With respect to Emma - but immediately after I heard her sing the first line - I knew I wouldn't like the movie. Who ever decided the auto tune would sound better - made the mistake.
The auto-tuned version of 2017 sounds almost amateurish compared to the natural voices of 1991. And the pity is that so many people; especially the young people, are being raised and conditioned to accept the auto-tuned vocals as the norm because they have not been exposed to the great vocalists of the pre auto-tune years and hearing the huge difference. Sad...really sad.
They hired Emma as box office draw and I don't think her singing ability had much to do with casting her. Maybe the idea was that her fans would come to see *her* and they wouldn't be too concerned about her singing. Autotune is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Yeah, but they dubbed other great actresses (The King & I, My Fair Lady, West Side Story (all dubbed with the same singer, btw, the great Marni Nixon))... even actors and actresses who COULD sing and were trained, when they were very clearly chosen for their name and not their voice. They wanted big names with amazing acting AND amazing singing... not just one or the other.
@@cacvpc Agreed. The studios very carefully crafted stars images. A star couldn't have any imperfections - and that included vocal ability. If they couldn't sing, their singing voice wasn't suitable for their image or strong enough they dubbed them. Rita Haworth (for example) had to look like Rita Hayworth, act and behave a certain way and sing they way the studio thought Rita Hayworth should sound to maintain that image. There were three or four major dub performers - both for men and women and they were so fantastic there performances were pretty close to perfect.
There's a world of difference between an *actor* singing and a *trained singer* singing. I learned this during my Performing Arts course; at the start, my singing teacher told me I was hitting all the notes the way I should, but I wasn't 'giving' anything emotionally in what I was singing. It took me a while, and a lot of vocal coaching, to learn how to properly do that; to 'feel' the words I was singing in a way that I could express vocally, with things like you mentioned, Phil, like breathiness, knowing when to use head voice and chest voice, when to put in the 'cry,' etc. And, unfortunately, autotune is the equivalent of formalehyde on the corpse of an untrained actor-voice - i.e. it might stop it decomposing, but it won't make it sound any less dead.
It's not just actor vs trained singer. They do train the actors to sing. The problem is, that training is maybe six months, and they're being trained on the songs they're going to sing. The actor then only knows those songs, and hasn't built any of the range or experience necessary to fill out the song and give it that musical sound that it needs.
Haha..that is the best analogy I've ever heard. Going to try and memorize it, and fit it into a normal conversation, lol..hope you don't mind... I'll start by saying, " A great woman once said...
This reminds me of an interview done with Idina Menzel when "Let It Go" became so popular. She was asked what it was like to be an overnight success. She said "I don't know - I've singing on Broadway for 20 years." Point being - they used to hire actors and actresses then DUB them with singers. Example - in Mulan, B.D. Wong was the speaking voice of Shang and Donny Osmond was the singing voice. If you can't do both, then it's the film's responsibility to do a good job. Appreciating all these so much! ETA - yes, Luke Evans began his career on the stage in the West End of London.
As a classically trained vocalist and self taught guitarist your vocal technique explanations on this video are much more important in my point of view than the auto tune examples. Well done sir.
I really enjoyed this. What a difference with the autotune, and not in a good way. I am surprised for the live action they didn’t have someone else sing it and Emma being overdubbed. Even before all this technology they used to do that. Marni Nixon did the vocals for “My Fair Lady” and “West Side Story” for example and it never took anything away from the soundtrack and movies.
You're absolutely right that auto-tune, pitch correction is taking away a singers individual vocal personally or character that makes them unique and that you like to hear. I understand it has a purpose, but using it on every note of every song of every vocalist, just takes away from what makes a song unique. Thanks again my friend. You do great things and it's greatly appreciated.
Feels Good Man...You said it very well and spoke a key point: "...auto-tune, pitch correction is taking away a singer's INDIVIDUAL VOCAL PERSONALITY..." Bravo....yes, it is a great singer's own unique vocal "personality" and warmth and their own emotions that they bring to a song that makes them unique and identifiable. When I hear a great pre-auto-tune singer, I am listening and interacting with the vocals with my emotions and everything in my life's experiences. Auto-tune does a good job at sterilizing that interaction.
The difference between the two is so gratingly obvious. Autotune makes the singer sound computerized and mechanical, and reminds me of that Cher song that started all this.
It is still just cracking me up that I get an advertisement for "Auto-Tune Unlimited" now every single time before one of these recent videos! It's even on SALE today! Okay, I'm settling down to listen. Cheers!
To me auto tune always sounds like someone singing into their McDonald's soda cup. If Disney really wanted Emma in that role they should have sprung for the voice training to complete the whole package.
I adore Paige O’Hara’s performance, way back in 1991 I was 6 and listened to this soundtrack over and over. I haven’t seen the 2017 remake but I don’t think I could sit through it tbh. I’ve always had an ear for auto tune - thank your for making the broader public aware of this, and point out why it sounds the way it does. I’m very disappointed in Disney’s blatant cash-grabs with the remakes over the last few years. They should have had a ghost singer perform the musical numbers…
Right? Just hire an actual, trained singer and make sure to credit them. I know they used to try and keep it as secret as possible, but I never saw the point. Not everyone is a good singer. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, personally.
It's really glaring on those big interval jumps, which are hard for singers to nail, and you can see in the uncorrected version that she approaches a note from above or below and kind of rounds into it. Emma skips from note to note like they are keys on a piano rather than, say, a wind instrument or violin where there is a bit of natural portamento.
There would have been no shame in having Emma’s voice dubbed by a professional. She got the job because she can act and she’s beautiful. The amount of auto tune applied to her voice in this film made it a cringe-fest to listen to. I would rather have heard her natural voice even if she hit a flat note now and then, rather than this robotic disaster. Emma deserved better.
In classic cinema that was a tried and true method.... Leslie Caron in Gigi, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, among others were all dubbed by the late great Marnie Nixon
Thanks for putting this video on RUclips. I shared it with my Advanced Music Theory class and it created a pretty lively and insightful discussion. They really appreciated being able to see the pitches laid out on the graph and the side-by-side comparisons you make! That is so amazing to observe! Side note: one of the pitfalls of pitch correction that I pointed out to my students with music software that, as you say, snaps the pitch to a given (fixed) frequency, and the fact that it does NOT allow the slight fluctuations in pitch (going slightly sharp or flat) is significant in another way besides artistic expression. These fluctuations also serve the very real musical purpose of leaning into a harmonic resolution. In other words, an "A" that functions as a leading tone to a "Bb" tonic note is often (and should be) just a little higher than a proper "A" (440 Hz) because it helps resolve the leading tone to the tonic. The ear doesn't necessarily worry that that note is X amount of pennies sharp or whatever. It just hears the note lean into the resolution, and the subsequent pleasure of dissonance resolving to consonance. But that half step (semitone) should be smaller by just a bit than the equally tempered half step (semitone) in order to lean harder into the resolution. Thanks again for allowing us to use your video as a very important teaching tool for my music students.
Just one more reason why I loathe the 2017 version of B&theB. The 1991 version just can't be beat. Thanks bunches for this analysis! You've outdone yourself once again! You rock!! ☄
In the old cartoons they often had three artists working on a single character, the animator, the actor (for when speaking) and the singer. Now they have to merge it all into a single person and no way they would admit she can't quite sing. On the other hand, autotune is how music sounds to new generations. All of this just made me appreciate Paige's amazing performance more.
