Gotta jump in here for this. I only have one point to make.
I listen to guys like Brad Delp (Boston), Ann Wilson (Heart), Mickey what's his name (Jefferson Starship), etc....and they all managed to record very "in tune" vocals, in seemingly impossible ranges without the help of ANY pitch correction devices at all. In fact, listen to Brad Delp layer many backup vocals in chorus's in Boston tunes!!! Man alive!!!
I have a project on the shelf that I have never posted any mp3's of a local female singer who just has incredible pitch. Very few overdubs at all. Usually the overdubs were timing problems, or dynamics that caused the punch in.
I think that you may find the toy's to be used with "made up" artists more then the ligitimate singers out there who actually have some talent....
gibs, concerning those auto tune boxes, they all have a little delay in the processing. Depending upon how far it will correct depends upon how delayed it is. Obviously, the farther out of tune, the more the processor has to work to correct, thus, longer processing delay. But, I can see the box working in very small incremental ways for very very minor corrections without any noticable delay to the listener. When I played with the Digitech Studio Vocalist box, if the correction was set to just a few cents or so, you couldn't hear any delay. But when you start trying to correct major intonation problems, there was a significant delay. I think people using them live are primarily using them as sort of a sweetening effect, and not pitch correction. In fact, the Digitech unit I used for a while made some of the best sounding digital chorus I have ever heard (I am no fan of digital chorus at all mind you...). So possibly that is what people are using them live for. Just a little blend of an enharmonic tone mixed back a ways to sort of give the voice a colorful quality. Certainly the delayed signal too will help beef up a somewhat weak vocalist live. These touring acts sing a lot, and probably like the extra little support the box give their voice...
Who knows....
Anyway. cdunn, the stuff mentioned here about the difference between what you hear in your head during a live performance and what you hear on tape is all quite true. I like the karaoke references because there was a time when I hosted a lot of Karaoke, and people thought I was a killer singer!!! My god, one listen to me on tape would cure them of that.....
Really. I have heard myself of tape too many times, and my singing voice is just not up to the task for good vocal recordings. As a backup singer I do pretty well, but leads are not my thing. My intonation is just not consistent enough for tape....oh well....
If you are looking to really improve your vocal performances on tape, hire a vocal coach for a while. Many serious singers have vocals coaches. Start looking at credits on CD's and you will see special thanks sometimes to these people. I have a CD of a Seattle band called the Super Sonic Soul Pimps, they used a vocal coach in the studio and the vocals are just outright killer. I got to talk to the producer/engineer of the CD, and no fancy editing, vocal enhancements. Just plain good ol' singing.
Good luck.
Ed