Modern Music's Death By Auto-Tune
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- čas přidán 14. 06. 2021
- In this episode I discuss the over use and impact of Auto-Tune which has become ubiquitous in all genres of modern music.
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Its like plastic surgery. Always striving for what we think is perfect, not realizing that the imperfections are what makes us/music/basically anything interesting and unique and real.
nah you have old ears
❤️❤️❤️
Plenty of singers can sing perfectly in key without autotune. Using the word "imperfections" sounds like you enjoy out of tune singers.
@@danielbentley7117 yes actually. That’s EXACTLY what they mean. Human imperfections, mistakes, are what make music have feel. Why do people double track instruments? For example, why do you double track a guitar? Why not just duplicate the track in your DAW? Because all’s it will do is make it louder, even if you modify certain parts of the copied track, it has no big, grand dangerous feel.
@@footos8511 Double tracking doesn't disprove my point. Doing multiple takes actually hides mistakes in timing and pitch because your brain hears the average of all the takes together, instead of the bad notes or phrasing of each individual take. Similar to how a chorus effect works, by shifting the pitch above and below the performance.
"The only people who got record deals were people who could perform live" - that's a statement that goes so far beyond just singing.
Van Halen with DLR, hold my Whisky. Terrible live band musically speaking.
You can get a record deal as a writer instrumentalist producer or even mixing or mastering engineer
@@Dayandcounting dlr was never about vocal prowess, hes a front man and a showman and fronted the best work VH did, also a decent lyricist, they arent supper deep but its catchy and you can sing along to dozens of his songs which to me is the mark of a good songwriter
@@Dayandcounting Van Hagar was a bad ass live band though. Sammy is simply an amazing singer.
@@Dayandcounting
I saw Van Halen in 1980 and they were the exact opposite of terrible.
Auto-tune is one of the products of a fast-paced society. Everything is rushed.
Music is passion. Creating music requires patience.
no it doesnt! It requires whatever it happens to require at that moment. Hard work and patience doesnt equate great music. It's not like building a house.
Thelonious Coltrane. Agreed in full. It is also one of the products of a plastic society; one where the average IQ of humans - all over the planet - is halving ever day.
@@atta1798 "progress", the word people use to ignore their moral compasses...
@@atta1798 There's more than one logical fallacy in that reply - and sadly nothing else. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.
@@atta1798 Deflect more, buddy. It's hard to miss just how unhinged you are.
How did I manage to stumble upon this genius? Rick, how do you even sleep at night with all of that knowledge in your brain? The names, the words, the vocabulary, the theory, the notes, the chords, the genres. Amazing.
If we could save people's brains in a jar to keep their knowledge, Rick's brain would be one I would choose.
@@heysolley not if I get to it first
@@sara505sings : That sounds like a challenge LoL
@@heysolley No need to save it in a jar, Rick is sharing it openly here for everyone's benefit :)
"The better the singer's voice, the harder it is to believe what they are saying. So I use my faults to an advantage" -David Byrne
68
Nice handle by the way, Sudo! ;)
TAKE A LOOK AT THESE HANDS
Byrne's voice is great. Totally gave Talking Heads most of their character.
Your pseudonym has the subconscious effect of giving system admins an overwhelming urge to backup all their servers.
@@NorthernKitty Honour your mistakes as hidden intentions - Brian Eno Oblique Strategy cards
Everything we call ‘character’ is the deviation from perfection. So perfection to me is characterlessness. - Brian Eno
If you make a mistake, do something creative with it. - Eno
My favorite use of Autotune is as a sort of vocal assistant. I recorded a vocalist who had trouble with pitches. I took the first take, and autotuned the heck out of it. Then recorded a vocal take using the tuned track as sort of a guide for the vocalist. Afterwards, muted the tuned track, and the second track without autotune is perfectly acceptable. I find that even I can sing better with my own voice as a pitch reference.
I would suggest that someone who can't sing on pitch when required is not really a vocalist.
@@cjay2 The vocalist is a good friend who used to be a fantastic vocalist and entertainer, but due to a series of tragedies and health issues, needs help and a confidence boost. Just trying to help.
A " VOCALIST who had trouble with pitches " ....HAD TO STOP and shut up .!!!!!
I can see it being a good tool for learning. I play bass but can't sing, but wanna find my voice more or less.
@@jean-lucbersou758 Stfu dude, read his other comments before spouting nonsense.
This isn't only informative, it's also entertaining. Great storyteller, and teacher. Keep it up, Rick! Cheers
Rick: "you want it to be out of tune a bit".
Me: "my time has come"
LOL
I feel ya brother
I've trained my whole life for this...
Ha!!!!
50 cents is still fixable, a few dollars isn't.
"So what did people used to do before auto-tune? Well, they would sing it until they got it right."
Such a simple, grand observation.
It was easier to because most of them could sing. Today when you can't sing. It wouldn't matter if you sang it a million times it would be bad. So you have to look they get the machine behind you and write your music and auto tune your terrible vocals.
Rick. You commented that the slight imperfections in someone's voice gives it the character that makes it almost unique to them. Recently I commented on the video of another music analyst CZcamsr (Wings of Pegasus). He was comparing the waveforms of Karen Carpenter's vocals from both a Live version and a recorded version of _"Close to You"_ (of course, no autotune in 1971!). It was fascinating to see how close she gets Live to the way she sang it on the studio album. They were similar, but the waveforms don't lie, and they are proof to debunk those who say Karen mimed or lip-synced and never actually sang Live. The waveforms also made it clear that she almost always sang her vibrato ever so slightly flat - I wonder whether that flatness is what gave her voice the characteristic sound that you immediately recognize as Karen the instant you hear it.
