The World is down to 3 Labels, The Big Three Labels, no women, no people of color, just 3 businessmen and their marketing ploy running virtually everything directly or through lawsuits or coercion. This is outrageous and sacrilegious like Fil said. 1955 to 1985 was hundreds of labels competing, not 3 , and the music shows it! No to an auto tune revision of music history!
This is awefull...like turning the complete works of Shakespeare into a kiddy cartoon show, or cutting half of Les Paul's fingers off. WTF were they thinking? Oops...
It is indeed sacrilege, and it is based on the misconception that exact equal temperament pitch is always 'correct'. When you play guitar, you deliberately shape the notes with your fingers, maybe playing a note on pitch then bending it slightly sharp, for example. Sometimes you want a major third to sound 'bright', other times, you might want it to sound 'true' (which is quite a bit flatter than equal temperament). Singers do the same things, though they have arguably got even more control than guitarists. But it can certainly be a deliberate part of a performance. It is both arrogant and ignorant for some studio engineer to alter it.
Agree with your analysis. Freddie may have had a sense of humor, but I’m sure he isn’t laughing in heaven. He protected his voice so much that he never fixed his teeth. To auto tune Freddie is a mortal sin.
If I may quote the J. Geils Band, "My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold" Why, or why would anyone think that Freddie Mercury's voice needs to be "improved?" This is madness. NO, NO, NO autotuning of old recordings!
I was a record producer in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I was a DJ on the #1 rock station in America and produced records as well. We didn't have autotune. What we DID have, as you've mentioned, was the ability to do multiple takes and then either use the best take or patch the best takes together. Comping was yesterday's autotune. Was it cheating? Some said it was but the bottom line is that it was still the artist making the sounds, not a computer. The technology allowed us to punch in and out of tracks to get a "perfect take" but if the artist couldn't hit the notes we didn't manipulate the notes to do so (although we theoretically could have by simply changing the pitch). It took time (and money) but the singer had to be able to sing. Also, as you pointed out previously, this meant that the artist had to be able to hit the notes live onstage, as well. A perfectly autotuned recording cannot be duplicated in concert (unless that is autotuned, as well). Autotune saves time and money. But it also takes a human voice and essentially turns it into a computer-generated one. It sets up unrealistic expectations for concertgoers and, as we've mentioned in other comments, unachievable targets for aspiring vocalists. Not to mention that it sends a message to recording artists that they don't need to work on their craft because the machines will make it right.
@@cindypowers4993 Thank you. Every time I see one of Fil's autotune vids I have all those thoughts in my head and go from annoyed to angry (at the industry, not at Fil). I just finally had to put them down on "paper." I am thrilled Fil is doing these because people need to understand why it matters.
@@larry4111 Of course it matters Larry! You've laid it all out quite eloquently in your comment, and everyone should read it, and reflect. And Fil's analysis is "spot on". I applaud his efforts to make fans aware of what's happening in the music industry.✌️
God, I would love someone of your experience having a conversation with Fil in one of his lives or even recorded to more broadly disseminate this information!
Yes, when LP’s were produced, they were magnificent and just when you thought nothing could beat such precision, and you went to a concert, you could see the live professionalism of musicians, it was incredible. Albums couldn’t get better, but live was even better. It made it memorable how musicians had to have it together! Thanks for sharing! 🙏
Freddie Mercury quote "We are in a golden age of music. There will be a time when technology becomes so advanced that we'll rely on it to make music rather than talent. Music will lose its soul" It's so true
The most disgusting implication is that there seems to be producers, engineers and/or consumers that have had their ears “normalized” to the point that the auto-tune sound is preferable to legitimate live recordings that predate auto-tune. I have no interest in hearing artists’ recordings prior to auto-tune re-released in a remixed, auto-tuned rendition. Be it Freddie, Michael Jackson, Peter Noone, Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias, Barry White, or Jimmy Hendrix just because they prefer the artificial pitch accuracy to the original art. To do this without notice, is fraudulent, and should be dealt with accordingly. The art to me is what was captured in studio, or on the soundboard at a live performance. When digital remastering became possible, there was a controversy about destroying the artistry of the original post-production by those wanting to explore the new technology. This stealth reissue of auto-tuned Queen Live performances shows that the original concern over altering the original art in ways new technology makes available years and decades later was and is skepticism rightly applied. There is no value to some skillful engineer applying auto-tune or pitch correction to The Beatles. Future listeners to the Beatles should hear the albums as released with all the production decisions intact - be they monophonic or stereo. This subjective technical “improvement” is an affront to the vocalists, musicians, recording engineers and producers that together created the art that the fans adored, IMO. This would make me abandon any support for this publisher because of this fraud. If auto-tune, etc., has a big enough following to expand their market… then be up front and present it as such and let the market choose between original and technically altered mixes. It seems that you would need more than publishing rights to alter the recordings in this way. Hopefully the artists and the engineers will help nip this abomination in the bud before it grows like a cancer killing the music of yesteryear!🙏
We need the artists and engineers to speak up and , to use a phrase from a famous rock song, lay it on the line(super cover by Wings of Pegasus). Where do you stand, and how far do you want to go, before nothing is real and authentic anymore?
If live Queen performances on the official Queen channel are being autotuned or pitch corrected, it’s clearly too late. The abomination is pretty much complete.
This is yet another reason why I'll hang onto my physical copies of all my music because it can't be altered by anyone ever at anytime and although Spotify is nice to have it does not replace a physical ,tangible record collection.
A skilled vocalist (such as Freddie Mercury) will sometimes sing a note here and there slightly off-pitch to create tension within that particular section. Auto-tuning essentially destroys that. Although it may still sound good, the feel of the passage has been altered. Other than for purpose of restoration, I'm not in favor of "fixing" classic recordings - just as I am not in favor of straightening the lines in a Picasso painting!
Not just pitch. If the voice sounds weak, if it cracks, if he made a mistake on the piano or if May or Deacon hit the wrong note, they overdub with parts of other concerts or fix it in the studio. Pitch correction is all over the place in all recent video releases of them live.
What a shame! To answer the question about should auto tune/pitch correction be used on archived recordings (pre-auto tune era)? No and hell no! If it is used, they should say so and then throw it straight in the garbage so we don't have to waste our time with it. As a music teacher for the past 27 years, if a singer is so bad that they need pitch correction for a vocal performance, I say the band should get a better singer. Or, give the singer the opportunity to be a better singer (better training, vocal rest, etc.). Besides, it's not about having a "perfect" performance anyway. It's the imperfections that are the life of live performance!
Sure pitch correction shouldn’t be used on recordings from before the auto tune era but even very competent singers today have pitch correction applied because it is a part of the sound of modern music for singers to be exactly on pitch
But Mark, if your singer needs improving then that takes time and money and that, at the end of the day, means less profit. Why bother when for the low low price of $25 per month you can flip a switch and get pitch perfect vocals without all that expensive hassle of properly training your artist with a vocal coach. 💲💲💲
Using auto tune in a live opera performance would be sacrilege, not that they could on stage but, in the recording. I believe even Pavarotti was booed off stage once because he sang a high note flat?
'Mechanical' is the perfect word to describe how this sounds. And you're right it is sacrilege! Should come with a warning label...THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN AUTOTUNED! I would love to know what Brian, Roger and John think about this crap. Thanks so much for shining the light on this subject! ~~Katerina
Well, I think everyone is certain, at this point, that John will not object or comment on anything. As for Brian and Roger...guess we'll have to see if this has happened to any of their vocals.
