The Blue Wires

Please don’t judge me. I know not what I do. I’ve just finished watching the season finale of the Celebrity Apprentice. I know, I’m a horrible person because of it. But that’s not the point. Near the end of the show they had Trace Adkins perform his latest single. Trace is a country singer, who granted, I’ve never heard of before, but who is apparently a HUGE celebrity in those circles. Over the course of the season, yes I watched the whole season, I’ve really come to like Trace. I liked him right up till the end of his performance on the show tonight.

At the very end of his song, Trace went to hit a few big powerful notes, unfortunately what happened was the auto-tune they had on his voice went a bit hay wire trying to find the right note. Now, those of you who don’t know, auto-tune is a program that helps ‘fix’ notes when someone is singing. This isn’t the same as lip syncing. Trace is NOT Ashlee Simpson!

I just think that it’s wrong that a guy with such a great voice, feels as though he has to resort to having a computer enhance his performance. I, personally, would have much rather have heard a bum, yet soulful, note then the horrible sound of auto-tune gone awry.

I’m not going to say that I don’t use auto-tune on my vocals. I do. I use it when I record vocals. I do it because, well, I’m not an amazing singer. I’m nowhere as close to as good a singer as Trace is. What I don’t do, is it live. When you hear me live, good or bad, you get me. The real me. That’s the point of ‘live’. In the studio, it’s no different then any other effect that gets used in the studio. People edit drums to be in time. They cut guitar parts together to get ‘the perfect take’. Keyboard parts are quantized to be precise. And of course, vocals are tuned.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to pick on Trace, I’m just annoyed with musicians these days, who can’t just perform ‘live’. Try it. It’s fun. Play your ass off! Enjoy it. You’re not going to be perfect. You’re not going to hit every note. Who cares!?! That’s music. That’s life. That’s entertainment.