Will Miner wrote:
On Mon, 15 Mar 1999, Jon Weisberger wrote:
Now you, too, can "correct the pitch of the
most tone-deaf singers and build lush multi-voice harmonies with a click of
the mouse" for less than $400.
I hadnt heard of this technology, although it isnt surprising. So, is
this something that's regularly used commercially? Are we approaching the
days when everyone is going to be Milli Vanilli? Will we swoon over
gorgeous voices like those of Lucinda Williams or Kelly Willis only to
find out, when we see them live, that they cant sing anything like they
sound on their records?
Will Miner
Denver, CO
This is a part of the industry standard, "ProTools", and has already
been used on almost any artist you can think of who records for a major
label. Get used to it, it is here to stay. There is only one argument in
favor of it and here it is:
When you record a typical vocal these days, the general idea is to
record three or four tracks of the vocal and then go through them and
pick out the best phrases and notes and put together a "comp" vocal out
of the best of all of them. This makes a nice vocal but can sound sort
of odd, since it was literally done at four different times, no matter
how close together they may have been. Also, as you do it over again,
you tend to lose the fresh, innocent quality of the first take. This is
analogous to the old days of mono, when they used to record a song many
times and splice together the best segments of the song into a good
complete take. This was common practice and done on almost all hit
records.
Or, you can do the vocal over and over and over again until you get it
perfect but you have sung the life out of it.
Now, with ProTools a competent singer like Kimmie can step up to the
mic, sing the hell out of the song, and stop when the vocal is at its
most fresh and believable and heartfelt. Then, if there is one note she
missed and it will be a horrible moment for everybody until the end of
time, you simply go in and tune that one note and you have a vocal that
is virtually a first, single, take. This is in fact an improvement over
every other option.
The only thing better than this would be to just go in and sing the song
and take what you get, but frankly, very very few records have ever been
done that way and most of them were folk efforts where flaws are not
only tolerated but admired. No modern artist will allow lousy
performances out of the studio unless being perverse.
I hope this is illuminating and not merely dense.
--
Joe Gracey
President-For-Life, Jackalope Records
http://www.kimmierhodes.com
