Problem is that the argument for using autotune starts with a false premise that the most desirable singing is that which dead accurately represents the intended note each time. Great singing mostly moves around the exact precise pitch, implying it by starting phrases above and from below and only occasionally hitting it dead on. That’s actually the sound we most associate with great vocal performance and where the real artistry and tone, phrasing and dynamics come from.

To me, autotune is not acceptable at live shows. It definitely changes my feeling about taking the time and expense of going to the show. The artist can atone by discontinuing autotone in the future.

My mother, Astrud Gilberto, was, among other things, the voice of Eastern Airlines. You would have to sing, along with the orchestra in those days. For some of the spots, the orchestra would play almost a minute in, and then she'd deliver the tagline at the end (a very high note). You either nailed it, or *_EVERYONE_* got to do it again. I'm old enough to remember when people could actually sing without computer devices. No wonder everyone, even young people, still listen more to older music.

Buble has pitch control as least as good as Frank Sinatra. By Autotuning, it removes so much of the human nuance as to render it, in this case, as unlistenable. One of the ways I determine if any part of a "live" performance is actually live is by catching mistakes and little pitch deviations. I'd much rather hear an actual performance than a computer generated/enhanced one. If the stage doesn't differ from the studio, what's the point in a live performance?

I watched a video of Paloma Faith where she was singing live in a small venue. She was covering a song by another singer of which I don't remember the name of the song. The first few words she sang were very off key, she laughed and stopped the music. She apologized to the audience for not hitting the correct notes, and proceeded to make fun of herself for the awful singing. She did a few seconds of vocal warmups while joking with the audience, then told the band to start at the beginning. She hit the notes perfectly. The audience appreciated her honesty and cheered her. Auto tune is awful. The music industry has ruined music.

This is a great example of auto-tune making a great singer worse. The ability to travel through a note, climb or decline to a note, manipulate vibrato, utilising all of that to tell a story, is what makes a singer great. You lose all of the humanity, all of the emotion if you snap to a scale.

Can you imagine Karen Carpenter or Patsy Cline using auto tunes? Seriously, auto tunes cannot beat natural vocal perfection! The beauty of humanity is that it has minor imperfections that allow expression and personality to shine through! AI can’t touch the human voice.

You are a FANTASTIC music teacher!!!

Auto tune is a crime. My best singing was live one take on stage in the opera hall. They way it should be. You prepare, you work hard, and then you do your work and fly together with the orchestra And conductor. Nothing like it. Human emotion is frequency and is carried direct to the heart

"Making the voice into a keyboard" is probably the best and most succinct description of autotune I've ever heard - and something that even the casual listener can understand. Thank you, once again, for the excellent analysis.

A folk/bluegrass engineer once basically forced me to use autotune on a recording, with the rationale that "everyone uses it". I was only able to convince him to lessen the effect. I think engineers and producers sometimes get too lost in the weeds and can't ignore the slight pitch fluctuations of human singing. It's like an itch they have to scratch, when in my opinion the sound of pitch correction is usually far more distracting than vocals that are slightly out of tune.

So glad I grew up in the 70s and 80s. Great singers and wonderful music.

When an artists performance is manipulated with autotune, the audience is manipulated.

I think auto-tune should be banned from live performances and all recordings with auto-tune should have a big disclaimer. It's the only way to tell if a singer is truly great. There are plenty of great singers who don't need it and it's a disservice to them to let a program decide how their notes should sound. Thanks for another great analysis!

I find there's a natural musicality in the human voice, spoken and singing, which resonates with our nervous system. I actually feel physical discomfort listening to Ai speaking or singing. I can't bear to think how it's damaging people's ability to feel. Thanks for this brilliant episode.

My ex was obsessed with Bublé, at Christmas. I could hear the autotune, actually I call his the Bublébot. He sounds so metallic. 🤖

Great singers can use being "off" the note and then "on" it as a purposeful tension-and-release. It's another tool in the vocalist's toolbox. The premise that a note must land and stay perfectly on pitch is the whole problem with autotune. Autotune does what it's supposed to do. The problem is that we shouldn't be doing it.

