Why Every Artist Uses Auto-Tune (Yes, EVERY Artist) 

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As a full-time mixing engineer, auto-tune is intended to be an effect. Pitch correction is what this video is referencing. The problem is that everything we hear on the radio or from our favorite artists is pitch corrected so consistently that we’ve lost touch with what the actual human voice sounds like. This is why when we go to live shows we are almost always disappointed.

"People don't want to wait for greatness anymore" That shit hits different.

Shakira said in some Rolling Stone Interview that she uses autotune because she can't pronounce Gs in English and it's easier to just have the engineer correct it. But maybe says Gs with her own accent would give her music more character, inspire some creativity in the lyrics ect.

T-Pain may be the face of autotune, but he never actually used it as an auto-tuner. He used it like a talkbox or a vocoder.

Imperfections is what makes music unique, for example Kurt Cobain, his voice cracks add emotion and feelings to his music. It doesn't need to be perfect to be perfect.

I love how random this channel is with content. Literally goes from disney star to gangster rap and am invested everytime.

Honestly I do think we should create categories for artist who want to take the time to perfect their voices. I’ve realized not everyone is interested in instant gratification and those people deserve to be celebrated for the hard work and dedication they put in. I personally feel like with out it we could loose a whole section of people who do it for passion and not just for money, clout, because it’s trendy, etc.

People rly need to know the difference between pitch correction software and “autotune”. Pitch correction done through melodyne requires 100x more work than Antares. The autotune aesthetic is ingrained with pop and pop rap now, which is fine. We’ve grown to accept and enjoy it immensely. But at the end of the day, the effort from the individual artist in the pursuit of perfection for rap and pop will always take the easy route with Antares software. It just make sense when the music is profit driven. More time spent in the studio is money lost

Post Malone is a great example of how a good artist can still sound unique live without blatantly hiding that their mic is autotuned.

There's always that one singer who is a great singer until you hear them live lmao

Rihanna used auto tune on disturbia, but it was to add a dark/creepy effect. Which sounds nice with the song.

Vocoders have been used since the 70s. It's often used in industrial music especially during the late 90s and early 2000s. I enjoy vocoding and auto tuning as an effect or different sound but I also enjoy music without auto tune. It's nice to have a variety of musical interests especially this day in age.

I totally agree that autotune is one of many tools that artists can use to deliver a certain emotion. Actually being slightly flat or sharp depending on the melodic context can add more longing or brightness to something... just like a jazz/blues singer would. Awesome vid - lookin forward to the next one!

Perfect example of this is Lauryn Hill's MTV Unplugged album. She was dealing with a cold at the time, so her voice has notable cracks in it while she's singing. But that is exactly what adds to the emotion and rawness of the project, and is a classic project standing the test of time. Great video as always, Patrick!

I am a huge fan of a very broad range of music, from classic rock, classic hip hop, modern/alternative rock, modern hip hop, jazz, and country. Personally, I think T-Pain's utilization of AutoTune and bringing it out from the shadows was genius back in the mid 2000's. I was a huge fan when it was on the radio and still am today. At least for T-Pain, it brings another layer of character to his songs that would not be there otherwise.

Bob Dylan and Neil Young are perfect examples of bad singers, no auto tune but perfect music.

Honestly I don't care for auto tune that much but listening to songs that don't have heavy auto tune makes me feel connected. I love when artists sing from the heart and show off their amazing voice.

god patrick’s editing/video layout makes these types of videos so calming and enjoyable to watch

thank you so much for this. i didn’t know how much i really needed this. you should make a full blown documentary on pop culture and the way our generation shapes the world

Crazy thing is T-pain is a pretty damn amazing musician and vocalist even though people associate him with autotune. See his performances on the masked singer and his tiny desk NPR performance and you'll see what i mean. Autotune doesn't make you a good singer but used in the right way, it can definitely elevate you up

Billie Eilish is a great example. When her song "NDA" was released, she got a lot of criticism for using auto-tune in the chorus. She and her brother, Finneas, ended up having to explain how they decided to use auto-tune for artistic purposes. When I first heard the song, I immediately understood that, so seeing all the backlash she received was bizarre. Great video!