I feel autotuning a live concert vocal is a far greater deception than the same for a studio vocal, because in a live setting you’re expecting a performance to be an indication of actual raw ability, warts and all, whereas autotuning a live concert vocal colours the listener’s perception of that singer’s true live ability that’s not consistent with the reality. I’d absolutely not be happy with retrospectively autotuning old recordings, and I’d definitely want to know
Btw, I love how incensed you are about this. We’re all feeling the same here. Freddie would hate this whole industry deception - but he’d absolutely love that you’re doing this work to show us true believers the sad reality of the modern music industry.
Let Freddie be Freddie Damnit. This really hurts. I wouldn't want people to change my vocal or any art I have crested. All art has nuisances. It's a real shame.
I agree, I'm sitting here crying, realising we can't do anything about it. Except to say someone in the Queen organisation gives us an open door to say STOP IT. WRITE TO THE QUEEN FAN CLUB GET MOMENTUM GOING TO PUT A STOP TO THIS CRIME! Freddie said do anything but don't make me boring. So I guess wiping out his TRUTH isn't seen as boring....but it Is criminal.
I prefer to think that they didn't "allow" 5% through, but rather it was the spirit of Freddie punching through the Autotune in sheer raging defiance! Actually if you think about it, this is the audio version of photoshopping gorgeous models - because even they are not perfect enough - and totally misrepresenting what an actual human body is capable of being.
Sadly it's not THE record labels, but The Big Three Labels, that now control 80 percent of all music directly. Warner Sony Universal. That's why the music revolution against them and all this fakery.
Sadly they have been doing that for years...your computer talks to you, your phone talks to you, video games and sooooo much more. its already been happening. The saddest part is they are starting to destroy the AMAZING music of the past with this fakery. When will it stop!
I think it’s time for labels! Be fair to the listener and buyers. We should have a choice if we want to spend our money on something original or auto tuned and buy what we like! I just don’t like the fact of it being forced on us. Simply let us choose and maybe they’ll realize what listeners really want. Simple!
carla and drew have to agree should be up to us who are buying and listening to music regardless of budget most of us cant afford big bucks but want to have decent collection whatever you want to listen to not altered vocals etc. by big record companies dont know what is going on but seems not great for music lovers out there in contrast new govt mule single on now have to turn up indie bands need support rock on yall
I really can't see the reasoning behind this. The only people that would want to listen to a live Queen concert from 50 years ago would be hard-core fans and they're not going to be pleased with somebody screwing with the audio. We already have an almost perfect studio performance, it's like they're attempting to preserve an idea that Freddy was perfect, but they're destroying the point of listening to it live. Is mind-boggling.
Hi, Fil! Thanks for breaking down this terrible act against Freddie's vocals. Why on earth did they do that? It shows a total lack of respect for him. 🖤🤘🏽
I hate it, IIIIIII hate it. For me a lot of the personality and expression of art is in the inconsistencies, the "flaws". If an artist makes a recording and decides to correct some pitches because they want them more accurate, that's one thing, whether its splicing in another take or digital correction, I don't have any problem with non-natural means being employed to create a work of art - but that decision should be left with the artist. For me this kind of thing is messing with an historical artifact on top of robbing it of its uniqueness. I hated the new Star Wars, Star Trek TNG, Red Dwarf releases with "Improved" effects too. I think as far as possible when things are changing storage format or being re-released every effort should be made to preserve the original intentions, and even limitations of the work at the time it was produced. But then I hunt for CD-s from the 90s before they began compressing the crap out of everything. RANT. OVER. Great analysis as always Mr Fil.
I don't think they'll have chosen to leave a few off-pitch bits here and there... I think what they did was apply it across the board, and then removed a few places that were so awful that they couldn't keep them in it. Otherwise they probably would have done 100% if they could!
No, history should not be rewritten! When auto tune is used, something else is lost, namely originality, also feeling and passion. Doing it by stealth? Definitely unethical.
Queen Productions has pitch-corrected Freddie's voice since 2007 (maybe even 2004). Not only in live releases, but even studio outtakes (i.e. NOTW boxset) features them.
Sorry to sound ignorant, but can you please tell me who is involved in Queen Productions? As in the band, the label, the suits, or all of the above? Thanks for any insight you can provide!
Why though ? I think people appreciate perfect imperfections more. Merry Clayton’s voice crack on “ Gimme Shelter” , Adele’s broken ( emotive) voice , Bonham “ Moby dick” imagine if they did auto fills ? I don’t think I’m alone when I say that’s what people love about music the “ human” element.
It's the "imperfections" that give it emotion. Yes, I quoted imperfection because, IMO, performances can be perfect when played with emotion, not pitch-perfected and timed to a grid.
Thanks for highlighting this Fil. It's not a new development: All of Queen's archive live releases since 2014 (When the album that this track is taken from was released,) have had Freddie's vocals tampered with. I'm not sure who's to blame here - the label, the management or the band themselves, but they'll only stop if enough people complain.
I like the way you’re make musical technology and production understandable to the layperson. Absolutely I wouldn’t be happy with record labels altering the music we love in this way. It’s like an art gallery going over a Picasso to “finesse” his brush strokes, or correct mistakes. Or editing a Jane Austen novel to make it more relevant to today or something (!?).
Some years ago I watched one of the Alien movies, the one in the penal colony, and to my amazement and dismay a whole scene was different than I remembered it. I actually doubted my own memory for a bit. Was it an instance of the Mandela effect? It wasn't, they really changed it. People shouldn't do that just as they shouldn't change historical recordings. It's like changing historical records.
You've taught me a lot about how to determine a natural versus an Auto-tune version, and I was able to tell the difference in this short excerpt. Freddie's natural voice is so much more interesting; the Auto-tune version is "perfect" and very bland.
Hell yes it devalues the art! Live should be LIVE. Just as it was played. Heard of an instance prior to auto-tune when something was "fixed" on a performance by Arthur Rubenstein by the record company (his improvised passage was replaced with the written one). What is wrong with these people?
I totally agree with you. Leave the recordings alone especially from the past. I grew up listening to classic rock studio versions & live versions. I know how they are supposed to sound & it would completely spoil it for me, as it wouldn't sound right like I remember.
This song struck me as very odd all around. I have collected Queen boots since the 80s and FFMS has NEVER been captured as performed live until this release. It wasn’t on the bootleg versions of this show, but was rumoured to have been played a couple times during the tour. Then I listened and it sounded weird and different than the other songs. I wonder if this a franken-song made of outtakes or something.
I can’t believe that the group would have approved this, but either way it makes me sad. Knock this crap off and give Freddie back to us! He can’t speak up for himself, but I’m sure he would have told them to sod off. Don’t change legends, guys. True fans will not approve.
What really pisses me off when people compare Freddie to current singers (and I suspect part of the reason why they auto tuned him, other than it's industry standards) is that they magically forget he was working with different technology. Freddie never got to sing live with in-ear monitors. Yes, they had on-stage monitors, but the sound would get mixed with the roar of the crowd, the sounds coming from his fellow musicians and as he moved across the stage he'd get a different mix. Closer to Brian May, I'm sure the guitar was much louder (makes total sense), and so on. To compare Freddie's live vocals to current singers who can hear themselves perfectly and are isolated from other sounds is ignorant. I suspect this is also why Freddie didn't go for certain notes live. There are even some videos where the camera shows Freddie covering one of his ears in an attempt to hear himself better.
