The fact that the 'live' performance is more spot-on grid than the original studio performance is just insane. Anyone who thinks this is OK is out of their mind.
I don't want to be a conspiracy nut here. But. I am beginning to think they are doing this so that the kids won't know the difference between a real live quality vocalist and the bulls$$t thar they are making with AI. All music will now sound the same. So why not have computers make it so we don't have to pay any one for it? Meta and Alphabit and the rest can convince kids who don't know better that this is music. My question now is this: are they doing this to Latin music or has Reggaeton taken over so much it doesn't matter? Would be interested to know. I grew up hearing TexMex radio 50 years ago. What I hear today is as bad as Anglo radio. Computers ought to make it with few exceptions.
@@scottwheeler2494 Well, I am one who thinks that the conspirators of the original conspiracy of the modern era (ie. the JFK assassination) purposefully set out to paint all who espouse conspiracy theories as nuts. So, there's that. But, in the case of what the music industry has done in making the heavy-handed use of pitch correction and/or Auto-Tune the 'gold standard' that is applied to essentially all singers, great and small, conspiracy or no, the end result is what you outlined, all in the name of the big money game. None of that, however, is to say that we real music lovers and artists/producers/sound engineers with integrity shouldn't let our talking and singing voices be heard in a muscular effort to save real music from oblivion.
I wonder if the record labels (who hire the producers) are doing this more and more so that we'll accept robotic singing and pitch correction artifacts as normal, so that artificially generated voices will come to seem normal, too. I hear similar artifacts in AI voices as with pitch corrected human voices. It's more severe with fake voices, but a similar type of artifact.
Fil I imagine it must seem to you like you're shouting into a void and no one is listening, but i assure you, WE ARE. Please keep calling out this abomination everywhere you encounter it ... true music fans everywhere SO appreciate you for doing it.
Soon, it will be OUR turn to call out what is happening ... all of us real music lovers have to spread the word about all of this, far and wide - Fil can't and shouldn't have to do this on his own.
@@elizabethmiller7291 yes, true but the general public has no platform. In a related example - people have been trying for weeks via messages on their personal blogs and to their official e-mail addresses, to get Brian May and Roger Taylor to stop the Auto-Tune and A.I. on the new Queen 1 remix release, ever since we found out about it.... of course they're getting no response. I'm not sure how the general public can make a difference in this issue. The artists themselves won't respond to the public, acknowledge that it's happening or communicate whether or not they knew about/sanctioned it, or if it was the record company that recently bought the catalog doing it without their knowledge. I honestly don't know how the general public's voices can make any difference here.... the artists aren't going to answer random fans.
I feel the same way. I' m 73 and from "the good old days" when you knew you were listening to the real thing. Makes me sad to see what passes for music sometimes these days. I stick to my old stuff an awful lot, but I love a lot of Americana. "I'm With Her" us excekkebt. All three great musicians. I miss Linda Ronstadt the most though. That beautiful voice took me through a lot of changes.
This practice or "fixing" the voices of iconic singers reminds me of the infamous painting restorations where someone incompetent takes an antique oil painting and "cleans it up" to look like a grade-schooler's artwork.
@@patrickjordan2233 It’s a good analogy, yes, but that is extremely rare. By and large painting restorations - especially those from well-known artists - are done by highly-qualified fine art conservators and the results are usually striking.
9:05 the saddest thing is that when you hear and see what the original line was, the microtonality is a clearly intentional blues lick that got edited out.
The Matrix record producing agent speaking directly to Fil: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy, where all musical vocal phrases were precisely pitch corrected exactly to the line? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the auto-tune and pitch correcting nuance to create enjoyable harmonies. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through expression and feeling and emotion. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization BEFORE auto-tune and pitch correction. I say "your" civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became "our" civilization, which is of course what this is all about. Evolution, Fil, evolution. Like the dinosaur and the cassette tape, you've had your time. The future is "our" world, Fil. The future is..."our" time.
One of the things that makes us human is that we each have a voice - unique in tone and quality, able to impart both meaning and feeling. Turning voices into machines destroys that humanity. I feel your frustration, Fil. I’m sure each of us does. Keep shining your light!
"And now, to cleanse our ears, heres the original-" Couldn't agree more Fil. The robotic nature of the 'corrected' version needs scrubbed from my brain!
@@a9ball1 I think it’s a money talks thing. Would have to find a way to only buy non compressed/OEM art . Pretty sure there is a bunch of morons justifying their job by “ improving the catalog “ and taking out all the brush strokes. Idiots.
I agree. I hope someone will hear a cry out, if not from us, then from the musicians/artists who have put two and two together and have gotten fed up with pitch correction and auto tune. The lead singer of the band Little Dragon had stated that she made the rule of not using auto tune or pitch correction a priority. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like the band keeps true to this rule. Yet the “veterans” seem to either allow the manipulation-maybe because the record companies have the authority or they don’t mind themselves. Or perhaps they’re not aware. If it’s the latter, my hope is that it will cause a stink and then goodbye auto tune and pitch correction. Somehow I think people get too enamored with modern technology to the point where it makes things worse.
"The real music is between the lines." That applies to both pitch and rhythm. There is no groove if the instruments are quantized to the lines. There is no feeling when the pitches are dragged to "perfection". What would the great jazz musicians sound like if they were pitch corrected? Ella, Nina, Billie, Dinah, and Miles, Coltrane, Getz...
Totally agree. And I get confused as to why a perfectly tuned orchestra, or even just a piano or guitar, can bring about strong emotion. With a human, it's robotic.
@@whatsername123 If you take the sound of any of your favorite musical instruments (with a few digital exceptions) and force the sound to be completely flat on the line, you have also lost expression. Guitars obviously have slight string bends. Even a piano tone will drift slightly in pitch from a hard hit on the key until the tone rings out. If that sound is processed, it will sound less like a real guitar or piano, and more like a primitive synth sound that is supposed to be a guitar or piano. Primitive synth sounds are cool, who doesn't like a good Moog, but it will sound more.... robotic!
Yep, I've used the quantize analogy many times when likening to pitch correction. In the quest for "precision", it strips away all swing and movement. Why bother have human beings play or sing if you're just going to force the notes to a fixed grid?
great question! I wonder if Fil is getting any comment from any of these artists (short of that vocal coach that made a fool out of himself!) or their management company?
