It can thin the low-mid of a vocal a little, but sometimes that can actually be a good thing. Melodyne generally has the most transparent tone. They all have different tones and sometimes one is more fitting than the others. I’m pretty decisive about whether I’m abusing Melodyne, modern Auto-Tune or the classic ol’ school Auto-Tune. I’m a bit more neurotic and like a more refined approach. For the most part, people just tend to slap Auto-Tune on there and find a retune speed they like and roll with it.
This creation of synthesized harmonics makes a voice sound a bit synth-y, or robotic depending on the approach. Most of the time I’m trying to get a bit (or a lot) of sparkly, phase-y distortion. In today’s music, I often think of Auto-Tune as a tonal device (hence my horrible pun). Controlled slides and ‘distunes’ (I’m making that a word) can make the happy accident of tuning distortion into a creative tool. A very good vocalist can control their pitch and delivery enough to play off of how the tuning mechanism reacts and get a number of fun effects from it. Auto-Tune can be used as a post effect - that is applying it after the initial recording, or the vocalist can sing into the plugin and manipulate it. Within the world of being effect-y, there are a couple of ways to go. Or simply using an automatic mode and automating the Bypass works as well, unless some serious shifting is required. Generally, using a graphical mode from Auto-Tune, Waves Tune, Melodyne, etc. Mode A is pretty straightforward - if a dirty note slides on by, hit it with just enough tuning to lock it back in. Mode B: An effect used to create a tone, much like a phaser or flanger or reverb or distortion. Mode A: A tool for locking in a few stray notes that missed the mark in spite of an otherwise rockin’ performance. In my mind Auto-Tune (or pitch correction in general) is used in one of two modes:
So here are a few modern techniques for Auto-Tune. And there are things about this thing worth knowing. Love it or hate it, Auto-Tune is a thing. For another significant portion of you, this will be a great opportunity to make not-so-clever jokes like “the best technique with Auto-Tune is hiring a better singer!” Go grab your pitchforks … I’ll wait.įor many of you, this is going to be a great article about the creative and practical uses of Auto-Tune in modern music. This article is going to be about Auto-Tune.