The part where it's like "Every Morning just the same", she's expressing a level of frustration in the song, and the "same" word starts closer to on pitch, but ends flatter as the phrase ends, and it sounds good. Like the dip in the pitch seems intentional and juxtaposed against the key coming through in the instrumental, it portays the emotion correctly as intended. You wouldn't want to be spot on the note.
Boy when you look at these comparisons it's easy to see why all human emotion, feeling and vulnerability is void from auto tuned voices. I'm not even a trained singer and it's as obvious as the hand in front of my face.
Thank you for making me aware of why I hate a lot of singers today, subconsciously I’ve always been able to hear the auto tune, even though I didn’t know what I was hearing. I just knew I didn’t like it. I’m used to “The Music Man”, and I always wondered why I cling to those old movies and never warm up to today’s musicals. Now I know it’s auto tune!
Thank you so much for doing this series on auto tuning. I have learned a lot. Now I understand why so much of today's music doesn't sound right to my ears. I guess I was spoiled listening to the great classic music from the 60's-70's.
Dagmar S....Yes, and even decades earlier with the great musicals and live theatre. I was a kid in the 50's with my mother taking me to see the great Rogers & Hammerstein musicals of Oklahoma, South Pacific, Carousel and having the albums that I would spend hours listening to and singing along with at home. And then Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, and then so many other great musicals. And all done without auto-tune. And yes, some of the leading ladies & men had their voices dubbed ( perhaps some needed but some not needed; it was just a bad habit that Hollywood got caught up into doing ), but dubbed is still a natural voice. Absolutely, Dagmar...what a nice way to get spoiled!!
@@dagmar.6954 Oh, I agree with that too; I wasn't meaning to exclude any other of the great music from those earlier years. I just got focused on the musicals...sorry. I turned 21 in 1973, so I was at a great age to have so much of my early adult life surrounded with so many fantastic bands and solo artists whose music has well earned the title of "Classic". I had a very nice component system back then and to really listen to the great bands on a real good turntable and good speakers ( head-phones too), was like being in the studio with them; you hear things that just do not come through the radio.
When you talked about “full tones” vibrato I immediately thought of Judy Garland. I hadn’t know there were such nuances to how you can dissect vibrato. Fascinating!
Wow! Emma's isolated vocals sound so artificial. I found some videos with Emma singing without Auto Tune and she's not bad.... and she can beatbox. That was a really enlightening video. Thanks!
This is fascinating, I’m actually starting to hear autotune in songs now. You’re an excellent teacher and i love your music. 💗 Great point about actors expected to sing or just miscast. Case in point, Gerald Butler in Phantom of the Opera. Fine actor (“300”, “Dear Frankie”) but not a great singer.
His singing was actually pretty good. It fit the roll very well. Was he fit to stand with Pavarotti? No. But it was perfect for the style of remake. He also sang in some other movies.
Wow Fil. Who would have known or should I say not the untrained ear which is me. It's taken me a while to get this pitch/auto tune down and understand what you say. However.... I hear it 👂and I see it 👀! Thank you Fil. ;)
@@Moonflowers11 Hi, Liz! I usually love musicals. I think the musical highlights of my life were the stage versions of Camelot with Richard Burton, The King and I with Yul Brynner, and Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford. In 1969, when I was 15, I did not see the movie musical, Paint Your Wagon. As I remember, it was not "Mom-approved", one reason being the existence of a song called "They Call the Wind Mariah" which was my mother's absolute least favorite song EVER. Why? I don't know. She was very affected by music and could cry or get angry or be super happy after just a few notes. Decades later Paint Your Wagon was on TV, TCM I believe. My then-husband was out of town so I controlled the remote and started watching. The "bigness" of the movie screen version's western panoramas was lost on TV. In so far as the stars of the movie, I am generally a fan of Lee Marvin and a very selective fan of Clint Eastwood. Jean Seburg was known to me through her French movie appearances and Harve Presnell had starred with the Energizer Bunny, the extremely vivacious Debbie Reynolds, in a good stage presentation of Annie Get Your Gun that I had attended with my parents. Other than Presnell, the major stars of the movie were not known as singers. For me, the lack of people who could really sing (Lee and Clint) was a minus as they grunted out the lyrics and tried to find the notes. The songs themselves were not memorable. The plot dealt with a novel idea for a musical - Jean "loved" both Lee and Clint, sharing time with them (that's probably why my mom nixed my seeing the movie in 1969). Josh Logan directed and gave it his "South Pacific" MOVIE effort - that movie being a not big success when it came out, unlike his stage version. Paint's scenes seemed cobbled together; Lee seemed truly drunk; Clint seemed to be wondering how to get back to Italy and do another spaghetti Western and not have to sing "I Talk to the Trees"; Jean seemed to be hoping to have the movie end (she later committed suicide); to this day I agree with my mom on "Mariah"; and I multiplexed my watching time by playing with the cats, fixing a snack, eating a snack, etc. Unfortunately, for me the movie doesn't fall into the categories of guilty pleasure, so bad it's good, interesting time piece, good songs in a bad movie, great dancing, worth watching one more time to see if I missed something. It's just bad. Absolutely no fun - not even laughable. But taste is very individualistic and other people may love this movie for some reason. Here are two other musical movies that I would put in the trash bin - Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. Gerard Butler was a good looking guy and I thought he might have a good career. But why would anyone cast someone who was a very mediocre singer in a movie that had a stage star of phenomenal talent (Michael Crawford)? And how did Michael go from a goofy young man who was in some not great musicals to the Phantom - an ugly, crude monster whose voice rang the rafters while he conveyed love and sexiness (yes!) for his muse and changed into a man who showed love by releasing the woman he loved to someone else? It was the best performance and the best presentation I have ever seen in my 67 years. Les Miz, the movie that made me miserable and seemed to go on for DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS. How does anyone change a handsome man like Hugh into a guy who looks like Woody Allen? And why so many closeups? Why so much nasal discharge? Once again, others may love these films. That gives them more to watch on Saturday nights. Liz, if you are still reading this, I salute you. My disability gives me too much time these days. May you have a wonderful life enjoying music and movies!
@@marthawelch4289 Oh, but I respectfully and strongly disagree on both points ! I think Paint Your Wagon was a gloriously sarcastic and fun movie that went against the grain of Hollywood Western movies and against the typical musical that had, hopefully, great singers for the leads. Having Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood do their own singing and not trying to really sing good, made it even that much more fun. I actually thought that Lee Marvin did great with his song " I Was Born Under a Wand'ring Star". One does not expect a rough & tumble gold miner to be a trained singer, and Marvin did not disappoint. Actually, he was on key well enough for most of the song, just a rough & scratchy on key. I felt that this crusty and unpolished miner really let his unsuccessful life come through in the song. And with Lee and Clint married to the same woman...OH MY...!! Hollywood really rocked the mainstream boat with Paint Your Wagon...bravo for making this crazy funny movie.
Your voice is incredible Fil. I've always been really impressed with your vibrato when listening to your music, now I'm even more impressed after hearing your philosophies and your willingness to just belt it out. I'm really liking these auto tune videos you've been doing, and I like how you critiqued Emma while being respectful and acknowledging that this isn't a video to shit on her or something like other people with less taste may have done.