There is a slight chance they don´t know unless they have listened to their own live recording or received comments about it. It´s more likely that they don know, but their contract with the record company leaves them no power of the reproduction of live performances that the record company releases. The artist might be too embarrassed to speak out about it, and/ or he/she has received a gag order from the company.
Why are they stealing away an authentic performance? Sinatra sang live with his real voice till he stopped doing concerts. Authenticity is so much better. Thank you Fil!!! Love all of your content!! 💓💓
so basically the old vinyl records before the pitch correction was introduced, have a huge musical value today cause i guess only there we can hear how the artists exactly sounds. oh man i wish they'd never discover pitch correction and auto tune. as always, great work Fil. thank you!
@@elizabethmiller7291As long as people buy them, I think they will keep making them. I'm more worried about our records and CDs breaking! And they'll be no replacements.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I'm not sure I understand the urge to minimize or de-emphasize the insidious impact that the use of manual digital pitch changing/automatic tuning of great singers' voices nowadays has on a real music lovers' listening pleasure and enjoyment but this is a big freakin' deal and not at all comparable to how pitch was altered and effects added to a singer's voice decades ago.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I think that is a purposeful attempt to muddy the waters here. Though, it's not that hard to understand the differences between changing the pitch of the notes and microtones, sharps and flats being sung and just adding effects to a voice to make the sound better without changing the pitch. That's a real difference with distinction and delineates a real voice from a fake one.
Was assuming the worst of my beloved Bryan Adams and felt a lot better at around the 7:35 mark. The post-production stuff is appalling to be sure, but finding out one of my favorite artists is using autotune live as their regular routine is something else entirely for me. Glad that’s not the case here. Cheers Fil.
When production companies do this, it's like color correcting the Mona Lisa to 256 colors. Here, you get about 20 different greens and 20 different Blues to play with. Never mind the thousands of shades in between.
Hmmmm. Well AI (etc)type lovers…THINK about it. Why do we need real life musicians then?? If these type of things are fixed and done by computers etc…that is not a gift. It is but a toy. It is not a true ART FORM. It might be interesting but it will be robbing us of our human being-ness. Stealing from us our true ability to create. To be true. It makes me compare it to the computer and our cell phones and tablets. Hey they are wonderful yes I am not saying they aren’t. And as much as they make some things easier but at the same time…I remember when in my life my mind could remember phone numbers and the like. Sure great I can just pull that up on my cell convenient sure. Or pull up the calculator to do a simpler mathematic problem. You don’t have to go to a library( remember those?) to do some research on a subject. Sure it is convenient. I am sure there are other examples…but I feel like the process of all of the technical improvements is “teaching us how not to learn”. That is my opinion and I feel it is accurate.
Thank you Fill, it is so important to tell everyone what is really happening with these "live" performances or the remastered versions. You are a brilliant and extraordinary knowledgeable musician as well as an excellent singer and guitar player. All the best from Porto.
I can confirm that way back in 1984 Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls ALL signed an agreement that none of their original master tapes nor live recordings of any kind were to be pitch corrected in any way UNLESS they were played backwards. This document was signed in perpetuity. They were true pioneers and their legacy remains untarnished to this very day.
😬 the Rutles beat them to it in 1967 when Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly, Stiglitz O'Hara and Barry Wom foreshore the future during an LSD experience. ☝️
@@heidichristensen7919 When you attempt to use auto-tune on Spinal Tap's material, ALL the parts that were recorded on 11 come out the other side of the auto-tune algorithm as complete silence. Engineers have no logical explanation for this phenomenon as it ONLY occurs with Spinal Tap's material. This phenomenon, combined with the legally binding agreement explained above, will make sure that Tap's legacy remains pure for all generations until the end of time.
I cannot believe how they are ruining these phenomenal artists voices for some sort of selfish gain! This needs to stop. Thank you for opening our eyes to this basterdized version.
They do it with classic albums as well! If you buy a new CD of say Sgt Peppers they have pitch corrected the vocals! When you compare it to a original copy you can hear it so easily.
@@sarahm.5356, It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s less expensive to release an anniversary album (or any releases after the original) if you don’t hire an engineer to mess with the sound.
@@SuziQ. I suspect that actually much of this is like 2 minutes work. That's why it's often so shoddy. You apply a quick fix, and then you go through and tweak it, like getting ChatGPT to write you an email. They're already "remastering", so they're already paying for someone to click their mouse, why not get them to click a few more times?
@@vf1923 , I don’t mean a remaster. Bands are releasing 15th, 20th, 25th (etc.) anniversary albums. I would buy them if they weren’t messed with at all, just to have a physical copy. Lots of the music I bought (particularly in the eighties) is only on cassette, which is the least likely medium to last. I don’t want a remix or a remaster.
"he sings well enough as it is" no truer words every spoken. so sick of the auto tune corrections over and over and over. thank you Fil for bringing this to the light for everyone to see.
Legally, all tracks that have been "Pitch Corrected" should state this and it must be printed clearly on all webstores, and music platforms. Those that haven't, can boldly claim that they have the original natural voice of the performer and receive the plaudits and sales that will definitely come their way.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Whether or not a recording process can truly capture a voice 100% accurately is not the point. We're talking about original studio and live performances that exist and are being changed after the fact.
It might be easier if the artists who do not use pitch correction and/or AutoTune in the recording studio or at live gigs make those facts known clearly and explicitly. These artists who wish to maintain their integrity should be talking about this at every opportunity! It will just take a few big names like BA to take a public stand on this and others may follow.
