If A GOOD Singer Uses Pitch Correction, Is It A BAD Thing?

I sometimes see comments on my reaction videos (to GOOD SINGERS) where people will criticize the singer by saying “they used pitch correction on their vocal” -  as if a crime has been committed.

Today I want to remove the stigma of using pitch correction.  

For starters, pitch correction, when used tastefully, is simply an enhancement, much like EQ or reverb.  It’s the difference between your bare lips, and putting on some lip gloss.  

Second of all, the use of pitch correction is the industry standard in the world of recorded music today.  You can have outstanding pitch, and your vocal recording will still be run through pitch correction software to make it even cleaner - our ears have come to expect pitch perfection when we listen to music. While you may not agree with this in theory, if you think you will get somewhere when submitting music to publishers, labels, and music supervisors with pitchy recordings - good luck with that.

I have been a professional singer for over twenty years, I have good pitch, and I personally use pitch correction on all my recordings.  A lot of people don't realize that the scale of pitch correction is dramatic - sometimes it's used heavily to obvious effect, and sometimes it is used on a few stray notes, simply as a little final polish.  Some people REALLY need it, and some people really DON’T, but pitch correction has become part of the vocal signal chain, regardless.  In this video, I demonstrate its use as the more subtle final polish, and you can decide just how much it changed my performance.  Chances are, you will hardly notice a difference.  

The point is to show you that pitch correction isn’t necessarily cheating, it isn’t anything to be ashamed of, and using it doesn't make a GOOD singer any LESS good of a singer!  When used on a good singer’s voice, it’s simply a final bit of sheen - it does not magically change terrible tone to good tone, and it does not kill expression and artistry when used in this way.

If you’re a singer with a home studio releasing music, yes, you need pitch correction software to be competitive with your vocal recordings.  I use Celemony’s Melodyne (Assistant), and highly recommend it.  It’s easy to use, allows you to be very precise, and delivers incredibly natural results for singers who generally already have good pitch.  I do not receive any commission for recommending Melodyne, it’s just a program I’m a big fan of.