Rick Beato on autotune
Oh how I detest autotune.
Rick Beato doesn’t detest it quite as much as I do, but he’s not the least bit fond of the way it’s commonly used today:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
Oh how I detest autotune.
Rick Beato doesn’t detest it quite as much as I do, but he’s not the least bit fond of the way it’s commonly used today:
Yep, anything after the late 1990s is questionable. It’s not just autotune though they also in the digital age will take the best run and place it throughout the song so it all sounds exactly the same whereas before each time through was it’s own take.
Beato mentioned Joni Mitchell there and they made a new video for Christmas for this sadly beautiful song.
Joni Mitchell ‘River’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHxxBTl71I
I would have liked to hear a few more words from Rick about that Joni Mitchell clip. I think she is bending her pitch quite creatively there. The antithesis of an autotune job, if I’m correct.
TommyJay,
Not exactly on your point but have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r45L38Eyhpw
I find neo’s juxtiposition of Autotune’s dehumanization of the human voice and the desire to live permanently on a cruise ship with its fundamental divorcement from nature, in that one could entirely avoid contact with anything not handled by humans… to be modern examples of the point made in the 1982 documentary “Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance”.
Too much fakery all round.
This is how it should be done:
Rebecca Pidgeon — Spanish Harlem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKkeWt2MxWM
Mrs David Mamet, a few instruments, one microphone, no layered tracks, no autotune, no funny business at all.
YouTube audio is low quality, so best listened to from the original CD or with lossless streaming.
Her voice should be floating in the centre of the soundstage and to the right of her you can hear the maracas moving around in three dimensions.
I don’t know that I would notice the more subtle uses of Autotune, as on the Lenny Kravitz track. But when it’s used to create that humanly impossible warbly thing, as on one or two of the others he mentions ….I’m trying to keep my language under control here but I really find that unendurable. And I won’t endure it if I can possibly make it stop, or get away. It makes me want to punch something.
Thanks Griffin. That was interesting. I figured Rick had something to say about her, though I hadn’t tried searching for it yet.
While I did sing some in school, I can’t say I was particularly good or learned much beyond basic competency. So the following may or may not true.
I think serious singers often begin some notes a tiny bit sharp and then come into the correct pitch. And while they generally try to avoid “flatting” a note, that too can be an intentional style element, bringing a little sourness or darkness to a phrase. In light of that, it amuses me that Rick (in Neo’s link) says that many of these autotuning singers just aren’t very good singers.
Zaphod: Danke for that link. Superbly simple.
LMJ:
“Superbly simple”
You live up to your name. Confucius would approve.
If you like that purity and simplicity, you’ll probably also enjoy anything by Ana Caram on the Chesky Records label.
It used to be a lot harder, but speeding up and slowing the tape to correct out of tune notes.was a staple of ’60s hearthrob singer’s recordings. Listen carefully to most of Fabian’s early records. The splices are obvious.
He was a created product, long before the Monkees. He was handsome as all hell, the girls swooned and bought his records… who cares if he actually had any singing talent.
After a couple of years he had taken enough vocal lessons that he could actually carry a tune in a bucket. He wouldn’t be invited to sing at the Met, but he became… competent.
An old girlfriend described to me his appeal as “another good-looking wop from Philly.”
Joni Mitchell’s vocal gymnastics and unusual instrument tunings add interest and character to her music. She really is the opposite of autotune. Rick Beato tells about how thrilled he was to actually get to meet her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irc2UXjhiV8
It’s obvious that your auto should be tuned on a regular basis.
And that THAT is the ONLY auto that should be tuned.
Beato’s Youtube channel is endlessly fascinating. I watch quite often.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KobbZ8VDI00
Fabian