Fam your editing, image choice, writing and perspective were on fire in this one. So damn good. Great research

Dude! I love the new doc style of video you’ve been putting out over the last year or so, but it’s quite nice to see you go back to your roots and do music related content. Keep them docs coming my man! But don’t forget to drop us some music vids every once in a while.

I feel like back then artists had to actually have talent and put much more effort into their craft than now. Their artistry defended itself without pitch correction tools, constant image changes, scandals etc. Most mainstream musicians aren't artists, they're just performers to me. I know autotune and similar stuff is almost inescapable at this point, but I respect everyone who refuses to use it and sings even better live than on their studio recordings. I think it shows that they truly love music and respect their fans.

T-Pain’s run with autotune in 08 Was DIFFERENT!!!

I know this video is a month old but Patrick you should know that this ad you pushed is claiming they are authentic Japanese knives but they are made in China, Scott Shafer made a video on it

as a huge metalhead but also a hiphop fan i love the idea of autotune in rap hiphop and pop music but metal is where you have to be an already super talented musician without relying on any effects so i can see why its loved in some genres and hated in others

T-Pain's natural voice is. insane, he totally deserved winning the Masked Singer season 1.

I don't have a problem with Auto-Tune. I just have a problem with *too many* artists using Auto-Tune! It makes them sound indistinguishable.

Great video my man ✊🏽 Keep up your hustle ✊🏽

As a hard working singer I can't agree more on your analysis. When you work hard on your singing it doesn't really matter what effects or plug-ins you use on it, but I mean, real musicians and real music lovers will obviously hear the difference, even if you're not topping any charts. Anyway, thank you for your work, I really appreciate it.

That Alicia keys clip literally sent shivers down my spine

Looking at this from the perspective of an artist who started out opposed to autotune. (Mainly because I was just doing rap stuff) and eventually growing into learning how to use it as a tool to learn how to sing better. It's opened my eyes to a lot. I wanted to expand my sound and actually liked singing just never thought I was that good at it. However, if you have a near perfect version of your song to practice to with autotune and rehearse to it, sing it and learn it from recording to rehearsal, you start to exponentially see how much better you become by basically learning what the notes should sound like and what you could go for when learning songs with melodic flows or tricky melodies.

The bands we saw had no money, two backlines, 7 piece drum kit, 3 mics, 3 mic stands, 3 mic cables, rhythm, lead bass guitar. They tuned guitars BY EAR. The crushed it and were furious forces of nature in a live setting. You will have to wait until those of us who know better ('old people have been complaining about'') die and leave you to your ignorance.

Auto-Tune fits really good when a song has an overall "electronic" feeling (e.g. Future or 808s) to match its very digital sound

Neil Young and Bob Dylan do beg to differ that you needed to be a great vocalist to have a career in the past. But truly, they are both exceptional in this regard.

Another issue, especially in edm/hip is that the instrumentals are perfectly in tune 9/10 because they are made with VST's, synths, or are also pitch corrected as well. When you put a natural non-auto tuned vocal on an instrumental like that, it tends to clash and sounds very off putting. But in other genres where there is live instrumentation, it doesn't sound as bad because the singer is usually matching the tonality of the band/instruments, and the band is also matching the tuning of the singer as well.

This was a great vid Patrick Cc! The edits and info kept me engaged.. wanting more actually! My take on auto-tune, I'm in the old-head crowd that thinks when paired with the mumbling (Shortbus mumbletune music) ruined hip-hop. I understand using it to help make the hard notes achievable, but when you half-ass enunciate your words and use it as an "effect" for 100% of your music, it just hurts my head!

finally someone said it, talent isn't even a requirement anymore, just do what everyone is doing and try to get picked up by the algorithm, music isn't even art anymore its whatever the trends dictate

People might still be up their own ass about the Astro world thing but we need to give Travis his flowers. He uses auto tune like an instrument. And masterfully at that.

MICHAEL JACKSON: Am I a joke to you?

