Seeing if People Can Hear Autotune on Vocals
Vložit
- čas přidán 3. 06. 2024
- Has Autotune really "destroyed modern music?" Check out what the average listener preferred in this blind test.
☛ Learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes with my FREE Mixing Cheatsheet: mixcheatsheet.com
Watch This Next: 10 Unspoken Rules of Audio Engineering • 10 Unspoken Rules of A...
Music I’ve Worked On: open.spotify.com/playlist/6I7...
Website: hardcoremusicstudio.com
-------------------------
MY FAVORITE GEAR:
Computer / Interface:
Mac M1 Studio Max sweetwater.sjv.io/anOMOo
Avid Carbon sweetwater.sjv.io/ZQ6M6g
Apogee Duet 3 sweetwater.sjv.io/y2qXqb
Monitors / Headphones:
Avantone CLA-10a sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyMyZ
Audio Technica ATH-M50 sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMON
Microphones:
Shure SM57 sweetwater.sjv.io/daOMy7
AKG D112 sweetwater.sjv.io/Kj0MBy
Sennheiser e604 sweetwater.sjv.io/DKyvWa
Shure SM7b sweetwater.sjv.io/5g5vk3
AKG C451b sweetwater.sjv.io/jre9Rv
Shure SM81 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LnD
Audio Technica AT4050 sweetwater.sjv.io/JzKMqr
Preamps/Outboard:
API 3124 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LRD
EL8 Distressor sweetwater.sjv.io/XYmMd4
Favorite Plugins:
BSA Clipper blacksaltaudio.com/clipper
Escalator blacksaltaudio.com/escalator
Low Control blacksaltaudio.com/low-control
Silencer blacksaltaudio.com/silencer
DSR blacksaltaudio.com/dsr
Waves SSL Bundle waves.alzt.net/dMd4q
Waves CLA Compressors waves.alzt.net/0va0P
Waves Platinum waves.alzt.net/jxz2M
Slate Trigger 2 sweetwater.sjv.io/MmAM53
SoundToys Rack sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyd
Auto-tune Pro sweetwater.sjv.io/OreMYr
Vocalign Project sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyA
Cranesong Phoenix II sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMrz
Instruments / Amps:
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare sweetwater.sjv.io/1r9vDR
Gibson Les Paul sweetwater.sjv.io/B0nvz1
Evertune Guitars sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyM6P
Fender Jazz Bass sweetwater.sjv.io/nLX5R6
Sansamp Bass Driver DI sweetwater.sjv.io/OreM9Q
EVH 5150 sweetwater.sjv.io/4PGvr9
Mesa 2x12 cab sweetwater.sjv.io/75avGA - Hudba
Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: www.mixcheatsheet.com
819/1024 = 80%, not 66%
Yup, I wonder how that 66% came about
@@FedericoFavaro I wonder if the 66% is correct or the raw numbers are correct. 1024 is 2^10 after all, could have come from something computational not showing a full list, and the 66% being the actual part being correct.
@@FedericoFavaro neverming, 819/1240 is 66%. That's the mistake most likely.
@@iurigrang That makes a lot of sense
He’s a mixer, not a mathematician 😂😂
This video shows how many people aren't really sure what they are listening to, just how a change affects the overall sound.
Facts.
And also why that last 10-15% of really great mixing is so damn hard to achieve, because your brain is _constantly_ lying to you about what you're really hearing.
Did you always use the untuned first and the tuned second? If so, it might be worthwhile to try again to eliminate recency bias. And having two songs, one where the first is tuned and one where the first one is untuned, would be even better.
Your examples have very tasteful pitch correction, and they still sound natural. The complaints with autotune are regarding untasteful and too heavy-handed uses of it, which I agree with.
The heavy handed autotune sounds amazing tbh. We've got so many sub genres from ppl being able to push and manipulate autotune. I think it's more of a age gap (older ppl dislike it). Comes down to taste tbh
This whole video was a huge non sequitur, but I'm glad you realised this at 6:40. Also, if you always put the tuned version as the 2nd track then you totally wasted your time, you were supposed to shuffle them.
I watched a video where they auto-tuned Aretha Franklin, Robert Plant, and Frank Sinatra.
The tuned versions were pretty obviously weaker.