Someone I know would say that she sings "blue", which I love and is an art in itself.
I was the lead vocalist of a band back in the 80's and all I had at my disposal was simple reverb. If you sucked as a singer, reverb was not going to save you. You either had the ability or you didn't. I miss those days.
When Believe came out, it was considered a cool effect that gave the song a dance music vibe. Everyone knew Cher could sing. Now while some use auto-tune for effect, others use it as a crutch for poor vocal skills.
Bon Iver is another example of someone who can really sing, but has used Autotune as a cool effect.
The thing with Cher is that they didn't try to hide the fact that it was a vocal effect, and it really made her clean voice pop in the chorus. The way Autotune is used today, they essentially try to trick the listener into thinking the performer is a perfect signer.
yes, on "Believe" it was an effect, much like the vocoder was in the 1970s and 1980s
@@toddbernstein3407 yessss!! The song "Woods" on the early Blood Bank EP is actually one of my favorite examples of this!!
@@toddbernstein3407 same with Billie Eilish.
I'm not against autotune, I'm against people getting famous because autotune will compensate for their lack or absense of talent.
Excellent comment
They got famous because the fans like the sound. If they didn't they wouldn't get famous. Hate the fans not the artist.
@@danielj26 No I hate both.
@@Flippokid I'm saying you are the minority or they wouldn't be top 40. You also hate Hollywood makeup and driving cars instead of horses too?
You can have talent and still use autotune, there are many aspects of music that aren't vocals. People who usually use autotune as a tool in electronic or ambient music still have talent.
I was amazed recently to discover that many young people can't hear it. I was complaining that everyone sounded like robots and they have no idea what I meant.
Freddie Mercury was capable of double tracking his vocals so perfectly that it started to fase/chorus. Brian talks about that during an interview.
He's a great example of an amazing vocalist with great accuracy who still had tons of imperfections. To me imperfections add character and aren't always a bad thing. If singers like Freddie didn't try cover their imperfections up I don't see why the industry nowadays wants to.
Auto-tune is the high-fructose corn syrup of music.
At least high fructose corn syrup has good taste.
@@JasonTHutchinson but try downing the bottle
I was listening to Baby Love (Supremes) just the other day at it was like eating a plate of fresh vegetables after a month of eating fast food.
Only Daft Punk can makes A-T tracks masterpiece.
@@pearcy5206 like Auto-Tune, is only good in small doses.
There's something about hearing an artist straining for a note and then finally reaching it that gives me goosebumps
That's what I love about singing. If it's a really hard note, like a Bb4 and up, getting that note is so satisfying for me because of how much work I had to put into getting it. Autotune just kills any satisfaction in singing.
Not strain, reaching for it. Straining for a note means poor technique which will damage the vocal cords. One of the singing technique channels does a series on how the voices of singers like Mariah and Whitney for example, changed over time. Both of them did damage to their voices - Mariah through bad technique and Whitney through her addictions, and even they started to strain. So, straining is a sign something's not right.
One… twenty one GUNS!
Oh, not like that.
A good example would be Judas Priest and Iron Maiden for the metal genre. There are instances in their songs where the singers are doing as you described. Its awesome.
Rick, you articulated the state of auto-tune very well. I'll personally take the Freddie Mercury, Joni Mitchell vocals every time.
Omg... the first thing that happened when I clicked play was a horrid commercial came blasting out volume 11 straight away a perfect example of the auto tune that has, indeed, killed the soul out of modern music. Great episode Rick, as a session vocalist I have never needed auto-tune and am not interested to use it in my own productions.
I was just listening to Queen's, "Love of My Life" on CZcams. A gentle and romantic ballad with Freddie and Brian on his 12 string guitar... And then it was immediately followed by a commercial with a uber-loud, crazily AutoTuned version of "Jingle Bells." The dissonance was jarring! (Did CZcams just give me 'the finger' or something?)
That stuff is offensively rampant.
And this is one of the reasons why I absolutely refuse to ever turn off uBlock Origin on CZcams.
I miss harmonies in music. People like The Beach Boys, CSN or the Beatles. Beautiful stuff when people work together to make a sound.
Fleet Foxes first EP and album is probably the best harmonies I’ve heard in recent years.
Have you discovered Larkin Poe yet?
It's part of why groups like System of a Down worked for me :)
I was under the impression that most modern vocals were layered and harmonized. Something like the beach boys might have more acapella style harmonization with the addition of instrumentation, which isn't a typical modern sound. But just because most vocals aren't harmonized in that style doesn't mean they aren't harmonized. It's usually done subtly where you mostly hear the main melody and there's just some extra layers to fill it out.
Most people can’t understand the harmony of the spheres they just want a marching beat to help them mindlessly grind through the day back then people with money and taste actually had the sense to invest in actually masterful interesting music but now it’s just corporate bottom lines no extra money for experimenting with a risky band
"...when I do my video on Bohemian Rhapsody." That's a WMTSG I've been waiting on for a long time.
YES!!! I loved that slip...
Music Co. Rights Holder: "When hell freezes over ..."
@@Markothunder Oh that would be loverly... May seems a decent fellow. He 'May' be up for it. See what I did there? 😊
I figured Pink Floyd would be an instant block. We shall see.
@@ryanhallwrites Pink Floyd demonitizes, but does not block. They want that cheddar.
