If a mainstream music act decided to stop messing around with those stupid guitars, and start using an autoharp instead, would anyone take them seriously? “You know, actually playing a guitar is such a pain in the ass. It like, takes skill and stuff. We could get the same money and fame and chicks and everything with an autoharp. Why should we have to remember all those confusing guitar fingerings and all that stupid shit? Let’s just use the autoharp!”
“And while we’re at it…you know, man, these drums are hard to play. I mean, you’ve got to use sticks and stuff, and pound on a pedal with your foot…why should I subject myself to this torment? I’ve got a Casio keyboard here with a bunch of pre-programmed drum beats - let’s just use this, OK?”
“Yeah, and I’m sick of playing the piano. Goddammit, all those chords and everything - you have any idea how hard it is to remember all that shit? And there are like, black keys AND white keys - how am I supposed to keep them straight? So how about we also use that Casio with the insta-chord settings so no matter what keys I press, it’ll be in the right key signature?”
“Hey - doesn’t that Casio also have bass lines you can make it play? Like, you can press one of the keys on the left side and it’ll play a little bass line to accompany whatever you’re playing, so it’s all in the same key and everything. It’s so easy! Fuck, my bass guitar is so heavy and the neck is so long and I have to pluck the strings so hard, it just hurts my hand. And remembering all those fingerings! Fuck it! Let’s use those pre-programmed bass lines, okay?”
In a few decades, one of two things is going to happen:
The use of the autotuner will be looked back on as being just as ridiculous as the scenario I mentioned above,
or,
the scenario I mentioned above will be the state of mainstream music.
But yeah, the autotune is just another way of making talent irelevant to the pop music business. Now, a pretty face really IS all you need. Not even a modicum of singing ability.
That was the first thing I thought of. There wasn’t a real instrument in any of their recordings. They didn’t even use a good drum machine. It was just two guys and a synthesizer and the two guys weren’t even the ones really singing.
There was a lot of music around that time that was made like that.
The only think wrong with autotune is that the effect is being overused in pop music right now. But like many things in pop music, it will fall from favor and something else will come along.
The use of auto tune in the studio to help fix vocal performances isn’t going anywhere. It’s been around for a long time now and when done right, it’s flawless. Also, you can’t make a bad singer a good singer with autotune:
Without this kind of tool, a producer has to rely on either getting a perfect take, having the singer(s) punch in fixes or flying in another section of the vocal take to fix the issue. I assume that in some circumstances it’s just easier to use autotune to fix something.
ETA: Since where are synths not “real instruments”?
They’re all real instruments, autotune included. Autotune doesn’t ruin music; bad musicians do. Like any other tool of the musician’s trade–including, needless to say, the autoharp–it depends entirely on how it’s used. Frankly I’d rather see it used overtly, as an effect, than covertly, to iron out the human flaws in a vocal take.
Is it really necessary to use profanity in the title of almost every thread? Not that I mind all that much personally, but it would be nice if I was able to visit this forum without worrying that people around me will wonder what kind of degenerate guttermouths frequent it.
I’ve heard of it, just from unwilling cultural osmosis, but I have no idea what it sounds like. None of the artists I listen to use it. From your description I don’t think it’s something I should seek out to hear. shudder
Almost every thread? I think you’re overreacting. Anyway, I was going to put this in the Pit but really I figured it was just too mild a rant, and that it would be moved on out of there to make room for Sarah Palin Thread #9,518.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with utilizing technologies and ways of pasting sounds together to create new aural experiences. I see nothing wrong with autotuners, synthesizers, sampling, programmed bass lines, using cheap toy keyboards, etc. I mean, really, did you have a problem with, say, The Who using an arpeggiator on Baba O’Riley? That’s pretty much “press a key and let the synth do the work for you.” I assume not, because it worked in the musical context.
Now is that conspicuous type of auto-tune an annoying cliche by now? Hell yes. But I thought it was an interesting effect at first. I love hearing new sounds or new ways of putting together sound to create a novel experience. I don’t care if you make the sounds by plucking a plectrum across a string or by scrambling the innards of a Speak & Spell to make weird seemingly random blips-and-bleeps (as you might in glitch pop). It’s all in how you put these sounds together and the feeling they evoke. And, yes, people have done the Casio keyboard auto-accompaniment-type songs with the cheesy keyboard sounds in a kind of electro-punk aesthetic.
Technology, in a myriad ways, has expanded the sound palate to almost any sound you can imagine, and many you can’t. Auto-tune is part of this. Now, whether it’s used in a musically interesting way or not, that’s under the skill of the artist or arrangers. But, in and of itself, auto-tune is decidedly not evil.
I first heard the effect on that Cher song from the late nineties - it sounded like Marvin the Martian chanelling Dieter from Sprockets. (“Oh, you are making me so horny!!”) My second thought was ‘Wow, Cher’s voice must be totally shot.’
Overuse has not made me think any better of it as an effect.
Also, if you kids can’t sing in tune, get out of my ears!
Overuse of the autotuner is on it’s way out. Now that everybody and their brother have made it the butt of their jokes.
-The Kanye West parody on South Park (I’m a gay fish)
-The superbowl commercial where instead of “Wazz-aaap!” it was everyone greeting eachother in autotune linky-linky
-Morning radio talkshows where the hosts take turns singing with autotune to see who sounds the worst
-I even think there is an i-phone autotune ap so kids can all play with it and laugh at the results.
Now that everyone is acknowledging it as cheesy-gimicky-funny you’d be kind of stupid to try to make an album with it in 2010.
