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I agree. It's usually merely for vocal effect and not vocal correction.

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She hasn't entire song and the example with HEART STATION is the only fashion in which she has used it. She does almost all the vocal effects through layerings of her different pitches.

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Agreed. She can (and has) pulled off some of her most difficult songs live, so we all know how talented she is.

No reason for her not to use Auto Tune and I'm pretty sure she uses it. Let's not deny it. Using it doesn't undermine her talent as a musician.

Oh yeah, that would make sense. Her voice is already run through some heavy affects, giving it that "watery" sound, so autotune would actually work well for it.
I think it sounds good for parts that are obviously edited.

In HEART STATION at the very end, when she is singing and making the kinda whale-song thing (that's what it sounded like to me lol) kinda sounds like it MIGHT have a pinch of auto-tune at the start and stop about halfway through. Anyone else feel me?

I think she only used it a tad bit on a couple songs on TITO (since it's American-produced, and "perfection" is what most American producers push for...), however, I don't think it was ever used with her Japanese music. There are times in the studio versions where she even sounds maybe a tiny bit off on a couple notes (very rarely), but in a way that you know that her vocals aren't being processed.
She never sounds less than amazing regardless... haha.

I've worked with autotune/pitch correction firsthand, and I can hear it a tiny bit in TITO, but other than that, I haven't noticed it in anything else. It's usually only used for a split second.

I think TITO was meant to be a very produced, solid pop album, so it makes sense... but it her voice is more than fine without it.


So, I guess my nutshell reply to the OP would be... "no".
haha.

I would imagine Hikki has used auto-tune at times, but I don't think she's ever applied it in the deliberately overindulgent manner of contemporary mainstream American pop. On the other hand, Hikki has such a quirky and characteristic vocal style that she doesn't really NEED auto-tune; if a couple of notes are a bit flat here and there that doesn't really matter because it complements a unique personality her voice already carries. On the whole, however, I think it's hard to prove one way or the other- the idea behind auto-tune is that it shouldn't be identifiable, so usually there's either no question when it's being used or it can't be said definitively that it is.

And for the record, I don't think there's any reason to believe Utada used any auto-tune in her English work (although, given who produced TITO, I suppose it isn't unlikely). If anything, I imagine she would have used it in her Japanese studio albums given the immense popularity it has enjoyed over there for some time, whereas it's a relatively new development in music within the Western market.

That is probably not auto-tune.
You dont hear the noticeable pitch-shifting that auto-tune does.

This is more of a talk box filter or vocoder, which gives it a synthesized effect to vocals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_box

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_voice_effects





... but if so, she would have been one of the first ppl in the world to use auto-tune back in 1998.

B&C (Bonnie & Clyde)

The B-side song from the "Movin' on without you" single has autotuned vocals on the outro of the song. Check the song out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GWst7uXbZQ

Don't mind the video. It's the song that matters.