Autotune is an insult, not just to Freddie Mercury (and it is!), but to any performer - the imperfections are part of the performance! Autotune just drains the humanity out of an artist and their legacy.
It's stripping Freddie of his talent. You're left wondering if he really could sing or if it only sounds like it does because the computer 'fixed' it. He doesn't need it, never did, and I'm sure he would be against it now.
Just rewatched a documentary “Score: A Film Music Documentary.” One film composer, Brian Tyler, explains that the individual musicians in a section are all trying to play the same note but they are always off by “microns of a percentage.” He goes on to say that if they were perfect, the music would be terrible and compares it to putting auto-tune on Etta James. He says it would take all the soul out of it. I immediately thought of your videos on auto-tuning of live performances.
Freddie Mercury could never use auto tune as it was only created in 1997, six years after the death of the legendary musician. Farouk Bulsara will always be the best vocalist ever, with one of the most powerful, distinctive and versatile voices in overall music history.
got a cd in mail.,I did not expect that but I am really stoked.,me and my wife love it....and thank you for these auto tune vids ...you are awesome Fil
Like I have said for so long...Auto Tune has destroyed music. That not being good enough, they now are going back and destroying music of the past. The arogance of these people who know nothing about music. Where are the other band members?? They should be outraged.
This has to be the only video from you I dont know if I can watch all through. Only because of the sacrilege. It just hurts. But YOU are great, as always! 😁👍
I completely agree with your thinking, they must not change the original performance in any way... thank you for your efforts, young people, who are also the voice of us olders...
This would not have been allowed had Freddie been alive. He hated fake s#it. This is Brian and Roger allowing stuff like this since they are not as real as Freddie was. They allowed his bio pic to not tell his true and full story.
If I were a singer in a group I would make sure there was a clause in my contract stating that my voice will NEVER, ever, under any circumstances be auto-tuned.
There are so many reissues and 'remastered' recordings now, that one has to wonder how much autotuned stuff has been sneaked past us already. My biggest fear is that they do this with The Beatles back catalogue, or that they already have done.
Sacrilege! I sure hope Brian May (whom I really admire) or Roger Taylor didn't make this disgusting decision. Whoever did, deserves to have his/her speaking voice autonuned in every conversation they have till the day they die (hahaha! imagine having autotune on while speaking! How irritating that would be to others)!
The best part of live is that it is live. It sounds fresh and real, mistakes and all. I use youtube daily for music.. Old stuff and youtubers doing stuff live and not auto tuneified. For the older stuff, live or studio, i want the ORIGINALS!!!!!! You got to fight, for your right, to hear the oriiiiiginals.
With you Fil. Do not auto tune. EVER! If a performance is so out of pitch that it has to be auto tuned it should never have been recorded it the first place perhaps. I am a great Queen fan and I have everything on both album and CD and I will guard them with my life so that I never have to replace them with this stuff. Auto tune sounds exactly as the name implies. Artificial. Thanks for all of this explanation. I was not aware of all of this going on. I am so glad that you picked a Queen recording to do this. Because I know Queens recordings so well, I could really notice the difference. Keep up the good work Fil. Marilyn Kraemer
That's really bizarre. I saw Rick Beato's interview with Brian May and Brian sort of makes couple of anti-auto tune remarks. Auto-tune seems to be anathema to how Queen really approached music, no click tracks, completely live performances, so why someone (I'm guessing Brian, Roger, or John wouldn't know this) would change this is beyond me. It's an early performance, but those early performances were still absolutely magical. Such a shame (I noted that comments have been turned off on the original video!)
Fil dear, I’m loving you’re on the autotune rampage. 😁😉 You’re definitely a real singer with so much talent. We would love so much more from you if you could squeeze more out of your time!! Don’t let your gorgeous 💎voice go to waste!! 😭
Steve Rothery and Mark Kelly (Marillion) said exactly that about a painting from a museum when they talked about Brave, would someone go up to a Rembrandt painting and say "I know how to fix this up before displaying this before the public?" Leave original recordings alone Millenniums!!!!
To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park "Your sound engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
This should be from the 2014 "Queen Live At The Rainbow ’74" double album. I assume that means the entire album has been autotuned? I don't even get why they "fixed" it. There are some segments of ths song which Freddie sings in a different key than the album version anyway (like the "ploughman, Waggoner Will and types" section), so it's not like they made the live version match the studio version anyways.
I heard an interview with Annie Haslam of Renaissance and she will not (and did not) go back into the studio to "fix" her vocals if there was a bum note in the original studio recording, she left all "mistakes" in the mix, to show the nature of her vocals!!! Definitely a vocalist, who, to today, still has all 5 octaves, her vocals haven't been wrecked in time, no way will she use auto tune!!! 😊❤👍
I think you are on a mission. Good for you! A few years ago, Pat Benatar and Martina McBride did a “Crossroads”. Artists would be paired up and they would sing each other’s songs. If you could find a clip (or something) and do an analysis of the two singers it would be appreciated. Two power house vocals.
I agree. Sacrilege to use autotune. It shouldn’t never be used. It takes away the uniqueness. Maybe we would know who can actually sing these days… I wonder. No great artists anymore 😥 Freddie should not be auto tuned. ❤️Freddie❤️
My opinion: Rereleases will not be appreciated if they are going to be tampered with beyond making available in new formats. But for those folks who are just building up their library and are not knowledgeable, this stuff will creep in. Seems to me there would be a few courtcases coming along. I wonder if there is anyway to know if the band members agreed to autotune being applied or even had a hand in the application? Would the staff/engineer ever forward and have a discussion with Fil? (imagine this person/persons would be listed on the record/video) I wonder if this retro application of autotune now will start making vintage product increase in value? So much wondering your video generates! Thanks Fil for giving our braincells some exercise!
The dominant perspective in the music industry these days is to treat music as a product rather than an art form. There are true artists out there, but the trend is to produce product that is similar to what is currently popular. Seems the same is true of the film industry, original ideas are suppressed in favour of those with an already popular track record. That’s why you see all these re-makes of older films & television shows.
Thank you for this! Such a shame! Big time fan of Queen and Freddie Mercury. Saw them live twice - Drammen, Norway in 1982 and Stockholm in 1986. I remember Freddie Mercury's performance as fantastic. Of course, his pitch wasn't perfect all the time - he was singing live! I can't believe they autotuned him. It's literally like removing an essential part of his performance. Making Freddie Mercury a lot less Freddie Mercury... And I'm so frustrated that the use of autotune has become so dominant in popular music - apparently with little objections. I read an interview with EDM producers Espen Berg and Simen Eriksrud (Coldplay, Bastille, OneRepublic, Mike Posner) for NRK (Norwegian BBC, so to speak). They've been using autotune on their artists for so long and to the extent that they now feel physically unwell when they listen to a song where the vocals hasn't been autotuned. They even give "Halo" by Beyoncé as an example of a song they won't listen to, because it hasn't been autotuned..! Here's from the interview - alas, in norwegian: "I dag har Simen og Espen blitt så vande med å høyre hundre prosent reine tonar, at dei rett og slett blir fysisk uvel av å høyre popmusikk utan autotune.- Det er så surt! Det er heilt forferdeleg, seier Simen.Og berre så det er sagt. Dette gjeld også langt større band og artistar enn norske Infinity. Songen som har plaga Simen mest i det siste, er ein av favorittane til den 12 år gamle dottera hans.- Ho høyrer på den «Halo»-låten til Beyoncé. Og der er det heller ikkje autotune på. Eg orkar ikkje å høyre på det, altså. Eg klarer det ikkje, seier han fortvila."
