The Problem with Autotune on TikTok

I always remember Gamu’s (X factor contestant) audition and the backlash she had. The show did as well but it really screwed her over in terms of getting a profile in music. IIRC she was rejected at that audition, or was eliminated early anyway. I loved her voice and still listen to her, and I wish whoever edited her voice showed a little more care.

I used to work with most of these tiktokers. We formed a little group called Harmony House on TikTok a couple years back and posted very similar videos. No hate to these people, some of them are still my friends. But I believe transparency is very important and I would like to say that your assumptions are 100% correct lol. We would record our part with headphones on, record a video of ourselves lip syncing, then we would send it to Jonathan (tall brunette guy who sings in his car), and he would do the pitch correcting

Another great video on this topic is the one from Sideways on YT

Thanks for picking on beauty and the beast. Sorry, not trying to hurt anyone, but after waiting three decades that was a gigantic disappointment, and could have been great with some Broadway casting.

These people come up on my FYP so many times and they always made me cringe and I could never figure out why exactly. This makes sooooo much sense

Let’s encourage real talent and real imperfect but good singing 🤍

I LOOKED IT UP IT WAS DARREN CRISS AND SOME GUYS I FUYCKING KNEW IT WAS HIM!!! ANYWAY I WATCHED THE VIDEO ON HIS ACC WITH THOSE GUYS AND THEY AUTOTUNED THEMSELVES BUT NOT HIM LMAO BC DARRENS VOICE IS FANTASTIC ALREADY I WAS REALLY OBVIOUS

Millie Vanilie ruined it for everyone, Cher tried to help

Ok so whatever. These people can actually sing, adding auto-tune doesn't make you be able to sing any less. If you listened to Natalie's (the girl who climbs) music, she hits notes. It may be edited, but that doesn't reduce her vocal ability.

HA! I lost it when you climbed onto your couch in sync with the girl's overacting. As a former classically trained singer, I can't stand when things are overly autotuned/pitch-corrected. But it's been an issue for years and most people still don't hear the difference so there's probably never going to be a trend of not ruining raw music and good quality vocals with editing again

i bet its just interaction bait. people arguing about whether or not its autotune in the comments is good for the algorithmic performance of the video

Seems there are fake nattys in the singing fandom as well

This problem of “faking it” goes far beyond the singing TikTok community. Social media is the literal definition of fake. No imperfections whatsoever. It’s damaging to current generations that haven’t developed a sense of what’s real and what’s not.

i like you

It’s the musical equivalent of “I just drink water and do yoga” when it is really surgery.

So this is why everyone had sounded so good on tiktok.. interesting.

Autotune is a means to make singing talent/skill irrelevant. There was a time before it when you simply couldn't fake it... in music called "classic" now and relegated to commercials and the butt of jokes... but it was genuine talent/skill. So the jokes kinda fall flat... until you autotune them. And then they fall flat prettily. But, hey, there's no standard that can't be lowered. I mean, autotune is cheaper, and now EVERYONE can make a living as a singer! Or singer wannabe.

Even back then you could sorta fake it by just doing it over and over until you got it correct, taking the best take, and w good editing equipment you could "fuse" together the best bits. But you still had to get good bits... and git gud to begin with.

What I most miss (other than genuine talent/skill) are the "passionate imperfections." So much in the pre-autotune era was slightly off but felt intentional to the "storytelling" of the song. It wasn't about just getting a particular note but of carrying the listener on a sonic journey... about being a gigalo. But, say, in Moody Blues "Nights in White Satin" or "Tuesday Afternoon"... Justin Hayward wavers so much in holding the big notes, never really "hitting" the notes or keeping them consistent... and the singing itself resonates so much as a result. You don't hear that EVER these days because everything is "corrected" to "perfection."

did gabi belle go to music school where did you go (i go to music school)

I’ve been told I can sing really well But I never believed anyone because I didn’t sound like the people that making singing videos and now I am finding out why and I still don’t believe I can sing I’m probably just biased to hearing my own voice who knows …idk if I will ever have the confidence to sing in front of people🤷🏻‍♀️ lol

The atrocity that was the live action Beauty and the Beast music should’ve been deemed a crime. YOU CAN HEAR THE VOCALS CLIP IN HER REPRISE! “I want much more than this provincial liiiiIIIiiife!” They “fixed” it on the soundtrack but it’s still there audibly obvious in the freakin movie!

And YES! Thank you! Pitch correction IS STANDARD production tool in the industry now! You don’t have to need autotune for it to be used in your studio album by a professional who is paid hundreds of thousands to tweak your vocals just enough to make ppl think this is just a compilation of your best raw vocals. This is an industry, guys. Yes, Ariana Grande uses autotune. And don’t even get me started on live autotune for the bad singers. 😂

THAAAAAANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS YOU’RE A REAL ONE

Nick Jonas really scared the shit outta me ffs

You mean my contractor lied to me when he said he installed melodyne in my countertops? No wonder I don’t sing with perfect pitch in my kitchen…. I gotta get my money back.

Thank you for this video. I'm a dumb boomer, so I had no idea that these people were making these videos with autotune. It made me feel self-conscious about my pitch and kept me from singing for a while.

As a victim of this specific issue, I always felt really bad my phone audio NEVER sounded as good as theirs when I recorded. So it feels better to know my singing isn't bad, it's just really raw and usually not miked lol (I don't have one that plugs into my phone that isn't earbuds). Really does make me feel better ab my content!

Doesn't help they sound like they're singing into a metal can :D

People who are ok with autotuned videos passing as raw vocals are the same ppl who think it’s ok to stage a charitable moment in public and post it as if it were authentic and unplanned. So we’re just going to think lying to your audience (or to anyone for that matter) about your accomplishments is okay? We’re just okaying liars now? It’s asinine.