They don’t need auto tune. Artists before auto tune didn’t need it. Neither do they.

I think the best thing about Auto Tune is that it has allowed artists who aren't great singers but can write GREAT songs, to get popular and spread their art in to the world. Its a double edged sword honestly

My friend and I are currently in the process of going through all my vocal takes for an upcoming EP, and deciding which notes are better auto tuned and which are better left more raw. It’s a useful tool but the energy of the take has to be right at least

This was just the video essay I was looking for. Clear and concise!

I can tell how much thought and effort you put into these videos. Love your content bro.

I feel like the mixing and mastering is important as well to make the emotion of the artist come through!!

Hey man I need to say this, you are one of the creators that no matter what the video theme is I'll be there watching your video. Is hard for me to find creators like you these days.

Bro thank you. When people shit on auto tune all I can hear is "I don't understand how music works in the slightest". Not to say you can't dislike the way it sounds. But to suggest it's any different than any other tool in the studio is ignorant.

Great video, Patrick. AutoTune is a great tool, whether you’re a rapper, pop singer, country singer or vocalist for EDM tracks. There’s always some controversy when a new tool in music is discovered and used. Look at sampling for example. Or making electronic music with a computer and DAW only. People have to get used to new things like these and eventually they will. There are many more technologies at the moment and other methods Music related that people don’t know yet. The future is bright.

Honestly, I don't usually hear the difference between not using and using autotune. It's faint but it's not enough to ruin an experience. But I appreciate the human aspect of music more than anything else. Simply getting the emotion and feels of someone's voice is truly beautiful. I'd imagine that's why some of the greatest are those that don't use autotune. Music is for humans, made by humans.

I'd like to mention David Bowie's "Cat People" song for this such thing. His raw emotion in that song is incredible especially when the song picks up tempo his high note is absolutely fantastic but it's clear he misses a few notes but that literally adds character because no human is perfect at all when singing. In fact that's what makes the song genuine and even better. I'd also like to mention the song "Dealer" by Lana Del Rey when she purposefully goes off key for the first note and slowly reels back in tune for the high note. I mean it's incredible. Auto tune really does take the fun out of pure music and the amount of possibilities a person has to perfect their music. But when it comes to concerts it's hit or miss. It all has to do how genuine your music is and how you go about making your music and that will be genuine. I will always push for genuine un auto tuned music but hey I like music that I like and that will be different from anyone else and so on.

I'm glad you've been in the studio and can verify that "EVERY" artist uses autotune. I guess that changes my opinion of Wilco, Death Cab for Cutie, Guided By Voices, Foo Fighters, et al.

My problem with autotune is that its simply slapped onto any vocal no matter what. Rap really suffered for it because now all the emotion and character has been removed. imo rappers should just use it sporadically throughout a song like if it was an effect.

i love the way bladee uses autotune

Most people don't even realize Auto-Tune is being used in live shows.

Man your editing skills is on point. I’m curious what software you use.

Bladee is a great example of how autotune really can add emotion and atmosphere to songs. Using autotune isnt the problem. The problem is pitch correction

Great video. I don’t know why but i feel like one day people are gonna get bored of voices that don’t sound “human”. I predict that in the future voices with emotions and are not perfectly in tune will be more popular. Just a prediction tho.

Patrick Cc is an awesome content creator and has an amazing insight in every subjects he does a video in . . He is non judgemental and think/speaks facts woth logic. . I apreciate your gring Cc. . *Keep going up*

Tupac's house of blues performance is the biggest example that in live performance you don't really need to be on the notes or delivering the same as the song available it's all about the experience and fun

This is such an excellent channel. So well researched and very hard to turn off 🤗

I think a Award for acoustic artist/bands should he announced. I appreciate both sides. The work of a engineer and the work of a person or a group of people that does things acoustic. And even a solo artist reward for people who create music through a pedal and instruments(even though some still use auto tune). Like Tash Sultana's Street performance. When she performed Notion.

