Billy Joel @ the SuperBowl: Autotune gone awry?

[vocomotion]

It could've been AutoTune, Waves, or any one of the tcHelicon products (VoiceWorks, etc)...but "autotune" seems to have become the generic pitch correction name (like Kleenex, BandAid, etc).

--> freddie

[absrec]

And yes, it WAS AutoTune! I work with that plug-in all the time and I know what it sounds like. There's is no way the human voice can do the things that came through the speakers without the aid of some kind of pitch correction.

If I was Billy Joel, someone would get their little ass kicked pretty hard. That's maybe the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen done to someone in the rock-n-roll hall of fame. IMO, Billy Joel has a great voice and he certainly doesn't need AutoTune.

Again, just another classic example of a so called audio engineer going through the motions and not even listening to it. I can't believe that pitch correction has become this much of a standard practice in the music industry. Very disconcerting.

-Aaron

[d. gauss]

Originally Posted by absrec

If I was Billy Joel, someone would get their little ass kicked pretty hard. That's maybe the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen done to someone in the rock-n-roll hall of fame. IMO, Billy Joel has a great voice and he certainly doesn't need AutoTune.

Again, just another classic example of a so called audio engineer going through the motions and not even listening to it.

well, was it the engineer? or billy? watch right before billy starts to sing (around 1:07). is he perhaps turning on the autotune himself? can't see what his hands are touching, and the screen is so small on youtube, but he messes with something on top of the piano. looks more like he is pushing buttons rather than turning a page of sheet music or something....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYIMmi7JtHc

[Subsonic]

I was hoping there was a thread on this - It was PAINFULLY obvious to me, for some reason I can pick out bad auto-tuned vox a mile away. Billy was an amazing singer back in his day, fantastic voice. Unfortunately, unlike Prince, his voice has NOT held up well through the years. Most likely due to the ongoing drug and alcohol abuse. On the other hand, Prince is well known to have never drank or smoked at all in his entire life, so surprise, his voice is holding up!

[PRobb]

Listen to "see" and "by" in the first line. That's heavy duty AT folks. And no, I don't think he needs it. And it's a shame it was assumed he did.

[Jules]

I don't know what is more excruciating that performance or this interview...



A succession of drab journalists questions.. actually Billy turns it around be bearable..

[dtucker]

OK...I retract my earlier statement. I saw this live, too, so how did I miss it? Just watched the YouBoob vid and there is no doubt. Auto-tune (or whatever) was definitely in play.

Not sure how I feel about. Other than the fact that it was clearly audible and someone didn't operate it correctly? Maybe? Don't know...

[RobMacki]

I have never been so greatly entertained by Billy Joel!

[ericwall]

Pre Auto-tune:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldXjOAMBjV0

Mmmmm, Whitney...

[Nu-tra]

If we didn't start the fire then who did? Billy! Billy?!

[BlueRadio]

Originally Posted by vocomotion

It could've been AutoTune, Waves, or any one of the tcHelicon products (VoiceWorks, etc)...but "autotune" seems to have become the generic pitch correction name (like Kleenex, BandAid, etc).

--> freddie

Well actually, it [I]could be[I] and probably IS. In the days of yore, before the proliferation of software plug-ins, Antares made the ATR-1 Autotune rack. And it sounds JUST like that performance. Wow.

[frugalpole]

Originally Posted by Jules

I don't know what is more excruciating that performance or this interview...

jules, you're just bummed he didn't have a message for fans in UK.

lmao.

[foldback]

Perhaps Billy saw Bob Seger do the anthem at the World Series and was worried he might sound....a little OLD! Geee's, he certainly looked old and puffy.

Personally, I'd rather hear the real thing, warts and all. It's just amazing what the ego can do to people.

[brendandwyer]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

It almost sounds like it's being switched in and out....some of the held notes are DEFINITELY tuned - badly - you can hear the little glitch as it flickers briefly up to the next note.

And yet even some of the longer notes are well out of tune, and some of the held notes are in yet don't have that roboticness...so god knows who set it up. I'd have hate to have heard those high notes without it though...

