Sep 18, 2009
How to sound like T-Pain – autotune is easy, but WHY ?
This post will NOT tell you how to sound like T-Pain. Sorry, but it’s too easy – all you need to do is buy a copy of the iPhone App that the man himself is plugging to death in the video above.
This post is to say – why the hell would you want to sound like T-Pain in the first place, anyway ?
OK, silly question – he’s a rich, famous, successful and talented musician. But there seems to be an obsession with emulating his highly processed vocal sound – WHY?
Guys, it’s just overcooked auto-tune. Just like Cher (“Believe“) used originally, and Madonna (“Nobody’s Perfect“), and – well, almost everybody else, for a while. Then the idea got stale, happily – and now T-Pain has re-invented it and is selling it to the masses.
But it’s horrible.
Whiny, grating, metallic, artificial, annoying, annoying, annoying… and let’s not even get onto the industry-wide more-subtle-but-just-as-horrible over-use of autotune in general.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind a bit of excessive autotune now and again, as an effect, like the examples above. But on a whole album ? It’s just plain wrong.
The thing that baffles me most though is the desire to emulate it – people seem to genuinely think that using this effect will make their records better – even after high-profile artists like Jay-Z have made the point so well:
What makes T-Pain’s music successful isn’t the autotune.
It’s the hooks. It’s the beats. It’s the humour, the lyrics, the slick production – all that traditional, old-school stuff that has always been at the roots of great music.
The autotune is a nice gimmick which has helped give T-Pain a unique, instantly recognisable sound – well, except for Kanye’s, of course – but without all those other traditional elements of a great production, he’d be nowhere.
Now, here is a truly great use of autotune.
And just for the record, the iPhone app is tongue-in-cheek, I get it. But my question is genuine – why do people like singers who sound like robots ?
T-Pain, Cher, ELO and yes, Styx – why ?!?
(Actually, that’s not really a fair question – the vocoder is one of the most delicious production effects known to man, after all)
Finally, if you really DO want to sound like T-Pain, and have got this far – here’s my favourite YouTube instruction video so far, using only the mighty GarageBand – beware though: this clip contains language from the outset.
Why do you think people love singers who sound like robots ?
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“Why do you want singers to sound like robots?”
Why do you want a keyboard to sound like a synesizer, and not a real piano?
Different possibilities, musical styles, etc. I happen to think it’s great; just another instrument!
Think of the impossible harmonies you can make with this. Brian Wilson could have used auto-tune to write his music
To be honest, I didn’t like him at all until he did “I’m on a Boat” and posted the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=234v_apCQO4
At least he’s willing to joke about himself (I guess he couldn’t fight a plugin)
@Ian I hadn’t seen that video, good stuff. Although – it’s not a vocoder that he uses…! But you’re right, he obviously has a sense of humour about it.
@Phil I don’t have anything against autotune per se, especially when used as an effect. But for me it gets tedious when it’s used as much and as heavily as on the T-Pain album.
PS. What’s an impossible harmony ? Brian Wilson could sing anything he liked, without autotune