Pitch Correction
Even the greatest singers of all time rarely have absolute perfect pitch throughout an entire vocal session. And pitch correction is a way to correct specific notes you sing, bumping them flatter or sharper to be more exact.
And no, you can’t just “fix it in the mix.” If that were the case, anybody could fake being a great singer. This is a manual process, so whoever is doing the engineering and editing could spend hours correcting pitch, depending on how good the singer is and how perfect the signer tried to perform in the studio.
Auto Tune
Auto tune became famous when artists like T-Pain and Daft Punk hit pop culture with their heavily autotuned songs. You’d know the sound when you hear it.
Auto tune is an automated but less precise version of pitch correction. Basically, autotune allows you to choose the key you’re working in so the notes you sing will be automatically adjusted to fit the closest note. That’s why auto tune makes you sound like a robot.
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Should you use Pitch Correction or Auto Tune?
The answer is yes and no. You should use both, or you shouldn’t use either.
First, it depends on what style you’re going for. If you want to sound like T-Pain, then go crazy with the auto tune. If you want listeners to hear your raw natural voice, then maybe don’t use either.
But probably, you’ll want to use just a bit of pitch correction here and there. Not too much that you hide your beautiful voice behind it, but not too little that melodies sound ever so slightly off from their respective harmonies.
Young Thug sure has a strong opinion about auto tune and pitch correction.
“The best way to use the auto-tune is not to!” he said. “And that’s what I do: I do not use auto-tune!
But the only way to really know is to try it out for yourself!