Really enjoying your auto tune analyses Fil. I think you hit the nail on the head that auto tune is removing the humanity from performances. The human “imperfections” are what actually make it appealing to listen to.
Lol, I was singing along with Paige's vocals everytime you played them! Her performance of Belle's singing voice is now a classic. Her voice is beautiful.
Another excellent one Fil... This remind me of the music "My Fair Lady" where Julie Andrew played Eliza Doolittle, in the 1956 Broadway version as you know can sing very well, where in the 1964 film Audrey Hepburn played Eliza Doolittle she gave an outstanding performance but not known as a singer her singing parts was dobbed in by Marni Nixon. thanks Fil
@@drewpall2598 I didn't know that, but I just noticed it after I listened to a song from each of those films! Amazing! She sounded so similar to Audrey Hepburn especially.
Julie Andrews hadn't been in the movies prior to 1964. In that same year that My Fair Lady came out, she debuted in her very first movie role of Mary Poppins. Imagine what Mary Poppins would have been like without Julie Andrews alongside the great Dick Van Dyke?! The following year, 1965, she starred in her most beloved role of Maria Von Trapp in the Sound of Music. She's a legend!
OMG Fil! Your commentary made me instantly think of Universal's production of Mamma Mia, casting well known names like Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, that aren't trained singers, INTO A MUSICAL! What a disaster especially Pierce, so awful it was the laugh track of the movie.
My older daughter absolutely loved the 1991 version as a child, so I heard/watched that version literally hundreds of times. I loved it. So entertaining, on multiple levels. My younger daughter (a Harry Potter fan lol) finally convinced me to watch the new one with Emma. Oh my god. It was almost distressingly awful. So devoid of emotion. And the auto tune was like nails on a window. I found myself wanting to go back and listen to/watch the 1991 version like a palate cleanser. The greats are great ONLY because of natural greatness. You can’t manufacture that, you just can’t. Please, producers, stop doing this to us.
They don’t necessarily have to be trained. They just have to be good singers, with a vocal range that encompasses the range of the songs they’re going to be asked to sing. There are plenty of great, professional, highly skilled singers with no formal training. Furthermore, there are roles and styles that are actually quite ill-suited to the typical sound of a highly trained musical theatre voice. The problem is casting non-singers, which happens because the ability to sing has fallen so low on the list of priorities when casting these roles (in part, because the people making the casting decisions falsely believe that any vocal shortcomings can be fixed in post)
This is one of the best side-by-side presentation of what Auto-tune does to a voice. Not to take anything away from Emma Watson but it was so obvious. Rock!
Sideways did a video in which he mentions that you can actually hear Paige O'Hara smile during her performance (the example was the line "But she won't discover that it's him till chapter three"). The 1991 film was incredibly vibrant, and it didn't matter that the actors weren't all A-list movie stars. But the remake cast Luke Evans and Josh Gad, who clearly know their way around a musical, proving that star power and singing ability are not mutually exclusive. Poor Emma Watson had the charisma of a paperweight in comparison. Don't force non-singers to sing. Nobody wins.
Trained singers should be cast, I agree, but I like Emma’s acting. The Rock sang in Moana so it’s about big names and not singing talent. Good honest analysis, Fil - auto tune is running rampant apparently.
Wow, sometimes autotune can be somewhat subtle, but not in this case. It sounds so metallic, so robotic. I think the classic Disney films are adored as musicals. The songs sound like they're actually sung by the characters in the scene. But when the music is so heavily overproduced (e.g., in terms of autotune among other things), you don't get the feeling that the characters are singing in the actual scene. You just don't develop the same connection to the characters. It is like a song put on top of the scene, rather than feeling it is performed right there.
I appreciate your comments around using a talking voice to sing. It highlights the nuance (e.g., %s of flipping between registers) applied by trained pros.
I didn't even look at the graph.. as soon as you started the track I could hear it!😂 It really is a shame auto tune is relied on these days.. I have no problem with it being used, but use it as a tool, not a crutch. I love Paige's vocal for the original film but, there's really nothing like seeing the Live Musical.
You keep saying you're not a trained singer. To me you seem to have very good control aswell as range. Don't sell yourself short, you sing quite beautifully! However, humility is always the trademark of professionals. So - I get it!
Luke Evans sang on the BBC's Children in Need album, Got it Covered. It was quite a nice cover of "Smile." He has appeared in numerous musicals in the West End.
I just love your analysis comparisons. Yes it doesn't sound right. I hear a more robotic sound with the overused auto tune. It would be nice to do that comparison with the new and the old West Side Story Film.
Hi Fil! I’m entertained and I learn each time you a share your love and knowledge of music , performance, and so many other aspects of this most important human expression! Thank You Fil!
The Minister of Explaining Things has done it again. Fil, I LEARN from your music videos. You have opened up a whole new vista of exploration for me when it comes to listening to both recorded and live music. I know just enough to be dangerous now. But I'm looking forward to even more tutorials from you on pitch correction and auto tune. You deserve a pay raise! Thank you from the Washington, D.C., area!
As always, this is a subject worth discussing. The clodhopping approach to both autotune and correction strips away much of the joy of people singing for ...joy! “Hold Tight” by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich was recorded in 97 minutes, with a five.part harmony. My daughter’s new single, Forget by Isobel Thatcher, was recorded in six hours, her vocals in 17 minutes. These correctives have a place for tired, unwell, edgy, wavering singers who need a leg-up, but not as a cure-all. Nice work, Fil: what you’re doing is of incalculable value. I’m really proud of you.😀, as are your very switched-on followers. Take a rest, but don’t stop! 😃Best, Tom T
13:30 Paige is a little flat because she is Acting within her singing, her character is sad and she's conveying that by coming down a little "every morning just the same" is a sad line. She's probably doing it instictively which makes her singing even better dropping just that tiny bit to evoke emotion. Thanks for letting me notice and appreciate these details.
Another excellent video. Thank you for saying what we're all thinking - yes, they absolutely should have hired an actress who was also a trained singer, or just dubbed the role.
I'm glad someone pointed this out. I love the fantastic vocal of Paige O'Hara. Emma's electronic, mechanical voice made that live movie unwatchable. I couldn't listen to anything she "sang". It was terrible.
The 1991 film was so magical to me as a child partially because of the amazing vocal performances! I learned how to sing from these classic Disney musicals. The new, robotic voices of today are a terrible tragedy, when there are still so many beautiful natural voices that deserve to be heard.
This is such a great video! I love Emma but I agree she doesn’t have a great voice. You are very good at explaining how music is more than notes, it’s emotional.
I discovered this channel yesterday. A YT-recommended vid led me on quite a journey -- this is now my 10th video! Anywaaaaay, with the original singer, you can hear the smile in her voice. She's acting with her voice. Emma is basically reciting lines to a melody. The difference is like night and day. Your videos are SO informative and instructional. Thanks!
Fil doing Disney tunes - have I fallen into some kind of alternative reality?!? 😃 Hearing you sing alone, what a striking voice you’ve got - great tone! And yet another informative analysis! Btw, few days ago happened to hear Ringo Starr’s new single, a cover of Rock Around The Clock, on Vevo. I swear his vocal’s pitch-corrected, sounds far too clean. But I just can’t imagine an old-school musician such as Ringo using autotune or pitch correction - it’s an odd one
@@kata7628 And that’s another thing - he’s 80 apparently but looks maybe in his 40s max. He looks incredible for his age. Even from when he was young, his pitch was a little off, but his voice has character, is very distinctive, and that’s what always carried it to some extent. But still, if he has allowed his vocal to be pitch-corrected, I’ll be surprised - unless his tuning really has deteriorated
Ringo's "Rock Around the Clock" not corrected IMO. I just listened and heard some flat notes, although my ears aren't the most sensitive. He always sang like that.