I always assumed that that Lenny Kravits backing vocals effect was just mixing a keyboard vocal pad in with the vocals.
I'll tell you what killed me, was trying to watch "Glee". They didn't make the vocals sound "computerized" but they autotuned them to death for sure, every held note was straight as an arrow. It drove me nuts.
You're actually right, they used to have a glee karaoke iOS app where you could get the same effect
I couldn't imagine laying down a track without the opportunity of the "that's it!" "Right there!" moments when you know you got it just right.
My daughter and I were listening to a teen pop "artist" (used to date Justin Bieber) several years ago and she said to me that she wished she could sing like that. I told her, "So does she".
@@hal2098 I think you meant he doesn't understand soul sucking overproduction.
Breaking news: local man thinks he’s super cool for dunking on his child daughter.
@@KnivingDispodia it's only dunking if you ignore the fact that she can totally sing and autotune is mostly just an effect
I mean u are right lol. Selena Gomez is a very average singer, her live performances are trash.
@@hal2098 this comment section is full of bitter failed musicians looking to blame someone for why they haven't made it
Anytime I’m in a restaurant or a store where they play some generic “pop” playlist, all I can hear is the pitch corrected vocals. There’s lots of modern music made with little or no autotune, but it seems you can’t have a top 40 hit these days without over use of autotune.
I hear a lot of added vibrato these days as well. Listen to Billy Ray on Old Town Road or a lot of newer Bieber tracks.
agreed. also congrats on the verification!!
Can you give us examples? I haven't heard a wide release record without autotune in 20 years, metal, rap, folk, etc they all have it, noticeably.
oh man, how i hate the overuse and abuse of autotune. just a little bit is fine, but nopes... they put the whole jar of autotune on everything
Truth. And it’s a damn shame.
Rick, honestly, it is a blessing having such a channel on CZcams! You speak out what we - true music lovers - always thought))
@@PureHoney_ASMR Nonsense.
Always love it when one can get back on their own favourite saying and turn it around. Couldn't agree more: 'Pitch is not a place, it's an area.' Beautiful :-)
As one youtuber once put it about the overuse of CGI in flims: "Convenience devolved into laziness". This is yet another case of that.
Yes! The major issue I have with autotune is that it allows singers to get away with being ordinary and not actually practice.
"You may not have noticed... *but your brain did* "
However, the lenny song is one of the best mix downs ever. Part of getting a mix to blow everything away is compression without destruction of the highs and mids so natural compression or in that Case compressing the background vocals to focus the lead is brilliant.
The real-time compression unit reacts after the fact no matter how fast it starts pulling back its not before the do do happened with attenuation. That auto tune is a form of frequency band compression rather than volume compression.
Cher used that effect appropriately for her purpose. There is no such thing as cheating... just if its in your face all the time. Im sure they did multiple tracks to thicken it again in chers case the engineer doesnt want you to put your finger on what's going on. Its just weird is a good thing. I'm sure do whop whop was ok on the first record too except in the Italian district. Ten years later, it was grounds for assault.
There are a few things that make you want to kick the radio... auto tune is one, but its usually in combination with fake falsetto some dude who got it from the Stinkin Lincoln Continental Americaz got talent ? Then there is the warm up vocal sort of fake tape echo chant nobody used until someone made the judges cry, then everything music copy frenzy started swirling around the drain. No, it didn't sound like that and he had a better writer and that fad wasn't a fad only singers who havent worked with a band much. You don't need to sing heart attack yak yak yak.
I think that was Billy Joels first over use of slap back on vocals and we can let it slide, it may have even been an effects unit. Im not as curious as Rick. However the recent trend is...
Wow, you were in a small room and then suddenly you are in a Fake cave and can't afford an effects processor.
My other problem is cover tunes that are worse than the original.
Why ? Elton John doesn't need your help. You are reading the milk carton wrong.
As someone who worried in vfx and film, half of the time they just go..post will take care of it.. post can’t fix everything. It can but it’ll look somewhat fake. Do it well live. I was taught in film school, production is for making the shot and getting things right and post is for making the creative stuff you can’t do in real life. Not a bandaid for production’s laziness or mistakes. Although sometimes it is needed due to unforced circumstances but can’t be used as a crutch everytime.
@@KawaiiCat2 True words indeed. I've been there as well, the "we'll fix it on post" approach to things some have 🙄
Amen, say it again. When I go out shopping or to dinner with my wife I can hear this stuff being played constantly. It's like having a rash that won't go away.
yeah, hard to avoid that crap. only headphones or earplugs
I love your explanations and insight. I’ve recorded original songs of my own and other artists also many years ago and I feel paralyzed starting again. I feel sooo out of the loop. I haven’t used any of the new technologies. Wow! Your videos are inspiring me again.
Rick, so happy I came across this video to hear about this topic from a true professional. I absolutely hate auto-tune and I think there are way too many no talent singers out there making millions when I've seen better vocalists in bars pulling in a couple of hundred dollars a night. A couple of years ago I tuned into one of the award shows where one of the opening acts came out, sat down on a step and started to sing. It was auto-tuned to death. And I believe he was up for an award. It was embarrassing and I changed the channel. Years ago Leonard Cohen won a Juno award (sort of a Canadian Grammy) and he joked that only in Canada could a guy with his voice win an award for singing. He knew he wasn't perfect but that's what made him so interesting. Love your channel.
"Sounds small." Dude, that is a perfect description.
