What you think of as Autotune from your examples was popularized by Cher (turning it up all the way to produce that effect).

Used sparingly it can turn people with terrible pitch into reasonably good singers. Turned up a bit more gets you a pristine sound, which sometimes pops pleasantly but often enough ends up bland and less memorable. You may have to have an ear for music a bit to notice it.

Once you notice it, it is everywhere.

Fair point, but it still depends. Even inhumanly perfect sterile vocals can be offset by interesting instrumentals and innovative production. Really depends on what genre, or even what specific song, we're talking about. There is a lot of overproduced vapid pop (to pick a genre that might use this to a higher extent), but there is also a lot of interesting pop.

I can't disagree here about some really good music using Autotune. Even if it is not your cup of tea, Cher's "Believe" is undeniably iconic.

I am not a record producer, but I feel like Autotune is a big part of the reason that we don't have many modern classics. I would love some producers' hot takes on this article.

> Is autotune ubiquitous?

Yes. What you're thinking of is "autotune" as in totally overdone, which is the signature sound people know. What the parent is referring to is autotune as in tone correction (which is, funnily enough, what the autotune software did, unless you turned it to 11). And that's everywhere; it's basically a standard part of a post-production pipeline right now. The thing is that you really can't notice it; it's just that singers hit the tone just a bit better.

And even live concerts are not safe, you can easily (and cheaply!) do that in real-time by now.

Autotune the special effect a la T-Pain is not ubiquitous, but Autotune, the process, definitely is. The software itself (or its cousin, Melodyne), or the rack unit are still used in most pop music. Even bedroom studios will have it. Not using it today is pretty much a stylistic statement.

It can be set to be very subtle to the point of imperceptible, keeping the vibrato and the portamento, to the point it is impossible to pinpoint its usage. But it kinda has a sound: vocals that go trough it sound absolutely flawless.

Whether regular people can perceive it, I have no idea.

> Whether regular people can perceive it, I have no idea.

If the singer is somewhat good (so that the correction is small) and it's applied well, you have no chance. Even musicians will have a hard time.

But you can definitely notice it in sum - everything sounds pitch-perfect and all the little misses, which might be stylistic in and by itself [0], just go missing.

[0] A good sound engineer will of course know when not to use it, but the unintentional characteristics go missing.

Yeah, you’re right. it’s when you put all the things together that it makes a lot of difference.

It’s not just autotune, but also the fact people today can make almost infinite punch-ins, a lot of music is time adjusted, samplers and modern synthesizers are in perfect tuning (compared to orchestra/guitar/synths of the past).

IMO “perfect music” has its own sound, which is a good sound, but there isn’t much to go after it. Maybe the next wave will be a little looser when it comes to this.

Yes, it's nearly ubiquitous. It usually isn't used in an OBVIOIOUS way, just to make up for less than perfect takes.

The go to software is Meloldyne. It's...crazy capable. It can even return single notes in polyphonic music.

Watch this from about the 3:00 mark on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smOmTZWddrE&t=185s

(Note this video is very extreme editing, it absolutely possible (in fact easier) to use Melodyne in a way that sounds utterly natural)

Some degree of vocal tuning is probably ubiquitous, but the extreme T-Pain/Cher effect is definitely not ubiquitous or even that common anymore.

Who are the biggest artists today? Off the top of my head: Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Adele, Billie Eilish, all of them use pretty much natural-sounding vocals.

And the big artists that use Autotune and vocal effects like The Weeknd, Kid Laroi, and Post Malone don't do it to the same degree. Their voices certainly retain some unique character

And to add to your last point, I’d say those three vocalists you mention are using those effects for stylistic purposes and not (just) to cover up human-sounding flaws for the sake of overproduction.

You should walk the music documentary This is Pop [0] on Netflix. It goes into a lot more details about the inventor and the history of Autotune.

In summary, it was used a lot longer (like old Mac 68k days) by a lot more artists than you realize. T-Pain turned an aid for lackluster artists into a form of art all its own. And the industry was pissed.

[0] https://www.netflix.com/title/81050786