Auto tune - Good or Bad?

The face of the auto tune beast!

These days it's very rare to hear a song that's not coated with lashings of auto tune all over the vocal tracks and it's not hard to understand some of the reasons why.

• Iron out the imperfections to appeal to as large an audience as possible.
• Make a marketable face with a poor voice sound decent enough to sell records
• Reduce the amount of studio time wasted on vocal re-takes

But is it really necessary, would you stop listening to a song if it wasn't auto tuned, shouldn't singers be properly rehearsed before recording and should pretty faces with poor voices be selling records?

Like with most things in life, it's not a black and white argument, there are so many levels of auto tune that you can't really just say that you don't like it as chances are, if you're listening to a song that's been recorded in say, the last ten to fifteen years, the vocal track has auto tune applied to it.

I've no issue, per se, with using auto tune.  In fact, we've used it on some recordings in the past and I’ll very likely use it again in the future but where my problem with it lies is when it’s used without subtlety, for no apparent reason or as a vocal effect.  It’s in these situations where I am actively turned off as I find it overpowers the song.

I think auto tune should be like a referee in a game of football.  You know it’s doing a good job because you don’t notice it’s there but this is something I find to be an increasingly rare thing in music these days.  Mostly, auto tune is used like a sledgehammer and while manufactured pop has been a major culprit, it’s not exclusive to that genre.  It affects most genres to a certain degree but it’s also prolific in today’s Rap and R&B which are styles that, to me, are now mostly all about image – video first, music second. 

It appears that it’s more important for Rap and R&B ‘stars’ to spend their time in the gym rather than practicing their vocals.  Of course, this is a sweeping generalisation and it doesn't apply to all artists but I’d say the over use of auto tune is rife, particularly in the three genres I've just mentioned.

 just... just no.

It’s also particularly frustrating when it’s used for no apparent reason.  The best examples of this are ‘divas’ like Cristina Aguilera, Beyonce and the like.  These are singers famous for their strong vocals so surely there’s absolutely no need to apply auto tune to their vocals but yet every one of their songs have a thick coating of auto tune on them.

makes my ears bleed and not just because Xtina sings the arse off each and every note

Another use of auto tune that really grinds my gears is when it’s used as an effect.  The song everyone thinks about for this is obviously Cher’s “Believe” but even when that first came out and the technique was all new and shiny, it still sounded bloody awful. 

Of course, this is all just personal opinion but whenever I hear a song that uses this effect I instantly switch it off and there are no exceptions to this rule.  It’s not even a rule as such, it’s more an involuntary reaction.  To demonstrate this, I’m a big fan of Alice Cooper and bought his latest album, “Welcome 2 My Nightmare”, when it was released.  As I do with every new album, I got myself comfy and settled down to listen to my purchase (I was brought up with vinyl and still like to hear music for the first time with no distractions so I can pay attention).

The first song started and when the vocals came in, they were plastered with this auto tune effect so I instantly stopped listening went and did something else.  It was couple of days later before I heard anything else from that album and discovered that, thankfully, it was the only song on the album which had his vocals treated like that.

good song, shame about the auto tune

As a fan, I put up with the fact that he releases some right guff (I’d say that for every good album, he releases two right duffers) but I've never before stopped a first listen of an album before hearing every track. 

Now this post may just be an old fart ranting about today's technology so to counter balance I'd say that when auto tune is used correctly, it’s a good thing which can make a record sound more professional and appeal to a wider audience but the over use and over application means that it’s ultimately defeating its intended purpose.

Effects in general should be about enhancing the music; they shouldn't distract from the music.

  

Covers vs Originals

I was having a wee think about cover and original songs recently and then stumbled upon a blog from Red Dog Music where they were discussing just that so I thought I'd give my take on the debate.

I'd better point out at the start that I'm talking about recorded music here rather than playing covers live.  I've played both original and cover gigs far too many times to count and although I find them totally different experiences, I've had just as much fun playing both.

Also, it'd be far too easy to just write a (very long) list of covers that completely destroy the original but that wouldn't be very big or clever.  We all know what they are and I'd be forced to talk about X-Factor contestants and a slew of turgid, done for maximum profit, cash in releases and it'd make me angry... and you wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

Anyway, back to my point.

My default stance is that the original is always better but I'd also argue that this is not always the case.  Take Bob Dylan, for example.  There are a lot of his songs where I've heard a cover before his actual recording and have, pretty much 100% of the time, preferred the cover version.  Now this could just be that I'm not a fan of his vocals and while I think there's something in that, I also think there's more to it and it's probably because when people cover Dylan, it's usually more of a re-working of the song than a direct copy.

I'd say that it's in this bracket where I'm more open to covers as I find them far more interesting to listen to than just a plain old re-hash of someone else's song.  So here's a few which I'll ponder over.

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - The Shirelles/Bryan Ferry

Bryan Ferry is a master at re-working cover songs and I absolutely love his version of The Shirelles, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow".  He's turned an upbeat pop song into a melancholic ballad and flipped it from a song that wouldn't sound out of place at a party to one that you'd listen to in a darkened room when its all gone wrong.  Two completely different versions of the same song and I couldn't actually say which one I prefer.

I Just Want To Make Love To You - Willie Dixon/The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

Alex Harvey was very skilled in making a cover song sound like his own.  With this one he's not strayed so far away from the original as Ferry did with The Shirelles but here he's given it a harder edge and a killer groove.  Just listen to the groove of his version, it stomps along full of arrogance, swagger and menace.  I love the Etta James version of this song too and while that's a far more popular choice, I think the SAHB version really nails it.

We'll Meet Again - Vera Lynn/Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash doesn't stray too far from Vera Lynn at all but the pared down sound combined with the context of his version (it's the last track of his last album and recorded with increasingly failing health), the song has a real personal poignancy to it.  Most people usually point to his cover of "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails and I wouldn't argue with that but it's this song that really touches my soul.  It's a beautiful song to finish any album and what a way for Johnny to say a musical goodbye.  On a different note, the guitar playing in this song is fantastic.

Crazy in Love - Beyonce/The Puppini Sisters

Now this is a good example for me where I was completely un-fussed by the original but love the cover.  The music was good but I was totally turned off by the auto-tune in Beyonce's voice and rapping mid-song doesn't do anyone any favours.  The Puppini Sisters version just sounds so alive and joyful that its almost impossible not to dance when listening to it.  It's one of the very few songs for me that, when finished, I could hit repeat and start it all over again.

So there you have it.  To sum up I guess my take on the issue is that it's totally fine to do covers so long as it does something interesting and isn't just a re-hash of the original.