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I've been playing with Antares' EVO Auto-Tune plug-in (most famous for providing us with the 'T-Pain' effect) lately. I admit that it is a lot of fun to use and opens up a lot of different directions for my music to take. But it also raises a lot of ethical questions for me. Is the use of an Auto-Tuner on a poor vocal performance a bad thing, especially since it is frequently used in the live theatre environment? Or is it more important to ensure the audience who paid a significant ticket price with the best possible performance that modern technology can provide?
Quite a few bands have begun boycotting the use of auto-tuners (most notably Death Cab For Cutie). They are fed up with the rampant use of the technology in modern music. But is the Auto-Tuner really that bad? Isn't it just another musical effect, no different than the use of reverb to open and add room to a performance, or chorus to add depth? Or is it a crutch used to allow poor singers with the ability to pass on sub-par performances?
I'm kind of on the fence on this one.