The difference may be the fact that the "out of tune-ness" of those great singers was not "out of tune" but "colorful".
Great singers can play with tuning like a cat plays with a toy. Most people are not great singers. Even pro vocalists are not mostly Frank Sinatra.
I saw that video by Adam Neely. I think that could be explained taking a consideration Nolly - the mixer for the last Periphery record - mentioned in the livestream he made with Jordan: drummers nowadays mostly aim at the grid, so it makes sense to quantize them; and most singers nowadays aim at the line at 440 hZ standard tuning, so it makes sense to tune them in a tasteful way. But taking a performance from Robert Plant - who was largely aiming for in between blue notes - and pitch correcting will make it worse; just like quantizing John Bonham who didn't aim at the grid when he was playing. Hope it makes sense!
@@alessandrosummer The idea that the intentionality of the musician is the deciding factor here is a really refreshing take, makes perfect sense
@@1vlaadchamp198 absolutely!
Did you change the order? The second piece of data is usually "better"
The average listener doesn't correlate auto tune as tuning or doing correction. They correlate auto tune as T-pain/Cher effect. I did notice the tuned vocal in these examples removed the attack of the consonants and made the vocal sound smoother. What auto tune software version did you use for the examples?
Thanks for the awesome video! I honestly love these kinds of videos. For me, mixing is a means to clarify and improve on what the music is trying to communicate, and videos like this prove to me how obsessive we get over little details that many people just simply don’t care about. I see people almost assigning a lack of musical integrity or something for certain things (tuning vocals, drum samples, etc.) If tuning up the vocals helps the music connect with people (which in this video it seems to) then I’m happy to meet people halfway.
Was Tuned always the last one they heard, i.e. always Version B? If so should've randomized the order for a more fair test.
The big question is.... if there is no comparison between A and B, would someone really care? The tuning on these example is really less and you can hear the tuning not exactly. I think the problem is more the heavy load of autotune that is used in so many modern tracks. Using Melodyne and co just to grab the notes where it is really needed is totally fine. Working through a vocal track manually with Melodyne just to chose the notes that really need to be tuned makes it sound more natural and authentic. But to be hones. So many people love the music from decades where noone alligned and tuned vocals. It is alwys best that a singer does a great job and tuning is just there to give a final polish. The reality always shows, that many modern music is just tuned die hard by default. And yes, that's boring, unintresting ......
Well.. the test was a mild pitch correction vs no pitch correction at all. The test should be including also heavy pitch correction (like it's present in a lot of music nowadays) vs no pitch correction and mild pitch correction vs no pitch correction. I think mild pitch correction would always win and a heavy pitch correction would lose even with no pitch correction at all. But I guess
I’m pretty sure Jordan agrees! He took this tasteful pitch correction just to show that Autotune is not ruining music: it’s just a tool that unfortunately has often been used poorly
wow i was imaging those roboty chip-sound like vocal before i click in lol
Just to add some nuance: I think it isn't whether you autotune/pitch correct or don't on a whole scale that makes or breaks a song. I think the amount of correction and when you decide to apply it vs letting the raw sound keep its original touch boils down to whether it feels good in the end. If you apply too much correction, it may feel unnatural and/or remove some of the emotion behind a line. If you don't apply enough it may feel too low quality. I also think this differs from genre to genre and ultimately taste. I personally enjoyed the first song (the country one) untuned version slighty more, while the in second song (the pop rocky one) I felt like the tuning really did enhance it
I really like how you end this video on a level headed conclusion and how you always focus on simply making good music instead of following trends or falling into unnecessary controversies like this autotune debate
Yo, I was one of the 25 people that mentioned tuning! Also, they were very fair tests. The raw vocals were very close and good performances.
Awesome. Your content is on another level.
This was an eye-opening video.
Great job
A tuned vocal is ultimately going to sound tighter to the instrumentation. It’s going to feel like everything is pulled together just a little more
such a great experiment! Doesn't surprise me that people commented on other elements of the mix. When things are resonating harmonically and not beating against each other, they always sound better. Learning how to Autotune at a top tier level is what built my business as a vocal editor, and to this day I have new clients coming specifically because I get "that" vocal excellence on every project I do. Also as a side note, I don't know if you've noticed, but I sure have...I'm seeing young teen singers nailing pitch live more than ever before and I honestly believe it's because they are singing along with their favorite artists who have been autotuned...it's like it's being baked into them as they grow up. I've even heard a few teen girls on public free stages who sound like they're running autotune live on a dry mic lol...
