importantly, not one could think of a recording session in the past five years where they hadn't used Auto- Tune. They also couldn't name an artist they had worked with who would want it publicly known.
"It is a lot like plastic surgery. You start with one little piece and, before you know it, you've modified everything," says one United States-based Grammy-winning recording engineer.
And it's not confined to recording studios. There are also hardware devices such as Antares Vocal Producer that do the same things in live sessions.
Cantabrian Shane Goodwin is the bass technician for British act Muse, currently on a world tour. Last year, Muse were awarded the Q magazine award for Best Live Act in the World, the Brit Award for Best Live Act and MTV Award for Best Live Band. By email from Italy, Goodwin said he'd had no experience with Auto-Tune.
"I have not really had much to do with it. I know of one band that use/ used it live, it was a rather bad choice and quite noticeable! They are a very very famous American band, but I won't say who," Goodwin says.
"Auto-Tune is a ball-park unit. If you're not in or near the right key, it will choose one close to where you're at. [But] it can go horribly wrong. I have no experience with it and I don't want to."
History is full of musicians who have twiddled with tune or experimented with new tools. Roger Troutman and Peter Frampton used a talk box to great effect.
Doubling vocals was a favourite trick of John Lennon's that became standard practice in the industry, because it is effective at covering up unfortunate pitch.
Samplers were used by many producers in the 80s and 90s. Working with reel-to-reel tape, they would sample the word they wanted to fix and then alter the sample rate and zip it back in.
It is inevitable that technological advances will alter the musical landscape, but if a singer completely corrects their vocals digitally, isn't that cheating? Should they be given the credit for having the talent they don't have? Aren't they deceiving the record buying public?
Yes, yes and yup, American artist Vic Chesnutt told The Press before his death from an overdose of muscle relaxants last year.
He worked with Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and director David Lynch, among many others. "There's nothing wrong with fixing the odd note, but it has gone too far for me. Potentially, it is more damaging to the industry than anything else. It's lazy and it's cheating.
"It's like Lance Armstrong using a motorbike in a [bicycle] race. The public is conned into thinking their Top 40 pop stars can actually sing in key, when it's all just a sham.
"Even on American Idol, when they're waffling on about pitch, the producers use it. They used it when judge Paula Abdul sang on the show, which is so hypocritical I can't even begin to talk about it. The industry is in enough trouble as it is, without deceiving the public."
Junior Marvin, an original member of Bob Marley's Wailers, argues that a vocal track treated heavily with Auto-Tune sounds synthetic and is merely electronically sanitised music, taking away from the musicality of the song.
"I lived in London when it was at the forefront of music with the Who, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. It was all about live music being played. You couldn't use computers. You had to know how to play. It should be about good musicianship and skill," Marvin says.
"The other thing I really don't understand is when artists who are good singers use it. It's like pouring motor oil over a gourmet meal."
KIWI BANDS USE IT FOR 'EFFECT'
New Zealand artists are not averse to Auto-Tune, including Opshop and The Phoenix Foundation.
Opshop used Auto-Tool on the first single, Pins and Needles, on their upcoming album Until The End of Time (due out August 2).
"There's a bit of a T-Pain thing happening in there," says Opshop frontman Jason Kerrison, who did a production course at Berklee School of Music, Boston, in 2009.
"Obviously with this record we wanted to evolve sonically but it's fun to try new ideas. T-Pain and that whole pop culture embrace of that syn