I was into high tech audio in the mid seventies . There was so much at one time. What I heard is that the Japanese were competing against each other to come out with something new. Eco tracks and mixing or blending vocals with instruments was talked about a lot . Many rummers of voice overs . Lennon did that a bit, with help of Martin. McCartney did a lot to Linda's voice . I think one of the Stones LPs was recently discovered released at lower than 33.33. Many bands in the mid seventies all of a sudden sounded too clean and Queen was one of them. McCartney and wings with Linda was proved out. I've always loved the imperfections and as a Stones fan you had to like it love it ,because it's only Rock n roll.No auto tune for me . 😎
It’s not just on CZcams, this is how it was released on CD, on the deluxe edition of their Live at the Rainbow album. It’s Queen’s only live recording of this song, which makes it even sadder the producer has done that to it.
You are very musically inclined, I know you play the guitar, and your pitch singing a few notes is spot on. Do you sing as well?? I’ve learned my true knowledge from you, and so much at that. I’m always happy to see you 💖💖💖💖
To the question of, "does this devalue the art?", my answer is a definite yes. The same way a print of a van Gogh is worth only a fraction of the original oil painting. I think this is akin to revisionist history. Leave the historical live recordings original. I have heard so many stories in rock documentaries over the years where they remember a riff, or a line that was changed or delivered differently in concert, and they get all misty because hey are snapped right back to being 18, 24 years old and actually here for what became musical and cultural history. I don't care so much about remastering to clean up errant noises and to enhance the mix as originally recorded, but tell me you did that, I can then decide for myself if it is what I want to purchase. Queen released remastered albums several years back, and every one of them states that it was remastered. I've listened to them against the unaltered releases, and I have chosen some tracks from each depending on how any particular track hit my ears. But the bottom line is, I was choosing, not given only the redone altered versions. Again, thank you for carrying the torch for the natural, human sound.
Totally against using auto-tune. So sad to see the record label using it with Freddie Mercury. The man had a great voice and did not need auto-tune. I would love for Fil to do one on Mickey Thomas someday.
From the stories Brian tells about their studio time in 74/75, a lot of the main vocal tracks were one or two takes, due to tape machines being poorly maintained.
You're entirely right, this should not be permitted. If I wanted perfect sounding vocal on a live performance, then I'd just listen to the original album. It's bad enough when a band goes into the studio to re-record a guitar solo for example to dub onto a supposedly live performance (yes Thin Lizzy, I'm looking at you) but for someone to tamper with recordings from so long ago in the belief that it's what the fans want is just wrong on every level. I'm presuming this is the extended version of the Live At The Rainbow '74 album (one album of theirs I don't own) and after seeing your diagnoses of how it's been doctored, one I will not seek to buy. I'm sure that, like the Live Magic LP, I wouldn't play it twice! Thank you for your videos, I enjoy watching your work.
Thanks, Fil. I finally get it. Wow, How could they??? It’s unmistakable. And they did this to Pavarotti too? Didn’t they sing well enough - the world thought so. This is outrageous. Aren’t there any legal protections for intellectual property, especially in the cases where the original artists have passed away? It is SACRILEGE. Art should be untouchable.
I think I’ve come up with a good analogy for auto tune. When I hear it the sound strikes me as soapy or squeaky. Which reminds me of tasting cilantro. Only 12% of people have the gene that makes cilantro taste soapy, but if you do have it, it’s basically inedible. I’d guess it’s pretty similar when hearing auto tune.
For f***s sake, is nothing sacred anymore?! bloody hell! boycott these -insert the worst insult you can think of, 'cause I can't find one bad enough for them-, please.
Interesting video and Thanks for sharing Fil. Cool poster that I bought. So that you wouldn’t be by yourself. You have company. Hope that you like blondes. Catch you on Saturday. Rock 🎸🤟
Did you send them messages when they so obviously lied about Freddie and cut out his last years in his own movie? It was at that point i lost respect for Brian and Roger. John is the only one left with respect intact.
It is simple sacrilege to autotune a live recording of Freddie. The world has reached a new low point.
Dreadful thing to do to art. Like "fixing" Van Gogh.
The World is down to 3 Labels, The Big Three Labels, no women, no people of color, just 3 businessmen and their marketing ploy running virtually everything directly or through lawsuits or coercion. This is outrageous and sacrilegious like Fil said. 1955 to 1985 was hundreds of labels competing, not 3 , and the music shows it! No to an auto tune revision of music history!
This is awefull...like turning the complete works of Shakespeare into a kiddy cartoon show, or cutting half of Les Paul's fingers off. WTF were they thinking? Oops...
You took the words right out of my mouth! Almost exactly what I was going to comment.
It is indeed sacrilege, and it is based on the misconception that exact equal temperament pitch is always 'correct'. When you play guitar, you deliberately shape the notes with your fingers, maybe playing a note on pitch then bending it slightly sharp, for example. Sometimes you want a major third to sound 'bright', other times, you might want it to sound 'true' (which is quite a bit flatter than equal temperament). Singers do the same things, though they have arguably got even more control than guitarists. But it can certainly be a deliberate part of a performance. It is both arrogant and ignorant for some studio engineer to alter it.
Agree with your analysis. Freddie may have had a sense of humor, but I’m sure he isn’t laughing in heaven. He protected his voice so much that he never fixed his teeth. To auto tune Freddie is a mortal sin.
I wonder what his friends, family and fellow musicians would think about this or if they had any legal recourse to sue those who made these decisions.
This comment! Yes.
Freddie's overbite did not need any fixing.
Same reason Streisand never had a nose job.
Wouldn't surprise me if it was Brian Mays idea!!!!
No no no! The original sound is what makes a song special! Auto tune is like giving a song a face lift. Don’t mess with it!!!
Nice analogy! Like a *botched* face-lift, too! 😄
@@mightyV444 🤣
@@CatsInHats-S.CrouchingTiger - 😁
Yes, yes, YES!!!!😬
Hmmm, “moon-face music” 👍🏻
Personally, if they're auto-tuning it then it's no-longer "live". Doing that to Queen is an insult to Freddie, the band, and to the fans.
Im glad I'm not a fan of today's queen, they absolutely suck!
If I may quote the J. Geils Band, "My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold"
Why, or why would anyone think that Freddie Mercury's voice needs to be "improved?" This is madness. NO, NO, NO autotuning of old recordings!
I was a record producer in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I was a DJ on the #1 rock station in America and produced records as well. We didn't have autotune. What we DID have, as you've mentioned, was the ability to do multiple takes and then either use the best take or patch the best takes together. Comping was yesterday's autotune. Was it cheating? Some said it was but the bottom line is that it was still the artist making the sounds, not a computer. The technology allowed us to punch in and out of tracks to get a "perfect take" but if the artist couldn't hit the notes we didn't manipulate the notes to do so (although we theoretically could have by simply changing the pitch). It took time (and money) but the singer had to be able to sing. Also, as you pointed out previously, this meant that the artist had to be able to hit the notes live onstage, as well. A perfectly autotuned recording cannot be duplicated in concert (unless that is autotuned, as well). Autotune saves time and money. But it also takes a human voice and essentially turns it into a computer-generated one. It sets up unrealistic expectations for concertgoers and, as we've mentioned in other comments, unachievable targets for aspiring vocalists. Not to mention that it sends a message to recording artists that they don't need to work on their craft because the machines will make it right.
