like pop and electro.
Masking imperfections with this technology has also come with its fair share of complaints, mainly dealing with the lack of authenticity that comes with changing vocals electronically. Many terrible singers can often get away with sounding decent thanks to auto-tune, which can be seen as disingenuous and insulting to those who don’t require it. Many argue that natural talent is far more impressive to hear and that using technology to sound better is the easy route.
Although I somewhat agree that the inauthentic use of auto-tune is sometimes distracting, it has also been used multiple times to enhance the music itself, which I believe to be more important than the process by which it was created. Either way, the technology has had a huge impact on the world of music, and there is no telling how it will evolve further down the line. Perhaps in time, there will be a shift in opinion on auto-tune that either embraces or shames the continuation of combining human talent with technological advancements.