More like "sounds thin"
Small pipì
I was just think about that lol
Also sounds silly
I want to see more of that black haired Rick Beato interview!
Yes! I can’t believe that none of the other comments mentioned that!
Me too!
I always viewed Auto-Tune as like athletes using PEDs. Also, it takes uniqueness away from what made artists special in the past. I don't think someone like Bowie or Sting would be able to make it these days because of the push for "perfect" voices by producers and labels, yet Bowie and Sting were amazing. These "perfect" voices are uninteresting. Live music used to blow me away. Not so much anymore because of auto-tune. I know someone who auditioned for The Voice. She had a beautiful unique voice but was told by a producer "no thank you, but we're just looking for certain types of voice". And pretty much all we end up with are carbon copies that can be "perfected" with auto-tune. maybe that's why it's hard to tell the difference between modern artists. Just my point of view.
This is so true, though I couldn't quite figure out how to explain it to people. I used to play fretless bass slightly sharp during fills to make the licks pop out over the guitars and keys (which I discovered you can do on accident because my intonation wasn't always spot on). Thank you Rick, for always encouraging musicians to be themselves and play the best you can be!
When the producer told Neil Young that he was a bit flat on one of those charity songs, he just said "That's my style man".
Not surprisingly, that producer was David Foster and it's on the "making of" video for "Tears Are Not Enough". Classic moment. The same video also has another sequence where Foster makes Anne Murray sing her part over and over again. She finally says something like, "I think I got it on the first take, David." He later admits she was correct.
@@deanjonasson6776 Foster is an ass. I was at a songwriting workshop where he said, without irony, that you should take the chorus and make that the verse and write an even better chorus - and then replace that verse with your new chorus and write an even better chorus. The circular, endless and ultimately useless logic in that escaped him.
@@lexusls4305 sounds like an interesting technique, to make better song, but for me personally, i often get a good verse and then making even better chorus is hard work, or long time waiting for idea to come by itself. but then usually the chorus is too good to be used as verse and it wouldn't work as a verse. guess every songwriter has their techniques
"Artists don't make mistakes, they make choices"
I remember watching a video of the making of We Are The World. David Foster, producing the record, cuts in and tells Neil Young that he’s kind of off pitch, to which Neil replies, “that’s my thing man”.
That was "Tears Are Not Enough", the Canadian version of We are the World. But yeah, Neil just doesn't compromise!
Lol
"A man needs a maid" is pretty near the knuckle but then again, he can sing alongside CSN and fit in perfectly. Then again, check out "Don't be denied" where his harmony singers are Ben Keith and Jack Nitzsche - hardly the world's best sets of pipes - and yet it really works.
What I would give for a fraction of Rick's musical knowledge. Genius.
Amazing video!... Can't believe how such an important content is presented and explained so well... Going to listen for more...
Plays himself singing:
“Terrible right?”
My favorite Rick is self deprecating Rick.
I laughed when he cut himself off on the second track.
My favourite Rick is Pickle Rick.
I don't know whether Rick got himself some vocal coaching, but I would say his singing has improved a lot in the time that he's had this channel. In his early videos, I did think it a shame that such a talented multi-instrumentalist had such a terrible voice - but in the more recent ones I'd describe his singing as, at worst, 'average'.
Alanis Moresette's Jagged Little Pill album is a great example of great vocals. The imperfections gives it character.
The imperfections and her anger made that a great album... And maybe some Chili Peppers...
Excellent example. I wasn't a fan of it but man, could she sing
I had this album when first released but I cant stand her voice anymore. Does she sing awesome? Yes and the music arrangement is good. But I cant change the song quick enough now when it comes on. Lol
Adam Levine music is awful
You are preaching to the Choir!!!!!!!!!!!Alanis the best
This was great. I always wondered how auto tune worked to this level of detail. This was a PERFECT explantation and demonstration. You are the man Rick. You are the king of CZcams in my book.
When I heard that Cher song I had already used that effect for years. Well, kind of. There was a similar effect in the old Roland VS-880 (8-track HDD recorder/mixer thing). You could connect a keyboard to its MIDI input, sing whatever you liked while playing the actual song on the keyboard, and you heard your voice singing the notes you played on the keyboard. You could also transform your voice, male-female, female-male or just normal to crazy. The sound quality was poor, but I still recognized the effect when hearing Cher on the radio a couple of years later. I bought my VS-880 in 1995 and I played with the effect a little, but I never used it in a recording. It's a bit like when you are a kid, playing with funny sounds (in my case with a reel-to-reel tape recorder with three different tape speeds), and it's fun for a while, then you move on. I feel the same with effects used in rap music. I played around with similar effects as a kid, it was fun for a couple of minutes, then I moved on to record music instead.
I remember doing sessions and band recordings in the late 90’s-early 2000’s where AutoTune was used as intended: to clean up one or two notes in an otherwise stellar vocal take. The singer would nail the part, or section, but one or two notes were off-so you go in and fix the little mistake to not lose a great performance. This is what it was basically meant for…not to be a crutch for bad singers! As with most tech developments, it became abused and taken out of its context. The sad part is, it’s completely changed (destroyed?) modern music.
Lazyness on the part of producers, just seeking attractive people to make an image with no talent let alone musical or singing ability. eg K-Pop, and most music on the charts at the minute.
@@IncredibleGoliath Massive time saver, ie lets make some money. What about making music that means something, that will stand the test of time - that is art.
And now, a lot of drummers play with a click during concerts. No more problems of tempo, they don't need to listen to the other musicians. That also is taken out of context, I understand you do that for a recording, or in a show with many things happening, but to play with a band ?
