Unpopular music opinions

[rue]

yeah and make dogs howl

Back on topic.... I can't think of anyone that can sing without help now. Maybe Barbara Streisand?

 

[MissMittens]

yeah and make dogs howl

Back on topic.... I can't think of anyone that can sing without help now. Maybe Barbara Streisand?

She's always had help. She was one of the first people to use the technology in the 70's

 

[eveready]

I don't know what she sounds like today, but Pat Benetar had a set of pipes 30 years ago....[video=youtube;vy-QmgdUVTI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vy-QmgdUVTI[/video] She might have been able to out-sing Al Jolsen and his horn.......

 

[rue]

She's always had help. She was one of the first people to use the technology in the 70's

hmmm..... then nope can't think of anyone.

 

[eveready]

Unpopular....but Chris Cornell could belt it out too.......Grandma would NOT approve.[video=youtube;aE1k6Dq86R8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE1k6Dq86R8[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

I think sheer volume is only a part of the equation. I could step on my cat's tail and generate sound sufficient to make a loud recording -- but it wouldn't be music. Where "studio technique" comes in is to take such caterwauling and shape and massage and cut and paste and manipulate it until it passes for music. Pre-rock performers had no need for this sort of goat-glanding.

 

[martinsantos]

Opera singers usually don't need these gadgets. Maybe because they have to sing in opera theaters, with a loud orchestra.

At least I never heard about tech gadgets in opera recordings.

Shellac recordings, of course, didn't give any chance to the artist. Or he/she sings well or... No good result. The popular artist should really know the art.

(A brazilian singer from 30s/40s, Francisco Alves, with a tender, rich voice, had a record that always made him shy. He drunk too much the day before the recording session. Where he met a new song, with some difficult words... Sung wrong and went away to sleep. Hungry about him, the studio distributed the recording).

 

[jamespowers]

I think sheer volume is only a part of the equation. I could step on my cat's tail and generate sound sufficient to make a loud recording -- but it wouldn't be music.

:rofl:
Exactly.

 

[Lincsong]

Peter Cetera is annoying.

 

[Lincsong]

[video=youtube;DkDX_SZorg8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkDX_SZorg8[/video]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Just a thought from a moderator's perspective -- since the topic of this thread is OPINIONS, I'd suggest we have a bit more opinion expressed, rather than just random postings of videos. *Why* is such and such a video being posted, *what* is the specific unpopular point being expressed? The thread is borderline for being on-topic here, but I've let it continue so far -- but as a condition for keeping it open, I'd like to see it more opinion-and-discussion oriented instead of just being an excuse to post non-Golden Era-relevant material.

 

[rue]

Lizzie, I didn't want to ask on the 'what are you listening to' thread but what is your opinion on Whispering Jack Smith?

 

[VitaminG]

How did generations of singers manage to make themselves heard without layers of studio trickery? Jolson, Crosby, Bailey, Fitzgerald, Sinatra -- all started out recording direct to a wax or lacquer disc, in one, with the band right there in the studio behind them. (Jolson even started out recording without a microphone -- he bellowed into an acoustic horn.)

How many of today's performers could do this?

many could. many still do. I can't speak of today's chart stars as I pay them little attention, but for many musicians, performing live is still their focus. They have the power to sing on key and in tune without the aid of software to correct their 'flaws'.

Ironic that you mentioned Sinatra - he was one who popularised breathing into the mic and letting it do all the work instead of belting it out as many of his forebears had. A generation learned that you could sing softly into your chest and still be heard over a band.

 

[lolly_loisides]

Completely and utterly fftopic: Vitamin G, I hope Cyclone Yasi didn't cause you too many troubles.

 

[Razorman937]

I am not a fan of Bob Dylan, or Neil Young.

 

[VitaminG]

Completely and utterly fftopic: Vitamin G, I hope Cyclone Yasi didn't cause you too many troubles.

thanks lolly. We're far enough south that we barely felt a flutter. Terrible for the small townships that it devastated, but amazing that it managed to miss major centres like Cairns & Townsville. i think the mass media were a bit disappointed they didn't get the catastrophe they had been predicting.

I did lose my car in the flash flood that swept through town last month though. Family, home & friends all safe thankfully, and it was only a car. Easily replaced.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lizzie, I didn't want to ask on the 'what are you listening to' thread but what is your opinion on Whispering Jack Smith?

He's not really a crooner in the Crosby-Columbo-Bowlly sense -- he's more of a radio singer/personality in the manner of Little Jack Little. His radio programs come across as very intimate and personalized, with Jack chatting up the listener one-on-one between songs, which is an effect that doesn't come off as well on records today unless you've also heard his broadcasts and can extrapolate the personality onto them. But what he does, he does quite well.

 

[rue]

He's not really a crooner in the Crosby-Columbo-Bowlly sense -- he's more of a radio singer/personality in the manner of Little Jack Little. His radio programs come across as very intimate and personalized, with Jack chatting up the listener one-on-one between songs, which is an effect that doesn't come off as well on records today unless you've also heard his broadcasts and can extrapolate the personality onto them. But what he does, he does quite well.

He's growing on me, but if I heard his broadcasts and I got the whole picture, like you said, I might like him better. I'll see what I can find.
Thank you for your answer

 

[1961MJS]

I am not a fan of Bob Dylan, or Neil Young.

Hi, there was a guy in my dorm that sang Neil Young's songs, but the guy didn't have Neil's nasally voice. I actually like the songs, but I can't stand his voice.

Later

 

[Rundquist]

Anybody who uses Pro Tools might as well be Milli Vanilli.

Not true. Pro Tools is the defacto industry standard for recording. It's no different from using an analog board and reel to reel, except for the fact that it's cheaper and the quality is better. Pro Tools is what does the recording and mixing of multiple tracks, and is not what changes the pitch of someone's voice.

If you mean Antares AutoTune then I would agree with you. AutoTune is NOT Pro Tools, but a package you buy and use with Pro Tools. There is also a hardware option which is a box you sing through and use with old school analog recording equipment.

Again, I think you're confusing AutoTune with Pro Tools

I think that the point Chas was trying to make is that Pro Tools has taken away the performance because you can piece together music so easily now. Most music is recorded in isolated overdubs now. This is done partly because many of the performers are not up to live recording. But it’s also done just because of what the recording technique has become because of Pro Tools.

Many listeners no longer have ears for performance. They are used to sonic homogenization. Auto tuners and so forth add to the “sound” that people expect these days. Add to that, that records are now mixed for ipods and crummy computer speakers and they have never sounded so horrible sonically.

In theory though, you are correct that Pro Tools in itself has not really killed the sound of records. But what has come hand in hand with Pro Tools, has. Since anybody in essence can record, “anybody” does. They don’t necessarily use good microphones and they don’t necessarily use an analogue pre amp. Those are the most important components to making a warm sounding recording.

The last point about Pro Tools is that a group had to have its act together in the older days to put out a record. Because you had to have a record company behind you to do so, it meant that you had to have a demo to shop to record companies. To even get that far, you had to be relatively serious.