I never used to understand why I don't connect to the music being put out these days.When I first heard Adele I was puzzled because I liked her so much I ended up buying her albums, something I hadn't done in a long time. Due to videos like this (and the one you did of Adele's new song) I am beginning to understand. It seems that on some level I don't even realize, I recognize and don't like auto tune. Still, I can think of one time where I wish it had been used (or if it was, even that couldn't help) and that was Pierce Brosnan's err, "performance" of S.O.S. in the movie Mamma Mia. I'm a long time ABBA fan and that is one of my favorite songs, so his, I hesitate to use the word "singing" was just painful. Speaking of ABBA I have really enjoyed their new album - while that may be due to nostalgia, I suspect that it is also due to auto tune not being used. At least, my untrained ears are pretty sure it is not being used.
All of these comparison videos are excellent. I honestly think that when people complain how music isn't good anymore, or how "acting isn't good as it used to be" - while there is probably some validity to those complaints - a lot of the times people are merely subconsciously responding to the more artificial technical standards of modern entertainment. Whether that be autotune for music. Or having movies mixed to sound more sterile and "clean." Or even how cinematography nowadays tends to look more flat and plastic, compared to the grain of older movies. Suggestion: I wonder if it would be possible for future comparisons to make the two voices different colors. For example, here you could've made the Paige O'Hara wavelength a rose red.
According to IMDb, Luke Evans "won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre, and graduated in 2000" and "He starred in many of London's West End theatre productions." (It then goes on to list ten.)
Dear Fil, I have been learning a great amount watching you. I admire your deep understanding and knowledge of music and beyond. Your speech is very clear to my to my non-native speaker american ears. Thank you for all of that! I'm thinking, is it possible that Emma's singing was so off, that the engineers had no choice but to correct it?
I was wondering why-oh-why Emma's vocals sounded so weird and off-putting. But I learned so much about autotune as well, I didn't know how it worked. Thank you so much for this!
The auto-tuned audio sounds 2 dimensional; the natural voice has the roundness of 3 dimensions. I love seeing the wave forms. They help me hear so much more.
WOW that original is also spot on. Every note that anchors a phrase is right on the money, without autotune; and when she is flat or sharp, it can be defended as a creative choice (or at least, a deliberate choice of take).
I'm learning so much about how to appreciate great vocal performances from these videos, very well done! I'd like to see your take on Johnny Cash's rendition of Hurt. The vocal imperfections of that song made it so great. I feel that AutoTune would have ruined it. Look forward to seeing a lot more of your work.
I love these autotune/pitch correction discussions. Very informative and with any luck may force producers to "tone down" (hehe) their overuse of correction software.
WOW! This is the first time I've heard the songs in this movie, because I've never seen it, but Page O'Hara (I hope I spelled that right) has the voice of an angel! I have nothing against Emma Watson, but I don't know why they would get someone who really can't sing all that well. I'm loving this series Fil!❤😝🤘😝❤ Sidenote: Maybe they should've gotten you for the part lol. I'm just teasing, but you've got a kick-ass voice, as well.
Thank You!!!! I get someone like Natalie Wood would help draw people to West Side Story, just as Deborah Kerr to “The King and I”. Wouldn’t they have been able to find someone who could sing, dance act? I loved both movies.
The King and I was Marni Nixon too, wasn't it? She did SO much! Honestly, I feel bad for her because I know she wasn't always properly credited, and she deserved to be!
I think if they wanted it to be a musical just hire singers. But if they did hire based on acting talent I think they should get a professional singer to dub over the actors.
I think they may believe that pitch correction makes it no longer necessary to have a trained singer to do singing - the “separate voice only for the songs” thing is not uncommon historically.
The thing is...Broadway and West End performers are also phenomenal actors. There is no excuse for not casting someone qualified. Simply hire someone who does musical theatre and you will have both good vocals and good acting. Then your film will actually be good!
@@JasperJanssen I still believe that people would choose to see someone who is good over someone who is famous. We just have to give them the benefit of the doubt and stop dumbing things down. Plus, you'll make up sales from all of us who actually expect the music in a musical to be good, and thus don't watch when they go for fame over ability.
With respect to Emma - but immediately after I heard her sing the first line - I knew I wouldn't like the movie.
Who ever decided the auto tune would sound better - made the mistake.
The auto-tuned version of 2017 sounds almost amateurish compared to the natural voices of 1991. And the pity is that so many people; especially the young people, are being raised and conditioned to accept the auto-tuned vocals as the norm because they have not been exposed to the great vocalists of the pre auto-tune years and hearing the huge difference. Sad...really sad.
They hired Emma as box office draw and I don't think her singing ability had much to do with casting her. Maybe the idea was that her fans would come to see *her* and they wouldn't be too concerned about her singing. Autotune is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
Yeah, but they dubbed other great actresses (The King & I, My Fair Lady, West Side Story (all dubbed with the same singer, btw, the great Marni Nixon))... even actors and actresses who COULD sing and were trained, when they were very clearly chosen for their name and not their voice.
They wanted big names with amazing acting AND amazing singing... not just one or the other.
@@cacvpc Agreed. The studios very carefully crafted stars images. A star couldn't have any imperfections - and that included vocal ability. If they couldn't sing, their singing voice wasn't suitable for their image or strong enough they dubbed them. Rita Haworth (for example) had to look like Rita Hayworth, act and behave a certain way and sing they way the studio thought Rita Hayworth should sound to maintain that image. There were three or four major dub performers - both for men and women and they were so fantastic there performances were pretty close to perfect.
There's a world of difference between an *actor* singing and a *trained singer* singing. I learned this during my Performing Arts course; at the start, my singing teacher told me I was hitting all the notes the way I should, but I wasn't 'giving' anything emotionally in what I was singing. It took me a while, and a lot of vocal coaching, to learn how to properly do that; to 'feel' the words I was singing in a way that I could express vocally, with things like you mentioned, Phil, like breathiness, knowing when to use head voice and chest voice, when to put in the 'cry,' etc. And, unfortunately, autotune is the equivalent of formalehyde on the corpse of an untrained actor-voice - i.e. it might stop it decomposing, but it won't make it sound any less dead.
Lol, nice analogy. Also, formaldehyde is highly toxic and a known carcinogen, which also fits into the metaphor.
You must be a trained analogy maker
It's not just actor vs trained singer. They do train the actors to sing. The problem is, that training is maybe six months, and they're being trained on the songs they're going to sing. The actor then only knows those songs, and hasn't built any of the range or experience necessary to fill out the song and give it that musical sound that it needs.
Haha..that is the best analogy I've ever heard. Going to try and memorize it, and fit it into a normal conversation, lol..hope you don't mind...
I'll start by saying, " A great woman once said...