Of course, once it becomes an accepted option to edit one or two bad notes, now the competition is on. Who can have the most perfectly tuned recording? Who can do it fastest and cheapest? Before you know it, you're not even sure which artists are actually good singers, especially since it works on live performances in real time.
@@deltab9768 Unless it's used as an effect like a vocoder, sparingly it's B.S. Now that I think of it, there is one recording of K.D Lang where she struggles to hit the note on record. On a compilation it was fine. They must have cleaned it up. I appreciate the rawness, fraility of the first recording.
Therapist: dark hair rick isn’t real and cannot hurt you
Dark hair rick: my name is rick beato
I wish he would grow out his hair just for a single reprisal of that beautiful intro
he was a babe.
@@No1KCfan6 110%
best comment hahaha
I don't know why this is so funny.
I'm a professional music critic and the sheer number of autotuned demos I get is incredible. Maybe it's my age, maybe it isn't. But, I grew up without this mess of an effect. It's colored my view of today's industry and not for the better.
man i just love the enthusiasm you have for music and your videos are just bloody ace man!
I sing with two choral groups, and the amount of effort we spend perfecting our pitches is considerable (think 30 hours of rehearsal for a 90-minute concert). Ans we're not even soloists! If I were a recording artist, I wouldn't be able to respect myself if I didn't put at least that much rehearsal in before a recording session. Pitch problems are caused by one of two things: a weak ear or a weak work ethic.
i'm always in perfect pitch in the shower with all that water and echo effect. giggle
@@lovemusic324 young musician and producer, some of us still practice ❤
Preach
Yes, pre-COVID I sang with a symphony choir and we probably put in a similar amount or more in terms of rehearsal time together, not counting self-practise at a piano and with sound files. I also took over a hundred lessons with a voice coach before I auditioned. The upside is that I learned how to sing and appreciate great singers (I have even more appreciation for the Beatles now - or contemporary singers like The Good Lovelies) but the downside is that autotune and poor pop singers bother me even more.
@@AdAstraCan yeah -_- that tends to happen :/
The autotune "effect" initially creeped me out and continues to until today. It reminds me of the sadness I felt when, as a child, I met a man who needed an electrolarynx to speak.
I hate it. 😫
Agreed. When the pop music channel is on at work, I start to get burnt out on the computer voice sound pretty quickly. I miss hearing a really talented singer.
This 'splains why I haven't followed popular music for decades.
And here's where we acknowledge that Neil Peart was more than a drummer and lyricist - he was a prophet. "All this machinery making modern music can still be open-hearted. Not so fully charted, it's really just a question of your honesty."
Can't go wrong with Rush. The lyrics of "The Spirit of Radio" re. the music industry, ring true to this day.
coldly
@@camk6566 The way I interpret NP, he's saying studio technology is a good thing when used to enhance creativity, but it's a bad thing when it's used as a substitute for talent and skill -- 15+ years before AutoTune existed.
Great side note. Indeed. Neil was possibly as good A LYRISIST as he was a DRUMMER.
Wait a second … Is that even possible??
Mind-blowing talent, that's it. I think.
From the same album: "Computerized clinics, for superior cynics, who dance to a synthetic band.
In their own image, their world is fashioned; no wonder they don't understand"
~Natural Science
"Your imperfections in your playing or your singing is what gives it character." Truer words have never been spoken.
As a vocal coach, I'm always amazed at how many of my students come in expecting for AT to solve all their problems.
I have to remind them that by the time they get to the studio, it's too late to become a good singer.
That AT should be a LAST resort, not the first move you make.
Not only because you'll have to hold your voice together live, but as you mentioned, pitch correcting takes away what makes you sound like you.
Great video my friend! Keep it up!!!
My playing has lots of character. 😄
Check out any Motown recording to feel what humans were doing on the level. …or Kind of Blue…in three recording sessions of probably 9-10 hours total. Daft Punk is cool too, but a different creative approach as mentioned.
Early painters used to purposely put flaws in their paintings because only God is perfect.
@@barrywerdell2614 Word mate.
Even most popular music is void of real people playing real instruments. With midi you can quantize and go back and correct notes.
I read an interesting article about (or interviewing) one of the producers of Norah Jones. Don't have a link handy, but roughly paraphrased he said something like 'We don't use autotune, pitch correction, or heavy FX with Norah, she doesn't need it at all.' Thx Rick, awesome video.
Hey Rick, dig your videos and thank you for your explanation here.
Don't get me started on "Fly Away." The lyrics read like poetry from 12 year old school girl: "I wish that I could fly, into the sky, so very high, just like a dragonfly." You know it's bad when the best lyrics are: "oh, oh, oh yeah!"
Those lyrics are awful. I would have been embarrassed by them. They sound like temp lyrics.
Everything in this song sounds so derivative yet i still like it
@@rumblehat4357 who cares man, he is a successful artist and millionaire, he just don't fkn care for others opinion or whatever.
This is something only native english speakers notice. To a foreign non-anglophone audience, these primitive rhyme and the no-rhyme get away/fly away sounds pretty natural - and I say that as a portuguese native speaker. However, these first verses are really annoying to anyone with a basic comprehension of english.
Ricardo Proença true, he probably doesn’t care but it’s amazing what Hollywood connections can do for people.
Quantized drums are a real peave of mine, I started playing drums by learning Hendrix tunes, tempo variation to me is just as important as pitch variation for adding emotions to the music.
