So someone got to this site by searching for “does owl city use auto tune.” I would respond by searching for “does brax talk to that plant way too much?” Of course Owl City uses auto-tune, dude (or dudette)! Just because the guy doesn’t sound like T-Pain doesn’t mean he isn’t using it. Most of its worst offenders are actually quite subtle. And now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
So I used to think that Auto-Tune wasn’t that big of a deal, just a silly gimmick artists used to make their vocals pop or to prop them up during live performances since they couldn’t actually sing. Folks have been using it for years. Lately there seems to have been a resurgence thanks to hip hop artists such as T-Pain, Kanye West, and Black Eyed Peas but other folks such as the previously ranted against Owl City make liberal use of it as well. Then I was talking to some dude about Imogen Heap and he said she sucks because she just uses Autotune and I nearly lost my mind.
Imogen uses a vocoder. There is a big difference. While Auto-Tune uses vocoder technology, it does not require the use of a musical instrument to sound good. A vocoder requires a musical accompaniant to sound good and tremendous musical knowledge to sound great. It is a huge part of good electronic music and it is a sad day indeed when the overuse of freaking Auto-Tune has caused it to be dismissed. So please, the next time you tell your engineer to turn on the Auto-Tune, think twice. You’ll thank me later.