Great video mate! Love that you did all this research. Some of my subscribers just pointed me to this video because I published a video about how to tune VOX in Melodyne just this week.
An update on the math would be great if you can. Which was it? Was it 66% of the 1024 the chose the tuned version? (Unlikely as that would result in 675.84 and you can't have 0.84 of a person) or was it 819, meaning that 80% preferred the tuned version? Personally, I'm very curious.
Please keep up the great content and the first hand research. You're doing the industry a favor with the data. Cheers mate.
It's simple if a person can actually sing don't use auto-tune. If they can't sing on key then obviously use it. I do believe it creates a human quality if someone might get slightly off but is mostly in tune to not Auto-Tune it. I think auto-tune is a testament of modern times showing people just aren't as good as they used to be. It's almost like everyone got lazy and they don't put time into the craft like they used to. Like putting a Band-Aid on it. On a truly great song with a great passionate vocalist auto-tune would take away from it.
Great vid! 👍🏼 Where in your chain do you put autotune?
I know you process vox in this order:
• Compress
• DeEss
• Limit
• Automate
…so where would YOU put a pitch correction plugin? Thanks in advance!
This is really interesting. I love your observation that people listen to music as a whole... I think that is all the more reason to put the effort into the performance, to think through the song, and to put effort into actually composing the song. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
What a great test!! I remember when you sent out the survey… I can’t remember what I said, but I DEFINITELY did not hear the vocal tuning, but I’m pretty sure I picked Mix B.
Me too!
I listened without watching and didn't notice any difference. The guy was just already good enough
Yeah he was really good. The Autotune took a little of the shakeiness out of his voice and I can't decide whether that improved or detracted from it for me.
I think it just removed most of the pitch drift, definitely a very good singer
@@joshuadelaughter For me, the 1st song was better without autotune because it had more pathos, but it was _really_ close, and there were definitely also small parts improved. For the 2nd one my brain was immediately resistant because I didn't like the song, and also my brain went "this is clearly the sort of modern heavier stuff that needs to be treated with autotune to sound like a modern competitive mix". Self-fulfilling prophecy.
Very interesting video and analysis, thank you. I wonder if the other properties that people noted, around clarity, bass-tightness etc etc are a psycho-acoustic effect of the fact that the vocals are occupying a tighter band of the frequency spectrum? Not sure if I'm explaining myself too well here.
Thumbs up! Watching you for years, today IM going to ask my first question. Please tell me the truth about setting levels on vocal recordings in Pro Tools.Some people say -10dB some people say -12dB some people say OVU on a VU meter. What gain settings do you record at? Thank You.
Mix with your ears not your eyes. But most people I know track at about the highest gain they can get away with without clipping.
Everything effects everything in a mix
Ok but what if youre doing it with like 3 or 4 versions? One with completely untuned vocals, one with carefully tuned vocals where only the bad spots where corrected, one where everything is on the grid but kind of natural and maybe one thats more on the robotic side? IMO the whole autotune discussion was never about yes or no. Its more about wheres the sweet spot and probably most modern records pushed it a little too far.
Paul is such a great vocalist, I could immediately tell it was him. Saw his old project Burst and Bloom live a long time ago. Great band
Such an awesome example here, and totally agree with the conclusion. I would love to see a test done with a really overtuned vocal vs an untuned one as well, if only for shits n giggles :)
Also, love your point about "there will always be lots of people on the sidelines and in the stands criticizing." So true. Based on my experience being on CZcams since 2009, IMO 99% of critical comments on CZcams are from people who don't actually write any music or work as an engineer whatsoever. People with no videos, no following, no releases etc. seem to be the most outspoken (and nasty). Probably because it's so hard and painful for them to see others succeeding, or on the path to success, or just exploring and following their hearts and passions. And rather than do anything worthwhile to elevate themselves, it's easier for them to sit back and take cheap shots at those who are in the arena, battling it out.
That’s such a good point about special fx and edits in movies, it’s the same thing! 👌🏻
Hmm how does that affect vocal doubles?