This is so bizarre It never occurred to me that people, especially people that *can* actually sing, use autotune while singing live. It just seems ridiculous to me. Just get a robot to sing. The whole point of hearing a good singer and hear them sing live is that you hear the personality, character and individual time tone of their voice. Ella Fitzgerald did incredible things with her beautiful voice. Imagine trying to use autotune with her. It would take all of that beautiful personality out. Crazy

I think great singers can use auto-tune to do something interesting with a song, change it in a perticular direction they desire. The problem is that auto tune is rarely used this way. It's not like singers didn't edited their voices in post production before AT. Hell, Queen did that. (at least I believe they did in Bohemian Raphsody - getting weird sound effects to make the voices more pronounced) Again, the difference is the awarness of the direction. AT is esentially used nowadays as a shortcut not as a tool

I understand why pitch correction exists, but when people say it's the standard/so common, therefore it's necessary I just roll my eyes. We have decades of incredible studio and live performances that are perfect and never needed any correction. I've never listened to a record from the 60s-80s and thought "this should have been autotuned/pitch corrected". Sure it may help make the recording process easier but it's NOT necessary. It should be a tool not a standard. I'm not talking about use of autotune for a style (like Cher).

I am glad a new generation of listeners WILL NOT put up with autotune. Good show!

This reservation about the drawbacks of technology applies not only to vocals. I'm a drummer. I don't claim to be a great drummer but I love playing and I love listening to great players. Tempo shifts into a chorus, the expressive lag on a snare beat in a single bar - all of these are human and music is a form of communication between human beings. If it becomes mathematically precise then it is machines talking and the human element disappears. Where then is the humanity and emotion? I wonder whether machinery has contributed modern music being so often boring? Keith Moon was not the greatest timekeeper but the sense that he was about to fall off the edge was what made his playing so exciting. Janis Joplin may have wandered around a note but the rawness of her performance is what made it heart rending. I'd rather listen to Aretha being slightly flat than Beyonce being autotuned. Thanks for the video. Always enjoy your stuff.

Applying auto tune to a crooner is like applying posterization to an impressionist. It is painful to listen to. You keep calling your visual a waveform. As somebody who regularly manually edits samples to clean up waveforms, I cry foul. We are not looking at a waveform, but a pitch graph. That aside, this is a masterful analysis. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate your work!

Half the fun of your videos is seeing you smile.

I have been a singer for a great many years. It’s great to have someone calling out the frauds. Singers should keep it real or find another career/hobby or get singing lessons. Nothing grinds my gears worse than auto tune. Well.. maybe professional lip sinking.

Artists shouldn’t be allowed to call a performance “live” if they’re using autotune/pitch correction. It’s all lies.

Basically, auto tune would never work in Blues influenced music, as the 3rd degree of the scale is usually sang in between the minor and major mode, therefore not relating either to the previous or next "12 note system" note, as the computer doesn't know where to drag the it...

His voice sounded much better with no autotune. I mean he is a good singer so I don't know why the need to even use it. Expecting pitch perfect notes from a singer is unrealistic and not natural. Imperfections make live performances so unique and interesting.

I always make a point when recording music never to use autotune, it’s like reducing the world to 8 colours from the more than billion we have now.

A great singer doesn't need autotune.

Bublé’s live appearance on the Graham Norton Show (backed by a big band) a few years back sounded great and I made a recording of it. The more I listened though, I realised he was singing slightly sharp throughout the song - which suggests no autotune in this particular performance.

So, I'm not understanding WHY these singers are OK with this being done?! WHY are they NOT speaking out against auto tuning of their natural voices?? WHY is this ok?? I have just binge watched your videos. You're amazing and I'm learning so much. Thank you! (Love your subtle smiles as you watch/listen to some of these.)

