Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee

Subject: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: evansakes
Date: 22 Aug 10 - 10:00 PM

This is hilarious stuff. Have a listen to Gamu Nhengu

Did they allow her to use it ?

Or did they just add it afterwards ?

Whichever way it's a bit of a scandal. Shame really, because I suspect underneath all the electronic trickery she's probably got a decent voice...

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST,autop
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 02:21 AM

proof of autotune abuse on xfactor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUY2u_-FzhI

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 02:26 AM

The link provided by TwickFolk doesn't seem to work in the USA. This YouTube link will probably give the same video.
Click here for an article about the so-called controversy.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: mandotim
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 04:16 AM

I don't think the true story will come out. On the live shows last year (even the final) the live version of autotune was clearly in evidence to anyone who runs live sound. The audition autotuning is generally done in post production, but it's the live stuff that is really insidious; the producers can now choose who sounds good and who doesn't, opening the door to 'fixing' the competition so that the best commercial proposition wins, rather than the best singer.

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 05:36 AM

>>so that the best commercial proposition wins, rather than the best singer<<

Good point there Tim. It's about who will entertain the audience.

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 06:41 AM

Maybe I'll ask Father Xmas for one of these. I would present the technology a real challenge!

RtS
(Key? I don't sing in no stinkin' key!)

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: evansakes
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 06:52 AM

Country singers like Faith Hill and Sarah Evans have admitted to using auto-tune

The best singers of course don't need it. Alsion Moorer has gone as far as to put stickers on her albums proclaiming "Absolutely no vocal tuning or pitch correction was used in the making of this record"

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 10 - 06:56 AM

I think if they tried to 'autotune' my 'singing' (wailing/howling being a better term) I'd break the machine.

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: Howard Jones
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:33 AM

Thanks for the link to that article, Joe.

"Kyle123 wrote: 'It takes away the integrity of the show.'"

Hilarious!

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:36 AM

WHAT integrity?

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: Marje
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 03:43 AM

I noticed the autotune in the clip shown above. I also thought they'd used it in the duo calling themselves G&S. He was a rubbish singer and she was OK, but it sounded to me as if she was autotuned right from the start, in their duet, whereas he was just left making a fool of himself. This accentuated the difference in their standards, to justify the panel's request for her to sing again, and the decision to put her through on her own. This is, of course, just done for dramatic effect, as she's not a strong singer and we'll never hear her again.

I have to admit that I quite enjoy X-factor, but I'm enjoying it less every series, and using autotune in what's supposed to be the first round of auditions is just ridiculous.

Marje

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: mattkeen
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 04:45 AM

It will be the rare exception that does NOT use it - especially on commercial TV

Youare less likely to get it being used on folk CDs by the nature of the beast - but its pretty much 99% everywhere else

I dont really understand why this is coming as a shock to anybody

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 05:39 AM

It's only a shock when people how big a bunch of fools they are being taken for ... :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 05:53 AM

Yes, but the logic gets a bit farcical & tortuous when it comes to its use in a competition (even if it is a competition based on music in which autotune is the norm).

In theory, I suppose one of those auto-tuned unsuccessful auditionees could complain that they were misrepresented on national television. They could state, legitimately, that their reputations as a singer (no matter how bad they might happen to be) was compromised by a TV show monkeying with their voice.

In fact, even one of the *successful* auditionees could complain: they could say that the auto-tuning could be prejudicial in terms of future audience votes later in the series ("oh, she's the singer that was auto-tuned back in episode X").

It's faintly insane really, an irony pile-up.

I mean, what was going through the producers' heads when they slathered auto-tune all over the girl who couldn't hit a single note anyway, who was being set up as a "comedy bad singer"?! That was a bit surreal.

Mind you, I remember feeling like I'd stepped into a completely different universe on one previous show (quarter-finals or something) hearing Messrs Cowell & Walsh praising the amazing voice of a singer who'd just sung painfully flat. There was a certain amount of cynical Orwellian doublethink ingrained in the show's agenda long before auto-tune reared its burbling robot head.

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST,Sparky's Magic Piano
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 08:49 AM

more in depth analysis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHDlYF1zkhU&NR=1

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 24 Aug 10 - 04:06 PM

Well, of course, most performances on record are enhanced in one way or the other. I was watching a Michael Buble in an "audience with ..." show recently and when he switched from talking to the audience to singing it was so obvoius that a huge amount of reverb was added to his vocals. This happens time and time again, for example, I would say that every modern recording of classical guitar that I own (and I own a lot) has "presence" added to the sound.

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 01:19 PM

I really don't think that this robotic Autotune abuse actually makes any of the singers sound better, but since when has the X Factor had anything to do with musical ability?

What's most annoying in the X factor videos is the way that every couple of seconds a wave of tumultous applause erupts as if the audience can't contain their astonishment at how talented these moppets are for beign able to open their mouths and sing a song Unless of course the producers add the cheering in afterwards to make it sound more "exciting"

Subject: RE: Tech: Autotune used by X Factor auditionee
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Aug 10 - 07:13 PM

The really nasty thing about this, as I understand is that the technology hasn't just been used to make people they want to win sound better, but also to make people they don't want to win sound worse. To stop viewers voting for "the wrong people".

I think you can assume that the cheers gets artificially added, if need be - or removed if "the wrong people" are getting cheered.