I wonder if the tuning (whether autotune or melodine etc.) nudges the tonality of the vocal. Un-tuned, if a vocal is a little flat or sharp, it could be rubbing against the other elements of the mix and contributing to frequency buildups, whereas that same performance being tuned (either heavily or lightly) would have the vocal sit in it's own space throughout the song a bit more, possibly effecting the tonal balance of the whole song as well as compression down the line. I also noticed in the examples that the tuned vocal sounded more even in terms of dynamics, and I wonder if that had an effected the perception of other things in the mix as well. Just spitballing, but would be interesting to investigate further in a future video
Thank you! When I get tracks to mix and the assignment is to make it sound as good as possible, the first thing is not mixing, it's editing. So the timing of all instruments, the tuning and dynamics of the vocals and solo instruments. Everything needs to be just tight enough to still sound musical but no longer like a high school band. It needs to sound like good musicians who know how to play. And that already makes all the difference. Mixing then becomes a lot easier.
And I get soooooooo sick of the people who say "Learn how to sing!!" or "Hire a better singer!" when someone asks how to use Autotune (or other tuning plugins/software). First of all, it's not up to them to decide what I can or can not do. Second, there's a very snobby thing happening there, cause they apparently assume you work for a record company and have the luxury of hiring anything and anyone you want. Whioch, for the vast majority of us, is definitely not a reality. Most of us record friends or friends of friends, and not to work towards a public release but only a small release for a few people who are interested. If I were recording for a company and could hire anyone, would I ask about what the best drum plugin is? No! I would just tell the company that I need a drummer. period.
A mix sounding bigger with tuned vocals makes sense. It's wave summation.
Vocal tuning is like EQ, you can use it to make a good recording great, but you can't make a bad performance sound good.
If you hear vocal artifacts from the auto tune, have the singer do another take.
What is your opinion on when to use Melodyne vs Autotune ? What do you mostly use?
He mostly uses Autotune because he got used to that but he mentioned several times that if someone is more comfortable with Melodyne - like me - it’s completely fine as well
This is a long shot but I have a theory about why people perceived the mix better with tuned vocals. I believe most people actually can tell the key of the song by the vocal because their brains will focus entirely on it, therefore even slightly out of tuned vocals will subtly put the rest of the song slightly out of tune as the brain uses the vocals to decide what's right. Our ears are most sensitive to sounds in the vocal range so it makes sense that people would latch on to the vocals for things like key center. When the vocals align perfectly with the mix they would perceive the rest of the music to work better with the vocal and the brain would focus a bit more gluing everything together and perceiving it as one unit - which creates the illusion of a better mix. Another aspect to this could be that the fundamentals and overtones mesh better when things are perfectly aligned and I do believe that influences the mix because that would create small variations in volume that could impact how compressors work in a very subtle way. So maybe it's not just that our brains are playing tricks on us, tuning actually does impact the mix.
This could have been skewed by always playing the tuned version second. I listened to the two tracks on the email you sent out and really couldn’t pick out a difference.
I think when the natural performance is really close, it can be nice to leave alone. Feels more timeless to listen to or something. If the vocalist is audibly off, yes, I’m of the opinion it is better tuned in that case. Hard tuned vocals where you can really hear the algorithm does bug me though.
I really enjoy minor imperfections in recording. Maybe I'm just old school, but i feel more connected when it's not perfect.
i’d be curious to see the same test with raw vs melodyne vs antares to see if the tuning algorithm makes a difference
Was the tuned version always second? Your ears can get used to the sound profile in seconds, which would make them favor the second one more since it then sounds slightly more familiar. This would also explain all the differences in clarity, bass etc.
You could also do a test where you compare indentical versions and see if you get 66% in favor of the second one again :D
If I hear anything more than light autotune on a song I'm skipping it or changing the station.
My question is, should one bet on Autotune or Melodyne? Or something else? This would be an intresting follow-up video.
most canadian video ever ahahaha good stuff, singer on the second song is crazy good
Can you do a video on how you use Autotune? You sound like you know how to use it as a tool/with a light touch, I’d love to learn more. It always seems to be heavy-handed when I use it no matter what I try
As for me, untuned vocals sound more intimate. Sometimes it's good and fits the song, but most of the times (especially in modern pop/commercial music) tuned vocals are a much better fit
Let’s not discount that if given two IDENTICAL tracks, people will believe they hear a difference and pick one over the other. If you tell them they are different, they will believe they hear a difference
This is a really interesting result.
i got the second example sent to me. i didn't respond because there wasn't an option to say i couldn't hear a difference. now that i know the answer i still don't hear a difference.