This is why I kinda liked how they dealt with the movie Belle. (The anime movie not the beauty and the beast movie)

The main character is singing in really candid and intimate scenes throughout most of the movie. She’s struggling with being able to sing at all because of some traumatic events in her childhood.
Despite this you can hear she has a good voice through the muscle tension and anxiety.
And they didn’t have to autotune the shit out of Kano Nakamura’s (the composer for the film who also leant her voice to the character) voice to preserve the fact that she’s a talented singer.
If she had been auto tuned, or had really perfect singing through recording the same take over 100 times even in candid moments it would have taken you out of the moment.

why does the guy in the car give me Charlie Puth energy ? lol

Wait.. SANTAS NOT REAL??? WHWHAAAAAA

Great job!!!! Had me sold from the 2 min mark. Also a wonderful argument for keeping shit real wherever possible. Also u have a beautiful voice

I just went to the video to see how clear it is they are using auto tune and I gotta say every comment thinks it is real

i think everyone should be aware at 2024 that music is for sounding good, the autotune is a tool for every single singer in the world, the point of that video is just to hear some good covers, like you don't mind about people using Photoshop it's just too common.

I enjoyed the video, thanks for pointing this out because I had no idea! I would have appreciated more side-by-side examples of excellent singers who are NOT auto tuned because i couldn’t hear the difference! I just don’t have the ear training for it, I don’t know. The girl at the end on Britain’s got talent? I thought you were going to use her voice as an example to show that Britain does not autotune their contestants but America does 😂😂 Clearly she was good enough to get the crowd all excited and clapping along, why did she need autotune?? That means people who weren’t there can’t hear how she really sounded…unless she was live autotuned 🤷🏾‍♀️ I’m sorry this is extremely disappointing to me 😂Why aren’t people…good enough? Why do models who are already hot enough to knock people silly need their photos airbrushed? Why do legendary singers need their voices autotuned? (I totally understand live performances with heavy choreography I’m not judging that at all, nor am I judging stylistic usage). I just want to experience what’s real! ❤ I’d prefer listening to a live performance with a few mistakes than listen to a perfect recording. Sorry for the long comment, I guess I’m ranting too 😂 I hope everyone feels the love I feel for them. Everyone tries so hard and works so hard and so much beauty is created and unappreciated. And often authenticity, character, and uniqueness is erased in the name of “perfection.” But you lose the soul of the creation!

NOOOOO i loved Natalie and the other girl it’s sad that they auto tune 😭

Piano Gabi kinda scared the hell out of me when she peeked out back there

Coming from someone who's been in the studio for 20 years since I was 13- yeah these people just want others to think they are "super human." It's a psychological problem ya know? They want people to think they have something incredibly special. It's gross.

Source: I felt this way for 5 minutes when I was 18-20, but it was like 2010. I always use graphic autotune in my records- but never try to do this fake natural stuff

I use Melodyne. Mostly as a clean up tool on the parts I couldn't quite get when writing my melody. Then after I practice it a bit more I redo the vocal without it. Whatever tool is used to enhance vocals is perfectly fine. My dad has been using melodyne to help with his clients for nearly 30 years. But, I completely agree that straight up passing it off like the vocals were perfect is messed up. I personally think if they actually just sang the tracks live it would sound amazing. I'm a big fan of having a performance be more raw because there's more emotion there and it doesn't sound so artificial.

My hearing is horrible and damaged but even I can.tell

Autotune is a meme these days

I think most people use melodyne or a generic/standard pitch correction. Not specifically autotune

Been producing music for upwards of 10 years. Never thought my knowledge of how "cents" works in music would actually help me understand something else lmao

YO Melodyne confused me too much. Props to you for being able to use it. I'll stick to programming my singers with VOCALOID, thanks 😂😏

Never believe anything you see in Tiktok and Instagram. It's all lies to show a perfected ideal of someone's life, body or voice.

Do they claim this is unedited or disagree when people comment that their work is edited & autotuned? Viewer responsibility, awareness, and common sense shouldn't be eliminated. If there are screenshots of these individuals denying it or lying beyond 'looking casual in their kitchen' then I think including them would absolutely strengthen the stance you're taking here. You support and explain very well how the auto-tune is used, what it does, and how to identify it but you say yourself that the auto-tune is not necessarily the issue: "It's a tool." What you fail to hold up as thoroughly is that these people are engaging in active deception. "It's like too much work" and "I wouldn't do this myself" isn't as compelling. Setting up a video in the kitchen and editing it isn't the same as actively lying to viewers or denying that the aforementioned tools are used. Really interesting watch regardless.

"Santa's not real AHHHH" 😂

Don't think it's really the first problem of tik tok but yeah just add it to the pile of garbage.
Also I'm no singer, not even close, but seeing someone hitting high notes perfectly while half crouched, their knees against their chest and whatnot, makes me cringe because NOONE sings like that..
Jesus christ did you ever see Whitney Houston sing with her head down? No she freaking opens up on the contrary..
Doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice its as fake as a barbie doll like everything on til tok tbh..

That being said I'm a videograher, while I usually don't do much on the audio part, I know what a cellphone microphone does 2 meters away in a crappy kitchen.. And that's not it.. Hell they could have used a decent h4n pro zoom and it still wouldn't sound remotely like this..
But hey I dunno why I got this video recommended but you're a fun girl to listen to, kuddos to you miss

Professional audio engineer here. When vocals are tuned we call it pitch correction. Autotune happens to be the name of one the most popular pitch correction software. She is using melodyne to examine the vocals.

Edit: I wrote this before she explained it more than half way through the video. Should have started with the explanation.