He may not have been the first to use AutoTune but if ever an artist’s career was defined by AutoTune then we think the prize goes to T-Pain, so much so he coined the term the ‘T-Pain Effect.’

Now this video has emerged with T-Pain singing without AutoTune, there’s no doubt on a commercial level that T-Pain banked a lot of money thanks to his T-Pain effect, but if ever there was an artistic case against the abuse of AutoTune in music production then this may be it.

This video demonstrates that sometimes the effect becomes the star and can get in the way of people appreciating genuine talent. In an interview that will air on All Things Considered. 

“People felt like I was using it to sound good. But I was just using it to sound different.”

In essence what T-Pain was doing was no different to those using a vocoder in the 1970s, but many inexperienced producers thought that it was a way of covering average vocal performances in the studio, simply copying T-Pain’s effect but failing to appreciate that talent is a necessary ingredient for a great vocal.

Watch the video of T-Pain singing without AutoTune, you may be surprised.