Is the perfect pitch a myth?

It’s an open secret that a majority of artistes use autotune software to perfect their pitch. Is it a boon or a bane? We get musicians to share their views:Sometime around the 1990s, technology magically started changing the course of global music. The first of such inventions was Sound Tools, a completely digital recording and editing system for Apple Macintosh in 1991. But in 1997, one of the most common yet controversial additions to the list appeared: the Auto-Tune.
The name Auto-Tune itself was given to an audio processing software released by American company Antares Audio Technologies to measure and alter pitch in vocal and instrumental music. Now, autotune is used as a blanket term to address the many software that perform this function.
It is common knowledge that a large number of artistes across the world, from Rihanna to BTS, use autotune to fix their pitch and make their vocals flawless. However, the verdict is still out on whether or not it is a good thing.
In 2010, the autotune was listed it as one of the 50 Worst Inventions, accusing it of making bad singers sound good and really bad singers sound like robots. Here’s what musicians say about this bitter-sweet relationship. Here’s what they said they have with autotune:

Weighing the positives
The one song that really brought autotune to the limelight was Believe by legendary artiste Cher. For her 1998 comeback track, she turned up the pitch correction so high that it created the ‘robotic voice’ that is now part of so many popular songs. The ‘Cher effect’ was one of the biggest hits of the decade.
“I use that in songs, as an effect. Allowing technology itself to be used as a form of expression is an interesting use that autotune software has in music,” says Ricky Kej.
Another application would be to correct the pitch of vocal samples, says Ricky. “If a musician tells you he doesn’t have pitch-correction software in his studio, that is a lie,” he says. But it has also become necessary now because listeners are accustomed to perfect pitch when a singer sings. “Even if a listener himself is not a musician, when he listens to a song and the pitch is off, he will know something is wrong. Singers, composers, and producers use software to achieve this without having to do many repeats,” he says.
Ajaneesh Loknath, the composer famous for movies like Kantara, also believes autotune can come in handy when working with new talents. “It’s a matter of convenience and an individual choice,” he adds. Ricky agrees. “A computer can fix the pitch, but not the emotion of a song. So using an autotune software to correct pitch is a small fix when the singing has the right emotions,” he says.

Criticisms against autotune
On a recent Netflix series, rapper T-Pain, who was quite well known for using autotune, talked about dealing with all the hate he received because of it.. That was the beginning of a four-year-long depression. Britney Spears also faced a lot of hate when the original recording of her autotuned tracks was leaked.
Many artistes have spoken out against the use of pitch-correcting software. Legendary singer Kavita Krishnamurti, for example, doesn’t like having her songs tuned.
“I have said, ‘Mere gaane mein software mat use karna. If there is anything wrong with my singing or recording, then I will redo it. If the tune or pitch is not right, I will sing five more times,” she says, adding, “You should strengthen your skills as a singer first and only then use
technology.”


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