George Strait Fans Sound Off About Auto-Tune on New Album
George Strait’s recent album The Cowboy Rides Away: Live from AT&T Stadium sees ‘The King’ score both the #2 spot on the Billboard country charts, and the #4 spot on the all genre Billboard 200 this week, but this isn’t because of what a lot of fans are saying, it is in lieu of it. Saving Country Music has sounded off on the egregious use of Auto-Tune on the album, and so have many George Strait fans from all around the web.
On both iTunes and Amazon, all of the top-rated reviews of the album have to do with the use of Auto-Tune or other issues with the CD, and how ticked customers are. Checks on Twitter and Facebook see the same thing: fans frustrated about what a travesty it is to have the final major concert of George Strait’s career tarnished by unnecessary pitch correction.
READ: Strait’s “Cowboy Rides Away” Album Butchered By Auto-Tune
When fans go to purchase this album online, the Auto-Tune concerns are the first thing they see, yet the issue has yet to be addressed whatsoever by either the George Strait camp or his label, or in any measurable level by the country music media. To illustrate just how widespread the unrest about this album is, here’s a selection of concerned fans sounding off from around the web.
Fans On Amazon
Matthew Begay – Why Did They Use Auto Tune On The King?
“George Strait is a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but I think whoever was in charge of the audio should be fired for trying to make him sound like T-Pain…I hope and pray to the good Lord above that they release a CD of the concert without all the auto tune.”
Rebekah Joyce – WHY would you AutoTune King George?!?!
“WHY?? Why would you ever AutoTune one of the most recognizable voices in the history of music? Much less AutoTune it beyond recognition. I bought this as a gift and after listening to it my dad called me and said ‘Thanks for this, it was really special, but I don’t think I will ever listen to it again. It doesn’t even sound like him.’…I am truly and whole heartedly disappointed in this album.”
Travis – A Good, Maybe Even Great Show Butchered by Engineering
“I’ve heard complaints about George’s vocals being increasingly auto-tuned over the last several studio albums, but for the most part my undiscerning ear was unfazed by it. Here, though, it permeates the entire CD from start to finish.”
Kevin Ratliff – Autotune has ruined this CD.
“I went to the last show so I thought this would be a great way to remember it. For some reason the producers have highly edited the songs on here and added autotune to the vocals… It is a shame they felt the need to disrespect the artists by editing the original vocals as they were in concert. I am disappointed.”
Yoav Golan – Autotuned! Sacrilege!
“Disgusting use of autotune ruins a legendary concert. The autotune absolutely destroyed the authenticity of George’s voice and makes the album un-listenable for anyone who has ever heard the real George Strait…This is an ignominious disgrace to the King of Country.”
Jamey Bearb – Horrible production! !!
“Horrible production. With the resources available for George, you’d think he wouldn’t sound like a robot with the terrible auto tune. Sounds like the engineer didn’t even try to make the pitch corrections natural…”
Fans on iTunes
Here are the top three reviews presented to customers when they go to iTunes.
Fans On Twitter
All the stupid auto tune on George Strait’s Cowboy Rides Away live album is pissing me off #comeOnMan @GeorgeStrait
Andrew Thom (@AndrewJThom) September 26, 2014
Wow this George Strait live album got ruined by autotune. George Strait and Vince Gill sound like robots. Brandon Florkey (@BrandonFlorkey) September 23, 2014
You can really hear the Auto Tune on this George Strait live album. #hlavatyproblems
Craig Hlavaty (@CraigHlavaty) September 22, 2014
Finally watching #GeorgeStrait #cowboyridesaway live from AT&T and they have so much autotune on his voice it is ridiculous. Come on #cmt Garrett Mager (@GMager) September 22, 2014
@GeorgeStrait please take off the auto tune on the new album and rerelease it please
Dalton Glenn (@DaltonGlenn22) September 19, 2014
Someone tell me who was in charge of the God awful autotune on George Strait’s live album. unacceptable Regina Figueroa (@reginafig_) September 16, 2014
Did @Jason_Aldean convince @GeorgeStrait to auto tune The Cowboy Rides Away: Live from AT&T Stadium CD? #atrocious #timetosaygoodbye
Spencebott (@spencebott) September 20, 2014
September 26, 2014 @ 12:10 pm
C’mon Trigger, how do we know you didn’t write all those comments yourself?
Just kidding, obviously. I really think there’s not a huge backlash from the mainstream crowd, is because they’re so used to hearing auto-tune anyway, so they’re not fazed by it.
September 26, 2014 @ 1:02 pm
I think there is a big backlash from the mainstream crowd. I just don’t theink the mainstream country media is reporting it.
September 26, 2014 @ 3:04 pm
Mainstream Country media never mentions the negative press that the genre gets on the outside. They just refuse to open their eyes to the garbage they promote.