Since I mix my own vocals I really have a hard time letting myself tune. I'm going to perform this shit live so I don't want to give myself a crutch that will only work in a studio.
I find it amazing that a tuned vocal presents a psychoacoustic across the whole mix. That’s an incredible discovery! Thanks for the share, Jordan! Pure gold! Ps. My maths is terrible! Didn’t even notice until comments 🤣🤣
The vocal tone in the auto tuned versions sounded a bit warmer than the non auto tumed. To me that helped them sit in mix a bit better tonally and also let the upper mids of the instruments come across better (less masking).
I don't consider myself a professional singer, but... I try to defend myself when I sing, I use tuners, I particularly prefer waves tune mono, and once I get my voice in tune, I study my own voice to, at the same time, push myself to reach other vocal levels
Pretty sure I voted for the first option. I remember thinking the vocals were compressed differently though. Very interesting!
Man, I love that you're doing these real world test. Cause ultimately that's all that matters. Listeners don't know what they don't know. They just know that it sounds better.
The only people that think pitch correction is "killing music" are other engineers/mixers.
Now let's do this again but with quantized vs un-quantized drums 🙂
A tuned vocal is ultimately going to sound tighter to the instrumentation. It’s going to feel like everything is pulled together just a little more.
It would be the same if you had a guitar just a little out of tune on one side. It’s going to make everything seem just a little off and give the impression of the overall sound of the mix could be cloudy when it’s not
I've done this with fully gridded vs partially gridded vs natural drums. 45% preferred Fully gridded. 36% partially gridded. 19% natural. Blind, of course.
And what was funny was the number of people who remarked about hearing various differences in the mix overall, when the only actual difference was time alignment.
Brains are funny little things.
I think alot of these preferences can be genre dependent. Anything that sounds like this modern type of production, I would agree tuned vocals are better. If you are going for a more vintage style/colourful type of mix with tons of character and less focus on a modern sound, untuned could be better. I work in the fringes alot.
We need a magic frequencies eq video for horns, synths, high hats and strings
I don't have a problem with the idea of pitch correction at all but sometimes I have issues with how it's applied. When applied tastefully I hardly even notice it. That being said, I find the sound of hard tuned vocals fatiguing. Listening to so many modern pop songs the singers sound robotic. I don't even necessarily mean the full on "T-Pain effect". Maybe it's just because I have the ability to notice it that it detracts from my enjoyment of the song but I've even gone to people older than me who aren't as familiar with music production and they've literally asked me what is wrong with the vocals on some pop songs when they're hard tuned describing the vocals with words like vibrating and chipmunk sounding. I think of pitch correction like drum samples. They're both useful tools that can enhance a mix and are a widely accepted part of recording and mixing now. However, I also think I shouldn't have to rely on them if I'm able to capture a great performance in the first place. I think the people who are really opposed to pitch correction, samples, quantizing, and whatever else get caught up in the fact that great records were made more naturally in the past so why has this stuff become the standard today thinking we're diluting music. Having said all of that, the people who get legitimately angry about this stuff need to take a deep breath because it isn't worth spending that much energy on.
Music that is composed better will always cover up any “flaws”. Flaws are a normal part of life.
Who's job is it to tune the vocal? The producer, or the mix engineer?
The singer, when he practices his shit?
😂😂 I was going to say the same thing. But seriously, there is a lot of truth to that. Makes for a much better performance and time editing if the singer can be as accurate as possible.
The vocals, imho should be sent tuned/pitch corrected before hitting the mix engineers DAW. Of course I like to have two separate tracks (RAW/Tuned) for just in case scenarios. I personally feel having to pitch correct or auto tune during mixing is a buzz kill. But that’s just me.
Producer. Absolutely not the mixer
Better tunning is always preferred by people but there's a difference between making vocals slightly better and helping someone sing with such an evident autotune presence in the vocals.
It feels like the music that feels super tight kinda locked to a grid sounds better autotuned, but the older stuff due to the tape warble and slightly out of tune instruments it isn’t as crucial. I don’t mind it i love melodyne and metatune. You need them sometimes.
