Rick Beato has a post on his youtube channel about how the combination of home recording, autotune, and synthesized instruments, along with the elimination of sound engineers or producers, has destroyed the music publishing business and resulted in a lack of quality product. (I paraphrase and might have small details wrong).
I don't think ALL producers are of that bent, but it does seem the penchant of those who want to rake in filthy lucre on the raft of mindless repetitive dreck they are churning out. Amazing how it is hypnotic on so many levels.
Not sure what your evidence is because it's the lack of producers and engineers that has artists churning out material in their basement without the benefit of someone who knows what they are doing (George Martin, Brian Eno, etc).
I like some of Eno's stuff. I love Harold Budd. When I think of producers of "pop" these days, I think of people like Beyonce whose songs have 8, 9, 10 producers drinking around enough that it hits the high spots for popular appeal. There's still some good production happening, but I think it's the exception.
So it's not enough that it's used in service of the false, the ugly and the retarded.
I'm finding that if one starts with "they've(1) been eaten by demons" and then ask "what would a being who loathed humanity in all its messy amphibian (2) beauty want to do to us" it has remarkable explanatory power.
1) For values of "what are they thinking? Why would anyone do that? There's no profit in it..."
I too HATE autotune. And they're doing it to EVERYONE now and in many cases, when they do it to someone like Lady Gaga, they're doing it without permission.
There's an artist on youtube (I think it's 'wings of Pegasus') who has been exposing all of the autotuned shows (that's right, they're autotuning -live- shows) as well as the recordings (lip-syncing is coming back at concerts - even the Eagles have been caught doing it now). For some reason there are all these producers and even bands who think that no one wants to hear the human voice anymore, not understanding that it's the imperfections that make a song perfect.
Been seeing the same thing in a lot of art where artists who were actually good, are using AI filters to make their art 'better', but are -in fact- making their art Worse. (Subtle Diffusion is the filter/process here).
When everything looks or sounds the same, it's not Art anymore.
To paraphrase a line from an old story 'his art wasn't a horse, the lines were wrong to actually be a horse, but it was those lines that made the horse more of a horse, that captured the actual horseness of the horse and made it so much more than just a horse'.
10,000 Maniacs did a live recording of "Because the Night" on MTV Unplugged. There's a verse in there where Natalie Merchant's voice breaks -- and it is my absolute favourite version of that song.
There's a group called Mogwai, of whom I'm particularly fond. They have this one very complicated instrumental piece (well a lot of their stuff is instrumental) and at one point in the song, there's just a bad note, briefly.
And they left it in there.
So yeah, you know it was a bunch of actual people playing the damn song and that there was a small accident during it.
I was going to mention Wings of Pegasus. He is very good about breaking down music, showing what is auto-tuned, and how much. Also showcasing older music/artists that aren't auto-tuned. He is very good about explaining things with music. He also talks a little about gAI music, and the scraping of artist's work for gAI (he talked about the UK music grab, too). Great guy.
Taylor Swift being an especially huge example of the big star caught lip syncing in her live shows. She's 100% cheating all her fans that are spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars on her shows. Not only are they spending so much on a cheat, but they're also getting cheated from the good and bad moments that real performances can bring. The fun flaws like Keith Moon passing out and getting replaced. Or being part of something greater, such as when Pink Floyd toured "Dark Side of the Moon" before they recorded it.
Fil (Wings of Pegasus) is my hero. He is blowing the lid off of all the pitch corrected fake "live" YouTube sessions out there. He has started another channel recently for his "Authentic Vocal" service, which, as the name implies, will officially certify performances and recordings. https://youtube.com/@officialauthenticvocal?si=qZn6OOIKoNCkDFNN
Hats off to anyone who has mastery of their chosen profession. Even if my subjective judgment is that it is a bad choice or the product is drek . Some of the best advice for singers came from Don Imus (I think). It was "Shut up and sing". Who wants to hear the political opinions of Natalie Maines, Barbra Streisand, Cher or Bruce Springsteen?
Preach! Add in dynamic range flattening, beats, and pentameter designed with human psychoacoustics in mind to turn the most mindless drivel into instant hits which will disappear into the abyss just as soon as the record company stops paying streaming services to put it in rotation, instead of turning into classics that will still be in the top 100 30 years later. (Dark Side of the Moon, I still hear you!)
I'm with you on this. That music was brilliant in content and construction. I've been enjoying "Luck & Strange" by Gilmour in recent times. Was sick that I missed out on that tour.
One of the best things I've watched over the past couple of years was the "Get Back" documentary. Seeing the Beatles actually working, even struggling to put together songs gives a bit more oomph to those tunes. Even if you have to hear a bit of Yoko Ono in the process.