First, I want to say I like your take on this topic . I always thought it was a tool to tinker with like in some genres and experimental music. Sadly I feel it's been more over used recently and especially here in the states. I got into an argument with a coworker a few years back and it was over the recent Cinderella live action. I said that she wasn't good due to the auto tune and she stated everyone uses it. I replied that not everyone uses it and that you can feel the difference in sound.

I think this is partly why I like the sound of Brent Faiyaz’s music so much. To me, it doesn’t sound like he uses auto tune even on his recorded tracks. There’s so much swagger in his vocal deliveries that would be lost with the addition of auto tune. I do see the appeal of auto tune as well, but I think it’s overdone and people can actually stand out for the better by not using it, at least sometimes.

I know this video is old but this video makes me realize why sublime was so good with brad and maybe why all his songs are so good to me. You can hear how much emotion so the imperfections make it better. RIP Bradley Nowell

People will wait for greatness, cause when someone’s truly great it shines through. Also go to any local rock band show, some how their able to sing and play instruments and jump around for long periods of time and sing great. Imperfections are beautiful and unique

I think their certainly is a level of help it gives artist but when a good artist uses it correctly it can make them sound even better.

T Pain’s tiny desk proves definitively he had talent before auto tune.

man patrick i love your content. you got me with that thumbnail 😂

I studied music and video production for my undergrad and currently produce music on the side for fun. Big picture, I think pitch correction software like Antares is a net good for everyone. You mentioned being worn down on stage and being fatigued can affect your singing. This is true just as much in the studio. You're doing multiple takes of each verse for multiple songs in a day. Pitch correction is a life saver in this case and makes everybody's life easier. Vocalists don't have to keep running back lines until they can barely talk. I can just apply some pitch correction and we're good. It speeds up the process. Back in the day, people didn't have access to this software but they also had lower recording quality. Songs sometimes sounded like a mess while frequencies bleeding together. This could make the vocal imperfections less noticeable but they're definitely there. Other software has just as much of an effect on vocals if not more than pitch correction. For my own vocals, layering and compression usually gets me 90% of the way there. Then I decide if I even want any pitch correction. I think auto-tune gets the brunt of the hate because it one of the effects people hear and know what it is.

You still need to be able to sing to use autotune because if the autotune has to adjust a note that is too far off, it will sound bad. That's why if a good singer uses autotune, it hard to tell, and a great singer, you wont notice, but a bad singer is very easy to hear. In my opinion, autotune helps more in the way that it lets the singer hear if theyre off note, than it does by correcting the note.

Autotune is a good tool. However, it's just that tool. A lot of pop artists are relying too heavily on it, and it's becoming more of a must than a tool you can use if you like the way it sounds. When it's used like that it just take away from the experience imo. You can really hear the extra takes a good vocalist goes through to get a line just right without autotune. Not to mention the audio glitches autotune brings. It bothers me a lot when I hear the choppiness of the autotune pitch shifting. That just shows the singer wasn't just off a bit, they did a half ass take and said "fuck it throw autotune on it."

Ginuwine's random use of autotune during the last adlibs of "Differences" still baffles me. It went completely haywire during "i knew you were that special one"

Great video! True words. Me as an artist myself i find myself humming and hawing wether or not i should jump on the team Auto-tune for pitch-correction. My biggest issue is just that people are not really transparent about it. For a long time i didnt know which artists use pitch-correction and which not. I thought all of them are just really talented while they aren't (or at least not that much). It's fine to use it for style and pitch-correction, but i would love to have some kind of label or open-mind treatment of it being used... When i wanted to improve my singing, i felt like giving up several times, because i nearly never could sound as close to my favorite artists. Ofc now i know why 😅 So anyway, wether or not people use it, i would love to be more transparent about it (especially on tiktok and other social media apps).

Being a producer myself, I've dealt with some artists who'd get mad when you tell them you don't want them to use autotune on their vocals. I know I'm not supposed to hinder someone's vision on how they'd want their song to sound like but you can't call yourself a singer when you can barely hold notes and have to rely on pitch correction. Like, I don't call myself a chef just because I know how to cook a couple of dishes.

