Saiyaara Composer Mithoon On AI And Autotune Dominating Music Industry: I Use It To Enhance My Process. Not Sabotage It | Exclusive

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Lyricist-composer and singer Mithoon is currently basking in the success of the Saiyaara music album. The soundtrack not only feels fresh and in sync with the love story starring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, many have pointed out how it actually serves the storyline and emanates from it rather than supplementing it. However, Saiyaara is hardly a one-off success for the musician known for delivering modern era Bollywood love anthems like Tum Hi Ho, Phir Bhi Tumko Chaahunga, Humnava and now Dhun. Mithoon’s tracks have impressed both Gen Z and millennial listeners. He has also stood witness to the music industry’s tech transition, especially at a time when remixes, autotune and AI voices dominate studios, post-production and conversations among enthusiasts.

In a conversation with Republic, the maestro of melodies, Mithoon, addressed the impact of technologies like AI and autotune in music composition.

While new voices are coming in focus, a part of social media has also been buzzing with AI-generated songs and renditions of legendary tracks of Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar and many more. These songs, albeit viral in reels, have also led to the debate about whether this growing trend of AI-generated voices that recreate yesteryear singers’ vocals is ethical.

When asked if it is justified to use Al on these legendary voices, Mithoon firmly denied, saying he’s not a big fan of Al replacing the human element in music. “I can tell you creatively, Al is something that doesn’t really excite me as a composer. I feel that any means of technology should be used to enhance your creative process, not sabotage your creative process. So be it using any software, be it using music production techniques or be it using Al, I use it to enhance my process and not sabotage it,” he shared.

“I’m not a big fan of Al replacing the human element in music. I feel what a human being does, what a living person does, be it composing music, be it playing an instrument, be it conducting an orchestra, cannot be replaced by Al. I firmly believe that. And I would like to protect the sanctity of human imperfection. That’s my personal ideology,” he added.

Not just the use of AI, Mithoon also opened up about the overwhelming employment of autotune in making tracks. “Technology has been given to us so that our work becomes easier and it becomes more beautiful, it becomes more expressive, more poetic. So auto tune also is. It is of course it is a boon when you use it in the right way.” he expressed.

Mithoon said that he is comfortable using autotune to finetune imperfections in recordings, but not in favour of making non-singers croon. “Sometimes what happens is you may get a great take from a great artist and it may have a great expression but it may be slightly off key and the artist may be brilliant and he may give you 10 more takes with a pitch. But it may not have that one expression which just came spontaneously. Right. That spontaneity part is how music is made. And if you want to use that take, if the auto tune slightly corrects it, I don’t think it’s a problem. I think that’s where technology can be a boon.”

“But if you take that same autotune and you make a non singer sing and be it a non-singer or be it an actor who just wants to sing and you completely not understand the essence of music at all and use it in that way, then I think that’s something is what I would not relate to,” he concluded.
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