Didn’t people sing perfectly beautifully once upon a time without needing computer enhancement or other electronic wizardry? Frank Sinatra? Andrew’s Sisters? Bing Crosby? Dean Martin? Judy Garland? Beach Boys, Beatles, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald? I mean really, I want to hear real human beings singing, not a bunch of processed shit. Cmon man…

About 7 years ago, Buble's "just havent met you yet" was the very first example of auto tune I actually heard. I didn't know what it was, I just knew it sounded electronically altered.

Great analysis as usual. Love the detail! Keep live music LIVE. ❤

I'm going to michael buble concert tomorrow here in Melbourne! I'll be keeping my ears out for this! I'm glad this video popped up the day before!

I never knew any singers would ever think of using autotune for live performances. How sad, for us and for them. And how naive I was!

Too bad that so many have forgotten that we’re human. Being human is what makes voices special. Otherwise we’re just machines. Sad. Thanks Fil.

This is such a shame. Michael Buble’s fans enjoy his natural voice with all its nuances. It’s what makes him Michael Buble!

Especially when you're singing live, you don't need it because there is so much ambient interference that most audiences can't tell if you are slightly off. Even more so with great performers that dance or have light shows, the audience is so wrapped up in focusing on everything else they aren't paying attention to the vocals as much. Audiences are unintentionally forgiving in those situations.

It’s like when we used to listen to cassettes. If the player started to eat the tape, you’d hear the music start to warble, and immediately realize you had to hit eject, in hopes you could get the cassette out and uncrinkle it , or cut and splice the tape. Why do they auto tune? Why do they mime on tv performances? I’m gaining more respect for bar singers by the minute.

Fascinating. Real artists have always known that it is natural imperfections that make true beauty. Perfect symmetry is unnatural.

I'm glad I came back. Last time I think I didn't even understand half of it. Now I can listen to his song "Lost" again. I need to hear that one from time to time. 💔

Truly a sad day and age when even Buble can’t rely just on talent 😢

Thank you, Fil, for discussing this topic! As a vocal music teacher and singer, I am 100% (and much more) with you on all counts! The voice is a psychomotor instrument. If we start relying on auto-tune, we potentially can lessen the important and essential impact of our human brain and emotions/full body in the process of singing. The human voice is one of, if not the most personal, verbal means of expressing ourselves! We, as the public, and leaders/professionals in the music industry need to value and encourage the use of singers’ natural voices!

ironically the same goes for instrumentalists too. You can spend hours in protools pulling and pushing notes to get them on the lines only for it to sound like a midi file played by 3 robots and a bbc micro. Take something with isolated tracks by say the Beatles for example and hear both how out of time they are and how, the consistancy of the timing varies. Musicians like to refer to this as "The pulse" When you listen to a tight band the entire band speeds up and slow down in unison to one another. Never exactly but always by an amount virtually undetectable to human perception. Its a slippery slopeonce you strive towards the perfect recording. There's no substitute for playing it well in the 1st place.

Phil, Very well expressed, and much needed. I'm a lifetime student of piano, a music major in the 1980s. I was raised in Kentucky, listening to Country Music in our home. Then later, I studied Classical. Going back to analyze Johnny Cash, I've been amazed that I can't always figure out what his melody note is (or was supposed to be), yet somehow he managed to sound fairly good much of the time! At least, he was good enough to have his own TV show in America for some period of time. I hate to think of the indecision Auto-tune would have experienced if it had existed then and attempted to "correct" his voice. Though not as good of a singer as Michael, wouldn't Johnny Cash be a "case-in-point" of a singer who was seldom holding pitches "on the line," yet still sounded good somehow? There's something mysterious working there. You've explained some of the reasons. Let me compliment you on your vocal skills--your ability when explaining what an artist is or isn't doing to use your own voice to mimic them with exact pitch and dynamics even when they are "out of your vocal range"! You are so talented both vocally and as a guitarist. I very much love all your work on Wings of Pegasus. Thank you for a lot of fun listening to your thoughts. With much appreciation, David Lee

I was actually watching this program when this happened. You could tell immediately the difference in his voice because Michael sounded so much better, especially his vibrato. At least now I know why! I didn’t know anything about live autotune at that time. Thanks Fil, you have the best channel on the internet.

