Music as an art has, like other arts, undergone metamorphosis. It has certainly evolved from the elementary definition of organised sounds to the composition of a miscellany of rhythmic elements technologically manipulated to elicit pleasure in the ears of its listeners.
Common elements of music are pitch which governs melody and harmony; rhythm and its associated concepts - tempo, meter, and articulation; dynamics; and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Consequently, music is a very complicated art because it has to do with the fusion of its basic elements in a certain proportion.
In the post-modern era however, like other arts, music has changed in content, medium and scope. Technology, of course, has played its part in its evolution. As music entered into the 21st Century, digitisation and computers have played an increasing role in replacing the analogue technology.
Electronic musical instruments that use filters and tone generators to create waveforms which are then processed to generate sounds are the new craze. Also, audio processing, which is the intentional alteration of auditory signals or sound, is used in manipulating music in order to give it a somewhat perfect finish.
In the music industry today, the latest craze is an audio processor known as Auto-tune. Auto-tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune. While its main purpose is to slightly bend song pitches to the nearest true semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest tone in traditional equal temperament), Auto-Tune can be used to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly.
Auto-Tune, according to Wikipedia, was created by Andy Hildebrand, a seismic engineer for Exxon. It was first marketed by Antares Audio Technology, but has become synonymous with any kind of vocal performance pitch correction. Of course, the use of Auto-Tune has its pros and cons.
At its inception, Auto-Tune was used to fix minor pitch problems in otherwise excellent performances. In essence, it would quantize a pitch fluctuation in a vocal track and create a corrected digital copy, which could be seamlessly inserted into the final master recording. Auto-Tune 5 was initially released by Antares Audio Technologies in 1997 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was developed when its creator was playing around with seismic data technology and realised that the technology could actually be used for pitch correction. That was the beginning of Auto-Tune and as soon as it was released, the record industry immediately embraced it. The Auto-Tune suite is now standard equipment in recording studios all over the world.
Prior to Auto-Tune era, an engineer and producer would have to either record multiple ‘takes’ of a performance until the singer captured the right moment, or ‘comp’ (short for compile) a performance by assembling multiple takes, that is, taking a line or phrase from each of the various ”takes” to create a master performance. Simply put: Auto-Tune is tone correction technology. It allowed for any vocal part that did not quite meet its mark to simply be digitally corrected, and brought to its proper pitch. Whether a little flat or off the mark completely, Auto-Tune remedies the situation and delivers pitch-perfection.
Timaya, MI, Bracket are some of the popular artistes whose auto-tuned works have raked in millions.
The use of Auto-Tune has its benefits. It enables artistes to produce their works more quickly as the need for countless additional takes is eliminated. With the Auto-Tune technology, the artiste simply gives a few takes and select the one that gives the most appropriate emotional tone for the piece.
Furthermore, it allows artistes to experiment with things that are beyond their natural abilities, including hitting notes and melodies higher or lower than their range. It can help modify the voice to give it the ever popular whiny robot sound. Thus, if an artiste can think it, he can do it. In short, Auto-Tune saves the industry time and money and it gives artistes more options. Furthermore, it ensures perfection in recording.
There are however, some issues and controversies surrounding the popular audio processor. While supporters of the plug-in and artistes of popular music claim that Auto-Tune is simply a tool to enhance vocals and fix pitch errors, critics say otherwise. The complaints stem from the popularity of artistes who have relied heavily on the Auto-Tune effect. In the past couple years, almost every other pop, rap, or R&B song on the radio had used the processor in some form or another. This became the main reason critics claimed artistes were abusing the software and had turned it into a gimmick.
According to Yahoo contributor, Maxine Nelson, Auto-tune is like Photoshop for a singer‘s voice. ”If that is what‘s being done nowadays, why bother having singers? You might as well grab someone off the street; put them in a recording studio, and presto, Auto tuning takes care of the rest,” she maintains.
Nigerian musician, Sound Sultan, has described the technology as a cheat mode. “It’s a cheat mode,” he said on his Twitter status.
Also, in June, two other Nigerian artistes - Timaya and Bracket, failed their United States of America audience when they could not perform with a live band before the expectant audience.
While it is unquestionable that all of these singers are exceptionally talented, Auto-Tune has created an almost unreal perfection for their records that which is impossible to reproduce in person - unless they have a ‘live’ Auto-Tune unit, such as the Digitech Vocalist, in their signal chain. Before Auto-tune came into existence, artistes invested a lot of time and money onvoice training.
In this age of digital music and videos, Auto-Tune has gone from being a ‘special sauce’ to fix minor ‘clam notes’ to a full blown replacement of performances. Perhaps, it is the pressure of having sound that matches the fantasy-like perfect images in the artistes‘ music videos. Perhaps, it is a lack of work ethic on the part of some of today‘s singers, who often spend more time on their merchandising and MySpace pages than in the studio.
There is something to be said for the imperfections of the human voice, which is often where the emotional connection in music lies.
Source:http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20101122275270
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