CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR IN CONCERT

[karl]

Did anyone watch this on tv a few days ago? I thought they were both brilliant and singing better than ever,
the mutual admiration and chemistry bouncing off them reminded me of seeing Ray Conniff in concert many years ago, a musician I'd never heard of at the time (Skeets Hertfert) played with Ray and they just bounced off each other musically. It was one of the best concerts I've ever seen and had they returned I would definitely have gone again. Ray Conniff came across as a very nice person.

[ROBERT M.]

I didn’t see it but glad you enjoyed it Karl

[Rmoore]

I saw it too however all of Carol's vocals had been autotuned! Somewhat ruined it for me.

[karl]

I saw it too however all of Carol's vocals had been autotuned! Somewhat ruined it for me.

How can you tell Richard?

[Rmoore]

I can spot it a mile away Karl. Each note is perfectly in tune. No longer quite human. If you know what it sounds like, you can spot it immediately.

[karl]

I can spot it a mile away Karl. Each note is perfectly in tune. No longer quite human. If you know what it sounds like, you can spot it immediately.

Richard I am still trying to get my head around autotune, a professional singer should be able to sing in tune but if it's a live performance how can it be corrected instantly? Also does it mean a tone deaf person could perform perfectly?

[Rmoore]

Singers who can sing well still use autotune. Bulble used it for years, despite being a good singer. Humans are imperfect and will rarely hit a note absolutely 100 accurately. It's actually one of the best things about a natural voice. Autotune puts notes 100% in tune. They become robotic. It may be that Carol is not the singer she once was and whilst she can get away with it live, close up and personal on a live recording not so much. It's unlikely that it was used live (although it CAN be!) in this case it would have just been used on the recorded vocal. I think some lines were even re-recorded as they didn't quite match the mouth movement.

Can auto-tune make a bad singer sound good - Of course! It's used constantly by pop singers whose image is more important than their voice!

Want to hear a bad singer made to sound better (Although still robotic)? Listen to a recording of Emma Watson singing in the live-action Beauty and the Beast. Good actress, but no singer. In the old days she would have been dubbed like Audry Hepburn in My Fair Lady, but not any more. They take whatever she could do and make it in tune.

Can auto-tune be useful - yes. I've used it to fix odd notes. There was one long flat note that made an unreleased track by an artist I won't mention (not Matt) unusable. Autotune allowed me to fix that and Issue it. It can save time when bits of a vocal need fixing, rather than wholesale, but it is somewhat misused and unfortunately everyone is using it these days

[Rmoore]

Oh by the way. If you want to know more about autotune vocals (and it's misuse) alongside spotting those who use pretaped, pre-autotuned vocals on stage (Don Henley of the Eagles is guilty of this for instance) look at the Wings Of Pegasus YouTube channel.

[ROBERT M.]

Found this video on that page where it explains how Sir Cliff Richard started to lip synch (mine) in his later singing career!!

https://youtu.be/TSG38WetmfM?si=Mo2ClZqBJLbOwLke