Fil, what a sad thing to hear! Our iconic vocalists' voices are systematically being taken from us! I hope and pray this pitch correction and other manipulation of music can someway be stopped. His true voice is beautiful! What a sinful shame to do this! Thanks for this analysis video, Fil! 🎶💜
@@wout123100 ... Absolutely! I was fortunate enough to have the entire collection of music I will ever want, for many years now. In the last 10 of those years, I began seeking out remasters that, in most cases, were an improvement, but NOT a manipulation voices. Sadly, there were many who simply turned up the volume / gain and created sometimes more than 2db of clipping. I just kept my original releases and I will always have them. PS> 🐈pair of bonk's for the both of you 🐱
@@veramilton833 ... NICE! 💪 Many years ago, I purchased a small audio converter to run my turn-table directly into my USB of my PC. I was able to get ALL of my vinyl 45's and records onto my drive, for those that were never or not yet released on to CD's. I have 100% of my music all backed up on the original CD's and / or onto hard drives, so I will never lose any of it. . 🎶= life
I don’t know Fil. I hate being “old” but at least I grew up hearing The Eagles, Boston, AC/DC (with Bon) The Allman’s, Floyd etc…b4 this existed. I am grateful for that. Keep up the fight! 🫡❤️
I'm grateful for all of that, too. But, it's hard not to feel for those who grew up while this existed and for many of whom the only singing voices they really know is of the digitally manipulated and autotuned variety. What's even worse than that for them is they may hear something on RUclips or Spotify that originated in the seventies but has been re-released as a heavily pitch-corrected version and they may never know the beautiful voices they are missing out on! That should be reason enough for all of us who find pleasure and enjoyment in listening to real music along with all of those artists who still have pride in making real music to join the fight to save real music from oblivion. I'm hoping we will all enthusiastically embrace what Fil is doing and support his side project in any and every way we can.
If you hadn't told me that it was BA singing in the first part of your video, I would never have recognized his voice. I am Canadian so have been listening to him before he became a global persona. This "correction" of the voices of great singers is a crime against vocal art. Thank you for the analysis and for "cleansing" our ears.
My first concert was Bryan Adam's- Reckless when I Just turned 13 years old in 1985. It was in his home town of Vancouver BC too! I've always loved the breathy raspyness of his voice 😊 I think I'm more upset seeing your disappointment in this video, Fil. You just look so defeated but we need you Fil to keep it real because most of us don't know what we're hearing these days 😢 keep up the good work and I agree that Bryan Adam's probably doesn't know they've done this to his voice 💔
Fil, you got me thinking I'm living in the Matrix. When I was a kid (I'm 69), I remember watching many bands on different programs, miming performances on tv, but when you bought a record, you heard live recordings. Sadly, now you never know what you're getting. It's really sad that truth has been violated. Some of us took the red pill, and we 0:59 to yield to the manipulation of the industry and some artists. Keep up the good work, my friend. Hopefully, we will get disclaimers prior to live and recorded material we spend our good money on in the future.
😳 Oh. Have mercy! I love Bryan Adams, but I did not even recognize his voice even though I have his CDs. The unique expressions he always has, is gone. I am saddened to learn this, Fil!
I think Bryan Adams is a great example of a really distinctive voice, that we used to have and love dearly back in the day, and we just don't have in the music industry anymore. And here we see why, they have managed to make his voice much less distinctive with the pitch correction. It sounds like a Bryan Adams tribute band.
Thanks Fil, you make a great point, WHY are so many great voices being destroyed by autotune or pitch correction! These people can sing! I dearly wish they would see your videos and rise up and revolt!
Before he was famous, Brian used to drop by my studio in N. Vancouver, B.C. By the way, Fil, excellent analysis, and perhaps it explains why you may be destined to be an independent. You truly are an educator and are well-informed. Anyone today who knows about Lenny Breau, indeed, has a passion for guitar. Keep up the good work.
You must have a story or two that you could relate here ... we'd be grateful! Bryan - along with Jim Vallance, of course - are a big part of my favourite band from Vancouver and, indeed, from anywhere. :)
@@elizabethmiller7291 Those were the days when Bill Lewis Music was a hub for great guitar players. They came from all over North America to get their guitars worked on, players like Barney Kessel.
I have been singing for about 37 - 40 years now and I've never used pitch correction i only use reverb and echo to the minimum level and I have always been doing songs with the same passion as the original singer and the same way the song was created
I love extreme reverb and echo as a stylistic choice, like how She Past Away use it. But there are few cases like that. Nothing should become a mindless habit, that is what I hate about mainstream pop since the 90s. Everything sounds the same just to be safe to spend money promoting. The autotune for big mainstream record labels it seems is just the latest way to make everything comfortingly familiar and predictable to the large cash cow minority who can be relied on to listen to any song that is compressed to one volume and limited in timbre range and narrow in pitch range and one time signature throughout and the same three chord progression options, etc.
Why is Bryan not screaming from a mountain top in his beloved British Columbia about this destruction of his voice? How is it possible that he may not know that this is happening!!!??? I've brought this sort of thing up on his official facebook page and no one in charge of that site wants to touch it with a ten foot pole as is the usual reaction or non-reaction I get whenever I try to broach this subject on any music related facebook page.
@@kallsop2 did you ? Or were they lip syncing back then ? ( this is not calling you out , but Fill is making me question everything I know about “ live consents “
@@milestonowheres I will say it was live then because you could hear if the singers voice was off that night. A good example was a Kansas concert in 1981 with Steve Walsh dealing with the flu. When it came to some of the high notes he couldn't quite hit them and apologized to the crowd for not being at his best. When I saw Bryan Adams in '82 he only had one album out and was working on Cuts Like A Knife and they tried out three songs for the album so there weren't any real tracks cut for it yet. Also while they used echo/reverb/delay for vocals in the studio that was missing in a live performance.
And people signed the contract in 2004 and thought, "well that will never happen to me, that's just for those upstarts who can't really sing!" They didn't realise that it would be applied to them regardless of their singing and apparently without any interest in musicality or expression.
Hello Fil! Some time ago I read in a comment that you were on a "crusade". I liked this expression because you really are devoting yourself to your cause with all due seriousness. Keep up the good work! I hope you don't meet the fate of the knight of the cross Richard the Lionheart.
Can you imagine if they started pitch “correcting” blues guitarists’ guitar solos/licks? They probably already have, but if not, that’s where we’re heading very soon.
“Autotuning” guitar solos wouldn’t fly in the guitar world (at least I’d hope so). That’d be a huge scandal and immediately out whichever guitarists were involved as massive frauds.
Thanks for this analysis, even though it makes me sad. I think I have been one of the ones who requested an analysis of Bryan Adams. It is just sad to see how much of his expression was taken away. I have just seen Bryan Adams live in concert last Saturday, and he sounded awesome. I have actually been to Royal Albert Hall when he performed that song, and it sounded so good live! We may have some crowd footage if you like for comparison.
