yelyah - “the other world 20111020” piano improv
I suddenly got in the mood to listen to some of my old stuff and it brought up the following question.
Am I really that flat or have I just been listening to too much autotuned crap?
Obviously, I must be somewhat flat to notice it at all, unless I can blame it on my being hypercritical of my own voice (a lovely thought in a way).
Autotuning kinda begets more autotuning. That’s the problem.
If I remember correctly, I’ve only ever autotuned my voice on one song. Part of it was convenience: I had inconsistent access to the software. And then part of it was that in 2009, I actually put it on my yearly goals to not use autotune all year long.
But on the one song I’ve used it on. The non-autotuned version… just ewww. It sounds lifeless and unenergetic. Dead. Something.
And so that’s the begetting problem. The more you use autotune, the more you expect autotune.
But then again, what about musical styles? Like, if we were to look at genres that focus on real instruments versus those that are synthesized. Theoretically, a “normal” vocal is gonna sit much nicer with real instruments because those instruments aren’t necessarily going to be pitch perfect either.
And even with electronic music, back in the pure analog days anyhow, there could be pitch differences from somewhat fritzing hardware or tape malfunctions.
But is autotune maybe almost mandatory in the days of synthesized, perfect-pitch music?
And here’s a side question, if I can tell I’m flat when I play something back, then why can’t I tell I’m flat when I’m actually singing and could do something about it?
I have perfectly good ears. Apparently it’s just that my brain shuts off when I sing.
Yeah, that’s my theory.
