Originally Posted By: Notes Norton
As a singer and sax player (saxes aren't in tune with themselves, but each note needs to be adjusted with the lip) I have spent a lifetime using my ears and muscles to sing/play on pitch.

Auto-tune renders this skill useless.

However, I have also spent a lifetime toying with pitch and singing/playing off pitch for expressive effect. Auto-tune kills this skill.

Like a guitarist who might bend s string up to pitch, vocalists and sax players do the same thing. Hit a note a bit flat, that creates tension, slowly bend it to pitch releases that tension. Tension and release creates some of life's best pleasures. Think of being very hungry (tension) then enjoying a delicious meal (release).

I think of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long". He sings the line "You walked out" and by hitting the word "out" flat, lingering on it flat, and finally pulling it up to pitch, it expresses the pain he is feeling because his woman walked out on him. Auto-tune would have ruined that effect and it wouldn't sound so painful.

Sometimes if I'm playing high notes on the voice or sax, I may decide to play them a touch sharp, to add brightness. Not enough for tension, but just enough for emphasis. It's a little like stretch-tuning a piano.

When making backing tracks (back on-topic) sometimes I might make the top note of horn parts just a few cents sharp and put it a couple of tics ahead of the others, to emphasize the top.

There are other instances of intentionally playing off-pitch for expression. Auto-tune kills that.

That's why I don't like auto-tune.

But I must add, there is more than one right way to make music.

Insights and incites by Notes ♫


Yes! This is all about what the two of us call soul - irrespective of genre. And I’m not suggesting a bad note is a good note - just agreeing with the context as you described above. And from our perspective it applies to any instrument or vocal that can bend a note. Caveat: Of course it’s ultimately all about what one feels comfortable with.

Cheers,
Bud

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