Does autotune ruin the “special editions”?

A sign of the times, perhaps? With physical media, you always have access to the originals if you don't like 'new' versions, but if streaming services don't give you that choice, you're a little bit stuffed.

This discussion has been had on here several times (not about MBG especially), and personally, unless it's blatantly obvious like on Believe by Cher, I can't hear any of these vocal tweaks people complain about, but that might just be because I'm old and half deaf.

Yes, completely agree that autotune ruins these things.

What infuriates me is when they put it on 'rough' or 'raw takes' (e.g. the early take of Who Needs You on the NOTW box set). Do they really think people who want to pay to listen to rough early demos will be unhappy if Freddie isn't perfectly in pitch? Truly bizarre and unnecessary.

I must have awful ears, because I can’t tell when AutoTune is used (unless it’s painfully obvious). Then again I stream everything on Apple Music, so picking up on those nuances is beyond me already.

I think in this case, it doesn't ruin the "special edition." Their aim was to "take advantage of the time, resources and technology that Freddie may not have originally had available to him in the 1980s," and autotune is one of those technologies so I think it should be expected.

I do agree that they did bad advertising when they say that they used "first generation vocals showing Freddie's incredible vocal range." They are technically right as they didn't say unaltered vocals but it clearly mislead a few.

I didn't really notice any bad autotuning or any at all unless I do an intensive side-by-side comparison, which is still hard to notice the autotuning. If their aim was to be like what Giles Martin did to the Beatles catalogue recently, then it would definitely ruin it. But knowing QPL's track record and their intentions, I think it's justified. It is a good sounding remix tho I still prefer the original IWBTLY mix, I just miss those bad edits.

Most times I've bothered to watch a video of someone on Youtube pointing out the edits/overdubs/autotunes, I'm usually left thinking "That sounds better, I can see why they did that..." Glad I don't have the ears or brain to be able to notice and have it ruin my experience.

the problem with auto-tune is it has been overused to make bad singers sound okay/good - across a whole song.


in the main - for the purposes of "tidying up" a recording i think it's fine - if it's limited to a little tweak here or there.

however, I place one huge caveat on that:
i'm against it for any live LPs/videos from gigs I attended. the blips/mistakes/voice cracks are part of the memory. auto-tune (in these cases) is rewriting my music life for me. and i don't like it

100% vocals are autotuned and a semitone sped up- to the point that

"every hallway is painted white as the light
that will guide you to your hell
making friends with strangers inside my mind
cos they seem to know me well"

has some tech somewhere discovered an "Alex Harvey Autotune" - because it's 98% more Alex Harvey than any incarnation of Ozzy - either 70s, 80s or now.