This reminds me of an interview done with Idina Menzel when "Let It Go" became so popular. She was asked what it was like to be an overnight success. She said "I don't know - I've singing on Broadway for 20 years." Point being - they used to hire actors and actresses then DUB them with singers. Example - in Mulan, B.D. Wong was the speaking voice of Shang and Donny Osmond was the singing voice. If you can't do both, then it's the film's responsibility to do a good job. Appreciating all these so much! ETA - yes, Luke Evans began his career on the stage in the West End of London.
As a classically trained vocalist and self taught guitarist your vocal technique explanations on this video are much more important in my point of view than the auto tune examples. Well done sir.
Take a look at his video with Pavarotti. It's excellent. Or have you already seen it?
@@EbonyPope Have not seen that one yet. Still working through past videos. Thanks for the heads up. I am a Pavarotti fan.
@@oldtimer1102 Yeah take a look. He took a warmup exercise from Pavarotti as an example.
@@EbonyPope !!!! Link?
@@SveinOlavGlesaaenNyberg Look through his channel dude. You'll find it. I have no link.
I really enjoyed this. What a difference with the autotune, and not in a good way. I am surprised for the live action they didn’t have someone else sing it and Emma being overdubbed. Even before all this technology they used to do that. Marni Nixon did the vocals for “My Fair Lady” and “West Side Story” for example and it never took anything away from the soundtrack and movies.
You're absolutely right that auto-tune, pitch correction is taking away a singers individual vocal personally or character that makes them unique and that you like to hear. I understand it has a purpose, but using it on every note of every song of every vocalist, just takes away from what makes a song unique. Thanks again my friend. You do great things and it's greatly appreciated.
Feels Good Man...You said it very well and spoke a key point: "...auto-tune, pitch correction is taking away a singer's INDIVIDUAL VOCAL PERSONALITY..."
Bravo....yes, it is a great singer's own unique vocal "personality" and warmth and their own emotions that they bring to a song that makes them unique and identifiable.
When I hear a great pre-auto-tune singer, I am listening and interacting with the vocals with my emotions and everything in my life's experiences. Auto-tune does a good job at sterilizing that interaction.
Thats why I LOATHE "Celtic Women".... To my ear, they are all inter-changeable... Due to AUTO-TUNE. grrrrrrr
They ALL sound alike. Ackkkk
Paige O'Hara's vocals from the 1991 version is still the best 🌹
The difference between the two is so gratingly obvious. Autotune makes the singer sound computerized and mechanical, and reminds me of that Cher song that started all this.
It is still just cracking me up that I get an advertisement for "Auto-Tune Unlimited" now every single time before one of these recent videos! It's even on SALE today! Okay, I'm settling down to listen. Cheers!
Me too. Very funny!
@@brianwhittington5086 Those are annoying, but the ones that show up right in the MIDDLE of a RUclips music video drive me crazy.
😂
@@brianwhittington5086 Oh no! That's merciless!
Ad blockers work well. Get one.
To me auto tune always sounds like someone singing into their McDonald's soda cup. If Disney really wanted Emma in that role they should have sprung for the voice training to complete the whole package.
The original B&B was so much better than the remake. Thanks for a great video!
As a guitarist and a singer in the rock music, Fil can pull off a Disney princess' vocals as well. :-D
I adore Paige O’Hara’s performance, way back in 1991 I was 6 and listened to this soundtrack over and over. I haven’t seen the 2017 remake but I don’t think I could sit through it tbh.
I’ve always had an ear for auto tune - thank your for making the broader public aware of this, and point out why it sounds the way it does. I’m very disappointed in Disney’s blatant cash-grabs with the remakes over the last few years. They should have had a ghost singer perform the musical numbers…
Right? Just hire an actual, trained singer and make sure to credit them. I know they used to try and keep it as secret as possible, but I never saw the point. Not everyone is a good singer. I can't carry a tune in a bucket, personally.
That's a great point about the misstep of snapping an untrained singer perfectly on the line. I enjoy your vocal analysis videos very much.
Thanks!
It's really glaring on those big interval jumps, which are hard for singers to nail, and you can see in the uncorrected version that she approaches a note from above or below and kind of rounds into it. Emma skips from note to note like they are keys on a piano rather than, say, a wind instrument or violin where there is a bit of natural portamento.
Fil, you should get an award for this series. I don’t know what award, but an award. Plus, you should be on national television presenting this stuff.
Thanks!
Luke Evans does have a great voice. As you pointed out he is a trained singer and he has done a lot of musical theater. Thanks, Fil!
03:34 "Emma can do no wrong..."
...Yes. Yes, she can.
There would have been no shame in having Emma’s voice dubbed by a professional. She got the job because she can act and she’s beautiful. The amount of auto tune applied to her voice in this film made it a cringe-fest to listen to. I would rather have heard her natural voice even if she hit a flat note now and then, rather than this robotic disaster. Emma deserved better.
Yep, Paige is still knocking about, get her to 'assist'.
I thought actors do get singing lessons, dont they? Ok perhaps she never took acting classes
In classic cinema that was a tried and true method.... Leslie Caron in Gigi, Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, among others were all dubbed by the late great Marnie Nixon
"She can act"
Am doubt.
Or they could have just cast a singer
Thanks for putting this video on RUclips. I shared it with my Advanced Music Theory class and it created a pretty lively and insightful discussion. They really appreciated being able to see the pitches laid out on the graph and the side-by-side comparisons you make! That is so amazing to observe!
Side note: one of the pitfalls of pitch correction that I pointed out to my students with music software that, as you say, snaps the pitch to a given (fixed) frequency, and the fact that it does NOT allow the slight fluctuations in pitch (going slightly sharp or flat) is significant in another way besides artistic expression. These fluctuations also serve the very real musical purpose of leaning into a harmonic resolution. In other words, an "A" that functions as a leading tone to a "Bb" tonic note is often (and should be) just a little higher than a proper "A" (440 Hz) because it helps resolve the leading tone to the tonic. The ear doesn't necessarily worry that that note is X amount of pennies sharp or whatever. It just hears the note lean into the resolution, and the subsequent pleasure of dissonance resolving to consonance. But that half step (semitone) should be smaller by just a bit than the equally tempered half step (semitone) in order to lean harder into the resolution.
Thanks again for allowing us to use your video as a very important teaching tool for my music students.
I love the warmth in Paige O'hara's voice. Emma Watson's sounds mechanical, especially in comparison.
Just one more reason why I loathe the 2017 version of B&theB. The 1991 version just can't be beat. Thanks bunches for this analysis! You've outdone yourself once again! You rock!! ☄
In the old cartoons they often had three artists working on a single character, the animator, the actor (for when speaking) and the singer. Now they have to merge it all into a single person and no way they would admit she can't quite sing. On the other hand, autotune is how music sounds to new generations.
All of this just made me appreciate Paige's amazing performance more.
The part where it's like "Every Morning just the same", she's expressing a level of frustration in the song, and the "same" word starts closer to on pitch, but ends flatter as the phrase ends, and it sounds good. Like the dip in the pitch seems intentional and juxtaposed against the key coming through in the instrumental, it portays the emotion correctly as intended. You wouldn't want to be spot on the note.
Boy when you look at these comparisons it's easy to see why all human emotion, feeling and vulnerability is void from auto tuned voices. I'm not even a trained singer and it's as obvious as the hand in front of my face.
I'm totally addicted to the way you explain things through the use of your own voice 👍 You're pure joy to listen to! 💖🎸
Thank you for making me aware of why I hate a lot of singers today, subconsciously I’ve always been able to hear the auto tune, even though I didn’t know what I was hearing. I just knew I didn’t like it.
