Re: Genuinely live or did they have help?

On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:05:02 -0700 (PDT), "Dec [Cluskey]"
<dec@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Aug 16, 6:36 am, s...@xxxxxxxx (Don Pearce) wrote:
On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:45:18 -0700 (PDT), "Dec [Cluskey]"


You have fallen foul of the old excluded middle fallacy here, Dec.
There is plenty of ground between the over-processed horror that was

Don

You got me there Don .... "excluded middle fallacy " ... Hmmmmm!

Thank you for that ... I now have an extra phrase in my vocabulary
[grin!] Reminds me of the old 'split infinitive' phrase much used and
rarely understood.

Personally I have never willingly used Autotune on anything I have
produced or performed. I much prefer to retake.

The performance, to me, is always in front of the microphone and never
after it .... "sh*t in, sh*t out" as my live sound engineer always
says.

I only once had to use Antares ... a co-producer insisted ... took an
age to correct what he perceived as a 'flat' performance from a girl
singer ... I recognised it as a 'style' of singing which a lot of
'today' girls have got. Flat vibrato rather than a vibrato around the
main note.

The result was unusable ... he had taken all the performance away.

I just love being accused of using autotune when I have not ... shows
that the tuning is spot on.

Being a 'vocal arrangement' singer I am so particular about tuning ...
every third track of a harmony line is listened back to with the other
two tracks and checked for tuning much like a piano tuner will check
while tuning a piano ... any movement in the vibrations will show that
one or possibly two of the tracks is out. From experience it is
always the first ... so I will always replace that, check again and
all is well, hopefully ... add the fourth note to get four tracks of
the same harmony note and check again ... voile, perfect un-autotuned
voices. Then onward to the next harmony note. Repeat until project
is finished. Usually a full day.

Sounds boring? But then "perfection is a killer". And the results
are usually stunning.

I cannot imagine a singer such as Shania opening herself up to
criticism re. tuning or use of autotuning in the post synch process.

In my experience, top class vocalists, today, have amazing tuning ...
far superior to what was around when I was batting with the big boys.

Very, very few of the 60's, 70's lot could ever sing a cappella ...
yet today it is routinely expected ... and they can do it.

Dec [Cluskey] http://www.deccluskey.co.uk/blog

Just think back to the stage back in the 60s. A back line of guitar
amps and a pair of PA columns either side of the stage. All you could
hear was whichever amp you were stood in front of. It's no wonder
nobody could really sing in tune back then.

And now to completely negate what I have just said, Youtube is crammed
with performances from back then by singers who managed near perfect
tuning. OK, they were probably the exception, and the reason we still
know about them is simply because they were great.

d
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Genuinely live or did they have help?
    ... Flat vibrato rather than a vibrato around the ... Being a 'vocal arrangement' singer I am so particular about tuning ... ... Then onward to the next harmony note. ...
    (rec.audio.pro)
  • Re: 17-tone concert
    ... danstearns wrote: ... Ineresting.....its one thing to get the pianos to work in this tuning, ... but how did you get the singer to do it. ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)