I just read were Michael Nesmith, who was best known as one of the Monkees passed away today at age 78 (RIP) Michael and thanks for the wonderful body of work you left behind.

It makes something real become fake. People get upset if a musician or singer pre-tapes a song for a special performance and then plays the tape when they're live. How is this different? It may be their voice coming out of the mic during the live performance but it's still being altered. And, as you said, Fil-there is no point to it because Buble has such a wonderful voice. But even if he didn't, it's all the same to me. I want real, the real voice, especially when I'm being told it is.

I love your videos! I recently discovered Wings of Pegasus and found your videos to be informative and instructive. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to viewing more.

I did a session with Michael Bublé a couple years ago and he’s actually a good singer in the sense that he sings on pitch with good phrasing and musicality. This processed sound is a creative choice and live it’s probably about consistency and not getting clowned on social media in case of an off night. Sad state of affairs our modern musical world. 😢

Kudos to you Fil for exposing this sad auto-tune reality. If a live performer needs auto-tune, then they probably need to reconsider performing live. It’s not worth the $100 ticket to us customers.

Frank Sinatra managed this song thousands of times with NO auto-tune. Using technology just because it's there is not a good thing. Michael should stop them from using auto-tune for his own good.

This makes me appreciate good singers even more. So much faking goes on these days, not just in music but everywhere. It's sad.

Pros like Mike dont need auto tune. He has a great natural voice. That said....if a singer cant live without singing with auto tune then either they cant sing or needs to rest or retire. Mike should not have used it or whoever at the tv station in production should not have used it. He doesn't need it.

14:00 it's interesting that you mention that because that's a classical training thing. I had a music theory teacher one time that in so many words told us, when you're gonna be going from a 7 to the octave, you almost WANT that 7 to be a bit sharp, because it just begs for the listener to yearn for it to resolve up that last half-step (or more like 1/3 step if you do that). It creates a really nice tension that begs for the resolution, it wouldn't be surprising to me if Michael is doing that subconsciously because he may have learned the same thing once upon a time.

It's particularly a shame, because this dude is a real singer.

Well done! Very clear explanation. I agree that autotune used haphazardly can falsify a performance. The only case I can think for using it is when, during a show, a singer cannot hear their monitor for some reason. An on-the-ball sound tech could save the day if autotune was available. (Or it may be time for a long guitar solo while the monitor gets fixed).

Live singers who perform frequently may at times have issues to come up when the vocal cords become stressed (overworked). Often, auto tune is the go to solution. Even great singers who reach high notes that's at the upper range of the vocal cords have failure to some degree. Proper care and exercise is very important to sing in tune consistently. However, singing in concerts without some time to recuperate, well, autotune to the rescue.

Hearing Michael's isolated voice like this just shows how auto tune changes a natural vibrato from a natural pitch modulation to more of an amplitude modulation. It’s like his natural and incredible sounding voice has had a key component ‘photoshopped’ out. I find this to be too big a price to pay for the convenience of ‘fixing’ the odd and rare (and not necessarily unwanted) out of tune note.

You just can’t unhear it! His voice actually sounds better without it. I have never, and will never, use it.your videos are so interesting. Love what you do!

Personally I would feel cheated if I paid money and then found out it was fake. I think autotune is cheating.

I would be so happy if you could do a video on anything Hozier does. I think he is spectacularly talented. I want to believe that there is no auto tune, but I am not able to hear it the way you are. I love your videos, thank you so much!

Thank you for exposing the use of autotune at the concert level. If I were an artist, I'd be pretty angry that a technician was manipulating my voice during a live performance. Another reason for loving opera.