I did by the CD, for me my biggest complaint was the high number of duets on the disc. The last show should have been George Strait only, with maybe Alan Jackson or Reba as an exception.
September 26, 2014 @ 5:18 pm
When compiling these complaints about the Auto-Tune, I did also see a number of complaints from people saying there were too many duets, that they would have preferred to hear the entire concert, or difference selections for the album than the ones made. That’s completely understandable, and on a personal level, I would probably like to hear some different songs than the ones selected as well. But the decision by the label to include the big duets with the big names is a completely predictable move based on economics so that they can sell the album as including appearances by some of the genres biggest current names. It’s names to put on a poster, or a CD cover. I would have been astonished if they hadn’t included the duets, or at least most of them. I hope that some day they release the entire audio from the concert, but we have to understand a lot of the non core George Strait fans aren’t going to want to delve into a 4-CD album. They made a CD that could sell well, and it did.
This Auto-Tune issue is completely different because it is an aberration of what actually happened, and was administered so poorly that it erodes the integrity of the entire project, no matter what songs are included. Regularly people bicker back and forth on what songs are included on “Greatest Hits” albums or compilations, and that’s normal. But to have such a cherished, if not historic piece of audio such as this be marred in this manner is like nothing I’ve ever seen. This is unprecedented, and that is why I believe it is a issue worth making a big deal about.
September 26, 2014 @ 12:33 pm
Recordings of live shows almost never sound great. I’m sure they had to do some engineering to balance out the levels for the vocals, instruments, crowd noise, etc.
To my ear, it doesn’t sound like there is that much overuse of AutoTune (listening to the Google Play Music version). There are occasions when it is very noticable, but not that often.
What bothers me is that it seems that many of the songs are sped up. Maybe they were played fast live, but they seem much faster than the recorded versions I’m used to. I wonder if people could be mistaking a sped up tempo for a robotic effect?
I can often pick out egregious use of AutoTune (Miranda Lambert’s “Automatic” in the CMA Fest telecast comes to mind), so I’m confused as to why it doesn’t stand out to me on this album while others seem to be so offended by it.
September 26, 2014 @ 1:40 pm
Agree with Jared . I don’t see what the fuss is about …..Believe me it would be WAY more UN-listenable if they hadn’t done some pitch correction .
September 26, 2014 @ 2:08 pm
I disagree, and since we don’t have the raw feed of George’s vocals, it’s really hard to gauge that unless you can listen side by side. If you read some of the comments above and other places, there are people that were at the concert or that have listened to raw footage on YouTube, and say that would favor that over what is on this album.
There’s also a BIG difference in demographics here. You have to remember, these are traditional country fans. They are not used to pristine Auto-Tuned vocals, they’re used to the exact opposite.
November 4, 2021 @ 3:57 am
Truly, it seems *impossible* that you cant hear it. If you can identify autotune the way you say you do, there is no reality where you cant here the blaring warbling of the pitch correction they used.
“WHremWember Wthat whold Frio WhrIver, whEre I Wlearned to SwIm”, it’s not just lightly peppered, it’s THICKLY, thickly layered, it legitimately doesn’t make sense that you couldn’t hear it.
September 26, 2014 @ 12:37 pm
I was going to leave this one alone because I can very rarely tell who is or isn’t using Autotune. To me it’s like claiming that some pro athlete you don’t know is using steroids. Having said that, it actually sounds like he is GARGLING some of the lines as there is so much modulation. This is a little past the point of “tuning” vocals and closer to the point of vocal effects. I honestly wonder if there was a mistake in the production and engineering.
September 26, 2014 @ 12:52 pm
Folks, I hate to break it to you but George’s records have been majorly tuned for a long time. They’re not about to leave a record unturned in the current world of minute rice perfect vocals. It would be brutal. Maybe it would’ve been best not to go there at all.
September 26, 2014 @ 1:09 pm
For the sake of argument, I will give you that George Strait has used Auto-Tune previously on albums beyond the song “Stars On The Water” which was purposeful. Still, to put Auto-Tune on an album this carelessly is an insult to the intelligence of the listener. There’s ways to do it note by note instead of just going in and adding it to complete audio tracks resulting in regular robotic-sounding moments. It’s not just the use of Auto-Tune, it’s the manner of how they used it.
September 26, 2014 @ 2:02 pm
I haven’t heard it but I’ll definitely agree that you have to deal with sections and individual notes. I’ve tuned quite a few records and pro tools telling you that it’s in tune, don’t make it so. I listen at very low volume and let my ears do the real work. If a note sounds too robotic, I back it off or take it off completely and go at it that way.