I don't know if this can be stopped. But the releases should be labeled as "pitch-corrected." Maybe if that is done, consumers will vote with their dollars. Or maybe the current generation doesn't care?
Current generation don't care. Why would they? Everything is fake nowadays, pics, movies, food, news, bodyparts... Why should music make an exception? Industry sells it, people buy it.
we can make the industry to label whether it is pitch corrected, what kind of recording equipment is ued and who is the editor due to consumer right and what sort of modification is used, however it wont solve the problem they will keep pitch correcting it. Becasue it appeals to low fi community where most cash is cash not audiofools. The only way is not buying or returning it and praises good editor to creat peer pressure and need the someone release the original version to educate the masses. Billy joel was disgusted on his cold spring harbour album which was frankesteined by the editors twice, (1 oroigianl and 1 re-released) and he gave up at the end. But the album still sell, so there are no arguments to make the publisher redact their releases.
Perhaps the current generation have heard too many robotic recordings and have been dumbed down. If so, this is a worry. All the more reason Fil's videos are so important to inform more people.
Considering there are plenty of us older generations around, and we care, I agree that it should be labeled. And I know my kids appreciate bands from my generation that Fil has highlighted in these videos. So yeah, they care. I just don’t think they know.
A frew years ago I was listening to some of my favorite songs when my youngest daughter said "Boy this music sounds so old". I really didn't think about it and figured she meant there was no synth or artificial instrument sounds. But just recently she said it again about Simon and Garfunkle. But this time I asked what she meant and she explained that the voices sounded odd to her ear. We talked a while and I figured out that she has been trained to listen for the processing sound of pitch correction and she associates that mechanical burr with "good" modern music. But without it she thinks the sound is antiquated and doesn't like it.
I was at the concert in question. His voice and the band were amazing. The first half was the entirety of Waking Up The Neighbours and the second half, the rest of his hits. Amazing night. I'm not sure why anyone would think auto tune is required. I have bought the live album box set from those Royal Albert Hall concerts and didn't notice any auto tune. I'm usually quite sensitive to it, but will have another listen!
Best moment of this video analysis - describing those few times when a great singer naturally hits the lines on a pitch graph, now and again, over the course of an entire song as the "COLATERAL DAMAGE" of having a great voice. What an absolutely apt description!
This is depressing; it cuts like a knife! I would’ve never thought our music would be manipulated like this. Leave it alone! If newer artists don’t have the chops, so be it. But, don’t mess with the older artists, it’s a betrayal. So glad you played some of his real voice, I needed to hear that.
The thought that we may have gone or be on the verge of going beyond a human producer who just looks at lines on a graph instead of actually listening to how amazing a song and singer's voice sounds naturally to a machine making the decision to pitch "correct" AND how heavy-handedly that "correction" should be is quite a scary thought, indeed.
"Just to cleanse our ears". Love it. Thanks for caring about keeping music real. What do these artists who made their best albums without correction feel about their voices being manipulated? Would be great if you could interview Adams or another victim.
Agreed, but unfortunately that will never happen because the majority of singers today are more about image than virtually anything else. The quality of their voice matters little, as it can be “corrected.” 😒 And that’s reflected, perhaps, by the fact that most vocalist today sound eerily similar.
I'v e been enjoying your videos for a couple of days now and missing "the good old days" more than ever, lol. I'm 73. You have a very good ear and I'm much appreciating the education, although I think knowing these things is raising my blood pressure.
Some of the best TV performances, at least in the US, in the past was the times the bands really performed live. Really a pleasure to watch some of these on RUclips.
I love watching you analyze these songs😅 I thought I was going to have to turn the hosepipe on you for this one! You get so upset and rightfully so. Keep up the good work. A huge fan of your work.
When an audience pays to see a live performance and gets a pitch-corrected mime it’s like sitting down for one of Mom’s home cooked meals and she hands you a Twinkie.
@wingsofpegasus I wonder what would happen if you were to contact Bryan Adams & show him that someone is doung this? I suppose he could tell you to 'F off'....or he might go, "They are doing WHAT? Thank you for telling me, I am gonna see that some heads will roll!" It's kinda gonna take something like that to reverse the tide of melodyne. What would happen if all the artists who havent given permission to pitch correct/autotune their vocals were to launch a giant class action lawsuit? Or just see that the producers & engineers who make such reprehensible decisions never work again? _Something_ has to change. Thisis way too rampant now.
I would love to see BA collaborate with Fil on this issue. If there is one Canadian artist who be a great asset to have on board with Fil's impending side project, it would be Bryan Adams.
i was at that gig. bryan’s live voice is unbelievably good. he sang 3 nights, did two sets each night and recorded an album in the day time. incredible. never avoids the hard bits in songs. hasn’t tuned down.
Wow. Great breakdown. Great ears! Its so sad to me they kerp doing this correction & auto tune. Im so happy there is someone like you to raise the warning flags!!
Hi Phil, I discovered you recently through a friend's recommendation. Thank you for your work. In cases like this, it feels like Bryan Adams should have some kind of recourse to prosecute this kind of distortion of his voice. Perhaps copyright law or defamation could apply. If the venue took his product (authentic) and then copied and altered it for commercial sale without his consent or in a manner not in keeping with what he'd approved (i.e., if he knew they were going to do it but they did it incompetently), one would hope there is grounds to prosecute. Similarly, if they did an incompetent job, that could be grounds for defamation - presenting his talent as far less than it actually is. If it stops being financially viable to hire incompetents to do this to established, talented artists, perhaps the practice would decline. Artists already have to be copyright hawks. Why not use that same clout to protect the integrity of their images against this kind of debasement? Any lawyers out there have thoughts on such possibilities?
Congrats for top notch quality and for the depth of your analysis on all your videos! I would really appreciate if you have the time to analyse John Sykes vocal approach ,eq on the track Riot (that's something that nobody yet had done so on youtube)
Thank you very much for posting this ! This is absolutely right ! In solidarity with the fighters for peace, love, justice & truth we express our feelings with music on our channel. Greetings from Germany ... CLUB OF THE UNCENSORED POETS
I'm glad I have a huge catalog of old pre-digital manipulation music. How much of the music on the various internet streaming services is altered after the original release? Are the old masters like Dave Van Ronk and Woody Guthrie going to be pitch corrected?
