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Let's talk about pitch correction.


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31 minutes ago, neilp said:

I think the point I'm trying to make is that when I listen to music (and I totally accept that this may not be true for you guys, or indeed anyone else, possibly!), the thing I am most interested in hearing is the individual character of what the people involved are doing. If there are mistakes, that's fine, all musicians make mistakes. If there are so many as to detract from the music, it means the musicians are not good enough. That's true whether live or recorded. Once you autotune and grid the whole thing, you remove a lot of the humanity from it, and I personally lose interest. You may not. Each to his own I guess

I think it depends entirely on the music, and on what you consider acceptable issues. Everything is different. 

To me, beats that are noticeably out of time or things that are noticeably out of tune are generally no-nos, and few of us on here I would imagine have the luxury of calling on world class players/singers to nail everything first time. Also, budget constraints come into it. There are certainly times in the studio where we may have nailed something in another take or two but we can’t afford those takes, so we tweak the odd beat or note. It’s not that we can’t do it, it’s that we can’t afford to. 

Also, when recording music I’d like things to be as perfect as possible (budget and skills allowing, obviously) but not necessarily when listening to music. It just depends. 

Whatever makes the end result work is all that matters to me. 100% agree with BRX there. 

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I can imagine a situation where you're a songwriter/Guitarist(or bassist) in a band and can sing the songs just how you like it.....…. except for the odd pitching issue.

One option - get a singer into the band and tell them they won't write songs and have to sing it your way - a tough ask. And then watch them get all the limelight.

Or sing it yourself and wack on a little bit of autotune.

 

I know which I'd go for.

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2 hours ago, greavesbass said:

Look at Maggie May by Rod Stewart, loose and full of little hiccups....its so organic as to be unreal....feels live, sounds as fresh today as it did back in 71

Never sounded fresh to me - certainly loose and obviously no autotune, he hardly ever gets near a note!

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Not aimed at anyone in particular, but...

I don't buy the 'things produced in a studio aren't real music' line. Of course it's real music! It has notes, tunes, chords, rhythms and everything else that makes music music (and please, for goodness' sake, don't talk to me about live music having a 'soul'). To claim otherwise frankly looks perverse to my jaundiced eye; it just hasn't been done in the way you would like to see it done is all.

[/rant] As you were. :)

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4 hours ago, greavesbass said:

Look at Maggie May by Rod Stewart, loose and full of little hiccups....its so organic as to be unreal....feels live, sounds as fresh today as it did back in 71

Absolutely, I would have thought that Maggie May would have been completely ruined by autotune, and God knows what autotune would do for the Sex Pistols, I was on the a cruise where they did a cabaret 70's night, the very good in tune singer did Pretty Vacant, it was awful

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Without wishing to sound contentious (no, really), I have to say that quoting singers like these as a reason for not using pitch correction is not an argument I understand. Are you saying you shouldn't use pitch correction for fear of missing out on another Rod Stewart? o.O

 

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On 17/05/2021 at 23:17, leftybassman392 said:

Not aimed at anyone in particular, but...

I don't buy the 'things produced in a studio aren't real music' line. Of course it's real music! It has notes, tunes, chords, rhythms and everything else that makes music music (and please, for goodness' sake, don't talk to me about live music having a 'soul'). To claim otherwise frankly looks perverse to my jaundiced eye; it just hasn't been done in the way you would like to see it done is all.

[/rant] As you were. :)

To me, notes, rhythms, chords and tunes are the least important parts of music. Granted, they are necessary for something to be called "music", but are they sufficient? Not in my book. Your view may differ, but I want to hear the people, and hear them expressing some joy in what they do. Even if it's angry joy!

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On 18/05/2021 at 12:25, leftybassman392 said:

Without wishing to sound contentious (no, really), I have to say that quoting singers like these as a reason for not using pitch correction is not an argument I understand. Are you saying you shouldn't use pitch correction for fear of missing out on another Rod Stewart? o.O

 

I'm not saying you shouldn't use it, I'm saying that it's unnecessary in 99% of the situations it's used in, and devalues the efforts of musicians to express themselves. Some (quite a lot) of the expressiveness of musicians is down to being able deliberately to vary tuning, and Autotune is used far too much, in my opinion. It is just my opinion.

On the other hand, if it means we don't get another Rod Stewart, wheel it in and set it up!!!!

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22 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

poor old Rod's getting a bit of a panning, not entirely justified, I'm sure if he'd been assassinated in 1973 he'd be looked on a lot more favourable 😁

I'm much too polite to say such things...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but now that you have... :ph34r:

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On 18/05/2021 at 12:03, Woodinblack said:

So Boy George and Rod Stewart. I am coming round to the side of autotune now!

Why? What are u trying to prove that u want everyone to sound the same like a symphony of drones......no wonder original musics gone down the tubes.

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4 hours ago, greavesbass said:

Why? What are u trying to prove that u want everyone to sound the same like a symphony of drones......no wonder original musics gone down the tubes.

No, I am saying that if the only thing to listen to in life was those two, I would probably blow my eardrums out. Neither of them are good in any sense I understand it. I like lots of different music, but if your argument is that you want people to sound like a drunk in a pub or a repetitive pop singer, then autotune is good!

Anyway, you can sing out of tune and still not have to sing like them.

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Interesting watching Worthy Farm coverage this evening with regards to pitch corrected vocals.

Idles and Damon Albarn not using it, sounding natural and good. Haim and Coldplay using it really heavily, and sucking the life from the performance as a consequence. 

They may as well have stuck a CD on.

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