Electronic Musician – Vol 39 No 4, April 2023
English | 69 pages | pdf | 56.32 MB
Welcome at Electronic Musician Magazine Vol 39 No 4, April 2023
Amid the big awards, performances and celebrity gossip at the recent Grammy Awards, you’d be forgiven for having missed the fact that Antares founder Dr Andy Hildebrand picked up a technical award for his achievement in creating Auto-Tune. It’s an absolutely deserved award; while Auto-Tune isn’t the only pitch correction tool out there, there’s no denying the impact it’s had on both the production landscape and wider cultural sphere.
Despite this, Auto-Tune is subject to a unique amount of ire from the general public and certain sectors of the music making communitity. This is at least partially understandable.
The distinctive OTT created by heavy handed use of the effect has certainly been a little overused over the past couple of decades. Less justified however, are claims such as those made recently by producer and YouTuber Rick Beato, that Auto-Tune has ‘destroyed popular music.’ My MusicRadar colleague Matt Mullen wrote an excellent response to this point (see the link below).
The problem is that Auto-Tune has become, somewhat unfairly, a scapegoat for almost everything that people percieve as being wrong with modern popular music. Whether that be the proliferation of electronic sounds over traditional ‘rock’ arrangements, supposed dumbingdown of pop or the looming threat of AI tools.
In reality, Auto-Tune is a powerful tool that merely streamlines and assists processes that have been present in recorded music for decades. Yes, it’s been misused at times, but you could say this about almost any music production tool – from DAWs to effects pedals.
Let’s give Auto-Tune a break
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