September 26, 2014 @ 1:42 pm
…….and its quite a bit more detectable on a few of his studio records . Some of the tracks on TROUBADOUR rival the worst auto tuning I’ve heard by anyone .
September 26, 2014 @ 12:53 pm
Unturned. I hate typos. 🙂
July 26, 2015 @ 7:18 pm
I can understand them using some auto tuning. Sadly auto tuning has become pretty normal nowadays. But this whole album is ridiculous. A great example is when Vince Gill is singing on “all my exes live in Texas.” It took me about three or four listens to figure out that that was actually Vince Gill. When working with autotune there are several different settings. You can have a subtle autotune which allows the vocals to vary some to give it a more natural sound. But on here they used what is called “strict auto tuning.” With strict auto tuning, there is no deviating from the key signature that is programmed in. It seems to me that they just got lazy and added strict auto training to all of the vocal tracks and possibly didn’t even listen to them after they did it.
September 26, 2014 @ 1:02 pm
Hey! My review was the first one listed! 😀
September 26, 2014 @ 2:00 pm
Real shame to have the documentation of George’s last major concert screwed up without cause like this. Perhaps, enough of a buzz is being generated by the controversy an alternative version will be released. I hope so.
September 26, 2014 @ 5:11 pm
The most horrid thing happened to me. I tried to sample foot hearted memory, and then Jason Aldean came on!! Album was useless anyway.
September 26, 2014 @ 6:52 pm
It will be interesting to see the response from the George Strait camp. If we lived in a perfect world, they would offer customers refunds, exchanges, or free download codes for an un-AutoTuned version of the album. Another scenario would be pulling the current album and replacing it with a deluxe, full-concert, un-AutoTuned edition. The more likely scenario is that the current album will remain for sale, no refunds or exchanges will be offered, and a deluxe edition will come out in a few months. George Strait may not have to apologize for this album, but it would be nice if he did in some way.
September 26, 2014 @ 8:01 pm
I seriously doubt there will ever be a response from them. The record is done. Despite a bunch of complaints, 99% of the people buying it won’t say anything even if they do notice it. Most records sound fake now, whether it’s because of auto-tune, digital mastering, or 100 other things that they use to ruin music. It sucks, but the 5 sales they will lose from this aren’t going to grab any attention, and they’re not going to admit they did anything wrong. Unless Trigger hounds them to death eternally (which would be fun to see) this will all be forgotten in a week or so, and he’ll continue to sell dozens and dozens of records.
September 26, 2014 @ 9:56 pm
I probably would’ve gotten this record but what ultimately stopped me was Jason Aldean making an appearance on the show…this is coming from me, I don’t give a damn about Garth singing praises about Aldean, he sucked during my senior year in 2007 and he sure as hell sucks now.
Second of all, I’ve heard George use Auto-tune on purpose for a record, hell he even used electronic drums on that same record, but thanks to you Trigger about Auto-tune being used on this live record when he already sounded fine on the CMT special, I took it as a warning shot and I saved my money. So all in all I thank you for that.
September 28, 2014 @ 8:36 am
I’m in the middle of watching GS and JA totally butcher Fool Hearted Memory with autotune. They both have the voice tone to be singing, the pitch is allowed to waiver, Who’s starting a petition to have them release this whole thing without the autotune.
B
June 8, 2015 @ 9:02 pm
I would love to hear the real version. I agree with a lot of the posts, the little imperfections give it character. My favorite movie is pure country and it is just king George on that one. Maybe it’s just me from the Midwest but, I cross my heart was me and my wife’s wedding song and we were born in 1985. So we were only 7 when the movie came out but it touched us both when we were 25. I was always a huge George Straight fan so when it was her idea, I was all for it. To me King George always had the sound of real country and I would appreciate an honest version of the concert. I would say we all agree that he’s not as young as he used to be but could still put on one hell of a concert.
September 28, 2014 @ 8:44 am
I can’t believe Vince Gill or Eric Church hasn’t responded to any of this, it was on their voices too.
b
September 28, 2014 @ 7:32 pm
It’s really unfortunate that mainstream country and popular music in general has degraded to a point where humans making music with heart and soul (and some “mistakes”) is felt to be inferior to the “perfection” created by robots that is devoid of any errors or remnants human emotion. Can you imagine what albums like Johnny Cash’s “At Folsom Prison” or The Allman Brothers’ “At Fillmore East” would sound like if they came out today?
September 30, 2014 @ 11:32 am
You know things are getting a little out of control when ARETHA FRANKLIN, the best singer in the world, has blatant Autotune on her recordings. Listen to her “Rolling In the Deep” cover, it’s outrageous.
June 8, 2015 @ 9:22 pm
To jump back in again the best song I have heard so far on this album is, the chair. I don’t hear any autotune and it sounds pure.