This is EXACTLY why, IMO musicians make good engineers (mixing and tracking). I am always a musician first. I've been writing and performing for 20 years. I can not tell you how much that helps me every single time I sit behind the board! I'm not saying it is a necessity, but I certainly consider it an asset for me!
PS - I don't own autotune/melodyne/etc. Not necessarily on principle, but I've never had a customer request it, nor have I ever desired to use it for my own material, on my own voice. Is there hypocrisy in mindlessly putting reverb on my voice without flinching, yet avoiding autotune like an STD?
Good thread, and great post doorknocker!
Quote:
Originally Posted by doorknocker  Exactly! Look at what happened in the 80ies, what was considered 'modern' and 'as good as possible' then sounds HORRIBLE now in a lot of cases.
I hated it even then and never understood why people felt the need to adopt this production style to be 'contemporary'.
I said it before, if AutoTune really would make things better then I'd be all for it. But it just gives you the illusion of perfection.
I got a CD version of Sinatra's 'In the wee small hours' where the liner notes talk about how Sinatra would use the slight weakness in his voice in a certain register for expressional purposes. A slightly shaky note might be a means for expressing 'doubt' or 'heartbreak'. The problem is that the modern producer never even would consider such an artistic solution in the first place i.e AutoTune in permanent insert.
The 'AutoTune' syndrom is EXACTLY the same thing as the loudness race. 'Perfect' intonation and 'maxed out' mastering are achieved now. So where do we go from here? It's a situation that has no winners. The ones who rightly refrained from using these 'techniques' will be put under pressure by the 'industry' or even their peers: 'Your record isn't loud enough', 'Your singer isn't in tune' and eventually will join the crowd.
And friggin' why is it so damn important to have 'perfect' vocals when everything else is most certainly NOT pefectly in tune? What about Bass? Guitars? Horns?
Andi DOORKNOCKER RECORDING STUDIO |