I think we have to assume that the use of pitch "correction" and autotuning and AI is pervasive across all digital platforms and radio stations and that even the old masters are not safe. Time for all of us real music lovers to start actually doing something to stop this and make our voices heard by the powers that be. I'm starting to visit record stores looking for cds of all my favourites from decades ago that were produced before this destructive practice became the music industry standard as it may be the only option we have to preserve the real music we love and cherish. I do have high hopes and expectations, though, for Fil's side project and the positive impacts it could have on all of this!
Wow, Bryan Adams is known for being not only a great songwriter and overall performer, but also a great singer who has aged very well. To pitch correct him like this is quite the insult.
I said elsewhere that these live albums were released on his own label, BADAMS. It increases the chances of him knowing about it. Thankfully, he's still singing great live
@@TheBrettWilson And, one of the best things I have found about going to see him live is that the crowd is always one thousand percent into it! Which makes the experience all the more fun and enjoyable.
One point we can say about miming on shows... the logistics of setting up a band and getting it to sound really good on a show can just be too much for one or two songs. This is one reason why you see a lot of miming and false bands on shows. They just can't set up that much equipment to replicate what they did on the records. BUT... otoh.... with so much being digitized and shrunk these days, amps don't have to be walls of Marshall stacks. You can literally get huge Marshall tones in stomp boxes (Tonex?) these days so setting up a band wouldn't be a total nightmare. Miking the drums would be a pain still. And handling stage volumes and in-ear monitoring... just a ton of work. BUT if you just show up and pretend, hey, you're done and the sound and performance is always gold.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it not the job of a singer to sing, whether appearing on a tv show, a concert or in a studio? If they need a truckload of equipment to appear on a tv show to help them sing one or two songs, why are they there?
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee If you think it’s all about the “performance” rather than the quality of the singing, you probably prefer simple pop music with the “performers” miming, and silly background dancers dressed up as Liquorice Allsorts or space aliens, all to distract from the song. No wonder I don’t listen or watch pop music. Give me a metal band with a female lead singer who can sing and doesn’t need to prance around like some teenager in front of a mirror.
Fil always points out that great singers still sound pleasant without backing instruments. In the same situation, a heavily pitch corrected vocal sounds irritating, no matter who is singing. I want to hear a human, not a computer.
This is terrible. I don't blame Bryan. I have seen him live and un-altered and his voice and stage Prescence are amazing. Thank you Fil. We love your work and objectivity
Fil the Truth Teller!! You are the Ronan Farrow of the musician/singers world. I sense a great sadness inside you exposing this. I hope your channel becomes one of the most watched on the entire platform. Keep on rockin’
I have been a Bryan Adams fan since I was a kid. His sound got really slick after working with Mutt Lange. Over the years, I have read interviews in technical publications where he would discuss recording. He is well versed in recording technology down to knowing vintage recording gear. At one point he had a huge mic closet and an SSL console in his own studio. I suspect he knows. I have heard him sing live without tuning and I never thought he needed it.
You need to request something that You believe to have been manipulated with pitch correction. Rather than Fil going through hours of Motown classics trying to find one. Let's hope that You don't find anything that's been butchered ;-)
I heard it-- on the first note! I never used to be able to hear this before. I'm so pleased. My ear training is coming along. Remarkable. 3:34 thank you Fil!
Fil, I went along to see Crowded House in Glasgow last week and I suspect a touch of auto tune being used. Would you have a listen to some of the RUclips clips to confirm. I never thought Neil Finn would need it but it looks like everyone is at it.
Bye the way, Bryan Adams in the eighties was untouchable vocally. This just another sad example you’ve highlighted of the greatest singers voices being ruined by the technology.
And again, as soon as you played just a few seconds, that robot sound clearly came through in his voice. And I've only been watching a couple of months, but those lines in red immediately looked more rigid that anything else I've seen you analyse. Despicable thing to do. I'm with you - just why?
Check out “let me take you dancing”. I think it was his first hit, but the producers sped up the tempo to make his voice higher and the song more danceable. He was pissed off and refuses to sing that song live.
Which makes me wonder why BA is letting this happen. He must know about it. I hope he isn't taking on the defeatist attitude of "it is what it is" ... a phrase that keeps popping up in ostensibly serious discussions about what can be done about the destructive course the music industry is on, especially with regard to the pervasive use of pitch "correction", auto-tuning and AI.
@Spo-Dee-O-Dee He's recently fully independent as the owner of his record company. Full creative control. Though after Fil's video, I suspect he'll dial back on the AutoTune on next year's 3 live albums
They've signed to the big ones ... here we go. BTW I believe, one of Mr. Adam's first recordings was made into a disco track ... correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah, that continues to be a sore spot. Not for me but for BA! :) Still, not at all about what is currently happening with regard to the pervasive use of pitch-"correction" and autotune as the current music industry standard, though.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee You're missing the point. A piano roll is preconfigured, this performance was edited in a DAW after the fact to correct the pitch of the vocals.
@@michelvanbriemen3459 Yes, I get that, I just wanted to make clear that the actual performance at the Royal Albert Hall was fully live (I have been there on the night this song was performed). Personally, while I hate seeing that they edited this (when there was absolutely no need to!), I think there is still a huge difference to miming along to a backing track in concert - Bryan Adams didn’t do that.
I think Three Days Grace frontman Matt Walst may be using pitch correction on his mic in live shows, it's most noticeable during the couple performances last year when he shared the stage with his predecessor Adam Gontier, who I do not believe used any kind of live pitch correction. It would be great if you looked into this, if it's true it would really put a damper on the recently-announced official return of Gontier to the band alongside Walst.
Back in the days of cassettes and then onto CD''s, I most certainly "accidentally" spilled an entire gallon of Super Glue on quite a few of them 😸 Probably my first, was AC/DC "Powerage". So sad to see that so much of music that I grew up hearing, is not seen as "not good enough" as it was originally created😭
All I can say is I'm keeping all my OLD tapes/LP's because at least I'll have the "original" vocal. The madness by whoever is doing this has GOT TO STOP ! I don't want to say this was a good analysis because it's totally depressing at an iconic vocal being destroyed 😔 But I feel your pain.
