here're my centavos, digest or expel as needed.
it strikes me that the notion of 'cheating' with regards to musical recording, as opposed to cooking food or driving a car, is rooted in the idea that a recording is a showcase for the actual abilities of the artist, a reproduction of reality, and so any enhancements of that picture are a misrepresentation. essentially, it is as if an artist is making claims that they can't back up.
this is not an idea i personally subscribe to, but others do and that's their prerogative.
for me, a recording is a piece of art completely unto itself, and it is not beholden to any ego based concerns of authenticity, merit, ability, or skill. on some level it clearly does reflect the personality and abilities of the artist, but imo that's a very limited frame thru which to view it.
the bottom line is that i love music that moves me, and whatever was involved to create that landscape is fine by me. once you go beyond a singer and a guitar and drums in a room, all bets are off, everything is fabricated. the flavors of mics and tape and preamps, then compressors and eqs and faders and effects... autotune is but another tool to affect the color and texture of the pigments on a canvas that is, top to bottom, an artifice.
some people judge the singer who needs auto tune as a cheater. similarly, some classical guitarists maintain that any appearance of skill using an electric guitar with gain and distortion is inherently fraudulent. many rush fans view frenetic octopus drumming as a minimum entry requirement for "real" musicianship, effectively dismissing 99% of all other players out there as, i reckon, "not real".
how single individuals have come to believe that their preferences merit the labels "truth" or "better" or "authentic", leaving 5,000,000,000 others somehow wrong or inappropriate in the exercise of their tastes and choices, has always been a source of puzzlement for me. even more puzzling is how so many people allow themselves to get emotionally out of whack in the exercise of those judgments; disdain, animosity, and downright anger are not uncommon. what's the payoff?
i got no answers, just observations. i love the diversity, i love the madness and chaos of humanity. i also love coffee, and now i'm gonna make myself a rich, black cup.
because, as well all know, black is the only real way to drink coffee.
be well, ya freaks!
gregoire
del ubik