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The use of digital pitch correction software on vocal recordings

To my mind, this practice is fraught with dishonesty.

The most obvious issue is:
- with digital pitch correction software applied to it, a vocal recording presented to the listener is done so under the pretense that it presents the human voice singing, when in fact any number of moments therein are the result of a program shoehorning the human-produced tones into a “perfect” tone” (whether it may be a Bb, C, F#, Db, or whatever), thereby negating the human expression and negating the validity of the pretense.
Much like a photo portrait of a human body post-airbrushing ceases to be a “true” presentation of that body, the viewer is not being presented with a faithful representation of that human form.

The next issue is:
- rampant apologia within the industry.
I’ve even heard an industry insider say, “pitch manipulation software does nothing we couldn’t do in the ‘70s and ‘80s. It just lets us do it for a lot less money.”
That’s a cute thing to say, but incorrect.
The finished vocal recording that was changed by the implementation of pitch correction software is, by definition, different from the finished vocal recording featuring none.

I am welcoming the thoughts of Audiogon members regarding this practice.

tylermunns

Showing 2 responses by stuartk

stuartk
2,401 posts
 

 

Perhaps I’m ignorant, but my impression is that one is most likely to encounter this in contemporary Pop. As such music is heavily processed to begin with, why would this be a concern to its fans?

I have difficulty envisioning Classical or Jazz vocalists going this route but given the accelerating pace of technology, who knows?

stuartk
2,401 posts
 

@tylermunns 

I was drawing a distinction between Pop made in the past that utilized band members or sidemen playing actual instruments and today, where producers combine samples in ProTools slather them in further effects and call it good.

If that's too broad of a generalization, well I'll admit I'm guilty of finding music I hear utilizing the latter approach utterly soul-less and vapid. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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