Technology, Ideas: Digital Imperfections

Steve Albini, the engineer who has recorded thousands of albums including ones for Nirvana, PJ Harvey, the Pixies and the Breeders. His studio prowess is legendary among musicians; he's known for arranging mikes in a way that gives drums that elusive, compressed sound and brightens the tone of the guitars. Walk into Electrical Audio, his studio in Chicago, and you'll find a trove of vintage consoles, mikes and tape machines that many bigger studios long ago replaced with newfangled digital gear.

Another of Albini's beefs: auto tuning, or the practice of correcting the pitch of a track's vocals so they are perfectly in tune. Ella Fitzgerald, he says, was said to have perfect pitch, meaning she could hear a note in her head and, without the aid of an instrument, sing it exactly on key. But even her singing had minor inflections that would have been corrected by digital tools routinely used today. He says the result is vocals that take on a robotic quality and lack the feeling of a live performance.

Source: Wired News: Don't Fear Digital Mediocrity