You've said it all right here.
@@cindypowers4993 Thank you. Every time I see one of Fil's autotune vids I have all those thoughts in my head and go from annoyed to angry (at the industry, not at Fil). I just finally had to put them down on "paper." I am thrilled Fil is doing these because people need to understand why it matters.
@@larry4111 Of course it matters Larry! You've laid it all out quite eloquently in your comment, and everyone should read it, and reflect. And Fil's analysis is "spot on". I applaud his efforts to make fans aware of what's happening in the music industry.✌️
God, I would love someone of your experience having a conversation with Fil in one of his lives or even recorded to more broadly disseminate this information!
Yes, when LP’s were produced, they were magnificent and just when you thought nothing could beat such precision, and you went to a concert, you could see the live professionalism of musicians, it was incredible. Albums couldn’t get better, but live was even better. It made it memorable how musicians had to have it together! Thanks for sharing! 🙏
Freddie Mercury quote "We are in a golden age of music. There will be a time when technology becomes so advanced that we'll rely on it to make music rather than talent. Music will lose its soul" It's so true
Freddie Mercury never said that. Just someone that someone made a meme of using his picture!!
The most disgusting implication is that there seems to be producers, engineers and/or consumers that have had their ears “normalized” to the point that the auto-tune sound is preferable to legitimate live recordings that predate auto-tune.
I have no interest in hearing artists’ recordings prior to auto-tune re-released in a remixed, auto-tuned rendition. Be it Freddie, Michael Jackson, Peter Noone, Barry Manilow, Julio Iglesias, Barry White, or Jimmy Hendrix just because they prefer the artificial pitch accuracy to the original art. To do this without notice, is fraudulent, and should be dealt with accordingly. The art to me is what was captured in studio, or on the soundboard at a live performance. When digital remastering became possible, there was a controversy about destroying the artistry of the original post-production by those wanting to explore the new technology. This stealth reissue of auto-tuned Queen Live performances shows that the original concern over altering the original art in ways new technology makes available years and decades later was and is skepticism rightly applied. There is no value to some skillful engineer applying auto-tune or pitch correction to The Beatles. Future listeners to the Beatles should hear the albums as released with all the production decisions intact - be they monophonic or stereo. This subjective technical “improvement” is an affront to the vocalists, musicians, recording engineers and producers that together created the art that the fans adored, IMO.
This would make me abandon any support for this publisher because of this fraud. If auto-tune, etc., has a big enough following to expand their market… then be up front and present it as such and let the market choose between original and technically altered mixes. It seems that you would need more than publishing rights to alter the recordings in this way. Hopefully the artists and the engineers will help nip this abomination in the bud before it grows like a cancer killing the music of yesteryear!🙏
We need the artists and engineers to speak up and , to use a phrase from a famous rock song, lay it on the line(super cover by Wings of Pegasus). Where do you stand, and how far do you want to go, before nothing is real and authentic anymore?
If live Queen performances on the official Queen channel are being autotuned or pitch corrected, it’s clearly too late. The abomination is pretty much complete.
@@darkprose O say it isn't so!!!
This is yet another reason why I'll hang onto my physical copies of all my music because it can't be altered by anyone ever at anytime and although Spotify is nice to have it does not replace a physical ,tangible record collection.
@@stephenhardy9753 I dread Freddie's work/ performance being subjected to 'pitch-correction conversation. Disgusting. . .
A skilled vocalist (such as Freddie Mercury) will sometimes sing a note here and there slightly off-pitch to create tension within that particular section. Auto-tuning essentially destroys that. Although it may still sound good, the feel of the passage has been altered. Other than for purpose of restoration, I'm not in favor of "fixing" classic recordings - just as I am not in favor of straightening the lines in a Picasso painting!
Not just pitch. If the voice sounds weak, if it cracks, if he made a mistake on the piano or if May or Deacon hit the wrong note, they overdub with parts of other concerts or fix it in the studio. Pitch correction is all over the place in all recent video releases of them live.
This was exactly what I was thinking. The autotune flattened out the expressions he most likely intentionally put in. Sad.
What a shame! To answer the question about should auto tune/pitch correction be used on archived recordings (pre-auto tune era)? No and hell no! If it is used, they should say so and then throw it straight in the garbage so we don't have to waste our time with it.
As a music teacher for the past 27 years, if a singer is so bad that they need pitch correction for a vocal performance, I say the band should get a better singer. Or, give the singer the opportunity to be a better singer (better training, vocal rest, etc.).
Besides, it's not about having a "perfect" performance anyway. It's the imperfections that are the life of live performance!
Well said!!!
Sure pitch correction shouldn’t be used on recordings from before the auto tune era but even very competent singers today have pitch correction applied because it is a part of the sound of modern music for singers to be exactly on pitch
But Mark, if your singer needs improving then that takes time and money and that, at the end of the day, means less profit. Why bother when for the low low price of $25 per month you can flip a switch and get pitch perfect vocals without all that expensive hassle of properly training your artist with a vocal coach. 💲💲💲
Using auto tune in a live opera performance would be sacrilege, not that they could on stage but, in the recording. I believe even Pavarotti was booed off stage once because he sang a high note flat?
@@cheekychappy1234 Hahahaha!!! I knew I was in the wrong business!
With you on this 100%. No they shouldnt auto tune!
'Mechanical' is the perfect word to describe how this sounds. And you're right it is sacrilege! Should come with a warning label...THIS MUSIC HAS BEEN AUTOTUNED!
I would love to know what Brian, Roger and John think about this crap.
Thanks so much for shining the light on this subject!
~~Katerina
I was just thinking about fellow band members, friends and family would think and if they have any power or legal recourse.
They gave their blessing, or it would not have been released.
Well, I think everyone is certain, at this point, that John will not object or comment on anything. As for Brian and Roger...guess we'll have to see if this has happened to any of their vocals.
@@dixienormous2440 They may not have been informed or even asked for their blessing
I feel autotuning a live concert vocal is a far greater deception than the same for a studio vocal, because in a live setting you’re expecting a performance to be an indication of actual raw ability, warts and all, whereas autotuning a live concert vocal colours the listener’s perception of that singer’s true live ability that’s not consistent with the reality. I’d absolutely not be happy with retrospectively autotuning old recordings, and I’d definitely want to know
I'm glad they didn't screw with "somebody *toooooooo*" where he starts flat and brings it up to pitch. Always one of my favorite Freddy moments.
Don't give them ideas.
Riight?!
they may have on Rock Montreal.
Maybe I’m strange…but that note grates on me every time. LOL! He kept the rake…& that’s his prerogative.
@@raineydaygirl5970 😃 I get it...😆
Btw, I love how incensed you are about this. We’re all feeling the same here.
Freddie would hate this whole industry deception - but he’d absolutely love that you’re doing this work to show us true believers the sad reality of the modern music industry.
They should be ashamed of themselves! Freddie's voice was perfect straight out of his mouth! Autotune is what's WRONG with music today....so sad😭
Let Freddie be Freddie Damnit. This really hurts. I wouldn't want people to change my vocal or any art I have crested. All art has nuisances. It's a real shame.
