I know what a vocoder is but, if you use the AutoTune to a certain point it almost sounds like you are using one right? I have no experience in production, but my old guitar teacher went on about this all of the time and he was producing music.

A Vocoder is a specific piece of processing equipment that does a specific thing, which is take an analog vocal signal and split it into bands, modify those bands via filters and allow them to be assigned on a keyboard or MIDI editor.

An abused vocalizer, or abused auto-tune program, is a pitch modifier of a signal pushed to extremes so that the changes don't sound natural.


There's a huge difference, and if you do a side by side comparison, you know the difference.

Think Imogen Heap's "Hide And Seek", which was created with a vocoder, VS all of T-Pain's crap. Notice the difference? (besides the fact that one sounds amazing and the other sounds garbage)

It's two completely different effects, doing two completely different things.
I mean, in theory, one could say "well if both are modifying the pitch on any level, then they're both the same", but that's too general.
It would be like saying, "well... you can breathe oxygen, and you can breathe helium... so they're the same 'cause you can breathe both of them".

...no that's why terrible 80's music was exceptionally shitty(except in a comical way) compared to terrible music of other decades.
Autotune is pretty limited, and it should die.

Oh really? How about those phase vocoders you ignore in your post?

Agreed that Auto-tune should die, even using it in pop or techno songs in small amounts is still really unnecessary. IMO Auto-tune is a really lazy way to make music. There are countless examples on sites like YouTube of the crappiest/singers and musicians making songs using Auto-tune excessively to make it sound like all the ****ty pop on the radio and in dance clubs.

Music should require more work, effort and talent than blanketing your ****ty sounds with Auto-tune in an attempt to make it sound professional.

Using autotune is no different than using a guitar pedal.

No, I think they differ. Auto-tune is a processor most often used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes in tone. It's basically pitch correction. While guitar pedals are also used to process sounds and spit them out in a different format they aren't really used to correct pitch but instead to enhance and manipulate sound in other ways... unless you're referring to a specific effects pedal which concentrates purely on correcting pitch.

There is also a difference between 'Auto-Tune' which is a pitch corrector developed by a specific audio technology company and the term 'autotune' which has been kind-of adopted as an umbrella term to refer to other audio processors developed by other companies.

this one is better

They're both means to enhance your sound.

They do the same thing.

Yes, they are, but in very different ways. I just don't think using Auto-tune is the same as using a guitar pedal according to the reasons why people use Auto-tune (purely for pitch-correction and 'covering up' tonal flaws) verses the reasons why most musicians use guitar pedals (not to correct pitch but to manipulate sound in other ways). Yes, they are both a means to enhance and manipulate sound but they are definitely not the same thing.

A lot of them do the same thing, but I just thought I'd mention it because I've come across a lot of people that call many other vocal processors 'autotune' when they aren't pitch correctors and they don't do the same thing as the original Auto-tune. Not all vocal processors do the same thing.