The pitch correction was really bad on this one! 😕 As soon as I saw the first note on the screen I knew what Fil was going to say! Such a shame because Bryan has such a unique voice. It would be nice if they could just leave the live performances alone so the rest of us could experience the original version too!
excellent way to explain this situation. thank you so much for bringing this to our attention because i have learned from you about how this goes on in todays world of music. yes i have lisened to Adams for years i have alot of his album that are incredble very very good. One of the best voices in rock.
The fact that the 'live' performance is more spot-on grid than the original studio performance is just insane. Anyone who thinks this is OK is out of their mind.
The question is, do they have a mind, when it comes to things like this (a totally rhetorical question by the way with a heavy dose of sarcasm).
I don't want to be a conspiracy nut here. But. I am beginning to think they are doing this so that the kids won't know the difference between a real live quality vocalist and the bulls$$t thar they are making with AI. All music will now sound the same. So why not have computers make it so we don't have to pay any one for it? Meta and Alphabit and the rest can convince kids who don't know better that this is music.
My question now is this: are they doing this to Latin music or has Reggaeton taken over so much it doesn't matter? Would be interested to know. I grew up hearing TexMex radio 50 years ago. What I hear today is as bad as Anglo radio. Computers ought to make it with few exceptions.
@@scottwheeler2494 Well, I am one who thinks that the conspirators of the original conspiracy of the modern era (ie. the JFK assassination) purposefully set out to paint all who espouse conspiracy theories as nuts. So, there's that.
But, in the case of what the music industry has done in making the heavy-handed use of pitch correction and/or Auto-Tune the 'gold standard' that is applied to essentially all singers, great and small, conspiracy or no, the end result is what you outlined, all in the name of the big money game.
None of that, however, is to say that we real music lovers and artists/producers/sound engineers with integrity shouldn't let our talking and singing voices be heard in a muscular effort to save real music from oblivion.
@@scottwheeler2494 The paradox is that eventually AI music will sound more human that human music.
@@Existidor.Serial137 it should come with a warning label: no human was harmed *involved* in the making of this song.
this is so important to share, the de humanization must stop. We need artist not robot.
I wonder if the record labels (who hire the producers) are doing this more and more so that we'll accept robotic singing and pitch correction artifacts as normal, so that artificially generated voices will come to seem normal, too. I hear similar artifacts in AI voices as with pitch corrected human voices. It's more severe with fake voices, but a similar type of artifact.
@@GizzyDillespee Transhumanism
@@MickSupperIf we accept... 😎
Fil I imagine it must seem to you like you're shouting into a void and no one is listening, but i assure you, WE ARE. Please keep calling out this abomination everywhere you encounter it ... true music fans everywhere SO appreciate you for doing it.
Soon, it will be OUR turn to call out what is happening ... all of us real music lovers have to spread the word about all of this, far and wide - Fil can't and shouldn't have to do this on his own.
@@elizabethmiller7291 yes, true but the general public has no platform. In a related example - people have been trying for weeks via messages on their personal blogs and to their official e-mail addresses, to get Brian May and Roger Taylor to stop the Auto-Tune and A.I. on the new Queen 1 remix release, ever since we found out about it.... of course they're getting no response. I'm not sure how the general public can make a difference in this issue. The artists themselves won't respond to the public, acknowledge that it's happening or communicate whether or not they knew about/sanctioned it, or if it was the record company that recently bought the catalog doing it without their knowledge. I honestly don't know how the general public's voices can make any difference here.... the artists aren't going to answer random fans.
I feel the same way. I' m 73 and from "the good old days" when you knew you were listening to the real thing. Makes me sad to see what passes for music sometimes these days. I stick to my old stuff an awful lot, but I love a lot of Americana. "I'm With Her" us excekkebt. All three great musicians. I miss Linda Ronstadt the most though. That beautiful voice took me through a lot of changes.
All those old records, tapes and CDs I own feel increasingly more precious to me, watching these retroactive criminal edits to the great musicians...
Me too.
Me three !😂
Exactly my thought!
Same
Ditto!
Thanks for doing this Fil.
A great service to real music lovers.
This practice or "fixing" the voices of iconic singers reminds me of the infamous painting restorations where someone incompetent takes an antique oil painting and "cleans it up" to look like a grade-schooler's artwork.
Great analogy!!
@@patrickjordan2233 It’s a good analogy, yes, but that is extremely rare. By and large painting restorations - especially those from well-known artists - are done by highly-qualified fine art conservators and the results are usually striking.
Visions of Ecce Homo.
😊=🤡
Or Star Wars “Special” Edition 😢
9:05 the saddest thing is that when you hear and see what the original line was, the microtonality is a clearly intentional blues lick that got edited out.
Yep. Improvization is uniquely live stuff and auto-tune wipes it out.
This is a crime.
Perfection started with magazines. Photoshop, airbrushing, etc. Now this. I feel like I’m living in the Matrix.
The Matrix record producing agent speaking directly to Fil: Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy, where all musical vocal phrases were precisely pitch corrected exactly to the line? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the auto-tune and pitch correcting nuance to create enjoyable harmonies. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through expression and feeling and emotion. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization BEFORE auto-tune and pitch correction. I say "your" civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became "our" civilization, which is of course what this is all about. Evolution, Fil, evolution. Like the dinosaur and the cassette tape, you've had your time. The future is "our" world, Fil. The future is..."our" time.
Hang on to all your treasured live and studio recordings pre-pitch correct and auto-tune!
It actually even started before that! With typography. Well... lost that job...
One of the things that makes us human is that we each have a voice - unique in tone and quality, able to impart both meaning and feeling. Turning voices into machines destroys that humanity. I feel your frustration, Fil. I’m sure each of us does. Keep shining your light!
Well said. Cheers! ✌️
"And now, to cleanse our ears, heres the original-"
Couldn't agree more Fil. The robotic nature of the 'corrected' version needs scrubbed from my brain!
Perfect this is really when the music died. Got noise, got no soul. Thx Fil , please keep it up hopefully somebody will hear us cry out.
I wonder who we could contact to show our discuss about this?
