Friday, March 20, 2009
Creamtastic Shoot the Singers: A Discussion on Live Auto-Tuning, Prerecorded Vocal Tracks, Onstage Failure & More
Posted by Adam Gold on Fri, Mar 20, 2009 at 7:30 AM
Last week I posted about a guy who developed a click track detector, keeping the never-ending debate of technology and its relation to soul in music performance going. I figured that since I spent enough time beating up on my fellow brethren (drummers), it would be good to expand the dialogue into some broader territory. As annoyed as people may get at stentorian drumming, I think the argument of bad vocals taking the cake of unendurability is a worthy one. Maybe it's just me, but I'd much rather hear a drummer slow down ten BPMs than hear a "singer" go a half-step flat. That of course was until I saw the video above capturing Britney Spears' actual live singing voice, which has now been widely posted on YouTube. Spears actually sings during her concerts, but the audience actually hears a pre-recorded vocal (or "guide") track. In fairness to her, she knows that the audience isn't hearing her so she doesn't have much incentive to hit notes, but still she sounds like shit even when she's not out of breath from dancing. The video has 139,356 plays from me watching it over and over 139,356 times.
The obvious debate here is whether or not it's worth forgoing the actual "live music" component of a concert to accommodate the phantasm of choreography, costume changes and other smoke and mirrors that are flawlessly executed in a Spears show. It's Cirque du Soleil for 'tweens.
One option Britney could have utilized in place of prerecorded vocals is live Auto-Tune. For those of you who don't know, Auto-Tuning is when a singer's voice is run through a processor that corrects pitch. It is a tricky process that can go horribly wrong. If the processor is improperly programmed, the vocoder will over-correct and, instead of going to close notes in the melody, it will simply default to the high or low notes diatonic to the key of the piece being performed. (I'm sure one of you techies out there will correct me if I'm not understanding this fully.) Such is the case in this video of Billy Joel singing our national anthem at Superbowl XLI. The Piano Man was once a great singer, but it now seems like one too many times drunk-driving into glass houses in Allentown has weathered his pipes a bit. So he rests on the crutch of technology when performing in front of a television audience of 1 billion. Listen closely and you'll hear the Auto-Tuning take on a life its own, making him sound like T-Pain. (I recommend headphones to get the full effect):
As you can see, technology can be slippery slope to performance failure when the inevitability of human error is thrown into the mix. Take for example this video of Van Halen's "Jump" encore filmed at the second show of their lucrative 2007 reunion tour. The song's timeless synch line--either prerecorded or played by someone offstage--is played at the wrong sampling rate, causing the entire hook of the song to be fractions of a note off key. Hilarity ensues as Eddie Van Halen and his 16-year-old son Wolfgang try in vain to find notes in a key that doesn't exist, while David Lee Roth giddily fronts the band as if nothing is wrong. The audience still rocks out, seemingly oblivious to the atonal nightmare that must have gotten someone fired.
Another person who got fired is whoever was responsible for this train wreck that occurred during Evanescence's performance at the 2004 Billboard Awards. They were playing their balladic third single "My Immortal," complete with obligatory grand piano--or keyboard-inside-grand-piano façade--and a string section. The majority of the song is played by frontwoman Amy Lee as accompanied by a string section, with the rest of the band exploding into a dramatic emotional climax for the song's 12 bar hard-rockin' finale. The only problem being that there was apparently some sort of miscommunication between the string section and Lee's nu-metal cohorts, causing them to come in a half-step flat, marring the song's "beauty" by making it sound like Armageddon. Lee's proclamation of "wow" and the end says it all. This is easily one of my favorite videos on the Internet. With the exception of the epic fail at the end, the song is REALLY boring, so you might want to skip ahead to the 3-minute mark for the good part. I promise it's worth it.
To get back on the subject of vocals and technological trickery, I'll include this montage of Oasis singer Liam Gallagher's drunken antics during a 1997 concert in France. Filmed at the height of their fame it was during the tour on which they had some truly absurd stage props that pale in comparison to Britney's multimillion-dollar whathaveyou. This performance has no live Auto-Tuning or prerecorded vocals. However, Liam sounds fantastic, despite his inability to stand without falling or speak comprehensible English. Regardless of whatever your feelings might be toward England's most hilarious rock quagmire, that's impressive.
Comments (11)
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Auto-Tune is an incredible studio tool. Hands down. Even the most incredible singers can benefit from a slight auto-tune to make their vocal track sound spot on. It is used on virtually every big record out these days, and having personally used it on artists that aren't major-label caliber, it really can make an artist's work shine. On the other hand, it is a sensitive tool, and best suited for the studio, not live use. And if you are off a little bit, it can skew the vocal and make your audience really aware that you suck. So tough to say. You probably should be able to sing live, but if you are Britney Spears, someone is probably making the decision for you anyhow.
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For the umpteenth time - Billy Joel NEVER used an auto tune and never will. When he sang the national anthem, all he needed was a working set of sound monitors. He refused to pre-tape it and lip-synch it like most other singers have done. When it came time for him to start singing, the television technicians forgot to turn on his monitors so he couldn't hear himself sing. He had to wait until he heard his voice bounce back from the stadium walls so he could adjust his pitch to the same key as his piano. That took a good 15 seconds into the song -which isn't easy to sing to begin with. Add to that a drenching rainstorm and the small stopwatch Joel had to keep an eye on so he could time his ending with a jet flyover at the end. Try singing the Star-Spangled Banner on television in front of milliions in an open stadium without hearing yourself in a downpour while playing the piano and looking at an analog clock When the TV people heard that Billy was having a problem with his vocal - THEY decided to add whatever pitch-correction device they had in their sound booth - not Billy Joel - without his knowledge or consent. They could have easily corrected the problem by TURNING ON HIS MONITORS so the guy could hear himself. This dumb story has gone on for two years now and it's time that people knew the truth of what happened to Billy Joel at the Super-Bowl. This goes to show that a lie repeated often enough becomes accepted as truth. Get your facts straight before you accuse a real musician of using gimmicks and technology to enhance his performance.
Mr. Moran is correct. Billy Joel doesn't use Auto-Tune. I know because I was there. I'm his road manager. Mr Joel prides himself on his pitch and doesn't need pitch-correction gimmicks. Most people have no idea how badly television production technicians screw up what musicians do. Their emphasis is on the visual - not the audio. They were totally unprepared to deal with a LIVE vocal performance because most singers pre-tape their performance and fake the national anthem. He did three rehearsals before the super bowl started and did it perfectly every time. When they gave him the countdown to start the show they hadn't turned on his sound monitors and he couldn't hear a damn thing. He was a complete professional and tried to do the best he could under the circumstances - no monitors, soaking wet piano keys, and timing the end with a jet fly-over. When we asked the CBS producers afterwards if they had used an auto-tune, we never got an honest answer. Billy has been blamed for this fiasco for a long time and I'm glad someone else is aware of the facts. Thank you.
I was there, too. I'm Billy Joel's piano. I can't tell you how good it feels when Billy lays his fingers on me, especially when my keys are soaking wet. Whether he's pushing down ever-so-gently or just pounding away at me without abandon, it's always a wonderful feeling. Just thinking about it . . . well, let's just say that I'm soaking wet right now and it's not even raining.
That was a good day.
Rumor has it that Billy Joel not only has a grand piano, but he's also got a magnificent organ.
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