Do I really need AutoTune?

[cgbrad]

I am a vocalist with good pitch (on a scale of 1 - 10 I give my pitch about an 8). When I do get a little pitchy I tend to sing sharp. What are the advantages of getting autotune for our ProTools LE system? Would it make any difference in the recording process? Don't want to waste $300.00 dollars on something I may not use, or may not understand. Who recommends me buying this and why?

[Tye]

My experience with autotune has been bitter sweet. It can help tighten up a good singers voice, or make a bad singer sound even worse. If you are an 8 out of 10 then i would just keep your money and just take the extra time to get a good take. BUT thats just my oppinion.

my only experience with it has been in somebody elses studio recording with my band, the guy who was singing for us was a terrible singer and when the producer tried to use autotune to fix his voice it was too off pitch. It can only do so much pitch correction, and when its too far off pitch it goes crazy and gives you that sound that a lot of hip hop singers and electronic bands go for.

[DAS]

Auto Tune is pretty easy to understand and use so don't worry about that aspect of it. If you can get the performances where you want them without it then (obviously) you may not need it. One reason it initially became so popular (and this was before Cher blew it up) was because it actually works pretty well for tweaking slightly off pitch moments to sound better, and it's generally much faster and easier than punching in or comping takes together.

For otherwise able singers who struggle to consistently hit the pitch it can be a real savior in terms of the time it takes to get a good vocal take. What I am saying is...sometimes a singer will give a really good performance that is somewhat marred by a pitch problem in one or two spots. It's hard to go back and fix those without compromising the feel of the performance. Auto Tune can do that.

[scottmo]

When have a vocalist that has good pitch i always run them through auto tune and it just adds a little bit of better to the mix. but if the vocalist isnt that good running them through auto tune just makes them sound all that much worse.

[Bluesman48]

I agree with DAS, it's more of a band-aid type of thing. I personally would rather have a good heart felt performance over a "perfect" one. Autotune like everything else has the potential to be overused/abused.:)