Whether you are aware of it or not, we've all heard the use of Auto-Tune. Many commercially released songs are tweaked using this technology to "improve" the vocal performance.

A commonly referenced use of the tool is Cher's "Believe" track from over a decade ago. The un-natural sounding, almost robotic tone from the vocal undeniably made the track. It was an entirely new sound for commercial charts and made the ears prick up due to how unusual a sound it was.

Now, Auto-Tune is everywhere. The use of the tool as an effect has cascaded through the years from Cher, through to many "R&B" artists of today such as Usher, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Smartphone owners can even download the I Am T-Pain app to get "that sound".

Locally I was at first surprised to hear Guy Sebastian using Auto-Tune for its effect on his recent release "Who's That Girl". I respect Guy as a very talented vocalist and songwriter - why would he need to correct his voice? His use of pitch-shifting is testament to the fact that it is now used to capture the modern R&B style in an otherwise already-quality recording.

However the effect is no longer creating a unique sound, but a generic sound to modern pop music. The ability to correct pitch to sit perfectly in tune has created a monotony to modern music. A single episode of Glee is proof enough of that (or if you need further reading material, Google the phrase "Glee autotune").

The issue seems to draw into question the reliance of this vocal correction tool to produce a good performance outcome, rather than recording the right performance (or performer) to start with. It's no longer being used to add a once-fresh flourish to a song - rather, many songs simply could not be made listenable without it.

But on the flip-side, I believe there is a value to Auto-Tune. It's hard to sum up my feelings on the matter any better than Recording Engineer Eric Valentine, discussing techniques he used in the recording of legendary guitarist Slash's solo album "Slash" (Audio Technology Magazine, Issue 76, August 2010, p40):

"I actually get more honest performances from singers when I capture them in a computer. I can edit their performance, for instance tune a really cool performance, where the emotion is exactly what we want but it's a tiny bit out of tune in some places. I'll only nudge things a bit to make sure it's not distracting, meanwhile definitely making sure everything keeps sounding like real human beings singing... It just allows me us to use really great, unreproducible but slightly flawed performances".

This I believe is the key. Use Auto-Tune sparingly - and only to a level so that any minor flaws in an otherwise powerful performance are removed so as not to be distracting in a recording. Use of Auto-Tune in LIVE performance though? Hell no!

After all, it's the human-ness of a performance we all want to see in the live environment, right? Some duff notes and on-stage personality are part of the reason we go to live shows. To err is human and to share that experience can provide a level of connection and intimacy between the performer and audience that can't be obtained with intent.

To err is human. To rely on a corrective tool for your success is unforgivable.

Recently I had the radio on in the car - a relatively rare occurrence given my documented feelings on how monotonous today's fast food music is - and it occurred to me... there seems to be a real lack of back-announcing these days i.e. announcing what song was just played and who the artist was.

Perhaps this is because many radio stations now have their recently-played tracks listed online. This could be a great service, but not at the expense of letting the listener know what they just heard.

Maybe the "average listener" doesn't care - but I doubt this.

More and more I find frustration in the baby steps taken in the evolution of commercial radio playlists. On the occasion that I hear something of interest - a particularly innovative earworm / hook, production technique, or just a rare gem of a song - I would like to know what it was.

In addition to online playlists there are also an emerging number of means for the listener to take action themselves to identify a song and artist. For example, Shazam was one of the first of several mobile phone apps which enable the listener to input a snippet of the song they are listening to, allowing a service to reference the audio and identify the title and artist of the song. Again, great technology, but there is still a lack of immediacy of having the answer provided without needing to grab your phone, launch an app, wait for a response, trust it's correct...

It could be my lack of emotional attachment to the current charting songs, but I remember a time when you knew what song was number one and which artist performed it.

Now I find the songs are more familiar than I want them to be, though I have no idea what they are called or who's responsible.

After a long period of recovery on the morning of January 1st 2011, I blearily thought about the playlist of songs I’d heard from the stereo the previous night. Sitting around with a mate of many years we – among many beers – tag teamed driving the next selection for the evening’s music. In doing so it became very clear how eclectic not only my, but our (human), tastes in music are. With no need to impress each other or maintain a level of “public acceptability” to the selected songs, the things that were coming out of the stereo the other night were great. It was New Years Eve for crying out loud, so there was no need to do anything other than enjoy the evening.

I can very happily recall little of the night as well as the music! In no particular order we heard such classics as:
Estranged (Guns ‘n’ Roses),
The Flame (Cheap Trick),
Unskinny Bop (Poison),
I Was Only 19 (Redgum),
Drive Thru (Tenacious D),
Open Arms (Journey),
Dear God (XTC),
Digging The Grave (Faith No More),
Out Of The Ashes (Symphony X),
Hard Lovin’ Woman (Deep Purple),
The Hardest Part Is The Night (Bon Jovi),
Paranoid (Black Sabbath),
Time Stand Still (Rush),
One Summer (Darryl Braithwaite),
Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta (Geto Boys),
Cold Gin (KISS),
Echo (Joe Satriani),
Lie In Our Graves (Dave Matthews Band),
Asian Hooker (Steel Panther),
Easter (Marillion),
Gone For Good (Morphine),
Sweetness Follows (REM),
A Midlife’s Tale (My Friend The Chocolate Cake),
Rocket Man (Elton John),
Release Me (Oh Laura),
Hangar 18 (Megadeth),
Soldier Of Fortune (Whitesnake),
Make Me Lose Control (Eric Carmen),
and many many more…

There was even a recorded phone call in there which I put to music several years ago.

If you happened to use iTunes to listen to music on New Year’s Eve, you may find it entertaining to revisit what you listened to and consider how broad your tastes are. You could do this by clicking on your music library in iTunes and then sorting the list by the “Last Played” column. There’s probably a lot of variety in there! Unless you were keeping your interests locked away from guests at the party you were enjoying. But if so, why? Everyone’s tastes in music are different, one person’s Metallica is another person’s Eric Carmen.

I’ve actually jumped into iTunes in the cold light of day to see that between the hours of 5:52pm on 31/12/2010 and 1:29am on 01/01/2011 we listened to 75 songs. Vastly different to each other. Sure, there’s an overall rock flavour, but there’s a lot more to it that completes the picture.

If you’re a musician, have a think about this too. It’s likely that the typical listener you’ve pictured listening to your music has a much broader range on their mp3 player than you may have given them credit for. Genre classification for music enthusiasts is near impossible. Sure, you may not see people walking down the street with their Robert Palmer tour T-shirts proudly displayed in 2011, but in the comfort and security of their headphones or home stereo there is likely to be more than what you see in public. And it’s in that comfort and security that people are most connected with your music.

Happy New Year!