If all of us sent email and letters maybe we could make a difference.
Great comment and I think you’re right;)
@@a9ball1 I think it’s a money talks thing. Would have to find a way to only buy non compressed/OEM art .
Pretty sure there is a bunch of morons justifying their job by “ improving the catalog “ and taking out all the brush strokes. Idiots.
The alternative is worse. After almost 40 years, I stopped buying music because of auto-tune!
I agree. I hope someone will hear a cry out, if not from us, then from the musicians/artists who have put two and two together and have gotten fed up with pitch correction and auto tune. The lead singer of the band Little Dragon had stated that she made the rule of not using auto tune or pitch correction a priority. From what I’ve heard, it sounds like the band keeps true to this rule. Yet the “veterans” seem to either allow the manipulation-maybe because the record companies have the authority or they don’t mind themselves. Or perhaps they’re not aware. If it’s the latter, my hope is that it will cause a stink and then goodbye auto tune and pitch correction. Somehow I think people get too enamored with modern technology to the point where it makes things worse.
"The real music is between the lines." That applies to both pitch and rhythm. There is no groove if the instruments are quantized to the lines. There is no feeling when the pitches are dragged to "perfection". What would the great jazz musicians sound like if they were pitch corrected? Ella, Nina, Billie, Dinah, and Miles, Coltrane, Getz...
Unfortunately that will be done very soon if not already 😕
Totally agree. And I get confused as to why a perfectly tuned orchestra, or even just a piano or guitar, can bring about strong emotion.
With a human, it's robotic.
@@whatsername123 If you take the sound of any of your favorite musical instruments (with a few digital exceptions) and force the sound to be completely flat on the line, you have also lost expression. Guitars obviously have slight string bends. Even a piano tone will drift slightly in pitch from a hard hit on the key until the tone rings out. If that sound is processed, it will sound less like a real guitar or piano, and more like a primitive synth sound that is supposed to be a guitar or piano. Primitive synth sounds are cool, who doesn't like a good Moog, but it will sound more.... robotic!
@@geirmyrvagnes8718 No clue why that didn't cross my mind! 🤣
Yep, I've used the quantize analogy many times when likening to pitch correction. In the quest for "precision", it strips away all swing and movement.
Why bother have human beings play or sing if you're just going to force the notes to a fixed grid?
Why aren't we getting outrage from all these performers? Don't they know or care?
Possibly sellouts, sadly
great question! I wonder if Fil is getting any comment from any of these artists (short of that vocal coach that made a fool out of himself!) or their management company?
@@wakajawaka yes..I want to know...
There is a slight chance they don´t know unless they have listened to their own live recording or received comments about it. It´s more likely that they don know, but their contract with the record company leaves them no power of the reproduction of live performances that the record company releases. The artist might be too embarrassed to speak out about it, and/ or he/she has received a gag order from the company.
They probably know, and likely don't have any say in it because it's the label's product.
Why are they stealing away an authentic performance? Sinatra sang live with his real voice till he stopped doing concerts. Authenticity is so much better. Thank you Fil!!! Love all of your content!! 💓💓
so basically the old vinyl records before the pitch correction was introduced, have a huge musical value today cause i guess only there we can hear how the artists exactly sounds.
oh man i wish they'd never discover pitch correction and auto tune.
as always, great work Fil. thank you!
Right. All we have to hope for now is that they keep on making those turntables and cd players! :)
@@elizabethmiller7291As long as people buy them, I think they will keep making them. I'm more worried about our records and CDs breaking! And they'll be no replacements.
Agreed.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I'm not sure I understand the urge to minimize or de-emphasize the insidious impact that the use of manual digital pitch changing/automatic tuning of great singers' voices nowadays has on a real music lovers' listening pleasure and enjoyment but this is a big freakin' deal and not at all comparable to how pitch was altered and effects added to a singer's voice decades ago.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I think that is a purposeful attempt to muddy the waters here.
Though, it's not that hard to understand the differences between changing the pitch of the notes and microtones, sharps and flats being sung and just adding effects to a voice to make the sound better without changing the pitch. That's a real difference with distinction and delineates a real voice from a fake one.
“And the trees are all kept equal, by hatchet, axe, and saw.”
Was assuming the worst of my beloved Bryan Adams and felt a lot better at around the 7:35 mark. The post-production stuff is appalling to be sure, but finding out one of my favorite artists is using autotune live as their regular routine is something else entirely for me. Glad that’s not the case here. Cheers Fil.
When production companies do this, it's like color correcting the Mona Lisa to 256 colors. Here, you get about 20 different greens and 20 different Blues to play with. Never mind the thousands of shades in between.
That's a very good analogy 👍👆
My thoughts exactly😢💔
Hmmmm. Well AI (etc)type lovers…THINK about it. Why do we need real life musicians then?? If these type of things are fixed and done by computers etc…that is not a gift. It is but a toy. It is not a true ART FORM. It might be interesting but it will be robbing us of our human being-ness. Stealing from us our true ability to create. To be true.
It makes me compare it to the computer and our cell phones and tablets. Hey they are wonderful yes I am not saying they aren’t. And as much as they make some things easier but at the same time…I remember when in my life my mind could remember phone numbers and the like. Sure great I can just pull that up on my cell convenient sure. Or pull up the calculator to do a simpler mathematic problem. You don’t have to go to a library( remember those?) to do some research on a subject. Sure it is convenient. I am sure there are other examples…but I feel like the process of all of the technical improvements is “teaching us how not to learn”. That is my opinion and I feel it is accurate.
what a great example!! agreed 100%.
It's more like levelling the famously conflicting background because they don't understand the genius of the interest the imbalance creates
Thank you Fill, it is so important to tell everyone what is really happening with these "live" performances or the remastered versions. You are a brilliant and extraordinary knowledgeable musician as well as an excellent singer and guitar player. All the best from Porto.
I can confirm that way back in 1984 Nigel Tufnel, David St. Hubbins, and Derek Smalls ALL signed an agreement that none of their original master tapes nor live recordings of any kind were to be pitch corrected in any way UNLESS they were played backwards. This document was signed in perpetuity. They were true pioneers and their legacy remains untarnished to this very day.
