Top 10 Artists Who Heavily Use Auto Tune #8: Bon Iver. #7: Travis Scott. Dubbed the king of Auto-Tune, R&B singer and rapper T-Pain inspired many pop artists to meddle with vocal synthesizers. How can I lose my voice by tomorrow? Talk, talk, talk. From slight pitch correction to some cool robotic sounds, pitch correction software can be extremely useful. T-Pain made this effect very popular, but it’s also been used by a lot of other artists such as Daft Punk, the Black Eyed Peas, and more. Auto-Tune can be used to achieve a lot of different effects and The 8 Best Free Auto-Tune VST/AU Plugins of 2020! Which Rappers use autotune? I know T-Pain, Kanye, and i think Eminem used it on the song beautiful.(not sure on that one.). Top 10 Artists Who Heavily Use Auto Tune #8: Bon Iver. #7: Travis Scott. Dubbed the king of Auto-Tune, R&B singer and rapper T-Pain inspired many pop artists to meddle with vocal synthesizers. How can I lose my voice by tomorrow? Talk, talk, talk.
There’s no sound more prominent in rap right now than that of Auto-Tune. Since the mid 2000s, seasoned OGs like T-Pain and Lil Wayne have finessed the vocal effect into a hit-making cheat code. Based on their pioneering techniques with Auto-Tune in hip-hop, fans increasingly grew to adore the then-foreign sound, and rappers have equally made the element a requirement in their music these days rather than leaving it as something experimental. Just look back at the sound of hip-hop over the last 15 years. The takeover is real.
Mo City-bred titan Travis Scott has built an entire aesthetic that is successfully formulated with Auto-Tune, allowing his melodies to pierce the ear far more than someone’s natural voice. His engineer Ca$hpassion helped bring that signature audio to life and still does alongside the Jackboys collective. Similarly, Young Thug’s high-pitched approach is refined by using the tool. As is Roddy Ricch’s voice. His hit record “The Box” is famous for the distorted “eh er” at the top of the record.
Aside from the obvious, more artists use Auto-Tune than you might expect in other creative ways, proving its growing impact. Take for example, the fallen Brooklyn star Pop Smoke. Jess Jackson, engineer and producer on Pop’s sophomore mixtape, Meet The Woo 2, and debut album Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, kept the rapper's gritty lead vocals intact and instead, opted to place Auto-Tune on the ad-libs to give his music a “2020 sound” that people flock to.
The same strategy was set in place for engineer and producer Evan Laray. For songs like 'Wap,' he's paired Cardi B’s vocals with Auto-Tune as the supporting cast rather than the main as he would with artists like Future and A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.
What’s transparent is that things have certainly come a long way from the chart-topping days of T-Wayne’s “Can’t Believe It.” Things may be similar to the untrained ear, but the technology and strategy used to perfect Auto-Tune have both had more evolutions than the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Onhel, Lil Wayne’s Grammy Award-nominated engineer, notes this and like the rest of the engineers here, has used his elongated experience to gather some knowledge for aspiring rappers and engineers on how to create something legendary and rise to the top of the game.
So with the wise words from four engineering experts, here’s the best advice you should follow when it comes to Auto-Tune.
See Four Studio Engineers' Advice on How to Use Auto-Tune
To some music creators and fans, Auto-Tune is destroying American popular music. To others, it’s just a studio tool that makes people sound better. What is Auto-Tune? How do you use Auto-Tune properly? There are two sides to the argument. Which side are you on? But first, lets look at what Auto-Tune is and how it is used.
What is Auto-Tune?
Before we weigh in on other side, let’s be specific about what Auto-Tune is. As you probably already know, Auto-Tune is an app that corrects pitch. Engineers use it subtly during live shows to keep the vocals clear and in key. And it’s used as an obvious effect, creating a kind of computerized vocal sound. A famous example of the latter is actually the song that brought Auto-Tune to a massive audience — Cher’s 1998 monster hit Believe.
(Don’t confuse Auto-Tune with the vocoder, another effect that creates robotic-sounding vocals—compare Cher’s track with another late 90s hit, Daft Punk’s Around the World.)
