The Problem With Auto-Tune

This one takes a weird left turn at Singin' in the Rain

Sources and other links:
Musical Theater Mash's video on Dubbing in Movie Musicals
He has a really great channel, you should absolutely go and follow him

The live pitch correction plugin I showed the commercial for

Luke Evans's interview about singing live in Beauty and the Beast

Emma Watson's interview where she talks about singing live in front of 300 people

The Interview with Frank Wolf about mixing Beauty and the Beast

The ClassicalFM article about Emma Watson's singing

The Times of San Diego about how we should bring back dubbing citing Watson as a reason

[Emirichu]

we don't accept T-Pain slander in the Sideways household

[grpefish]

"Everyone gets pitch corrected - *everyone*"

_listens more intensely to Sideways' voice to try and tell if he pitch corrected his own video_

[Khrayfish]

Guy made an entire video just to make sure the world knows T-Pain can sing. Respectable.

[tabtab]

Those things are why I have such a high respect for musical theater and opera. These singers are unbelievably well trained with their voice and their body. You see Opera-singers and musical theater actors literally fly in a harness and hit a high C.

[burakeren]

Pitch correction is like CGI. You only realize when its bad.

[markrichardson]

Jesus, that singing in the rain thing is meta as fuck

[silenceoflink]

Bringing up BTS is a good point. K-pop groups are doing intense dances all while they are expected to sing perfectly. They can't, it's just not possible no matter how much training they get. Singing to the track, singing live, and with pitch correction is a good way that their fans still get what they paid for without disappointing them or massively overworking the performers on stage (more than they already are, K-pop industry is a mess). When they do it smartly, you can still hear the difference from the album, but sometimes you can hear the track in the back. Sometimes it's there to help the singers as well. There isn't anything wrong with it, it's a clever way to give a good performance while still keeping it genuine. Because realistically, their singing would be filled with breaths and huffs as they are dancing. Many endings you see idols breathing intensely, and that in main part is due to the dances. They still have real talent, pitch correction just helps them so they don't disappoint their fans because they couldn't sing the same they would standing in a studio recording an album while they are doing intense and elaborate choreo on stage.

[obiwanshinobi]

It's like people don't know that Cher and Tpain have been singing their asses off long before they started using autotune

[ashrafabdillah]

People: "Autotune bad!"

Vocaloid producers: 👀

[abishaipaul]

Hats off to theatre actors to sing live on stage

[vaszgul]

Honestly tell these people "Just say you've never been to a live performance"
They sound different. Even with a pitch correcting microphone, it is different. You don't pay to hear it identical. You pay to go to a big party and see (from a distance anyway), the celebrity or musician you're a fan of, and hang out with friends. If you were paying to hear it sound exactly like it sounds super well cut and studio edited, they would just pay for the pre-recorded version.

The difference is the spectacle.

[JKayMar]

I went to see Imagine Dragons in concert and the lead singer, Dan, ran over to do the big drums for Radioactive and got so into it that he forgot to start singing so he literally made the band stop playing, announced what happened and then concluded by saying, "Well, at least you all know we're not lip-syncing." Still so funny to me, but so true! If I went to a concert and a band wasn't performing live, not gonna lie, I'd feel a bit cheated, and so would lots of other people. I think that same line of thought absolutely carries over into people's psychology surrounding auto-tune as well. Super interesting vid though, dude! Thanks for covering this!

[LiveHedgehog]

Blaming Emma Watson for the film's audio mixing is like blaming the cast of Cats for the film's CGI. It makes no sense. She wasn't a producer or director.

[remyrot]

"emma watson was a miscast as belle" and "it's not emma watson's fault they messed with her voice so much it made the performance terrible" are two statements that can and should coexist

[joan]

even kpop groups who are trained for months to years just to have stable voices during performances use backtracks live and u can even hear their voices crack as they sing on top of it lol so it really bugs me when people try to use "autotune" as a reason to hate on them as if their faves aren't using it too lmao, , i also don't like it when reverb gets called autotune in general like?? 😭 but hopefully this video helped others understand the differences, , thanks for the vid!

[GippyHappy]

It really bugs me when actors get blamed for how poorly movies turn out. Even if the actor can't act, it's still the people in charge's fault for hiring them and not giving good enough direction. Even if Emma Watson couldn't sing, it wouldn't be right to bully her for it because Disney is the one who gave her the leading role in a musical. Also don't bully people in general.

[daphnerosales]

I just wanna make sure I've got this right:

Autotune is like drag makeup. It's supposed to be a dramatic effect, it's not meant to fool anyone into believing it's real.
Pitch correction is like nude makeup. People who complain about makeup don't even realize it's there most of the time, and it creates super unrealistic standards for everyone.

Now T-Pain can't ever wear makeup again and has to post a million #nofilter selfies so everyone knows that he actually looks good and they'll stop bashing him for the blue eyeshadow.

[aaronvockley]

I am a sound engineer specializing in live musical theatre, but with experience in almost all other areas of sound production; live concerts, concert albums, studio albums, audio-for-video, etc., etc.

I have to say that this is one of the most well-researched and informative videos I've seen about my profession that I have ever seen. Despite this being an "auto-tune" video, you cover almost every aspect of sound production in a way that anyone can understand, and yet you were able to make connections for me that I had never seen before, despite years of experience in the industry.

This video is truly an incredible piece of work. Many thanks for making light of a fascinating aspect of the entertainment industry that most people will never notice (and never should, if everything works).

[mystman]

I don't care if an artist can even sing well or perform live, if the music they release sounds good, then they're clearly talented and know how to use the tools at their disposal to make good music.

[heyryanisonx]

Just goes to show how underappreciated musical theatre singers/dancers/actors are