PS (DC) - great penalty yesterday, even if the dive was a bit suspect (sorry, only brit/euro football fans are going to get that...)

malbranque tripped him. Great game (for a Utd Fan!) Spurs are overrated

[Reag1502]

For someone that doesn't know a lot about Autotune, were is it in the song. I noticed that there were a few parts were it almost sounded like a chorus was added to his voice. Is that it? The only thing I know about A.T is when Cher did it on "Believe"

[majortom]

Originally Posted by Reag1502

For someone that doesn't know a lot about Autotune, were is it in the song. I noticed that there were a few parts were it almost sounded like a chorus was added to his voice. Is that it? The only thing I know about A.T is when Cher did it on "Believe"

The thing that made it so obvious to me was the fact that it didn't seem like it was set up right. You can set autotune to tune to a particular key and it seemed like a lot of the notes in the song fell outside whatever key it was tuned to. Like maybe Billy Joel dropped into a different key and didn't tell the engineer.

The most obvious artifact is when you hear it warbling between two notes. It's most likely because the note he's singing falls between two notes that are in the key autotune is set to. Then the natural vibrato in his voice makes autotune switch between one higher note and one lower note, both of which are outside the normal pitch variation you'd expect with vibrato.

If the singer is sliding up to reach a note and the settings are too tight, Autotune will jump by half note increments up the scale, instead of continously like a real voice would. It's very unnatural sounding.

Even when it's working right, the other thing it does that seems obvious to me is on notes that are drawn out. They sound like they've been sampled and repeated super-fast, like DJs who use a sampled vocal and loop the last short section so they can extend the note...Fat-boy Slim comes to mind. Autotune does it better, but it still sounds that way to me, if not used carefully.

The thing is, I think he probably would have sounded pretty good without it. The little bits of his natural voice that popped through sounded ok to me. It's a good thing the settings weren't any tighter otherwise it would have been a real disaster. You can sort of tell Billy was compensating by shortening the notes. Trying to get them out before AT grabbed them and twisted them. That's what it looked like to me.

The most interesting part of all this is that most people that were in the room with me didn't notice. Some thought it sounded a little funny, but most people are like, "Whatever, sounded ok to me." I guess it's used so often that we've started to think that that's what people sound like when they sing.

[Jon Kubis]

Yeah, ouch. Oh god, why? There's no call for it. Billy Joel can sing... I listened to the him doing it a capella at Yankee stadium in 2000. This is just silly.

This video is the first thing I'll be playing my mixing class on our 13th week Auto-Tune lecture. Then I'll show them how to set Auto mode so it doesn't do that, and then comes graphical mode.

Why didn't they back down the Retune speed and make it less Choosy? This is astonishing to me, as was the mix on the Prince halftime show, but that's another thread. But to quote myself from the other thread "aren't the engineers that are in charge of this the best of the best???"... couldn't they hear how plainly obvious it was that the pitch correction box was jumping in his vibrato? Holy hell, it ain't as if Cher's Believe came out a few weeks ago... I thought this was standard knowledge for folks at this level in the industry!!!

I was driving a few nights ago and lo and behold, "Voices That Care" seemed to show up in random mode on my MP3 player. If you look up the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_That_Care
It was a track done in '91, with Peter Cetera, Michael Bolton, Luther Vandross and a host of other talented folks. Point is, I'm listening, and my ears are realizing there's no Auto-Tune! ... and the vocals are amazing--warmer, fuller, more real than anything I've heard released in years. Imagine, 15 years ago, the height of analog recording technology, and all the old school talent could actually sing and not need pitch correction. Damn. The song and the We-Are-The-World-ness had played itself out long ago, but something gave me goose-bumps about hearing the real deal without any touch-up. I wonder if we'll ever see that ever again?

JK

[RobMacki]

Originally Posted by Jon Kubis

Yeah, ouch. Oh god, why? There's no call for it. Billy Joel can sing... I listened to the him doing it a capella at Yankee stadium in 2000. This is just silly.

Wouldn't it be hysterical...in sort of a sick and tragic way...if Billy found out about AutoTune in line as he was performing it!!!?????

As he said in the interview, "I always walk out thinking I should have practiced more" "hey it's pooring! why sound check?"

What if he didn't know!!!!!

Then I'd give him props for sure!!
I wouldn't be able to continue singing if I heard that in the monitors.