I dislike it when I can hear the auto-tune. It's a big turn-off for me.

Plus I think it diminishes the inflections that a singer puts into the song. I play with the pitch when I sing or play melody on an instrument.

I may hit a note flat on purpose and slowly bring it up to pitch in a blues ballad to create and relieve tension on one note, I might sing a high note sharp on purpose for effect, I might slowly waver the pitch off and on, and so on. These are expressive elements that auto-tune either removes entirely or greatly diminishes.

Plus when you hear those artifacts, you know that singer isn't even close to on pitch.

I know other appreciate that and my taste isn't universal nor am I the arbiter of good taste, but on my sax and voice I've worked on pitch since I was a little kid. I added wind synth and guitar later. I play with pitch. I'm able to be on pitch most of the time if I want and I am off pitch when I want to use it as a tension creating effect.

And IMHO anyone who cannot sing a song without auto-tune doesn't deserve to call themselves a singer.

But that's drifting off topic.

Back on topic. Songs will retire themselves when the public gets tired of them. Nobody requests "Camptown Races", "Sophisticated Lady", "When Sunny Gets Blue", "Stardust" or "Amapola" anymore. In the case of "Sophisticated Lady" and "When Sunny Gets Blue" I think that's a shame.

Insights, incites and a minor rant by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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