The first time I saw Lady Gaga I dismissed her as just another costume act with a super-antotuned voice. Then I by chance I heard one of her duets with Tony Bennett and I was surprised to say the least. I'd put her talent and delivery alongside Harry Connick Jr, and I'd put the both of them a shade above Sinatra. I suppose outlandish costumes and pop stylings are necessary in today's world but it still seems a shame.
One of the unintended consequences of autotune is that over the decades, it has singlehandedly widened and highlighted the gap between "music" and "product."
One fun thing about electronic music of ages past is that it was WORK! Working up a patch on a Moog III, Arp 2600, or programming a beat on a Roland 909 or 303 isn't the easiest thing. Especially when the bloody oscillators drift out of tune- Tangerine Dream got about 6 minutes of useable recordings for 11 days of work on "Phaedra"... but it was worth it.
Bland is the word for all those interchangeable singers three days. I love electronica. Love Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for Miracle Mile, btw. Love the stuffing out of Depeche Mode. Speaking of, the slightly off-pitch vocals of David Gahan and Richard Butler from Psychedelic Furs would not pass muster with a label these days, and what a loss that would have been.
You should check out the Thief Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. It is one of my all-time favorite albums. Captures them at their most rock-centric in my opinion.
Rap is popular (For small values of popular) in one section at work. Badly-produced atrocities seem to be the rule more than the exception. You know you're probably not a very good Rapper if they have to use AutoTune so you can hold a Monotone....
Thank you for talking about this. Sad news, record labels are already re-releasing old recordings after unnecessarily pitch correcting them. This includes Queen and the Bee Gees. It should be illegal. I’d love for the Gibbs and Brian May et al to freaking sue them, if possible. "Let’s take already pitch perfect vocals and suck the life out of them", said no rational person ever. https://youtu.be/2NiM3AnhwCI?si=kPMMZwoLOvMKazHj. https://youtu.be/__1W0sJSoro?si=U-qrM3fcTPhkxxjl
Rick Beato has a post on his youtube channel about how the combination of home recording, autotune, and synthesized instruments, along with the elimination of sound engineers or producers, has destroyed the music publishing business and resulted in a lack of quality product. (I paraphrase and might have small details wrong).
I would argue it is PRECISELY those producers and engineers that have committed this atrocity.
I don't think ALL producers are of that bent, but it does seem the penchant of those who want to rake in filthy lucre on the raft of mindless repetitive dreck they are churning out. Amazing how it is hypnotic on so many levels.
Not sure what your evidence is because it's the lack of producers and engineers that has artists churning out material in their basement without the benefit of someone who knows what they are doing (George Martin, Brian Eno, etc).
I like some of Eno's stuff. I love Harold Budd. When I think of producers of "pop" these days, I think of people like Beyonce whose songs have 8, 9, 10 producers drinking around enough that it hits the high spots for popular appeal. There's still some good production happening, but I think it's the exception.
I like Rick Beato, but haven't listened to him in a while. I need to check him out more.
There's a great video where he demonstrates how using those tools sterilizes music, via quantizing a drum track by Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.
The track turned into something technically accurate, but soulless & flat.
It's a distinctive voice, too, Miss Gaga's.
So it's not enough that it's used in service of the false, the ugly and the retarded.
I'm finding that if one starts with "they've(1) been eaten by demons" and then ask "what would a being who loathed humanity in all its messy amphibian (2) beauty want to do to us" it has remarkable explanatory power.
1) For values of "what are they thinking? Why would anyone do that? There's no profit in it..."
2) supernatural + mundane
I too HATE autotune. And they're doing it to EVERYONE now and in many cases, when they do it to someone like Lady Gaga, they're doing it without permission.
There's an artist on youtube (I think it's 'wings of Pegasus') who has been exposing all of the autotuned shows (that's right, they're autotuning -live- shows) as well as the recordings (lip-syncing is coming back at concerts - even the Eagles have been caught doing it now). For some reason there are all these producers and even bands who think that no one wants to hear the human voice anymore, not understanding that it's the imperfections that make a song perfect.
Been seeing the same thing in a lot of art where artists who were actually good, are using AI filters to make their art 'better', but are -in fact- making their art Worse. (Subtle Diffusion is the filter/process here).
When everything looks or sounds the same, it's not Art anymore.
To paraphrase a line from an old story 'his art wasn't a horse, the lines were wrong to actually be a horse, but it was those lines that made the horse more of a horse, that captured the actual horseness of the horse and made it so much more than just a horse'.
Autotune is taking that away from us.
10,000 Maniacs did a live recording of "Because the Night" on MTV Unplugged. There's a verse in there where Natalie Merchant's voice breaks -- and it is my absolute favourite version of that song.
There's a group called Mogwai, of whom I'm particularly fond. They have this one very complicated instrumental piece (well a lot of their stuff is instrumental) and at one point in the song, there's just a bad note, briefly.