Since the 90s there has been an incredibly long list of artists who use Auto-Tune. In hip-hop, you can hear it on songs by Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and Drake. T-Pain used Auto-Tune so much that Jay-Z criticized him in his song D.O.A. — or “Death of Auto-Tune.”
Art rockers Radiohead used it on their seminal 2001 album Amnesiac. It’s all over the albums of pop singers like Britney Spears and Keisha. Crooner Michael Bublé criticized it, but then in the same interview admitted that he uses “as a means to get onto Top 40 radio.”
How to Use Auto-Tune
Auto-Tune uses a set reference point, a scale or note, and everything outside of this reference will be digitally corrected with autotune.
The most common and reasonable time to use Auto-Tune is when a vocalist delivers an emotional performance but has a few problems with pitch. The overall track is great and there is no need to re-record the song, but there are a few pitch problems that autotune can correct. You would be surprised but Auto-Tune happens on a large number of songs. Instead of a vocalist having to sing take after take ruining their voice, minor pitch problems can be corrected. This is similar to how audio software works when an instrument is played. If the instrument misses one or two notes, there is no need to re-record the whole track. Long gone are the days of re-recording tracks in full until they are meticulously perfect, playing late into the night and then into the next day.
So is it a good thing or a badthing?
On the “con” side, Auto-Tune has taken pop music away from the beauty of the human voice. T-Pain’s signature sound gets annoying pretty quickly. And one critic said that when Black Eyed Peas use it, which is a lot, it sounds like “music robots make when they’re trying to sell products to other robots.” Also, it was the imperfections that made a song, some favoring live performances because of the inconsistency in the vocals. Historically, it was an art to sing every note on tune and those out of tune actually made it unique.
But is it so terrible when it isn’tnoticeable? After all, engineers have been using technology to improve vocaltracks for about as long as there have been vocal tracks.
Is Auto-Tune “Cheating” for Artists?
People may be right when they thinkof it as a kind of cheating. Then again, it was an open secret in the industrythat 80s recording artists like Madonna and Paula Abdul needed help — a lot ofhelp — with their vocals. Auto-Tune is just the latest kind of fakery.
Auto-Tune is everywhere for threereasons: it makes singers sound better, some people like that robotic sound,and it helps make hits. And since the music business is a business, that thirdreason is probably the biggest.
There is a lot to be said for theunadorned human voice. But we have to admit that anytime we amplify or recordmusic, we’re always trying to make it sound better — with the best equipmentand yes, the best effects.
So Auto-Tune is really like anyanother effect. There is nothing wrong with using it judiciously. In fact, itcan save a lot of time and money in the studio. Rely on it too much, and yourisk sounding kind of ridiculous.
Autotune Rappers Use
Either way, Auto-Tune is here tostay. That is, until the next big game-changing piece of technology comesalong.
Final Thoughts
How Many Rappers Use Autotune
Is Auto-Tune a useful tool? Is it an effect? It can be all of these things. Auto-Tune can correct the pitch of a singer’s voice or it can make the singer sound like a robot. It is to be used by the audio engineer, and it is up to the listener whether they accept the use of Auto-Tune as a parlor trick or amazing effect. Auto-Tune has become mainstream, and maybe in the future, artists and audio engineers will advertise that it was not used. Dr Seuss told a story about the Sneetches and how when one Sneetch got a star on their belly, they were unique. Then every Sneetch followed suit and got a star on their belly. The reverse happened and those not adding a star to their belly became the unique ones. The same can be said about Auto-Tune.
Rappers That Use Autotune
Want to Learn More?
Did learning about what is Auto-Tune and how to use it interest you? The audio production and engineering program at the Institute of Production and Recording is an occupational degree program designed to train producer engineers who are entrepreneurs, musically and technically creative, and proficient in modern recording technology and technique. Throughout the program, students are involved in hands-on exercises and real-world studio projects that enable them to apply their knowledge and refine their skills.
Contact us today to learn more about the audio production and engineering program and starting a rewarding career in the music industry.