I would not be happy to be at a concert and realize that they are using auto tune. I understand the stresses of touring but auto tune crosses the line for me.

Seen this dude 10 times over the last nearly 20 years. Always sings live in concert and no auto tune . 10000 percent sure. Used to do a bit at the end with no mic and his voice is insanely powerful. Seen him perform sick once as well and it was obvious (he told everyone he was too and how they had to shoot him up with vitamins abs steroids)and still did well but knew to shy away from certain parts because he couldn’t obviously do it. He’s seriously one of the best shows I’ve been to. One of those true performers who will always sing live and doesn’t need a big screen behind him or dancers to keep it entertaining.

I don’t tell people I have auto tune capabilities. When I hear "pitchiness" to the point it bothers me I play it back and asked the artist what they think. I'd rather punch in and fix it up front. Occasionally while mixing we'll catch something we missed in playback and tune a note here and there. If someone is consistently out of tune they need to look for other activities. If auto tune is called for in a live performance that person shouldn't be on stage. Singing should be left to those that can.

One of my musicians said to me one day,”a good sound person can make a bad band ok, and a good band awesome. A bad sound person can make an amazing artist awful.” There was more but in this case they killed it in a bad way! Great analysis!! I personally never used it live…

And I think your point at the end is spot on. The more times you point out these insanely talented singers being auto tuned…. With or without their approval…. The more likely it is that they will actively make sure it doesn’t happen any more.. and that’s better for us all….

A good singer doesn't need auto-tune, so when it's used (and it's typically pretty obvious) it's like saying "we can't really hold a pitch ourselves; and don't actually sing very well." There are plenty of singers who sing perfectly on pitch Roberta Flack and Celine Dion Both sing perfectly on pitch (I'm a tuner) and it sounds beautiful, because when they go from note to note it doesn't sound like flipping a switch.

The weird thing I started noticing is that he mutes his s's. He either moves the microphone or lowers his voice. I first noticed it in 'Meglia Stasera' which he sings wonderfully

I worked with Michael Bublé in musical revue theatre before his fame. He has a fabulous, beautiful, strong, tuneful voice and he got his chops singing day in and out on the live stage. Also he was a sweet person. Just saying.

This is so educational. I feel much more aware of auto tune and can now hear it in recorded and live performances. It is dreadful and I wish singers would stop using this technology. The voice is not perfect and forcing it to perfection is unnatural and ruins it for me. Thank you FIL for highlighting this!!!

Love this channel!

Buble doesn’t need auto tune. Singers who have damned near perfect pitch anyway using auto tune as an effect is odd to me. No matter how much everyone is doing it.

When it comes to music, you're a dedicated teacher of natural! 👍

If you’re singing opera, or soul styled pop, or certain hard rock styles or… anything else that takes a technical voice, or you’re in a singing competition, then you want people to hear how good you actually are, and not think you’re cheating. So don’t use this effect. If you’re singing punk, folk, or rap adjacent stuff, you’ll want to sound “real” and maybe lo-fi but tremendous pitch accuracy might not be as important? Again don’t use this effect. The only time it’s really going to add to things is if you’re just trying to sound robotic, or are correcting one or two “off notes” so you don’t need another take. But even then, if someone notices it will make them doubt you’re a good singer.

Fascinating. Having studied this as part of my BSc. Music Technology this video is very interesting. 99% of his audience none wouldn't have noticed only us !

My god you created a new form of entertainment here. I really enjoy these videos.

Thats why legends like elvis Presley are legends. His vocal range and power was intense and real.

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever use autotune live!

The irony of this incident is that Michael Buble actually doesn't need Autotune.

Another great video!! One year later, I finally found it!! Thanks for bringing attention to the issue, I think autotune is a cancer on the soul of music. Now that it's here, it won't be going away (unfortunately), but props on you for calling it out. And yes, why use it on a naturally talented individual anyway, it just diminishes them. You probably won't see this, but keep it up, Fil!!!