And they left it in there.
So yeah, you know it was a bunch of actual people playing the damn song and that there was a small accident during it.
I was going to mention Wings of Pegasus. He is very good about breaking down music, showing what is auto-tuned, and how much. Also showcasing older music/artists that aren't auto-tuned. He is very good about explaining things with music. He also talks a little about gAI music, and the scraping of artist's work for gAI (he talked about the UK music grab, too). Great guy.
Thanks for the recommendation- I'll check him out.
Taylor Swift being an especially huge example of the big star caught lip syncing in her live shows. She's 100% cheating all her fans that are spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars on her shows. Not only are they spending so much on a cheat, but they're also getting cheated from the good and bad moments that real performances can bring. The fun flaws like Keith Moon passing out and getting replaced. Or being part of something greater, such as when Pink Floyd toured "Dark Side of the Moon" before they recorded it.
"Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?"
John Lydon was not wrong, and yes, I often feel we are being cheated.
Fil (Wings of Pegasus) is my hero. He is blowing the lid off of all the pitch corrected fake "live" YouTube sessions out there. He has started another channel recently for his "Authentic Vocal" service, which, as the name implies, will officially certify performances and recordings. https://youtube.com/@officialauthenticvocal?si=qZn6OOIKoNCkDFNN
Hats off to anyone who has mastery of their chosen profession. Even if my subjective judgment is that it is a bad choice or the product is drek . Some of the best advice for singers came from Don Imus (I think). It was "Shut up and sing". Who wants to hear the political opinions of Natalie Maines, Barbra Streisand, Cher or Bruce Springsteen?
Preach! Add in dynamic range flattening, beats, and pentameter designed with human psychoacoustics in mind to turn the most mindless drivel into instant hits which will disappear into the abyss just as soon as the record company stops paying streaming services to put it in rotation, instead of turning into classics that will still be in the top 100 30 years later. (Dark Side of the Moon, I still hear you!)
I'm with you on this. That music was brilliant in content and construction. I've been enjoying "Luck & Strange" by Gilmour in recent times. Was sick that I missed out on that tour.
One of the best things I've watched over the past couple of years was the "Get Back" documentary. Seeing the Beatles actually working, even struggling to put together songs gives a bit more oomph to those tunes. Even if you have to hear a bit of Yoko Ono in the process.
I can tolerate a bit of Yoko in small doses. I do appreciate a stone cold weirdo, being one myself! ;)
I find autotuned music ranging from annoying to painful to listen to. My brain interprets it as distortion.
The first time I saw Lady Gaga I dismissed her as just another costume act with a super-antotuned voice. Then I by chance I heard one of her duets with Tony Bennett and I was surprised to say the least. I'd put her talent and delivery alongside Harry Connick Jr, and I'd put the both of them a shade above Sinatra. I suppose outlandish costumes and pop stylings are necessary in today's world but it still seems a shame.
One of the unintended consequences of autotune is that over the decades, it has singlehandedly widened and highlighted the gap between "music" and "product."
One fun thing about electronic music of ages past is that it was WORK! Working up a patch on a Moog III, Arp 2600, or programming a beat on a Roland 909 or 303 isn't the easiest thing. Especially when the bloody oscillators drift out of tune- Tangerine Dream got about 6 minutes of useable recordings for 11 days of work on "Phaedra"... but it was worth it.
Now, it's super easy, but bland.
Bland is the word for all those interchangeable singers three days. I love electronica. Love Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for Miracle Mile, btw. Love the stuffing out of Depeche Mode. Speaking of, the slightly off-pitch vocals of David Gahan and Richard Butler from Psychedelic Furs would not pass muster with a label these days, and what a loss that would have been.
Or Donald Fagen of Steely Dan's rather unique vocal style- plus their super sophisticated musicality & ironic lyrics.
You should check out the Thief Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. It is one of my all-time favorite albums. Captures them at their most rock-centric in my opinion.
I love Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for "Miracle Mile"
Yes absolutely.
Rap is popular (For small values of popular) in one section at work. Badly-produced atrocities seem to be the rule more than the exception. You know you're probably not a very good Rapper if they have to use AutoTune so you can hold a Monotone....
Thank you for talking about this. Sad news, record labels are already re-releasing old recordings after unnecessarily pitch correcting them. This includes Queen and the Bee Gees. It should be illegal. I’d love for the Gibbs and Brian May et al to freaking sue them, if possible. "Let’s take already pitch perfect vocals and suck the life out of them", said no rational person ever. https://youtu.be/2NiM3AnhwCI?si=kPMMZwoLOvMKazHj. https://youtu.be/__1W0sJSoro?si=U-qrM3fcTPhkxxjl