There might be newer tools now and I’m out of that loop, but I remember melodyine (the vst) and autotune (the vst) being used together by a lot of people to keep things as human(ish) as possible.
I’m sure there are better ones that exist now, but if I had to do vocal work I’d probably just use those two
It can at extreme settings. If used subtly most wouldn’t be able to detect it.
Slow tuning speeds allow for some natural vibrato - the faster the speed the more T-Pain it’s going to be, also, for people who are shooting for the effect, there are certain techniques while singing that can be used to emphasize the “AutoTune effect”
When singing you gotta listen and tune your voice accordingly to resonance of the notes you are singing along with…you should be able to feel the resonance in your sinuses, vocal chords, and ear drums…
Being able to feel this sensation will take a while to pick up when your listening to yourself tune your voice according to the melody thats playing…
Sounding good is a whole other story… but yeah singing in tune takes a while but not impossible.
Just takes a lot of practice to train your brain to get used to listening for the resonance and picking up the sensation.
It’s probably due to my ASD or some shit, but I have an unbelievable ability to pick up on that level of dissonance and it kind of sucks. Whenever a vocalist is close enough but obviously not using pitch correction, I’d almost rather they were blasting harsh noise wall in my ear instead.
Also, I think this can play into the overall production of an album, even. People will subconsciously pick up on those slight inconsistencies and not really know why it kind of sucks or sounds like it was made by an amateur, but they’re not wrong most of the time.