Hitting The Right Note… With A Little Help

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the good-or-bad dept

For speaking at a recent conference I received, as a “speaker’s gift”, a karaoke microphone that claims it will transform my voice, and make sure I sing on key, every time. I’m not a big karaoke person, so the microphone is stored away somewhere in its box. However, if you can build that technology down to the level of a cheap karaoke microphone, just imagine what you can do on a larger scale. While it’s not quite up to the level of Milli Vanilli fakeness, many musicians are using autotuners during live performances and on albums to make sure they hit the right note every time. Some are upset by this technology and think it’s cheating. They point to plenty of famous musicians who were rarely sang in pitch, but still made wonderful music. On the whole, I’m not a huge fan of debates over these types of technology. If the musician wants to use it, more power to them.