Autotune vs No Autotune: Is Autotune Cheating?

When musicians talk about autotune, they often do so with great disdain. For guitarists, bassists, drummers, pianists, especially those of a more traditional or even classical persuasion, it can come across as an ENORMOUS cheat to use it.

Personally, I have no issue with autotune as a tool.

What I do I have an issue with, is how some people choose to use autotune vs no autotune. Let me explain and hopefully it will become clear.

What is autotune?

Autotune is a category of software used (typically) in music production. Algorithms in the software are able to identify the individual sung pitches in an audio clip.

The vocal line is then typically expressed graphically on-screen, much like a line graph.

The software enables the various portions of this graph to be dragged, dropped, cut, re-shaped, and moved around to suit the producer’s desire. This then results in a flexible alteration of the originally sung melody. One can make it extremely subtle and organic, or very extreme in its effect.

In short, autotune is software that enables flexible re-arrangement of already sung melody notes, without additional vocal re-takes.

IMPORTANT: That’s all that autotune is.

Autotune is just a tool.

Like any bit of software, there are various different ways it can be employed.

Example 1: Recording a live gig

For example, let’s say a band has recorded a live gig. The gig was incredible, lots of energy, and the fans loved it. The band then decide they want to release the performance as a live album afterwards.

In the mixing process, they find there are some errors in the vocal performance. They can’t do an exact vocal re-take as the performance has already occurred. But autotune would enable the production engineer to tweak the vocal recording to make it far more useable than left untreated.

Example 2: Writing a song

Let’s look at another example of an artist fiddling with a melody. Let’s say an artist is still in the writing process of a song. They still haven’t nailed down the melody for (say) the chorus. They can record a single version of the chorus, then re-work the melody using autotune to reflect different versions that could be in the final product.

This rarely results in a great sounding set of variations, but as a sketch-pad, it works. This makes autotune a useful way to take one idea and create multiple sketches of alternate ideas, without vast amounts of vocal recording.

Example 3: Perfect recording, but for ONE note

One more example, a little more contentious this time: a singer has performed a flawless single take of a song, except for one note that’s out.

It’s a great take, but it’s that one note is outright flat. Other than that, it’s a great recording. Autotune can enable this take to be useable without going back and re-recording.

Now if the singer is still in the studio (or even recording at home) they could/should probably have a few more takes of that passage to get it right. But let’s say that first take was the best one artistically. Or perhaps this only came to light after the paid-for day at the studio is over.

This is where autotune absolutely shines. It can take something that is otherwise 99.9% fit for purpose, and fix that 0.01% problem.

Opinion: Where I take issue with people using autotune

The above are (in my opinion) legitimate situations in which autotune as a production tool can enable artists to create and release music without getting hung up on the odd error. However, the existence of autotune allows people to go further than just correcting the odd mistake, but creating recorded performances that are the equivalent of being heavily photoshopped. Here are a few examples:

1: The Crutch

I see a lot of singers posting videos of themselves online, on Youtube, Instagram, etc, and their use of autotune is JUDICIOUS. Often when you do hear a raw cut of their vocals or a live recording, you realise – they are rarely in-tune or accurate.

In the online world, many singers are able to use autotune to cover over a massive lack of actual ability.

To be clear, it is fairly normal to use autotune in more serious production work to iron out tiny little variations that are not out of tune, but where further smoothing will help the vocals fit in the track. This is often like a 10th-100th of a semitone in tiny inflections in vocal lines, rather than full on autotuning of the voice. “Massaging” the vocal, if you like, rather than correcting it.

However, if there’s just one or two notes that need autotuning in a song to save an otherwise brilliant take, that seems like a justifiable reason to use autotune (at least to me). But when people literally CANNOT do a song take without resorting to hefty autotune to fix ‘out’ notes, this is a problem. The singer needs to take responsibility, go and practice more, and get their voice together before trying to do another take.

2: Bad Singing (Yelling)

This also propagates a culture of bad singing, and sets impossible standards.

I was watching the Andrew Lloyd Webber stageshow of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ last year – and I was gobsmacked how much autotune was on there, for many, many singers, and how poorly so many of them on-stage were singing. Even just this week some songs had been brought in where the original recordings were practically dripping in autotune.

Where I take issue here, is that autotune takes what would be self-evident as bad singing (it’s next to impossible to yell consistently in tune) and makes it less obvious to the average listener that they are just yelling out notes. This then becomes the standard people are trying to adhere to. This only makes worse the issue of yellers masquerading as singers.

It’s much like the body dysmorphia issue arising in the modern world due to heavy photo-editing in magazines, Instagram etc. It elevates totally unachievable body (or voice) standards, and conditions people to aim themselves towards that impossible goal. In both cases, it’s not healthy.

3: They’re taking your money

The final point of where I take issue is this: for many singers, they’ve not just found fame and acclaim through the crutch of autotune, they’ve not just propagated an unsustainable sound through our culture… they’ve had financially successful careers, despite not being able to sing in tune to any reasonable standard.

It’s one thing to autotune yourself to look better than you are, or to devalue good singing through doing so, it’s quite another to make a lucrative career out of it.

Autotune is just a tool – it’s how you use it that matters

Autotune is a fabulous tool that singers and musicians have at their disposal. Don’t think someone is cheating just because they use it at all. But that tool has undoubtedly become a crutch for many.

If one is having to use judicious amounts of autotune on their voice, it’s a sign that they are not yet ready to sing the material they are singing the way they are singing it. This can be improved through better key choice, a change in material or approach, or many other artistic avenues.

Great singers don’t rely on autotune: experience it for yourself

If you feel you are relying too much on autotune when recording yourself, and would like to improve your vocals to be able to stand on your own two feet, you can book in using the booking button below. I look forward to starting work with you.