The Importance Of Auto Tune

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Where Has the Talent Gone? Do you ever wonder why many pop singers sound flawless on the radio but terrible at live shows? An important reason for this is the popularity of Auto-Tune. Auto-Tune is an audio program that fixes the pitch of a singer’s voice. A research scientist named Andy Hildebrand, who worked at Exxon Production Research and Landmark Graphics, first created Auto-Tune. Hildebrand there used seismic data exploration to search below the Earth's subsurface for oil. After a year, Hildebrand decided to study music composition, which is where his interest in improving music came from. Hildebrand figured out that he could use the same method to interpret seismic data in order to modify the pitch in audio files. This program became known as Auto-Tune, which was released in 1997. Today, critics such as Josh Tyrangiel call Auto-Tune “Photoshop for the human voice.”(Tyrangiel, n. page.). Even though Auto-Tune is now widely used by many artists, there are still ongoing debates about whether it detracts from or benefits popular music. Many people and artists believe that pop music benefits because it allows music to sound better, while others say that it makes it hard to differentiate between songs because they all sound the same. Personally, I think that over-using Auto-Tune can ruin music because it hides the talent of an artist, makes music sound emotionless, and is overused. Auto-Tune is often so overused that it completely alters the voice of an artist. This means that the artists do not feel the need to sound good since their voice will be edited anyway. Rubin, producer of the Dixie Chicks and Metallica, even stated, “If you're pitch-correcting, you might not bother to make the effort. You might just get it done and pu... ... middle of paper ... ...e used to this. Although Auto-Tune is used for most popular songs that are being produced today, it does not necessarily mean that it is always a bad thing. If an artist is going to use Auto-Tune, then he or she should use it to fix a few minor mistakes or add something creative to the song. However, recreating a whole song entirely with the use of Auto-Tune is not right. Although Auto-Tune may sound good, it still seems like a form of cheating to me. A person who has little talent in singing professionally but covers it all up with Auto-Tune should not be allowed to sing as a job. Due to Auto-Tune, many artists are starting to become lazy about their work. The overuse of Auto-Tune is making music that has no emotion, sounds the same, and hides the talent of an artist. If artists soon do not decrease the usage of Auto-Tune, then music will become boring to us all.

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