This week we're wearing our sturdiest walking boots and carrying a big stick to go hacking our way through the thorny subject of Autotuning.......

I'm sure that most of you will already know what we mean by Autotuning but just in case you don't, it's basically a piece of software that automatically corrects pitch and timing and which is used mainly by singers, both in the studio and live. It's been around since 1997 and probably came to most people's attention when it was used in the 1998 Cher song "Believe" and it quickly became something people either loved or hated! Today it is so widely used that we don't think about it or even realise just how many of our favourite artists use it as a matter of course. Much of the time it is hard to tell if someone is using Autotune or not and most people would say they don't know how to tell..........but thanks to the wonders of Youtube there are a great many entertaining and informative videos out there to guide you and to help you understand how easy it actually is to hear when it is being used. Using it to make your vocals sound 'perfect' in the studio is one thing but countless big stars use it live too and, being a piece of computer software, it sometimes goes wrong with highly embarrassing results! And there are plenty of Youtube videos on THAT subject!

So why, I hear you cry, would you risk it? Why in fact would you want to use it at all? Do we really want our favourite singers to sound 'perfect'?? These are questions which I am neither qualified nor brave enough to answer here - but I will offer the thought that some singers widely regarded as having the greatest voices in popular music were doing their thing long before Autotune was even invented and we still love them with all their 'faults' and 'imperfections'! On the flip side there are many top singers today who choose not to use it, including Pink, Ariana Grande, Adam Lambert, Shawn Mendes, Beyonce and Taylor Swift to name a few. But most importantly, our very own multi-talented and golden-voiced singing teacher James Allen most definitely DOES NOT use Autotune!!!

Love 'n' vocal exercises, - https://www.themusicalbox.co.uk/content/vocal-lessons

Tim

This week we're wearing our sturdiest walking boots and carrying a big stick to go hacking our way through the thorny subject of Autotuning.......

I'm sure that most of you will already know what we mean by Autotuning but just in case you don't, it's basically a piece of software that automatically corrects pitch and timing and which is used mainly by singers, both in the studio and live. It's been around since 1997 and probably came to most people's attention when it was used in the 1998 Cher song "Believe" and it quickly became something people either loved or hated! Today it is so widely used that we don't think about it or even realise just how many of our favourite artists use it as a matter of course. Much of the time it is hard to tell if someone is using Autotune or not and most people would say they don't know how to tell..........but thanks to the wonders of Youtube there are a great many entertaining and informative videos out there to guide you and to help you understand how easy it actually is to hear when it is being used. Using it to make your vocals sound 'perfect' in the studio is one thing but countless big stars use it live too and, being a piece of computer software, it sometimes goes wrong with highly embarrassing results! And there are plenty of Youtube videos on THAT subject!

So why, I hear you cry, would you risk it? Why in fact would you want to use it at all? Do we really want our favourite singers to sound 'perfect'?? These are questions which I am neither qualified nor brave enough to answer here - but I will offer the thought that some singers widely regarded as having the greatest voices in popular music were doing their thing long before Autotune was even invented and we still love them with all their 'faults' and 'imperfections'! On the flip side there are many top singers today who choose not to use it, including Pink, Ariana Grande, Adam Lambert, Shawn Mendes, Beyonce and Taylor Swift to name a few. But most importantly, our very own multi-talented and golden-voiced singing teacher James Allen most definitely DOES NOT use Autotune!!!

Love 'n' vocal exercises, - https://www.themusicalbox.co.uk/content/vocal-lessons

Tim