I´d say as long as it just enhances the performance a little bit its okay. This topic kinda reminds me of one video where you said even Gavin Harrison (one of the best and cleanest drummers on earth IMO) gets quantized ;-)
BUT where it gets out of hand is when the vocalist then completely sucks when performing live. But then again some artists even use autotune live right?
I have just stopped mentioning the word "autotune" to clients and just apply the required amount. Edited, tweaked, brushed up, compressed, EQ'd, verbs, delays, etc are never questioned and hailed as making them shine, even the word "tuning" usually flys. People have been conditioned to hate "Autotune" without really understanding how and why it's used in the mix process....just associating it to the hyper-tuning, unnatural sound, use of it.
You needed to do this double blind to get meaningful results. That is, randomly send people A+B, A+A, and B+B.
The issue is less with moderate, mild pitch corrections, and more with the in-your-face ones. Studio recordings do require corrections, but most tend to go overboard.
In the olden days (before autotune) we used to record the vocal line by line until it was basically perfect. This was before digital - pre protools. So doing the same thing with a machine is a lot cheaper and effective. What I don’t like is when the vocal is just totally autotuned to death. I turn it off because it doesn’t sound natural. But when I’m not hearing it I can appreciate the song better. I use autotune without prejudice now
It’s the same way we tune instruments. If someone is out of tune, it messes up the intonation, and it sounds more aggressive or muddy. Tuned vocals tend to be like a chord that is in harmony.
The observation that the average listener hears music as a complete package is astute and very true.
The reason people say they prefer untuned vocals despite in blind tests preferring tuned vocals is a well tuned performance sounds like a great performance, but a well tuned bad vocal often sounds like bad autotune. As Jordan said, he used a better than average performance for the example vocal and that makes all the difference. That said, do this with a bad vocal and people will still prefer the tuned version, because it's at least a bad performance in tune.
Performance always comes first.
I want the Black Salt Audio subscription service!
Tuning, timing, and editing are the biggest things to make that difference between professional and amateur. Some of these records have a guy editing every little thing for 2 weeks or more. That's before even touching an eq or compressor. It's easy to have opinions about that and I'm definitely in the camp of everything sounding over-edited and over-processed. But I'm just an artist who makes no money. If money were involved maybe I'd feel differently.
It is a preference. I don't use Auto Tunes but I have clients that use it moderately on harmonizing stuff not on their lead. The clients commit to it then send it to me to mix. Some people know they cannot sing but if that's what they want to do then hey go ahead. It have somewhat got to a point of artist who don't need it have now placed it in their head that they need it. I think auto tune is good for modulation stuff but not to a point of it sounding like a robot.
Dude Alan Rigdon at the beginning haha
i couldnt care less what production is used in vocals or music in general, as long as the end product sounds cool
I'd be curious about manual pitch correction (like melodyne) too. Sounds a lot more natural than autotune.
I tune manually using autotune
You are phenomenal at mathematics Jordan!
LOL
I think I spotted a small out-of-tune part, but I'm not really sure... maybe if I hadn't known what to look for, I would never have heard any differences.
the biggest problem i see here is that people hate the idea of auto-tune waaaaaay more than they even notice it in all the songs they like.
Was there auto tune on Jordan's voice in this video? My brains spazzing.
i corrected one of my songs heavily. at first, vocalist complained. after while, he started to sing the way is corrected! so ... probably is cool to sing vocal, correct him 100%, force him to listen to that version, come back 1 month later, sing as he is doing the cover version of himself, and than just correct him 25% and that's it. you'll get the best version from both worlds.
In the first song I actually liked the detuned version better. The tuned one sounded boring, and the detuned had a cool character to it. I think if the singer is really good it can be beneficial too keep some of the original feel.
Also when listeners mentioned other mix elements sounding better, they are not necessarily wrong since the vocal melody os more precise, it stands out more and it doesn't mask other instruments as much frequency wise
Listening to songs in tune sounds better than out of tune, this is obviously a no brainer. My biggest qualm with this is authenticity. Whenever I have to tune a vocal or hear one tuned, I just feel like I'm looking at someone with muscles painted on their body instead of the discipline of going to the gym for months on end.
It isn't actually them, and they didn't earn it.