I agree, I'm sitting here crying, realising we can't do anything about it. Except to say someone in the Queen organisation gives us an open door to say STOP IT. WRITE TO THE QUEEN FAN CLUB GET MOMENTUM GOING TO PUT A STOP TO THIS CRIME! Freddie said do anything but don't make me boring. So I guess wiping out his TRUTH isn't seen as boring....but it Is criminal.
I prefer to think that they didn't "allow" 5% through, but rather it was the spirit of Freddie punching through the Autotune in sheer raging defiance!
Actually if you think about it, this is the audio version of photoshopping gorgeous models - because even they are not perfect enough - and totally misrepresenting what an actual human body is capable of being.
It feels almost as if the record labels are prepping us for the day when they can replace human vocals with machine generated ones.
I wouldn't be surprised if some songs already were completely computer generated. Technically it is already possible, just really expensive.
@@tabularasa0606 Most of today's mainstream 'pop' music sound that like. The vocals don't sound human.
Sadly it's not THE record labels, but The Big Three Labels, that now control 80 percent of all music directly. Warner Sony Universal. That's why the music revolution against them and all this fakery.
Sadly they have been doing that for years...your computer talks to you, your phone talks to you, video games and sooooo much more. its already been happening. The saddest part is they are starting to destroy the AMAZING music of the past with this fakery. When will it stop!
I think it’s time for labels! Be fair to the listener and buyers. We should have a choice if we want to spend our money on something original or auto tuned and buy what we like! I just don’t like the fact of it being forced on us. Simply let us choose and maybe they’ll realize what listeners really want. Simple!
@Carla Murray... I agree! just like when we had a choice from Mono or Stereo recording.
carla and drew have to agree should be up to us who are buying and listening to music regardless of budget most of us cant afford big bucks but want to have decent collection whatever you want to listen to not altered vocals etc. by big record companies dont know what is going on but seems not great for music lovers out there in contrast new govt mule single on now have to turn up indie bands need support rock on yall
I really can't see the reasoning behind this. The only people that would want to listen to a live Queen concert from 50 years ago would be hard-core fans and they're not going to be pleased with somebody screwing with the audio. We already have an almost perfect studio performance, it's like they're attempting to preserve an idea that Freddy was perfect, but they're destroying the point of listening to it live. Is mind-boggling.
Hi, Fil!
Thanks for breaking down this terrible act against Freddie's vocals. Why on earth did they do that? It shows a total lack of respect for him.
🖤🤘🏽
I can't believe it !!! I am appalled....It takes all the live and soul and uniqueness of freddie's voice ! Why why why ?!?!
I hate it, IIIIIII hate it. For me a lot of the personality and expression of art is in the inconsistencies, the "flaws". If an artist makes a recording and decides to correct some pitches because they want them more accurate, that's one thing, whether its splicing in another take or digital correction, I don't have any problem with non-natural means being employed to create a work of art - but that decision should be left with the artist. For me this kind of thing is messing with an historical artifact on top of robbing it of its uniqueness. I hated the new Star Wars, Star Trek TNG, Red Dwarf releases with "Improved" effects too. I think as far as possible when things are changing storage format or being re-released every effort should be made to preserve the original intentions, and even limitations of the work at the time it was produced. But then I hunt for CD-s from the 90s before they began compressing the crap out of everything. RANT. OVER. Great analysis as always Mr Fil.
I don't think they'll have chosen to leave a few off-pitch bits here and there... I think what they did was apply it across the board, and then removed a few places that were so awful that they couldn't keep them in it. Otherwise they probably would have done 100% if they could!
No, history should not be rewritten! When auto tune is used, something else is lost, namely originality, also feeling and passion. Doing it by stealth? Definitely unethical.
Queen Productions has pitch-corrected Freddie's voice since 2007 (maybe even 2004). Not only in live releases, but even studio outtakes (i.e. NOTW boxset) features them.
Sorry to sound ignorant, but can you please tell me who is involved in Queen Productions? As in the band, the label, the suits, or all of the above? Thanks for any insight you can provide!
Why though ? I think people appreciate perfect imperfections more. Merry Clayton’s voice crack on “ Gimme Shelter” , Adele’s broken ( emotive) voice , Bonham “ Moby dick” imagine if they did auto fills ? I don’t think I’m alone when I say that’s what people love about music the “ human” element.
IMHO Taylor Swift is the same,it’s her imperfections while singing that make her songs so relatable.
It's the "imperfections" that give it emotion. Yes, I quoted imperfection because, IMO, performances can be perfect when played with emotion, not pitch-perfected and timed to a grid.
@@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat exactly what I meant tbf.
@@matthewleonardball2925 I hope you didn't think I was criticizing you. I was just adding to what you said. I agree with you wholeheartedly.
@@herbie_the_hillbillie_goat No not at all , take care .
Freddie should never be autotuned. Fil I agree with your reaction. Your reaction gets better as you go on.
Thanks for highlighting this Fil. It's not a new development: All of Queen's archive live releases since 2014 (When the album that this track is taken from was released,) have had Freddie's vocals tampered with. I'm not sure who's to blame here - the label, the management or the band themselves, but they'll only stop if enough people complain.
This made me jump straight to their page to comment but couldn't find a place to put one. How sad.
I like the way you’re make musical technology and production understandable to the layperson. Absolutely I wouldn’t be happy with record labels altering the music we love in this way. It’s like an art gallery going over a Picasso to “finesse” his brush strokes, or correct mistakes. Or editing a Jane Austen novel to make it more relevant to today or something (!?).
Yeah, and doing it without updating the foreword or whatever.
They should have to put a disclaimer on records when auto tune is used. Personally I think they have mutilated his beautiful voice with AT. Shame!
Some years ago I watched one of the Alien movies, the one in the penal colony, and to my amazement and dismay a whole scene was different than I remembered it. I actually doubted my own memory for a bit. Was it an instance of the Mandela effect? It wasn't, they really changed it.
People shouldn't do that just as they shouldn't change historical recordings. It's like changing historical records.
You've taught me a lot about how to determine a natural versus an Auto-tune version, and I was able to tell the difference in this short excerpt. Freddie's natural voice is so much more interesting; the Auto-tune version is "perfect" and very bland.
Hell yes it devalues the art!
Live should be LIVE. Just as it was played.
Heard of an instance prior to auto-tune when something was "fixed" on a performance by Arthur Rubenstein by the record company (his improvised passage was replaced with the written one).
What is wrong with these people?
I totally agree with you. Leave the recordings alone especially from the past. I grew up listening to classic rock studio versions & live versions. I know how they are supposed to sound & it would completely spoil it for me, as it wouldn't sound right like I remember.
I totally agree with you, Fil. No classic live performances should be autotuned!
This song struck me as very odd all around. I have collected Queen boots since the 80s and FFMS has NEVER been captured as performed live until this release. It wasn’t on the bootleg versions of this show, but was rumoured to have been played a couple times during the tour. Then I listened and it sounded weird and different than the other songs. I wonder if this a franken-song made of outtakes or something.
I can’t believe that the group would have approved this, but either way it makes me sad. Knock this crap off and give Freddie back to us! He can’t speak up for himself, but I’m sure he would have told them to sod off. Don’t change legends, guys. True fans will not approve.