I’m used to “The Music Man”, and I always wondered why I cling to those old movies and never warm up to today’s musicals. Now I know it’s auto tune!
Thank you so much for doing this series on auto tuning. I have learned a lot. Now I understand why so much of today's music doesn't sound right to my ears. I guess I was spoiled listening to the great classic music from the 60's-70's.
Dagmar S....Yes, and even decades earlier with the great musicals and live theatre. I was a kid in the 50's with my mother taking me to see the great Rogers & Hammerstein musicals of Oklahoma, South Pacific, Carousel and having the albums that I would spend hours listening to and singing along with at home. And then Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, and then so many other great musicals. And all done without auto-tune. And yes, some of the leading ladies & men had their voices dubbed ( perhaps some needed but some not needed; it was just a bad habit that Hollywood got caught up into doing ), but dubbed is still a natural voice.
Absolutely, Dagmar...what a nice way to get spoiled!!
@@marbleman52 Wasn't just referring to musicals from the past but also to classic rock.
@@dagmar.6954 Oh, I agree with that too; I wasn't meaning to exclude any other of the great music from those earlier years. I just got focused on the musicals...sorry.
I turned 21 in 1973, so I was at a great age to have so much of my early adult life surrounded with so many fantastic bands and solo artists whose music has well earned the title of "Classic". I had a very nice component system back then and to really listen to the great bands on a real good turntable and good speakers ( head-phones too), was like being in the studio with them; you hear things that just do not come through the radio.
When you talked about “full tones” vibrato I immediately thought of Judy Garland. I hadn’t know there were such nuances to how you can dissect vibrato. Fascinating!
Wow! Emma's isolated vocals sound so artificial. I found some videos with Emma singing without Auto Tune and she's not bad.... and she can beatbox. That was a really enlightening video. Thanks!
The earlier 1991 voice is so refreshing compared to the doctored one!
This is fascinating, I’m actually starting to hear autotune in songs now. You’re an excellent teacher and i love your music. 💗
Great point about actors expected to sing or just miscast. Case in point, Gerald Butler in Phantom of the Opera. Fine actor (“300”, “Dear Frankie”) but not a great singer.
I think his singing was pretty decent
His singing was actually pretty good. It fit the roll very well. Was he fit to stand with Pavarotti? No. But it was perfect for the style of remake. He also sang in some other movies.
Wow Fil. Who would have known or should I say not the untrained ear which is me. It's taken me a while to get this pitch/auto tune down and understand what you say. However.... I hear it 👂and I see it 👀! Thank you Fil. ;)
Phil , great review. The 90’s mix, also has the person smiling whilst she sings. Emotions are translated through their mouth expression. 😊
We all might have fun with Paint Your Wagon (1969) with Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood singing.
I use antlers in all of my decorating!
There is no fun to be had with Lee or Clint in the stupendously awful Paint Your Wagon.
@@marthawelch4289 Why do u say that?
@@Moonflowers11 Hi, Liz! I usually love musicals. I think the musical highlights of my life were the stage versions of Camelot with Richard Burton, The King and I with Yul Brynner, and Phantom of the Opera with Michael Crawford.
In 1969, when I was 15, I did not see the movie musical, Paint Your Wagon. As I remember, it was not "Mom-approved", one reason being the existence of a song called "They Call the Wind Mariah" which was my mother's absolute least favorite song EVER. Why? I don't know. She was very affected by music and could cry or get angry or be super happy after just a few notes.
Decades later Paint Your Wagon was on TV, TCM I believe. My then-husband was out of town so I controlled the remote and started watching. The "bigness" of the movie screen version's western panoramas was lost on TV. In so far as the stars of the movie, I am generally a fan of Lee Marvin and a very selective fan of Clint Eastwood. Jean Seburg was known to me through her French movie appearances and Harve Presnell had starred with the Energizer Bunny, the extremely vivacious Debbie Reynolds, in a good stage presentation of Annie Get Your Gun that I had attended with my parents. Other than Presnell, the major stars of the movie were not known as singers.
For me, the lack of people who could really sing (Lee and Clint) was a minus as they grunted out the lyrics and tried to find the notes. The songs themselves were not memorable. The plot dealt with a novel idea for a musical - Jean "loved" both Lee and Clint, sharing time with them (that's probably why my mom nixed my seeing the movie in 1969).
Josh Logan directed and gave it his "South Pacific" MOVIE effort - that movie being a not big success when it came out, unlike his stage version.
Paint's scenes seemed cobbled together; Lee seemed truly drunk; Clint seemed to be wondering how to get back to Italy and do another spaghetti Western and not have to sing "I Talk to the Trees"; Jean seemed to be hoping to have the movie end (she later committed suicide); to this day I agree with my mom on "Mariah"; and I multiplexed my watching time by playing with the cats, fixing a snack, eating a snack, etc.
Unfortunately, for me the movie doesn't fall into the categories of guilty pleasure, so bad it's good, interesting time piece, good songs in a bad movie, great dancing, worth watching one more time to see if I missed something.
It's just bad. Absolutely no fun - not even laughable.
But taste is very individualistic and other people may love this movie for some reason.
Here are two other musical movies that I would put in the trash bin - Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables.
Gerard Butler was a good looking guy and I thought he might have a good career. But why would anyone cast someone who was a very mediocre singer in a movie that had a stage star of phenomenal talent (Michael Crawford)? And how did Michael go from a goofy young man who was in some not great musicals to the Phantom - an ugly, crude monster whose voice rang the rafters while he conveyed love and sexiness (yes!) for his muse and changed into a man who showed love by releasing the woman he loved to someone else? It was the best performance and the best presentation I have ever seen in my 67 years.
Les Miz, the movie that made me miserable and seemed to go on for DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS. How does anyone change a handsome man like Hugh into a guy who looks like Woody Allen? And why so many closeups? Why so much nasal discharge?
Once again, others may love these films. That gives them more to watch on Saturday nights.
Liz, if you are still reading this, I salute you. My disability gives me too much time these days.
May you have a wonderful life enjoying music and movies!
@@marthawelch4289 Oh, but I respectfully and strongly disagree on both points ! I think Paint Your Wagon was a gloriously sarcastic and fun movie that went against the grain of Hollywood Western movies and against the typical musical that had, hopefully, great singers for the leads. Having Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood do their own singing and not trying to really sing good, made it even that much more fun. I actually thought that Lee Marvin did great with his song " I Was Born Under a Wand'ring Star". One does not expect a rough & tumble gold miner to be a trained singer, and Marvin did not disappoint. Actually, he was on key well enough for most of the song, just a rough & scratchy on key. I felt that this crusty and unpolished miner really let his unsuccessful life come through in the song.
And with Lee and Clint married to the same woman...OH MY...!! Hollywood really rocked the mainstream boat with Paint Your Wagon...bravo for making this crazy funny movie.
Your voice is incredible Fil. I've always been really impressed with your vibrato when listening to your music, now I'm even more impressed after hearing your philosophies and your willingness to just belt it out. I'm really liking these auto tune videos you've been doing, and I like how you critiqued Emma while being respectful and acknowledging that this isn't a video to shit on her or something like other people with less taste may have done.
Thanks!
Really enjoying your auto tune analyses Fil. I think you hit the nail on the head that auto tune is removing the humanity from performances. The human “imperfections” are what actually make it appealing to listen to.