All forms of quantization strip the real organic humanity from music.
@@EphemeralTao exactly they just lack that human touch
Absolutely! I thought about this a few weeks ago when I listened to Deep Purple's Fireball record. Would it sound as good if it was recorded with a click and locked to a grid? Hell no!
I had a friend who used to scream at me for not playing like a metronome all the time. He was a lifeless soul.
@@brushstroke3733 sounds like it. Real bands dont stay perfectly in time 100% of the time.
Loved this. Happy Christmas!
Finally, after listening to this video, I got myself to subscribe to your channel. Thank you so much for your work. I don't always agree 100% on what you have to say, but this one just hits it.
Hey Rick, I'm a 35 year musician and now recording/mixing in my own small studio. I learn something new, something I'm doing wrong or something I could be doing better in almost every video you make. I appreciate you!
"Gimme Shelter" background vocal by Merry and that vocal crack she hits would have been autotuned out or rerecorded if it were done today. That raw character of her vocals on that track is what made that song great.
Great example. One could write a thesis on this
Perfect example. Greatest back up singing ever. Autodumb would pour bleach all over it.
@Jugizet Good point. Gimme Shelter voice crack was one of those perfect happy accident musical moments. Usually, voice cracking doesn't sound that good because it's off pitch. "Imperfection" in music can be great and necessary, but most imperfection is bad. Great music is still 99% perfect
Very good example!
And The Stones knew that and left it in.
Excellent analysis Rick! I love the convenience of the digital world. I'll never forget when my friend introduced me to Digital Performer back in '95. I was blown away. The problem is, that we can get so precise about EVERYTHING, that we suck the life out of the song!
Wow, dude. I’ve literally said some of the exact same quotes about auto tune. Could not agree more glad to hear.
I went to a live concert last weekend with no auto-tune. It was perfectly not absolutely perfect and filled my soul with joy!
yes, the perfect imperfections!
i went to a club gig and the singer was using some kind of auto tune/ harmonizer .sounded perfectly boring
@@l.t.w8985 REO is a lot of fun live! I saw them before Covid.
Just makes me appreciate Karen Carpenter all the more -- she had such a beautiful and angelic voice that was naturally breathtaking and way before autotune.
I adore Karen Carpenter. One of the most naturally pitch-perfect singers ever to live. But even she and Richard weren't immune to the desire to make choruses pitch perfect (and thus "small"). If you compare their early 1970s multi-track vocals (Close to You or Rainy Days and Mondays, for example) with their latter work (Good Old Dreams, Touch Me When We're Dancing), the earlier recordings are warmer, richer, fuller, deeper, and bigger. The later songs (which I still enjoy) sound thinner and smaller and "airy" -- not just because Karen's voice changed a bit and she was using her upper register more (or head voice) -- but because Richard was overlaying only the most pitch-perfect of overdub tracks, robbing them of the slight variations that made them sound more natural and bigger.
I always sing along with as much psychic sincerity as I can muster with calling occupants. I'd like to make 'a contact' with them but still nothing.
Absolutely. And Olivia Newton John is the other one, perfect pitch.
@@SteveBonario She played the drums on those early albums. Singing was secondary to her drumming and it was these later albums where they forced her to just sing and that is why they are weak.
her voice had real depth to it. she didn't have to force anything to sound good. no adorning with her singing. natural
Thank you for explaining Auto-tune to us. We really wanted to see and hear what that sounds like in a real studio and how the engineers manipulate vocals.
Thank you. As a fretless bass player I'm always arguing with band members who say I'm "out of tune". I keep trying to explain that it's my "out of tuneness" that gives the music character and depth.
I was watching a clip about Doris Day, and because she was so well trained singing with a big band as a very young woman, when she had a solo recording career almost all of her songs were done in 1 take.
Same think with Karen "One Take" Carpenter.
The same with A. Franklin etc..
Same with Donna Summer.
She was insane in another way.
Imagine auto tuning Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, The Temptations, The Supremes, Aretha, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, the Eagles, or Celine. Auto tune?
Nah! It’s just another step towards soulless emptiness in my worthless opinion. I’m just a fossil. I grew up in the fifties when singers could sing or they didn’t make records so what would I know about good music? Oh!!’ Sorry! I used the “G” word. How pretentiously judgemental of me. Don’t worry though young folks. My generation will soon disappear into oblivion along with our antiquated values and the world we destroyed with our disgusting meritocratic tyranny and you’ll all be truly “free” to soar to new heights of “inclusivity”.
Love this Rick. As a vocal coach,and producer, I get them to sing it right. My mantra….our vocal imperfections, make it sound perfect
Just listen to William Hung
Music is a human expression. It's not supposed to be perfect. Perfect is void of the human aspect of musical expression
I've said for a while now that "nothing is perfect, but moments can be"
This applies to music as well - the performance, timing and pitch may not be perfect, but the synergy, feel, and experience of the moment it creates can be perceived as perfect and profound.
@@ryo-kai8587 very true. Great insight.
Sure teach them to sing it right. Thats what vocal coaches do. That is what they get paid for. But when you are in the studio, and the clock is ticking, engineers get paid to bring in great tracks. The NOW sound. Autotune it Baby! Got bills to pay.
I recently listened to acoustic versions of popular modern songs which did not have auto tune and they sounded like you were in the studio with that singer himself with so much more character rather than a mass produced idealized song which sounds so perfect it's flat
Rick - you are THE BEST music guy on the net! love your work, opinion, videos, everything!