Freddy Mercury hit frequencies no one else has. His voice is THE voice of our century.

I really dig a creative application of vocal processing. Ken Marshall showing his trick of vocoding with a distorted guitar, and mixing in a copy of the original with a high pass filter on it, to maintain the sybalants in an industrial track. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith with her song "An Intention", where she has her own voice shifted into an array of bands, to self harmonize. Great stuff. Generic applications to make things more broadly palatable often remove unique character.

It also depends how close the singer is to the target note, there's a range of being close enough that it still sounds really good and shouldnt be edited. Then there's also what the note is relative to the chords like if they're a bit sharp on the minor third it's bluesy, and for the major third they can be 14 cents flat and it will sound more in tune because of the harmonic series. Other notes like the root and fifth will sound best perfectly corrected though.

Eminem has never used it.

Pitch correction doesn’t have to be that strong. You can subtly use melodyne to correct pitch but keep the character of performance. When it comes out sounding like a robot is when the note was corrected too far.

This video explains it very well and hopefully people who used to be ignorant on this topic are now able to understand more about it. As a artist who makes melodic rap I can really appreciate the insight the video brings to people. Like Patrick mentioned "music is subjective" but that doesn't mean you should be ignorant and bash artists who use Auto-Tune because without you knowing your favorite artist does too lol.

Damn, str8 out points of facts , enjoyed this vid🔥

Wicca Phase Springs Eternal is proof you don’t need to use pitch correction in a style where 9/10 artists do. He’s not a great singer, but he’s fantastic vocalist. Same with someone like a Bob Dylan or Lou Reed. I love auto tune, though. A lot of my favorite artists use it.

Hate auto tune with all my heart and will never respect it, ever. South Park did a good episode on this with Stan’s dad Randy.

I really agree, I was listening to Quadeca's new (amazing) songs and I noticed most of chat think hes bad but I personally felt goosebumps for the entirety of those songs.

You can actually mimic the vocals, with a lot of practice. Like some songs of bublé for instance, I've learned to hit these notes perfectly as they were tuned. I find it cool, because then you get the same thing but without the computer algoritmn alteration. And it sounds better, more pure. Also makes you a better singer. It's good practice to mimic tuned vocals. kinda like it's good for your rhytmn to practice with a metronome

As a recording engineer and audio engineer i can say that autotune doesn't make my life easier at all ... just more people without any talent that all think that they will sound great after its mixed ... I'd rather use melodyne on a good artist than autotune on a bad artist

Auto tune is to good singers like digital art is to actual artists

I discovered you through Finn McKenty and I'm glad I did! I enjoyed this video.

I love the irony of you showing artists who don't use auto-tune in a video titled "Why every artist uses auto-tune (yes, EVERY artist)"

Pretty much to phone in my age a bit when Zapp was using the Talk-Box, then you had Daft Punk and T-Pain autotuning it felt like it was a unique touch to music. When everybody mainstream is tuned that unique edge is lost overall. Especially when people tried to blame T-Pain when that man could sing his ass off.

I’ve been waiting and stalling on making music, but deep down it is my passion and seeing this video just made me realized Im waisting my time. Thanks man. Felt like a sign.

Very well put! I'd like to add that at the end of the day, pitch correction or AutoTune is just a tool, like photoshop. The more people are aware of this, the less it will be considered "cheating" when someone uses it.

Great vid bro. Music is art. Everyone hears something different.

you can’t just slap auto tune over some talentless hack and have a consistently popular artist. you still have to know what you’re doing with the auto tune to sound good with it

As a music producer auto tune really isn’t ruining music I love auto tune you can do so many things and make your voice sound different. It’s up to the singer if there really really good or just ok.

I’d love to hear some videos on all the turmoil in the edm scene at the moment, everything’s up in flames lol

I think, one of a good examples of auto-tune uses would be daft punk, specially in Random Access Memories, it’s actually storytelling about robots who wants to feel human emotions, they don’t try to hide it, and that’s why, somehow, it feels emotive, with songs like the game of love, or touch, and even oddly instant crush.