Lol, I was singing along with Paige's vocals everytime you played them! Her performance of Belle's singing voice is now a classic. Her voice is beautiful.
Another excellent one Fil... This remind me of the music "My Fair Lady" where Julie Andrew played Eliza Doolittle, in the 1956 Broadway version as you know can sing very well, where in the 1964 film Audrey Hepburn played Eliza Doolittle she gave an outstanding performance but not known as a singer her singing parts was dobbed in by Marni Nixon. thanks Fil
Marni Nixon also 'ghost sang' for Natalie Wood in "West Side Story". Both movies won Oscars for Best Picture.
@@lynndow3185 Hi Lynn... Marni Nixon could change her voice to sound close to the actress she was singing for.
@@drewpall2598 I didn't know that, but I just noticed it after I listened to a song from each of those films! Amazing! She sounded so similar to Audrey Hepburn especially.
Also Jimmy Bryant sang the parts for Richard Beymer in West Side Story .
Julie Andrews hadn't been in the movies prior to 1964. In that same year that My Fair Lady came out, she debuted in her very first movie role of Mary Poppins. Imagine what Mary Poppins would have been like without Julie Andrews alongside the great Dick Van Dyke?! The following year, 1965, she starred in her most beloved role of Maria Von Trapp in the Sound of Music. She's a legend!
OMG Fil! Your commentary made me instantly think of Universal's production of Mamma Mia, casting well known names like Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, that aren't trained singers, INTO A MUSICAL! What a disaster especially Pierce, so awful it was the laugh track of the movie.
My older daughter absolutely loved the 1991 version as a child, so I heard/watched that version literally hundreds of times. I loved it. So entertaining, on multiple levels.
My younger daughter (a Harry Potter fan lol) finally convinced me to watch the new one with Emma. Oh my god. It was almost distressingly awful. So devoid of emotion. And the auto tune was like nails on a window. I found myself wanting to go back and listen to/watch the 1991 version like a palate cleanser.
The greats are great ONLY because of natural greatness. You can’t manufacture that, you just can’t. Please, producers, stop doing this to us.
Also YES, I am vocal coach and YES I wish they would hire trained singers for these movies!!!
They don’t necessarily have to be trained. They just have to be good singers, with a vocal range that encompasses the range of the songs they’re going to be asked to sing. There are plenty of great, professional, highly skilled singers with no formal training. Furthermore, there are roles and styles that are actually quite ill-suited to the typical sound of a highly trained musical theatre voice.
The problem is casting non-singers, which happens because the ability to sing has fallen so low on the list of priorities when casting these roles (in part, because the people making the casting decisions falsely believe that any vocal shortcomings can be fixed in post)
This is one of the best side-by-side presentation of what Auto-tune does to a voice. Not to take anything away from Emma Watson but it was so obvious. Rock!
I’m learning so much! Much prefer un-FIL-tered singers. 😉 🎶
Absolutely brilliant, Fil. This is my favorite of all your videos. Thanks for including Richard White! His voice blew mw away back in 1991.
Sideways did a video in which he mentions that you can actually hear Paige O'Hara smile during her performance (the example was the line "But she won't discover that it's him till chapter three"). The 1991 film was incredibly vibrant, and it didn't matter that the actors weren't all A-list movie stars. But the remake cast Luke Evans and Josh Gad, who clearly know their way around a musical, proving that star power and singing ability are not mutually exclusive. Poor Emma Watson had the charisma of a paperweight in comparison. Don't force non-singers to sing. Nobody wins.
For a bunch of Hollywood adaptions of B'Way shows the 'go to' singer was the fabulous Marni Nixon, the original dubbing Queen.
Wow, thank you for the high educational experience! You absolutely know what you're talking about and that's refreshing
Wow
Loved the analysis. You are a great teacher. I always loved music but I appreciate the subtleties more . Thank you.
Trained singers should be cast, I agree, but I like Emma’s acting. The Rock sang in Moana so it’s about big names and not singing talent. Good honest analysis, Fil - auto tune is running rampant apparently.
Wow, sometimes autotune can be somewhat subtle, but not in this case. It sounds so metallic, so robotic.
I think the classic Disney films are adored as musicals. The songs sound like they're actually sung by the characters in the scene. But when the music is so heavily overproduced (e.g., in terms of autotune among other things), you don't get the feeling that the characters are singing in the actual scene. You just don't develop the same connection to the characters. It is like a song put on top of the scene, rather than feeling it is performed right there.
I appreciate your comments around using a talking voice to sing. It highlights the nuance (e.g., %s of flipping between registers) applied by trained pros.
I didn't even look at the graph.. as soon as you started the track I could hear it!😂 It really is a shame auto tune is relied on these days.. I have no problem with it being used, but use it as a tool, not a crutch. I love Paige's vocal for the original film but, there's really nothing like seeing the Live Musical.
I'm looking at Page's vibrato - it is generally around a tone wide AND seems to be pretty much on the line. Amazing performance.
You keep saying you're not a trained singer. To me you seem to have very good control aswell as range. Don't sell yourself short, you sing quite beautifully! However, humility is always the trademark of professionals. So - I get it!
Bro you’re a one man wrecking crew exposing the absurdity of auto tune, knowing you’re out there I’ll never dare use it again!
😂
Luke Evans sang on the BBC's Children in Need album, Got it Covered. It was quite a nice cover of "Smile." He has appeared in numerous musicals in the West End.
I think the essence here is not that you can't Hear it; but, rather, that you cannot FEEL the voice. Sound carries healing energy.
Excellent analysis of a great example. Isolating the vocals really highlights the mechanised nature that can sometimes be hidden by the music
I just love your analysis comparisons. Yes it doesn't sound right. I hear a more robotic sound with the overused auto tune.
It would be nice to do that comparison with the new and the old West Side Story Film.
Hi Fil! I’m entertained and I learn each time you a share your love and knowledge of music , performance, and so many other aspects of this most important human expression! Thank You Fil!
Boom! Another wonderful analysis. Thanks Fil!
The Minister of Explaining Things has done it again. Fil, I LEARN from your music videos. You have opened up a whole new vista of exploration for me when it comes to listening to both recorded and live music. I know just enough to be dangerous now. But I'm looking forward to even more tutorials from you on pitch correction and auto tune. You deserve a pay raise! Thank you from the Washington, D.C., area!
As always, this is a subject worth discussing. The clodhopping approach to both autotune and correction strips away much of the joy of people singing for ...joy!
“Hold Tight” by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich was recorded in 97 minutes, with a five.part harmony. My daughter’s new single, Forget by Isobel Thatcher, was recorded in six hours, her vocals in 17 minutes.
These correctives have a place for tired, unwell, edgy, wavering singers who need a leg-up, but not as a cure-all.
Nice work, Fil: what you’re doing is of incalculable value. I’m really proud of you.😀, as are your very switched-on followers. Take a rest, but don’t stop! 😃Best, Tom T
13:30 Paige is a little flat because she is Acting within her singing, her character is sad and she's conveying that by coming down a little "every morning just the same" is a sad line. She's probably doing it instictively which makes her singing even better dropping just that tiny bit to evoke emotion. Thanks for letting me notice and appreciate these details.
Another excellent video. Thank you for saying what we're all thinking - yes, they absolutely should have hired an actress who was also a trained singer, or just dubbed the role.
