| Listening to "Good Is Good" right now.
My assessment: I'm not hearing much Auto Tune on her lead vocal at all. Some certainly may have been used, but I think they did a good job of making it inconspicuous. To me, it just sounds like a well-executed lead vocal. However the point where the vocals start sounding a bit funny is when the background and harmony vocals come in, or the parts where her voice is double-tracked. Tracking harmony vocals can be tough and time consuming; one weak link can throw the whole thing off. It's often a matter of practicality. Even big name artists and producers don't have the same budgets to make records that they once did. Auto Tune often serves as a time and money saver. Although I agree, some engineers and producers do misuse it.
When I first started hearing it on a lot of records, it used to be a bit distracting. Now I've gotten used to it, to the point where it doesn't bother me too much. Although I do think that such prominent use of it will cause a lot of today's records to sound dated. Kind of like the reverb-y electronic drums and DX7 electric piano did in the '80s. |