What really pisses me off when people compare Freddie to current singers (and I suspect part of the reason why they auto tuned him, other than it's industry standards) is that they magically forget he was working with different technology. Freddie never got to sing live with in-ear monitors. Yes, they had on-stage monitors, but the sound would get mixed with the roar of the crowd, the sounds coming from his fellow musicians and as he moved across the stage he'd get a different mix. Closer to Brian May, I'm sure the guitar was much louder (makes total sense), and so on. To compare Freddie's live vocals to current singers who can hear themselves perfectly and are isolated from other sounds is ignorant. I suspect this is also why Freddie didn't go for certain notes live. There are even some videos where the camera shows Freddie covering one of his ears in an attempt to hear himself better.
Autotune is an insult, not just to Freddie Mercury (and it is!), but to any performer - the imperfections are part of the performance! Autotune just drains the humanity out of an artist and their legacy.
It's stripping Freddie of his talent. You're left wondering if he really could sing or if it only sounds like it does because the computer 'fixed' it. He doesn't need it, never did, and I'm sure he would be against it now.
Great respect to Led Zeppelin for refusing auto tune at their O2 2007 performance! Plant sounded amazing and given his age it is quite remarkable ❤️
the official release has some autotune at least (on Kashmir, but at least Plant admitted to it)
Just rewatched a documentary “Score: A Film Music Documentary.” One film composer, Brian Tyler, explains that the individual musicians in a section are all trying to play the same note but they are always off by “microns of a percentage.” He goes on to say that if they were perfect, the music would be terrible and compares it to putting auto-tune on Etta James. He says it would take all the soul out of it. I immediately thought of your videos on auto-tuning of live performances.
Good point. A string section and choir sounds "fat" because it's not perfectly in tune. And the irony is that we have effects like chorus for guitar.
Freddie Mercury could never use auto tune as it was only created in 1997, six years after the death of the legendary musician. Farouk Bulsara will always be the best vocalist ever, with one of the most powerful, distinctive and versatile voices in overall music history.
You understand that they can auto tune the recordings, right?
Thanks, Fil - great as usual. Someone needs to get on Instagram or Twitter and ask Brian why this travesty is happening (sorry - I don't use either).
got a cd in mail.,I did not expect that but I am really stoked.,me and my wife love it....and thank you for these auto tune vids ...you are awesome Fil
Thanks!
Definitely no autotune on live performances. Frankly wish it could be uninvented!
The worst thing invented in music.
Law requires food labels to say if they contain artificial flavors. This should be no different.
Like I have said for so long...Auto Tune has destroyed music. That not being good enough, they now are going back and destroying music of the past. The arogance of these people who know nothing about music. Where are the other band members?? They should be outraged.
I’m really depressed now. I didn’t even watched the whole video. Such a bummer. Is nothing sacred anymore?
WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
This has to be the only video from you I dont know if I can watch all through.
Only because of the sacrilege.
It just hurts.
But YOU are great, as always! 😁👍
Thanks!
NO AUTOTUNE ever!
I completely agree with your thinking, they must not change the original performance in any way... thank you for your efforts, young people, who are also the voice of us olders...
Thank you for sharing Fil, it's never disappointing.
This would not have been allowed had Freddie been alive. He hated fake s#it. This is Brian and Roger allowing stuff like this since they are not as real as Freddie was. They allowed his bio pic to not tell his true and full story.
If I were a singer in a group I would make sure there was a clause in my contract stating that my voice will NEVER, ever, under any circumstances be auto-tuned.
There are so many reissues and 'remastered' recordings now, that one has to wonder how much autotuned stuff has been sneaked past us already. My biggest fear is that they do this with The Beatles back catalogue, or that they already have done.
This is something that SHOULD NOT BE. To touch Freddie's vocals is just WRONG! Autotune be damned. 🎼🎶🎵🇨🇦🇨🇦
Sacrilege! I sure hope Brian May (whom I really admire) or Roger Taylor didn't make this disgusting decision. Whoever did, deserves to have his/her speaking voice autonuned in every conversation they have till the day they die (hahaha! imagine having autotune on while speaking! How irritating that would be to others)!
The best part of live is that it is live. It sounds fresh and real, mistakes and all.
I use youtube daily for music.. Old stuff and youtubers doing stuff live and not auto tuneified.
For the older stuff, live or studio, i want the ORIGINALS!!!!!!
You got to fight, for your right, to hear the oriiiiiginals.
With you Fil. Do not auto tune. EVER! If a performance is so out of pitch that it has to be auto tuned it should never have been recorded it the first place perhaps. I am a great Queen fan and I have everything on both album and CD and I will guard them with my life so that I never have to replace them with this stuff. Auto tune sounds exactly as the name implies. Artificial. Thanks for all of this explanation. I was not aware of all of this going on. I am so glad that you picked a Queen recording to do this. Because I know Queens recordings so well, I could really notice the difference. Keep up the good work Fil. Marilyn Kraemer
That's really bizarre. I saw Rick Beato's interview with Brian May and Brian sort of makes couple of anti-auto tune remarks. Auto-tune seems to be anathema to how Queen really approached music, no click tracks, completely live performances, so why someone (I'm guessing Brian, Roger, or John wouldn't know this) would change this is beyond me. It's an early performance, but those early performances were still absolutely magical. Such a shame (I noted that comments have been turned off on the original video!)
Fil dear, I’m loving you’re on the autotune rampage. 😁😉 You’re definitely a real singer with so much talent. We would love so much more from you if you could squeeze more out of your time!! Don’t let your gorgeous 💎voice go to waste!! 😭
Steve Rothery and Mark Kelly (Marillion) said exactly that about a painting from a museum when they talked about Brave, would someone go up to a Rembrandt painting and say "I know how to fix this up before displaying this before the public?" Leave original recordings alone Millenniums!!!!
Tks Phil! I have No knowledge base on music producton... your analysis is
Appreciated an enlightening
To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park "Your sound engineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
This should be from the 2014 "Queen Live At The Rainbow ’74" double album. I assume that means the entire album has been autotuned?
I don't even get why they "fixed" it. There are some segments of ths song which Freddie sings in a different key than the album version anyway (like the "ploughman, Waggoner Will and types" section), so it's not like they made the live version match the studio version anyways.
Actually the rest of the album is not autotuned, it is just this one song. It is something that has been discussed a lot in Queen fan circles.
I heard an interview with Annie Haslam of Renaissance and she will not (and did not) go back into the studio to "fix" her vocals if there was a bum note in the original studio recording, she left all "mistakes" in the mix, to show the nature of her vocals!!! Definitely a vocalist, who, to today, still has all 5 octaves, her vocals haven't been wrecked in time, no way will she use auto tune!!! 😊❤👍
She hopes! I’m sure Freddie Mercury and Luciano Pavarotti felt the same way, which could be why these vultures do it after they are gone.
OMG why would they do that? That's pathetic. DON'T MESS WITH FREDDIE'S VOCALS. Boy that pissed me off.
I think you are on a mission. Good for you! A few years ago, Pat Benatar and Martina McBride did a “Crossroads”. Artists would be paired up and they would sing each other’s songs.
If you could find a clip (or something) and do an analysis of the two singers it would be appreciated. Two power house vocals.
AND THANK YOU FOR CALLING THIS OUT!!!!!!!
I agree. Sacrilege to use autotune. It shouldn’t never be used. It takes away the uniqueness. Maybe we would know who can actually sing these days… I wonder. No great artists anymore 😥
Freddie should not be auto tuned.
❤️Freddie❤️
Will they start autotuning Coltrane’s saxophone next?
I’d be surprised Roger and Brian were aware of this before hand.
I have no words. 😳 Other than: Ty Fil for drawing attention to this sacrilege 🙌 It’s time to put an end to the madness.
I feel that Freddie Mercury would have taken autotune as a personal insult to his craft.
The voice isn't alive when it has been lobotomized.
My opinion: Rereleases will not be appreciated if they are going to be tampered with beyond making available in new formats. But for those folks who are just building up their library and are not knowledgeable, this stuff will creep in. Seems to me there would be a few courtcases coming along.
I wonder if there is anyway to know if the band members agreed to autotune being applied or even had a hand in the application?
Would the staff/engineer ever forward and have a discussion with Fil? (imagine this person/persons would be listed on the record/video)
I wonder if this retro application of autotune now will start making vintage product increase in value?
So much wondering your video generates! Thanks Fil for giving our braincells some exercise!
The dominant perspective in the music industry these days is to treat music as a product rather than an art form. There are true artists out there, but the trend is to produce product that is similar to what is currently popular. Seems the same is true of the film industry, original ideas are suppressed in favour of those with an already popular track record. That’s why you see all these re-makes of older films & television shows.
Thank you for this!
Such a shame! Big time fan of Queen and Freddie Mercury. Saw them live twice - Drammen, Norway in 1982 and Stockholm in 1986. I remember Freddie Mercury's performance as fantastic. Of course, his pitch wasn't perfect all the time - he was singing live!
I can't believe they autotuned him. It's literally like removing an essential part of his performance. Making Freddie Mercury a lot less Freddie Mercury...
And I'm so frustrated that the use of autotune has become so dominant in popular music - apparently with little objections.
I read an interview with EDM producers Espen Berg and Simen Eriksrud (Coldplay, Bastille, OneRepublic, Mike Posner) for NRK (Norwegian BBC, so to speak). They've been using autotune on their artists for so long and to the extent that they now feel physically unwell when they listen to a song where the vocals hasn't been autotuned.
They even give "Halo" by Beyoncé as an example of a song they won't listen to, because it hasn't been autotuned..!
Here's from the interview - alas, in norwegian:
"I dag har Simen og Espen blitt så vande med å høyre hundre prosent reine tonar, at dei rett og slett blir fysisk uvel av å høyre popmusikk utan autotune.- Det er så surt! Det er heilt forferdeleg, seier Simen.Og berre så det er sagt. Dette gjeld også langt større band og artistar enn norske Infinity. Songen som har plaga Simen mest i det siste, er ein av favorittane til den 12 år gamle dottera hans.- Ho høyrer på den «Halo»-låten til Beyoncé. Og der er det heller ikkje autotune på. Eg orkar ikkje å høyre på det, altså. Eg klarer det ikkje, seier han fortvila."
I was into high tech audio in the mid seventies . There was so much at one time. What I heard is that the Japanese were competing against each other to come out with something new. Eco tracks and mixing or blending vocals with instruments was talked about a lot . Many rummers of voice overs . Lennon did that a bit, with help of Martin. McCartney did a lot to Linda's voice . I think one of the Stones LPs was recently discovered released at lower than 33.33. Many bands in the mid seventies all of a sudden sounded too clean and Queen was one of them. McCartney and wings with Linda was proved out. I've always loved the imperfections and as a Stones fan you had to like it love it ,because it's only Rock n roll.No auto tune for me . 😎
It’s not just on CZcams, this is how it was released on CD, on the deluxe edition of their Live at the Rainbow album.
It’s Queen’s only live recording of this song, which makes it even sadder the producer has done that to it.
My answer to your question is absolutely categorically no! They're completely taking the piss doing this to Freddie.
You are very musically inclined, I know you play the guitar, and your pitch singing a few notes is spot on.
Do you sing as well??
I’ve learned my true knowledge from you, and so much at that. I’m always happy to see you 💖💖💖💖
No, I wouldn't want Auto-Tune releases. Thanks for pointing this out.
You are so knowledgeable enjoy your thoughts. No one like our Freddie.
To the question of, "does this devalue the art?", my answer is a definite yes. The same way a print of a van Gogh is worth only a fraction of the original oil painting. I think this is akin to revisionist history. Leave the historical live recordings original. I have heard so many stories in rock documentaries over the years where they remember a riff, or a line that was changed or delivered differently in concert, and they get all misty because hey are snapped right back to being 18, 24 years old and actually here for what became musical and cultural history. I don't care so much about remastering to clean up errant noises and to enhance the mix as originally recorded, but tell me you did that, I can then decide for myself if it is what I want to purchase. Queen released remastered albums several years back, and every one of them states that it was remastered. I've listened to them against the unaltered releases, and I have chosen some tracks from each depending on how any particular track hit my ears. But the bottom line is, I was choosing, not given only the redone altered versions.
Again, thank you for carrying the torch for the natural, human sound.
Totally against using auto-tune. So sad to see the record label using it with Freddie Mercury. The man had a great voice and did not need auto-tune. I would love for Fil to do one on Mickey Thomas someday.
From the stories Brian tells about their studio time in 74/75, a lot of the main vocal tracks were one or two takes, due to tape machines being poorly maintained.
You're entirely right, this should not be permitted. If I wanted perfect sounding vocal on a live performance, then I'd just listen to the original album. It's bad enough when a band goes into the studio to re-record a guitar solo for example to dub onto a supposedly live performance (yes Thin Lizzy, I'm looking at you) but for someone to tamper with recordings from so long ago in the belief that it's what the fans want is just wrong on every level. I'm presuming this is the extended version of the Live At The Rainbow '74 album (one album of theirs I don't own) and after seeing your diagnoses of how it's been doctored, one I will not seek to buy. I'm sure that, like the Live Magic LP, I wouldn't play it twice!
Thank you for your videos, I enjoy watching your work.
If Freddie wanted it perfectly in tune he’d have sung it that way.
Thanks, Fil. I finally get it. Wow, How could they??? It’s unmistakable. And they did this to Pavarotti too? Didn’t they sing well enough - the world thought so. This is outrageous. Aren’t there any legal protections for intellectual property, especially in the cases where the original artists have passed away? It is SACRILEGE. Art should be untouchable.
I think I’ve come up with a good analogy for auto tune. When I hear it the sound strikes me as soapy or squeaky. Which reminds me of tasting cilantro. Only 12% of people have the gene that makes cilantro taste soapy, but if you do have it, it’s basically inedible. I’d guess it’s pretty similar when hearing auto tune.
For f***s sake, is nothing sacred anymore?! bloody hell! boycott these -insert the worst insult you can think of, 'cause I can't find one bad enough for them-, please.
Interesting video and Thanks for sharing Fil. Cool poster that I bought. So that you wouldn’t be by yourself. You have company. Hope that you like blondes. Catch you on Saturday. Rock 🎸🤟
I'm going to send a message to Brian and Roger.... it's so wrong. Freddie said, do anything you like but don't make me boring... this is MEGA boring!
Did you send them messages when they so obviously lied about Freddie and cut out his last years in his own movie? It was at that point i lost respect for Brian and Roger. John is the only one left with respect intact.
I was reading about the new technology they used on the new Beatles movie and wondered if they were going to mess with the vocal pitches.
100% agree with everything you say. It never even occurred to me that producers might retroactively tune live recordings. My gast is flabbered.