Steve Perry harmonizes with himself on "When the lights go down in the city" by journey. His pitch is so spot on that it SOUNDS autotuned, but it's not. He is just that good.
one of the best,period
Cool that you mention Steve Perry...when Rick was talking about the three part harmonies and the variations of them I had to stop the video and play "Girl Can't Help It." (The live one from 1986) The acapella harmony at the end is just that freakin' good. :D (Aw heck, the whole song rocks. XD)
Autotune didn't exist until 1997.
Auto-tune exhibits a characteristic robotic sound that vocal double-tracking (including Steve Perry’s) does not, and cannot, have.
Didn’t they use some device in the late ‘70s - ‘80s called “vocal harmonizers”? Usually for the back-up vocals? I could swear that Journey and Van Halen used it for the back-up vocals, (Especially like on Journey’s “Feelin’ That Way/Anyway That You Want It”).
Autotune is part laziness, but mostly "this artist is hot but can't sing in key. Eh, we'll make them a star anyway. Just autotune it."
exactly this
Video Killed the Radio Star.
I had never noticed that on LK's Fly Away before (It has spoilt the tune a bit for me as well) - Excellent contribution as always. Bring back the halcyon 'natural' days of Jagger whooping in delight as the backing singer's voice cracks during the chorus of Give Me Shelter...
Extremely informative!!!.. Thanx Rick!!
Dimebag said it best. He said that the little imperfections in music are what keep music honest. I think that those same imperfections are what keep music human as well. Great video! ✌🏼
@@hal2098 Awesome. Do you always get things wrong?
@@crankfotton So since some of these comments were made while ago,supposedly what was I arrogant about exactly? Because whatever comment I was arrogant about seems to have been erased,so tell me why you would be mad that I was arrogant,without knowing what I was being arrogant about?
As a working musician, I've had venue owner's or staff ask me to let a friend/relative sing, and am always assured that they are very good. They then get on stage and sound horrible and then sometimes they will turn to me and say "turn the autotune up" it sounds bad.. "I don't have autotune sister girl. I've been singing all night! Get the hell off my stage!" Very few modern singers can actually sing... Sadly there are very few Steve Perry's out there.
I always felt that Steve Perry was the result of a studio doing what studios do. Man was I wrong. When I saw that guy live it was unbelievable.
You know someone else who gets left out is Steve Walsh of Kansas. His live performances (before he smoked and coked himself out) were just incredible.
Believe is a really good dance song, the autotune at the time was completely novel and sounded like nothing else.
She also had a well known and recorded voice so it was obvious there was an effect on it.
Agreed, and besides Cher is a good singer without it. She can reproduce her parts live without trouble. AutoTune will not make a bad singer sound like Freddie Mercury.
@@Timliu92 if you’re a good singer then why use auto tune? That’s part of the problem.
@@chrismarple It's used as an effect to spice things up.
Exactly. It was obviously an effect, just like you'd use on any other instrument.
Rick, there is simply no substitute for the authenticity born of talent and a lifetime of developing skills. And you have it in spades. I just love the passion you bring to every video you make here on CZcams. You're the real deal.
There's also no substitute for practice and understanding your own voice.
The saddest thing about this is we are so used to hearing the "auto-tune sound" as a people nowadays that even the singers who do not use it often unconsciously try to imitate it and we end up with all of these similarly perfect, characterless voices.
I think it speaks to how soulless music has become as well. Not all obviously but when humans are imitating a device that lets other humans who can't sing, sing, then it's a flattery that we could really do without.
@@heliumtrophy How does a human imitate a computer program.
I'm not used to it. Just like I'm can't ever get used to artificial sweeteners. My kids are in the music room noodling around on their guitars on a pink Floyd song right now. Like Rick's kids, my kids HATE that fake vocal sound.
Rick, I’m 22 and grew up so entrenched in the pop auto-tune world that I barely knew a charting song WITHOUT auto tune. Your video has made me realize how much it is used as a crutch, in my opinion, at the expense of a sincere and real sounding vocal! I hope as a culture we can get back to a point where we can have great music that doesn’t involve the excessive use of auto tune! 🤘😃
If you want to detox go check Superstar by The Carpenters, Karen had the voice of an angel
Start checking out the many “first listening” channels. They’re a blast! There are plenty of people in your age bracket who are just discovering the classic tunes from the fifties through the nineties. It’s especially fun if the listeners are black, have been raised on rap, and just figuring out what The Beach Boys could do with close harmony on “Don’t Worry Baby.” Or for that matter watching SRV’s fingers while playing “Voodoo Child” at El Mocambo. Good hunting!
Good for you - if music has a chance to "recover", it will be because of young people like yourself realizing that there is an organic quality to music that touches peoples' souls and striving for that sort of natural excellence. Good luck to you.
@@TheSilverGate easily one of the best ever in pop.
If you want to hear an astonishing natural voice go listen to some Elvis studio recordings, they kept going till it was 'right'
I loved Puddle of Mudd’s debut album and got the chance to se them in the UK. Singer could not hit the notes as they are on the studio version which was a real shame. I know you are a big Chris Cornell fan. I was lucky enough to see both Soundgarden and Audioslave live and they were always amazing! Keep up the fine content, love the channel
was he doing a Nirvana cover?
