Billy Joel @ the SuperBowl: Autotune gone awry?

[majortom]

Just saw Billy Joel singing the National Anthem at the Superbowl. That was one of them there autotune boxes gone awry wasn't it? Or, did he have his voicebox replaced with a speak and spell recently.

Sad. No matter how bad his voice may have degraded over the years, I think it still would have sounded better straight.

[CorkyTart]

Billy Joel is an ass and being from the same area as him, I'm still tired of hearing about him after all these years or being off Long Island

[macr0w]

I missed it. I would love to hear it. Let me see if I can find a link.

You supposed audio folk still watch football? That's the one with the pointy ball, not the one with the stick, right?

[GravityRobert]

Originally Posted by Lou Judson

You supposed audio folk still watch football? That's the one with the pointy ball, not the one with the stick, right?

Ehm? The other form of sports named football (in 90% of the world with North America as a lonely exception ) is 'soccer'. You know, the one with the ROUND ball

It's football, anyway, fuuck "soccer"

[vocomotion]

That was just plain ridiculous! Crazy crazy autotune madness, live on the Superbowl! Oh Billy Billy Billy...

--> freddie

[dude24man]

I totaly heard the same thing. I was thinking am I going mad or is this completly f'ed up. Arthur

www.dmsstudio.com

[Curve Dominant]

I didn't guess haywire AT, but it did sound really odd.

It sounded like he was trying to "get creative" with some of the melodies and got a little lost in places.

Billy's had his issues with drugs and alcohol over the years and it takes a toll on the pipes.

The real question is: What the hell was Prince thinking trying to cover the Foo Fighters?? Dude is no Dave Grohl, that's for sure.

[cfjis]

As I was listening to it, I knew this thread would be here next time I checked....
ha ha

It sounded to me like that Antares box... not gone awry, but set to a pretty harsh setting (fast tuning time, etc) with some bad notes being thrown in there.

Ouch.

[OneUp Ent]

I thought it sounded like crap! who ever was at them helm with the autotune must have had it set for the wrong key. Also had it too strict, needed to relax it some. I'm shocked Billy would even try to use that live. sounded like a vocoder. his pipes couldnt so bad that he needed that crutch.

[macr0w]

I can't believe it's not on the internet yet.

[absrec]

Being a huge Billy Joel fan, I find that really sad. I didn't hear it, but I'm confused at why they would need AutoTune for anyone to sing the national anthem. It's disrespectful, for one. Plus, Billy Joel doesn't NEED AutoTune. He made records back when talent was actually a requirement.

I'm so disgusted right now.
-Aaron

[DeBasement]

I heard exactly the same thing and was shocked and amazed and delighted and saddened and a few other emotions I can't recall now...

Billy ain't THAT bad a singer, so I can only imagine that maybe auto-tune was there as a 'safety net' if his monitoring was bad and he couldn't hear himself well enough... But it totally backfired, and instead he sounded like a drunk robot - and I don't mean that in a good 'funny drunken robot' way.

Youch. To quote the piano man,

"I liked you just the way you aaaAAAaaaAAArrRRRaaRRReee..."

[Jonboy79]

I wasn't listening that close because I was eating dinner while he was singing but I did hear a few parts that made me think "he's really gone down hill".

[d. gauss]

that just billy joel sucked. prince tore it up.

on a similar bad note, anybody see how shania twain playing acoustic was autotuned live a few weeks back on the kennedy center honors? more sucko.

[dtucker]

His first note was pretty flat...so if Autotune was in effect it certainly missed it. So, I would say, NO....no autotune.

Prince...man, that cat is insane. Anybody know what amp he plays through??

[(DC)]

There was a part where Prince was walking towards the camera and a part of his guitar riff was playing... but his hands were away from the guitar. Also, when he turns around to go back up he isn't singing but the vocals are still blasting away.

Also... autotune was the first thing I thought when I heard Billy Joel... it sounded off key.

[Acoustic Cloud]

You guys are all nuts!!

Do you really think Billy Joel needs auto-tune to sing the National Anthem???


Please....... he looks a bit older, but this isnt freakin Jordan from Newfound glory singing here!!

[d. gauss]

it was autotune. no question. look for it on youtube. the prince stuff is already up.

[Acoustic Cloud]

Originally Posted by (DC)

There was a part where Prince was walking towards the camera and a part of his guitar riff was playing... but his hands were away from the guitar. Also, when he turns around to go back up he isn't singing but the vocals are still blasting away.

Also... autotune was the first thing I thought when I heard Billy Joel... it sounded off key.

You should ask Prince, what million dollar place he would suggest you to buy!

ee

[Ruudman]

Originally Posted by Acoustic Cloud

You guys are all nuts!!
Do you really think Billy Joel needs auto-tune to sing the National Anthem???

No, but AT was inserted somewhere in the chain, that's for sure.

ruudman

[d_fu]

Originally Posted by dtucker

His first note was pretty flat...so if Autotune was in effect it certainly missed it. So, I would say, NO....no autotune.

Now that I hear it, I agree he's definitely off key. Kinda hard to detect the Autotune "effect" in the fairly compressed Youtube Audio.

[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...)

[Ruudman]

Originally Posted by psycho_monkey

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

You mean Ronaldo's dive (Man U vs Tottenham)?

ruudman

[dave-G]

Originally Posted by dtucker

His first note was pretty flat...so if Autotune was in effect it certainly missed it. So, I would say, NO....no autotune.

Haven't seen the Youtube replay yet, but there was definitely autotuning going on.. I heard that first note flat too, which I attribute to the idea of "see how it's going before you kick it in"

And it got kicked in.

Nasty

-dave

[UnDeFiNeD]

Here it is...and it's DEFINITELY pitch corrected in a severe way, could be set in & out by the engineer, dunno

[d. gauss]

Originally Posted by Acoustic Cloud

You guys are all nuts!!

Do you really think Billy Joel needs auto-tune to sing the National Anthem???

um, obviously he does.

[mrufino1]

Yikes! I didn't hear that when I saw it on TV yesterday. That is really bad.

[Studiocat]

You guys all assume it was autotune.
It could have been any of the other pitch correction tools. Maybe they cheaped out and used waves tune 'light'...

[Vocalvoodoo]

Wow! He was obviously tuned. That's really sad, and lame at the same time. I expect tuning with someone like myself because I'm not a talented singer, but Billy Joel?!?!? WTF? lol