Is auto-tune killing Uganda’s music talent?
AMERICAN rapper Lil Wayne sounds like someone gurgling on the song Got Money. Lil Kim sounds like she has a bad cough on some of her songs. The world over, small and big singers alike are increasingly sounding robotic,†observes a music enthusiast.
By Mathias Safari
AMERICAN rapper Lil Wayne sounds like someone gurgling on the song Got Money. Lil Kim sounds like she has a bad cough on some of her songs. The world over, small and big singers alike are increasingly sounding robotic,†observes a music enthusiast.
This observation is in apparent reference to Auto-Tune, a proprietary audio processor designed to use a phase vocoder to correct pitch errors in vocal and instrumental performances and recordings.
It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes and has allowed many artistes to produce more precisely tuned recordings.
Rather than be used to subtly change pitch with some settings, a lot of artistes today are using the robotic sounding vocal effect to deliberately distort their voices and create the now popular Auto-Tune Vocal Effect.
According to Wikipedia.com, first used to prominent effect on American singer Cher’s Believe in 1998, the software came to attention in dancehall reggae music from its use on Tanto Metro & Devonte’s song, Give It to Her and Beenie Man & Ms. Thing’s song Dude.
American R&B singer T-Pain has, however, taken the style to the next level in contemporary popular music by making active use of it in his songs.
His style has since been imitated by numerous other R&B, hip-hop (including Kanye West, Ron Browz, Birdman and Lil Wayne, as well as R&B singers Akon and Chris Brown), among others.
Ugandan artistes have also followed suit. The first successful auto tune projects in Uganda were done by local R&B singers Michael Ross and Maurice Kirya, who attained massive success with their songs Senorita, Yono and Beera Naabo, respectively.
Earlier efforts by Steve Jean and the late Kefa Mwesigwa had flopped. The success of Ross and Kirya motivated a few others like Morris Hasa who used Auto-Tune prominently in his song Kaleke Kasome.
Last year, the charts were ruled by ‘engineered’ Auto-Tune hits like Nakudata, Single & Searching (Weasel and Radio), Obawuwo (Jamal), Nkumira Omukwano (Aziz Zion), Babirye (Morris Hasa), Singa (Bobi Wine) and Beera Nange (Toniks).
“The list of Auto-Tune users in Uganda is skyrocketing and it appears unfashionable not to use it,â€says Ken Lubwama, a discographer and drummer.
But with its increased popularity comes increased criticism from observers who believe the style is suffocating genuine artistry. “We seem to be heading for a trend of artificial voices and this is the death of live music,†Lubwama observes.
“Many artistes are becoming poorer singers because they cannot sing live. Auto-Tune is killing our music and wasting their talents,†says Moses Matovu, a legendary vocalist with Afrigo Band.
“Auto-Tune is some lame silly junk. It simply does not pass the ‘artistic sniff test’. It sounds like plastic digital junk,†argues an Internet critic.
“It is not comparable to multi-track recorders which have infinite artistic uses. Auto-Tune destroys the soul of a singing performance. It squeezes the humanity from the music and allows singers who cannot sing in tune to sound like they can.â€
“These musicians sound artless and are a big disgrace to the music industry. They are cheating us,†says another critic.
But the Boston Herald quotes top US artistes as claiming they use Auto-Tune in performance because it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance.
AMERICAN rapper Lil Wayne sounds like someone gurgling on the song Got Money. Lil Kim sounds like she has a bad cough on some of her songs. The world over, small and big singers alike are increasingly sounding robotic,†observes a music enthusiast.
This observation is in apparent reference to Auto-Tune, a proprietary audio processor designed to use a phase vocoder to correct pitch errors in vocal and instrumental performances and recordings.
It is used to disguise inaccuracies and mistakes and has allowed many artistes to produce more precisely tuned recordings.
Rather than be used to subtly change pitch with some settings, a lot of artistes today are using the robotic sounding vocal effect to deliberately distort their voices and create the now popular Auto-Tune Vocal Effect.
According to Wikipedia.com, first used to prominent effect on American singer Cher’s Believe in 1998, the software came to attention in dancehall reggae music from its use on Tanto Metro & Devonte’s song, Give It to Her and Beenie Man & Ms. Thing’s song Dude.
American R&B singer T-Pain has, however, taken the style to the next level in contemporary popular music by making active use of it in his songs.
His style has since been imitated by numerous other R&B, hip-hop (including Kanye West, Ron Browz, Birdman and Lil Wayne, as well as R&B singers Akon and Chris Brown), among others.
Ugandan artistes have also followed suit. The first successful auto tune projects in Uganda were done by local R&B singers Michael Ross and Maurice Kirya, who attained massive success with their songs Senorita, Yono and Beera Naabo, respectively.
Earlier efforts by Steve Jean and the late Kefa Mwesigwa had flopped. The success of Ross and Kirya motivated a few others like Morris Hasa who used Auto-Tune prominently in his song Kaleke Kasome.
Last year, the charts were ruled by ‘engineered’ Auto-Tune hits like Nakudata, Single & Searching (Weasel and Radio), Obawuwo (Jamal), Nkumira Omukwano (Aziz Zion), Babirye (Morris Hasa), Singa (Bobi Wine) and Beera Nange (Toniks).
“The list of Auto-Tune users in Uganda is skyrocketing and it appears unfashionable not to use it,â€says Ken Lubwama, a discographer and drummer.
But with its increased popularity comes increased criticism from observers who believe the style is suffocating genuine artistry. “We seem to be heading for a trend of artificial voices and this is the death of live music,†Lubwama observes.
“Many artistes are becoming poorer singers because they cannot sing live. Auto-Tune is killing our music and wasting their talents,†says Moses Matovu, a legendary vocalist with Afrigo Band.
“Auto-Tune is some lame silly junk. It simply does not pass the ‘artistic sniff test’. It sounds like plastic digital junk,†argues an Internet critic.
“It is not comparable to multi-track recorders which have infinite artistic uses. Auto-Tune destroys the soul of a singing performance. It squeezes the humanity from the music and allows singers who cannot sing in tune to sound like they can.â€
“These musicians sound artless and are a big disgrace to the music industry. They are cheating us,†says another critic.
But the Boston Herald quotes top US artistes as claiming they use Auto-Tune in performance because it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance.