Summary
This is the view Jace Clayton takes. Clayton is a blogger and DJ in Brooklyn, and unlike most critics, who despise the software, he has become one of Auto-Tune's most intellectually rigorous defenders. He argues that Auto-Tune is the antithesis of a studio gimmick. While effects like reverb or compression merely affect the sound in a static way, Auto-Tune responds to the human voice, creating a sort of duet between man and machine. "A straight, clean vocal performance is not going to get you what you want from Auto-Tune," he says. "But when you bend a pitch slightly out of tune, you hear the software immediately respond. This is not just like putting on makeup. This is more of a symbiotic relationship, a conversation. And it's this strange embrace that's fascinating to me."
Clayton introduced me to "Youchkad Zin," a song by Hafida, a virtuosic Berber singer from Morocco. Hafida's voice is drenched so thoroughly in Auto-Tune that it makes T-Pain sound almost human. As her voice climbs the complex quartertones of Berber music, Auto-Tune whips her tones around like a leaf in a cyclone. She sounds like some strange fusion of robot and violin, while the chorus of voices behind her is untreated. "It really foregrounds her shrill, otherworldly glissandosi says Clayton. "Every song on this CD uses Auto-Tune this heavily. In fact, it's hard to find Berber music now that doesn't have Auto-Tune."Eerie, yes. But this wailing yet somehow musical cry exemplifies the creative possibilities of Auto-Tune. It can help anyone sound like a singer, even a crying baby. It's a blessing and a curse. Producers Swole and Mad Creole say Auto-Tune has made some singers lazy. That's why they prefer to use a Talk Box, a difficult-to-use analog tool that involves piping sounds through a tube and into a singers mouth, which Peter Frampton used to get a similar effect 30 years ago. "But it's unfair to say that Auto-Tune sucks just because it's too easy" says Swole. "Remember, the people who came before us had to use tape reels, while we can cut and paste tracks on a computer screen. Auto-Tune isn't going to kill anything. Tools will keep coming along to correct or change the sound of music, and not everything will be used exactly how it's intended. And that's beautiful."See the full content of this document
Extract
Dr Strangevox
In the back room of a studio in North Austin lit only by the glow of computer screens, a producer and singer who calls himself Madd Creole lets out a string of gospel-inflected vocal improvisations. As his voice wavers and slides from note to note, it's shadowed by a ghostly shimmer from the speakers, giving his soulful crooning a shiny, robotic skin. "It keeps taking my voice to these strange minor not...
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