Glad you are exposing this! I've been singing 60 years and I think that that experience helps, not hurts , even if I can't hit the same high notes every time. Some how the experienced singer sounds more passionate and authentic. What scares me is that auto tune will probably improve to the point where first day singers will sound great! Yikes! Both musicians and listeners need to say no to auto tune like they say no to drugs in sports.

Interesting that you did this video as I remember Bublé doing a live performance here in the UK and I thought it sounded absolutely dreadful and exactly for the reason you stated. Ie not so much correcting the pitch but how much his voice sounded synthesised. He might as well have been singing through a vocoder.

You know that by law, manufactures are required to label the ingredients in food. What if we had a requirement that record labels have to provide information regarding "processing" that is used on recordings? "This recording was produced using artificial vocal enhancement programs such as auto-tune and/or pitch correction and may not be representative of the performer's actual voice." I think that would at least stop the industry from doing this to the classics.

I was going to say, and I'm glad Fil acknowledged, some artists use autotune artistically. I still prefer the natural voice and it sounds so much better than the mechanical autotune and you may as well lip sync.

Just found on KZfaq a 1965 live version of Sinatra singing 'I've Got the World on a String'. Fantastic live version. Frank at his best. He had no autotune....didn't exist. Why do they need it now?

I recently heard a DJ refer to Buble as a modern Sinatra, well now, if he uses auto tune, that distinction is no longer applicable. Sad.

Awesome video as always!!!!

I'm still learning to hear the autotune, I just don't have the ear you do, but I can hear it easily on the less talented vocalists. I love the channel and your ongoing exposé and shaming of the artists and especially the engineers. Keep up the fight.

Strange, when I saw Michael Live, at the end of his concert after the lights came on he stepped away from the mic and belted out a song a-cappella to the whole arena. It was amazing!!

Autotuning an entire song or performance is cheating in my opinion. If you can't sing in tune, then either do more practice, or don't sing! It's like singers who were miming while they danced. If you can't sing and dance, then don't dance while you sing! Why they want to autotune great singers is beyond me! And to finish. Can I just say how much I enjoy your videos, Fil. Your explanations are always clear and easy to understand. Thanks for all your efforts.🙂

Since day one, I was asking myself why this Buble guy has a singing career. Not surprised at all about this revelation.

These examples are great lessons for the audio engineers mixing FOH or broadcast! A. Always play with the adjustment settings before the show. B. Have a kill switch on an easy-to-reach soft key. C. Consider not using pitch correction; the artist may not need it!

Seriously I can't believe this is free. 🙏 so Grateful. Your analysis, education, clips. Love your passion ❤ Bang. Dead on the line. Love your appreciation of natural voices and the Understanding. So many thanks 😊 Deputy Dog 🐕 ❤

I have had the same attitude for decades. Any sort of vocal enhancements should be stated anytime they happen. To do otherwise is fraudulent. What I would like to see more of is having live performers, especially singers, maybe take a day between performances to rest their voice.

I love this video, as a singer I really didn’t know that Autotune could be used live, but it made me think a lot, Michael is a great singer, what’s the point of him using that tool? but anyway, my point is that in the search for reaching “perfection” you loose the most perfect thing which is emotion. Voice is a magical instrument and the emotions sometimes goes and touch people through those little imperfections because they will create a sound, that might be flat, because you are singing something with a flat emotion, sad or whatever. So I really do believe that even not the best singers sound nicer, more interesting and real, without autotune, because the most beautiful thing in voice is in the emotions and emotions don’t create a perfect machine sounds, that perfect sound kills the magic of singing voice.

I saw an interview somewhere where Michael said the only reason he uses autotune is because modern (younger) listeners are keyed into that particular sound, and considering he's singing old crooner songs that would otherwise be "dated" by younger audience, he impliments autotune "just a little" in order to appeal to the younger crowd who are used to hearing that voice quality from autotune in pop music.