Pitch correction aka Auto-Tune

Introduction
While I'm on the topic of VST's, I thought I'd touch on automated pitch correction. The most popular plug-in is Auto-Tune by Antares. There's an interesting story behind it as it was originally developed for science and research, and not music. It was to be used as a seismic data interpretation workstation algorithm while the developer was working for Exxon. You can read more about that here if you are interested.

Why Use It?
Today, there are a couple of programs out there that can turn the worst of singers into something tolerable. As I ventured into the VST world, I started looking for a free program that could do this for two primary reasons:
1. It is a lot easier to slap that effect on than to try to go through and correct one or two words in a track.
2. You can get some really fun sounding effects for the voice

Freebies
In the free world, the pickings seem to be pretty slim. I found two free plug-ins, I have links below to download both of them.

• GSnap
• VisualVox

I have played around with both of them, and have found serious limitations. It could just be me, so feel free to comment if you have had better luck with these.

GSnap
I have been able to use this to get a fun processed sound on my voice. It definitely does not correct pitch though. I tested on a track where I went flat once and sharp once. It made no corrections. I will upload a song in which I use this plug-in as a vocal effect once the song is finished.

VisualVox
This seems like it might be a pretty good program if one can get it to work. It will not do more than 1:54 of a track and then it just cuts off. That obviously is a serious limitation. It is also more complicated than one might think. You can manually edit notes, but there's no reference points, so you have no idea where in the song you are. All you see is a graph with a bunch of lines. I also have had no luck with selecting a key for the song (for example, C Minor), and then telling it to do its magic automatically. And yes, I did read the manual for both of these.

Should It Be Used?
This is a hotly debated question that I won't get into too deeply. There are a lot of artists on both sides of the debate. I personally believe it becomes wrong when it is used as a crutch. If you don't have talent, then you shouldn't be in the music business. However, when you're recording in a professional music studio and you're paying hundreds of dollars an hour, it may be to your advantage to have the producer use pitch correction on a word or two throughout a song.

One thing I do know is that we will continue to see this used more and more. The music business is after all, a business.

Funny Auto-Tune Parody
If you're in for a laugh, check out this video below. It is a link to a parody regarding the much talked about software.
Auto-Tune Parody