Pitch Correction - Late to the Party

[Nymuso]

I tend to be the last guy to embrace or at least be aware of something new in gigging technology. I was way late in putting a pickup in my acoustic instead of using a mic. When a band I was in was accused of using "fake harmonies" by a critic who assumed we were using a vocal harmonizer - I didn't know what that was.

So when this discussion of what the Eagles are or are not doing with their live vocals arose, I became curious.

I had been aware of AutoTune and manual pitch correction but always thought it was something you did in Pro Tools during mixing. I didn't know you could do it live. So I found there are these little boxes you can get for just about $100 - $150 that you can plug into and they'll do it for you live. You run your mic through it and then your instrument if you have one, if not you turn a dial to the key you're in.

I was looking at a user demo video by a "performer" who was explaining all this and then he demonstrated. At one point he said, "I don't know anything about music or keys, I just turn the dial until it sounds good." He then sang through it and it did straighten out his pitch, but his vocal technique remained as undeveloped as before. This got to me. Is this what it takes to be a performer these days? You buy a box to fix all the things you can't do? I'm sure TC Electronics or Zoom is working on a box to give this kid his missing vibrato and dynamics. Maybe they'll call it the De-Lack-Lusterer.

[mike o]

Before auto tune we had talent.

[MrDB]

I'm old school I know but auto tune and pitch correction is not something I'd be interested in. Why not just play Spotify and lip sync to it?

[Steve DeRosa]

Several years ago a friend of ours produced a concert by a multi-million-selling '60s group, whose frontman was noted for his highly distinctive vocals...

Thanks to said friend my wife and I got a private meet-&-greet and observed a bit of the pre-show vocal warm-ups, where it became obvious said frontman was fighting regional seasonal allergies...

A touch of auto-tune and a dash of digital delay, and the show went on without a hitch - nearly all of the audience being none the wiser...

Wisely used by a pro sound tech, it's a great way to rescue an otherwise unrepeatable musical moment...

In the hands of lesser individuals it becomes simply another electronic toy, a means of musical self-gratification (with all implications thereof intact... ) for those lacking both the necessary talent and the requisite self-discipline to acquire same...

Like the plethora of low-priced digital electric-guitar amps - and for much the same reasons ("5000 voices at the touch of a button - instantly sound like your favorite guitar hero" ) - I suspect they're selling them by the boatload...

[frankmcr]

I'd rather - if I were going to see the performers I grew up listening to just to say that I'd seen them in their golden years, which I would not do - just hear them sound the way they do today.

No electronic sweetening of their vocals, and no facelifts or hair plugs either.

One thing you can say about good ol' Bob these days, what you hear now is what he sounds like now.