I saw your soul run shrieking off screen as soon as the vocals started 🤣🤣🤣
I'm glad someone pointed this out. I love the fantastic vocal of Paige O'Hara. Emma's electronic, mechanical voice made that live movie unwatchable. I couldn't listen to anything she "sang". It was terrible.
The 1991 film was so magical to me as a child partially because of the amazing vocal performances! I learned how to sing from these classic Disney musicals. The new, robotic voices of today are a terrible tragedy, when there are still so many beautiful natural voices that deserve to be heard.
Thank you, Fil. I’m learning a lot with this series on auto tune.
This is such a great video! I love Emma but I agree she doesn’t have a great voice. You are very good at explaining how music is more than notes, it’s emotional.
Very enjoyable vid Fil, thanks!
I discovered this channel yesterday. A YT-recommended vid led me on quite a journey -- this is now my 10th video! Anywaaaaay, with the original singer, you can hear the smile in her voice. She's acting with her voice. Emma is basically reciting lines to a melody. The difference is like night and day.
Your videos are SO informative and instructional. Thanks!
Fil doing Disney tunes - have I fallen into some kind of alternative reality?!? 😃 Hearing you sing alone, what a striking voice you’ve got - great tone! And yet another informative analysis!
Btw, few days ago happened to hear Ringo Starr’s new single, a cover of Rock Around The Clock, on Vevo. I swear his vocal’s pitch-corrected, sounds far too clean. But I just can’t imagine an old-school musician such as Ringo using autotune or pitch correction - it’s an odd one
Given his age I wouldn’t be at all surprised.
@@kata7628 And that’s another thing - he’s 80 apparently but looks maybe in his 40s max. He looks incredible for his age. Even from when he was young, his pitch was a little off, but his voice has character, is very distinctive, and that’s what always carried it to some extent. But still, if he has allowed his vocal to be pitch-corrected, I’ll be surprised - unless his tuning really has deteriorated
Ringo's "Rock Around the Clock" not corrected IMO. I just listened and heard some flat notes, although my ears aren't the most sensitive. He always sang like that.
I never used to understand why I don't connect to the music being put out these days.When I first heard Adele I was puzzled because I liked her so much I ended up buying her albums, something I hadn't done in a long time. Due to videos like this (and the one you did of Adele's new song) I am beginning to understand. It seems that on some level I don't even realize, I recognize and don't like auto tune. Still, I can think of one time where I wish it had been used (or if it was, even that couldn't help) and that was Pierce Brosnan's err, "performance" of S.O.S. in the movie Mamma Mia. I'm a long time ABBA fan and that is one of my favorite songs, so his, I hesitate to use the word "singing" was just painful. Speaking of ABBA I have really enjoyed their new album - while that may be due to nostalgia, I suspect that it is also due to auto tune not being used. At least, my untrained ears are pretty sure it is not being used.
All of these comparison videos are excellent. I honestly think that when people complain how music isn't good anymore, or how "acting isn't good as it used to be" - while there is probably some validity to those complaints - a lot of the times people are merely subconsciously responding to the more artificial technical standards of modern entertainment. Whether that be autotune for music. Or having movies mixed to sound more sterile and "clean." Or even how cinematography nowadays tends to look more flat and plastic, compared to the grain of older movies.
Suggestion: I wonder if it would be possible for future comparisons to make the two voices different colors. For example, here you could've made the Paige O'Hara wavelength a rose red.
Sideways' video on this is very interesting because it very much goes on detail about the conditions for Emma on Set and the recording process!
I love your channel, I learn so much about music.
I discovered your channel a couple of weeks ago and it's now my favourite channel 👍🏼👏🏻
👍
When he starts playing the 1991 version, you can see Phil's face with the little smile that says "I approve of that".
Your analyst skills are superb. Thanks Fil.
According to IMDb, Luke Evans "won a scholarship to the London Studio Centre, and graduated in 2000" and "He starred in many of London's West End theatre productions." (It then goes on to list ten.)
Cool!
Dear Fil,
I have been learning a great amount watching you. I admire your deep understanding and knowledge of music and beyond. Your speech is very clear to my to my non-native speaker american ears. Thank you for all of that! I'm thinking, is it possible that Emma's singing was so off, that the engineers had no choice but to correct it?
Quite possibly but hopefully not!
I was wondering why-oh-why Emma's vocals sounded so weird and off-putting. But I learned so much about autotune as well, I didn't know how it worked. Thank you so much for this!
Another great job!
The auto-tuned audio sounds 2 dimensional; the natural voice has the roundness of 3 dimensions. I love seeing the wave forms. They help me hear so much more.
WOW that original is also spot on. Every note that anchors a phrase is right on the money, without autotune; and when she is flat or sharp, it can be defended as a creative choice (or at least, a deliberate choice of take).
27:17 caught me really caught off guard here. As if it wasn't awfully sounding enough before, this one hit the jackpot.
You continue to impress, despite rarely showing your abilities. Your voice is excellent.
Another great analysis Fil, I'm learning so much from your videos. Thank you x
I hate auto-tune and pitch correction. Great video, as usual. Happy Holidays :)
I'm learning so much about how to appreciate great vocal performances from these videos, very well done! I'd like to see your take on Johnny Cash's rendition of Hurt. The vocal imperfections of that song made it so great. I feel that AutoTune would have ruined it. Look forward to seeing a lot more of your work.
I love these autotune/pitch correction discussions. Very informative and with any luck may force producers to "tone down" (hehe) their overuse of correction software.
WOW! This is the first time I've heard the songs in this movie, because I've never seen it, but Page O'Hara (I hope I spelled that right) has the voice of an angel! I have nothing against Emma Watson, but I don't know why they would get someone who really can't sing all that well. I'm loving this series Fil!❤😝🤘😝❤
Sidenote: Maybe they should've gotten you for the part lol. I'm just teasing, but you've got a kick-ass voice, as well.
Emma needs a Marni Nixon.
Thank You!!!! I get someone like Natalie Wood would help draw people to West Side Story, just as Deborah Kerr to “The King and I”. Wouldn’t they have been able to find someone who could sing, dance act?
I loved both movies.
The King and I was Marni Nixon too, wasn't it? She did SO much!
Honestly, I feel bad for her because I know she wasn't always properly credited, and she deserved to be!
Now I know why I didn't like the movie but loved the animated version! Thanks you!
I definitely think having comparisons of the same song helps me hear it more, for sure.
I think if they wanted it to be a musical just hire singers.
But if they did hire based on acting talent I think they should get a professional singer to dub over the actors.
I think they may believe that pitch correction makes it no longer necessary to have a trained singer to do singing - the “separate voice only for the songs” thing is not uncommon historically.
@@JasperJanssen Right. The autotune plugin, is cheaper than an another employee.
The thing is...Broadway and West End performers are also phenomenal actors. There is no excuse for not casting someone qualified. Simply hire someone who does musical theatre and you will have both good vocals and good acting. Then your film will actually be good!
@@carr0760 and your film will also be a flop, because those actors are not even close to the kind of draw that Watson is. Star Power is still a thing.
@@JasperJanssen I still believe that people would choose to see someone who is good over someone who is famous. We just have to give them the benefit of the doubt and stop dumbing things down. Plus, you'll make up sales from all of us who actually expect the music in a musical to be good, and thus don't watch when they go for fame over ability.