Also, how do you explain decades of music before autotune? Were people just worse back then? This argument we still need to use the tool to be competitive doesn't hold up. I guess if we're just going by sales numbers, give the people what they want?
The varying answers don't surprise me at all. This is the normal way human opinions work. People typically believe their preferences are the result of some well-considered reason, but that's backwards. Our opinions are more often reverse-engineered (or chosen from among socially-approved talking points) to justify our feelings. It's a very convincing illusion. Almost impossible not to be fooled by it.
The thing with your tests is that the vocals were pretty good to start with, so there wasn’t a huge change with the tuned vocal, the problem with autotune is usually when the vocals are really crap and then get autotuned so much that it sounds robotic and terrible. A very minor amount of autotune should be barely noticeable. Too much makes the vocal lose the human element and feel. There is a fine line between the two. 🤘🤘
If you want to hear a song that's out of tune, listen to "I Really Want To Stay At Your House" from Edgerunners (Rosa Walton)
2:35 what happened to the audio 😂
Demonstration
I think that the average person doesn't know the difference between tuning a vocal and AUTO tune. I don't know any engineers that mix with auto tune, specifically. Although, everyone I know uses some sort of MANUAL tuning and pitch correction. Pitch correction should be mostly transparent. Your test sounded pretty natural, what program did you use to tune?
He uses Autotune in graph mode, kinda like what you’d do with Melodyne
@@alessandrosummer which isnt really autotune in the way that the term "autotune" implies. Nothing against Jordan here, I love his channel, but I think the phrasing is perpetuating the misconception.
@@j-katinfusino4930 it's because in the popular conception Autotune=T-Pain robotic voice. But that's not completely true
It is quite mechanistic to generalize this. It depends on the musical expression of the music and the genre and on the skills of the singer. Of course, autotune kills emotions that good singers can put into their vocal lines. There may be pop genres where it really doesn't matter because they are consumed like fast food and often the singers are not very good. In such cases Autotune makes this music sellable. But if you have a good singer in soul or funk, for example, these little imperfections are absolutely crucial to transport emotion, which is what for me is one of the most fascinating things music can do. The singers in your examples were not bad but also not very good. So this, of course, makes a difference too. A good singer will make as many takes as required to deliver an in-tune track. But he will leave these crucial small imperfections in because they are human and help to sound natural, more emotional, and therefore familiar to humans. This way the listener can be reached on a deeper level.
I personally don't like autotune. I get strange feelings when a song is perceivable autotuned. If it is, I skip it. Something seems to be wrong with such a song for me. I don't particularly like musical fast food either. Maybe that's because I'm a musician. It probably all is a matter of perception and how used you are to really listen to and feel the music as a consumer.
I actually think tuned vocals sound very draining and ear fatiguing. Something about the pitch being slightly off only at times makes the listening experience more enjoyable to me. One of my biggest annoyances is vocals too loud in the mix and when you add aggressively tuned vocals to that, I can’t even listen to the song. Having said this I would have struggled with the blind test slightly myself especially not knowing what to listen for.
I liked the untuned Vox, he’s a good singer. That second song is great. Reminds me of Thirsty Merc.
I received the request to vote, but I didn't, because (at the time at least) I couldn't tell the difference!
I wana make it so its just able to tell its autotuned not as much as tpain but enough to tell that the im using the effect
Autotune is typically not noticeable with a good singer, and it typically can't make a bad singer sound good... Different styles though can be affected by the processing, and it takes some finesse to make sure the performance doesn't suffer due to pitch correction. Any sort of fry or stylized onset can get weird sounding using automatic pitch correction. I tend to prefer Melodyne to keep stuff more dynamic. Side note: I feel like your voice track on this video had some sort of processing happening. Inflections and minor shifts in your tone seemed to have artifacts and a light warble on the tails of words. Also, there seem to be an intentional monotone happening? then again, it is youtube, and not a raw audio track...
The only problem I have with pitch correction is when the tuning work is done crudely, leaving in audible artifacts where it was clearly meant to be transparent and not an effect. But for sure most of the "autotune bad" crowd is completely clueless.
Simple mistake, he input 1224 instead of 1024. It should be 79%. I was like, waiiiit a second. hope u find this so you can edit to reinforce your point better!😅 and thx for making my mixes better 🫶🙌