Tonight they were pitch perfect, all in tune and the harmonies were "as one". Apparently the auto tuner that XF use can be used in a live performance to correct any outliers (notes outside the bandwidth) and this has the effect of losing the errant notes. Tonight in harmonies it is very noticeable that the voices are not being transmitted via the live mikes but via an enhanced studio mix. (Shania Twain's whole tour had been handled with this level of artificiality for years).

This.

BBC News - X Factor admits tweaking vocals http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11056050

This

BBC News - How commonplace is auto-tune? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11056840

and this..

Pitch correction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitch_correction

PS: I am not against LittleMix, I think they are a talented group, I'd just like to know everyone's thoughts on the matter.

I think they might have been, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and just say they were really good tonight. Though, I did earlier in the week think that they do something for Jade since she apparently had some throat issues.

No, I didn't pick up on any autotune. When Kitty used it it was clearly being used for those opening lines in order to give a twisted, robotic feel. She switched right out of it then. The X Factor got in trouble for autotuning auditions last year, there was a big enough backlash, so I doubt they'd risk it again...

Also... too many questions marks...

Here's a strange n wonderful thought. Maybe they can all sing

It was flawless singing though and they seemed pretty confident they were going to the nail the vocals based on the pre-performance VT.

No because as last weeks xtra factor proved the girls can sing with no bells and whistles added
They gave a fantastic performance tonight fair play

In a word.......NO

Auto-tune can really only be used properly in post-production to refine vocals as if someone was refining a photo of themselves before putting it on Facebook. You can't refine the photo as you take it, just like how you can't really correct a bum note as soon as you sing it. They would have to be lipping to an edited track of them singing, which they definitely weren't.
Kitty wasn't using auto-tune during those opening lines, it was more like a sound effect on the mic.

It's practically cheating, isn't it? Three of them can read music and technically they're amongst the best ever.

Tulisa is a bit of an embarrassment as a mentor, though.

I think it was auto tuned definitely. They did it with One Direction too. They do a lot more than that though with the groups...with One Direction they had the backing track a lot louder than the boys. I think they also had Louis mime some weeks as well as he would move his lips but he wouldn't be in time with the music. Groups have to harmonise to sound good and Little Mix's harmonies haven't been great, apart from tonight when they were suddenly flawless...it was definitely auto tuned. It's not surprising though...they auto tuned last years auditions!

If they are all such fantastic singers then why have they been drowned out by very loud backing tracks in almost all their performances in the Lives. To me that makes it appear that the mentor has no faith in the acts ability- much like Simon with 1D last year - they should have been allowed to sing properly (so we could actually hear them) much earlier in the competition, if they are this good they would have picked up the votes.

I agree, the viewers won't realise though, they will just feel the girls upped their game vocally as they said they would in the VT.

I think that little, its all about the vocal was to cloud people from realising their would be something dodgy in terms of the singing going on.

Never-the-less they are talented and carry great stage presence.

You can't auto-tune while singing live. The auditions can be auto-tuned because they do not go out as live.

Maybe, just maybe, they practised really hard on their harmonies and got them right for a song that has a lot of harmonising in it. Not to mention that Kelly has been banging on for ages about how great they sound when they are a capella and I think Kelly may know a thing or two about harmonies. There harmonies were never bad to begin with, they just needed some tightening up and you could hear that happening each week.

Not sure about autotune , but something was going on , noticed it when the pretty girl with afghan hound hair sung , but anyway a great performance

You want to talk about drowning out, think Marcus with around 100 backing singers today It got to a stage when i forgot i was supposed to be listening to marcus and actually looked to see where the choirs tel no was
Those girls little mix proved last week they can sing with no backing track when on xtra factor
They were exceptional
And tonight were brilliant again

Nah, I reckon (novelty I know) they can sing. Their little 'impromptu performances' on Xtra Factor are delightful and full of tune and soul.

They're gorgeous little girlies with gorgeous little personalities and voices. What a great find! Novelty central. Love 'em.

Lewnaticc is correct, they can't really use it live, only for the pre-recorded shows.

And!! last week on the Xtra Factor we heared then sing with no track and they were amazing.

Exactly.

There was no autotune. It's extremely obvious when that is used, just watch a few episodes of Glee.

If any of you saw their acapellas on Xtra Factor you'd know they're capable of doing it without any autotune. So to answer the OPs question, no, it wasn't used.

JadeLittleMix Jade Little Mix
Thers a cheeky little rumour goin round tht we wer autotuned...we wernt! It was purely our voices bt we'll take tht as a compliment! X
46 seconds ago Favorite Retweet Reply

There's ur answer like people mention if u saw there xtra factor acapella they just sound that good


lol i think they read digital spy i havent seen that rumor anywhere but here

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL

Girls, its not you, you girls are great, we are just a little cynical of the producers.

Good to hear that it was a clean and natural vocal.

These rumours only start when an act becomes a threat
Those girls will sleep well tonight

Jade just posted on twitter it was all their own voices she read it on here and posted on twitter she and the girls take that as a complament

Cant believe what Im reading,There IS a live way of using autotune,the Pet shop Boys amongst others do it.The pitch of the song being sang is programmed and sent through the mic feed.The artist just sings the song the best they can and lets the the pitch correcter fill in. Big name Singers use Autotune all the time live. Typically the hardware units though, which avoids any computer latency/glitches.

http://www.antarestech.com/products/avp.shtml

Not autotuned but they're seemed to be a huge amount of voices on the backing track and at the same level in the soundmix as the four live vocals.

It does seem rather dodgy, as the backing vocals are so loud during the choruses....we can't even tell if the girls are doing harmonies or if the harmonies are pre-recorded onto the backing track. Gary hinted on the Xtra Factor tonight that the girls were getting way too much help from the backing track compared to the five soloists.