Dude I am so jealous! RIP Chris Cornell, legend 🖤
I was working for a label and recording studio when Cher’s song came out. From what I remember, it was an accident that they turned up the auto tune to near 100% (during playback, and auto tune was step-based dreadful back then) and Cher loved it. We were cringing at the time, but it gave birth to a vocal style of its own
This reminded me of the documentary, "Sound City," and a snippet featuring Tom Petty. He talked about missing the days of cutting tape and literally recording live over and over until they got it right. He said it wasn't perfect but in a way it was because that's how it was supposed to be.
“Pitch is a place, not an area” !!!!! LOL!!!
Rick, this must have been one of the best episodes, ever!!!
This was very illuminating. Restored my faith in my own vocal abilities.
I have always liked Lenny Kravitz's work ("Circus" is an incredible album) but too this day I can't stand "Fly Away".
You can be repetitive.... but you can't be robotic AND repetitive. That's what makes the song so grating to listen to.
It's like extreme face lifting to the point of deformed ugliness.
Perfect description!
Are we talking about Cher again?
@@renejean2523 :-)
...& with that, Michael Jackson was guilty of both- he used plenty of "auto-tune" for his sound AND look. Some instances more obvious than others.
@@m.c.ruckus2032 I think back to all of the big MJ hits - I don't think they used AT on them? Now I definitely think his face had a-lot of auto something.
That's why songs like "Helplessly Hoping" by Crosby, Stills and Nash, and "Seven Bridges Road" by the Eagles, will always be classics...sheer pure unadulterated talent.
The Eagles were just copying Ian Matthews arrangement of Seven Bridges Road. Our local classic rock station has taken to playing the Matthews version.
both songs, the harmony is just amazing. great examples of a 'bigger' sound.
I haven't even heard those songs, but I know those bands & exactly what you mean. Their harmonising emboldens the sound so much
ok boomer
Thoroughly enjoyed this video!
Thumbs up!
Nicely done video. I often wonder what my life could have been like if I had a pair of ears like Rick's. Knowing one pitch from another... awesome gift.
This video takes me back to Steve Perry..... his imperfections WERE perfection....
I am anti auto tune. Enjoy the rough edges.....
What is said here about vocals also applies to other elements, like guitars and drums. Perfection robs us of beauty.
When everything snaps to a grid (vocals, drums, rhythm guitar etc) you don’t have music, you have a graph.
@@paulyguitary7651 Yes when you have perfect copy paste guitar tracks... why bother with guitars to begin with?
Yep, well I love on those older recordings when I hear some human effort, such as a crash cymbal that comes in very slightly off after a crazy fill, that high note on the Bb trumpet that wobbles just a bit, that high violin note that's just a bit off after a huge leap up, that awesome jazz piano lick that's not perfectly clean.... So much better.
Agreed
@@andyp7449 indeed as many industrial groups do just that
Makes sense about the simultaneous note being sung/played when comparing it to how you tune the high E and B strings of a 12-string guitar… I always adjust one slightly off to get that proper chorus sound
whenever i hear something "new", my feeling is nearly always the same:
this is music made by and FOR machines.
Sky net likes its own music! lol
See: "Prolefeed"
I remember hearing the Cher song for the first time and thinking it couldn't get worse. How wrong was I?!
I like that song just fine. Cher can sing great in pitch. Listen to her old stuff. She is spot-on. On Believe it was done simply for effect, not because Cher needed to have her intonation faked. The problem was when it became the new cure-all for everything rather than an occasional creative tool.
T-Pain be like: hold my beer
They played that damn song constantly on the radio. Like everyday going to school it would be on the radio. Same with coming home, lol
that was a great breakdown. I remember when Neil Young say in an interview that they would make him record over and over again because they said he was out of tune and he said thats my voice. And you know what that is why Neil Young has such a distinct sound. Same with Perry of Janes Addiction
That’s what makes music great to listen to. I hate hearing music that has vocals that sound absolutely perfect. Music is art. IMO subconsciously, you lose the human connection when the music is pitch corrected, you cant hear the emotion in the music. Imagine if Willie Nelson’s music used auto tune. Auto tune is why new country music is so awful sounding.
I was interested in K-pop, but nowadays it's slowly dying because of what you'd said *there are no blues anymore* in the song, even not kpop.
Same. I really miss when vocals were at the forefront. I think it changed when EDM and hip-hop took a heavy hold. I still listen to some Korean music, but it is mostly soloist. Even a lot of them have lost the soul/blues vibe.
Hi Master Rick, have a Happy New Year.....
Been watching your videos for a while (and cliking the "like" button as well), but this is the first time writing...
You couldn't give a better example than Queen's vocals. In fact, on vocalizations in songs like "Fat Bottomed Girls" we sometimes can hear one singer finishing the line BEFORE (or after) the other.... And it sounds brilliant.
We can hear the same on Beatles songs. Led Zep. Purple. Hendrix.....
But not today.
Today's creativity is polluted by some kind of evil "perfection", where "musicians" and "producers" wanna align the phrases and the beats on the software's rule, so it sounds as you said - like a ROBOT. Too perfect. Too clean.
See, all your examples were perfect!
As when the Dinosaurs walked among us, TALENT was what mattered. Recordings were made in 4 tracks (if so) and tape was really expensive... So, there was no time OR MONEY to fool around on the studio.
And possibly, that's why before becoming stars, artists worked so hard... Queen sold their truck to go to the studio and produce a demo.
Nowadays, it seems that it became "easy".
Any mongoloid with a decent laptop and a microphone, connected to the Internet, may hit the Grail.
Possibly, that's why there won't be another Elvis. Or Dio. Or Edward Van Halen.....
Hope I am brutally wrong.
****
Your videos are very cool.
Way to go.