Ramblings From Justin Penney

I'm sure most people did not notice the huge amount of Autotune on Billy Joel's voice as he sung "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Superbowl, but I sure did. I didn't actually watch the Superbowl I watched the clips on Youtube.

You can hear horrible robotic jumps in pitches and vibrato as the Autotune device tries to keep up. I just don't understand why someone of this caliber would do that. For those that don't know Autotune is a software plugin or a hardware device that is used to correct pitch. It's often (ab)used on vocals but can be used on any instrument that is only playing one note at a time. It's a tool that can be handy to save an otherwise good take or to create an otherwise impossible in nature sound.

The unfortunate thing is that once you know what it sounds like you start to actually hear it everywhere. Pop, mall punk, country... it's every where. It's like no one is allowed to slide into and or out of notes. No personality. I don't want to be a musical curmudgeon but I'm kind of sad about it.

I hear young bands trying to emulate the inhuman sounds. I've had bands come in to record and expect to just hit the parts and have them assembled. The samplers, drum machines and samplers brought hip-hop, rap and electronica. The software on computers became amazingly powerful. Loops pop up everywhere. It's just easy to paint a song once you have Acid or GarageBand and some reasonable loops.

I'm really conflicted on this. It makes everyone an instant producer, which could be a good thing with people finding that they have that talent. But I think it makes people lazy. I've spent a lot of time working on my proficiency on multiple instruments. I spend hours every week singing, playing instruments, learning and writing songs. I put a lot of work into and I can do it. I can record or perform. The people I play with are the same. They actually do it. I'm hoping we don't lose that.

# posted by Justin @ 3:14 PM