😬 the Rutles beat them to it in 1967 when Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickly, Stiglitz O'Hara and Barry Wom foreshore the future during an LSD experience. ☝️
@@Alex-nm7qx can autotune go to 11? I’m guessing no. They were pioneers :)
If you play back albums backwards to listen for satanic messages..
You ARE satan!!
@@heidichristensen7919 Yes, it can, but you're not allowed to touch it (or even point at it).
@@heidichristensen7919 When you attempt to use auto-tune on Spinal Tap's material, ALL the parts that were recorded on 11 come out the other side of the auto-tune algorithm as complete silence. Engineers have no logical explanation for this phenomenon as it ONLY occurs with Spinal Tap's material. This phenomenon, combined with the legally binding agreement explained above, will make sure that Tap's legacy remains pure for all generations until the end of time.
I saw him live about 7 years ago when he did a tour with just him and his guitar... It was fantastic!!
I did as well, about 12 years ago. His acoustic tour. One of the best concerts I've been to.
I cannot believe how they are ruining these phenomenal artists voices for some sort of selfish gain! This needs to stop. Thank you for opening our eyes to this basterdized version.
But how do they even gain from it???
They do it with classic albums as well! If you buy a new CD of say Sgt Peppers they have pitch corrected the vocals! When you compare it to a original copy you can hear it so easily.
@@sarahm.5356,
It doesn’t make sense to me. It’s less expensive to release an anniversary album (or any releases after the original) if you don’t hire an engineer to mess with the sound.
@@SuziQ. I suspect that actually much of this is like 2 minutes work. That's why it's often so shoddy. You apply a quick fix, and then you go through and tweak it, like getting ChatGPT to write you an email. They're already "remastering", so they're already paying for someone to click their mouse, why not get them to click a few more times?
@@vf1923 ,
I don’t mean a remaster. Bands are releasing 15th, 20th, 25th (etc.) anniversary albums. I would buy them if they weren’t messed with at all, just to have a physical copy. Lots of the music I bought (particularly in the eighties) is only on cassette, which is the least likely medium to last.
I don’t want a remix or a remaster.
"he sings well enough as it is" no truer words every spoken. so sick of the auto tune corrections over and over and over. thank you Fil for bringing this to the light for everyone to see.
Legally, all tracks that have been "Pitch Corrected" should state this and it must be printed clearly on all webstores, and music platforms.
Those that haven't, can boldly claim that they have the original natural voice of the performer and receive the plaudits and sales that will definitely come their way.
What's that have to do with pitch correction? Nothing.@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee
@@Spo-Dee-O-DeeThat is a very important point here.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Whether or not a recording process can truly capture a voice 100% accurately is not the point. We're talking about original studio and live performances that exist and are being changed after the fact.
Then, just replace "natural" with "uncorrected" if the point is too hard for some to grasp.
It might be easier if the artists who do not use pitch correction and/or AutoTune in the recording studio or at live gigs make those facts known clearly and explicitly. These artists who wish to maintain their integrity should be talking about this at every opportunity! It will just take a few big names like BA to take a public stand on this and others may follow.
Fil, what a sad thing to hear! Our iconic vocalists' voices are systematically being taken from us! I hope and pray this pitch correction and other manipulation of music can someway be stopped. His true voice is beautiful! What a sinful shame to do this! Thanks for this analysis video, Fil! 🎶💜
my advice do not buy anything modern or remade anymore. treasure the old pure stuff.
@@wout123100 ... Absolutely! I was fortunate enough to have the entire collection of music I will ever want, for many years now. In the last 10 of those years, I began seeking out remasters that, in most cases, were an improvement, but NOT a manipulation voices. Sadly, there were many who simply turned up the volume / gain and created sometimes more than 2db of clipping. I just kept my original releases and I will always have them.
PS> 🐈pair of bonk's for the both of you 🐱
@wout123100 Absolutely! Thankfully, my parents left me a huge collection of vinal records of the best artists from the 60s forward !
@@veramilton833 ... NICE! 💪 Many years ago, I purchased a small audio converter to run my turn-table directly into my USB of my PC. I was able to get ALL of my vinyl 45's and records onto my drive, for those that were never or not yet released on to CD's. I have 100% of my music all backed up on the original CD's and / or onto hard drives, so I will never lose any of it.
.
🎶= life
@NinjaKittyBonks Ahhh!!! Wonderful!!!
I don’t know Fil. I hate being “old” but at least I grew up hearing The Eagles, Boston, AC/DC (with Bon) The Allman’s, Floyd etc…b4 this existed. I am grateful for that. Keep up the fight! 🫡❤️
I'm grateful for all of that, too. But, it's hard not to feel for those who grew up while this existed and for many of whom the only singing voices they really know is of the digitally manipulated and autotuned variety.
What's even worse than that for them is they may hear something on RUclips or Spotify that originated in the seventies but has been re-released as a heavily pitch-corrected version and they may never know the beautiful voices they are missing out on!
That should be reason enough for all of us who find pleasure and enjoyment in listening to real music along with all of those artists who still have pride in making real music to join the fight to save real music from oblivion. I'm hoping we will all enthusiastically embrace what Fil is doing and support his side project in any and every way we can.
If you hadn't told me that it was BA singing in the first part of your video, I would never have recognized his voice. I am Canadian so have been listening to him before he became a global persona. This "correction" of the voices of great singers is a crime against vocal art. Thank you for the analysis and for "cleansing" our ears.
We got to hear him, and see him on MuchMusic, before the rest of the world had ever heard his name. ❤
📣📣Leave Bryan's voice alone!!!!!📣📣
My first concert was Bryan Adam's- Reckless when I Just turned 13 years old in 1985. It was in his home town of Vancouver BC too! I've always loved the breathy raspyness of his voice 😊 I think I'm more upset seeing your disappointment in this video, Fil. You just look so defeated but we need you Fil to keep it real because most of us don't know what we're hearing these days 😢 keep up the good work and I agree that Bryan Adam's probably doesn't know they've done this to his voice 💔
Fil, you got me thinking I'm living in the Matrix. When I was a kid (I'm 69), I remember watching many bands on different programs, miming performances on tv, but when you bought a record, you heard live recordings. Sadly, now you never know what you're getting. It's really sad that truth has been violated. Some of us took the red pill, and we 0:59 to yield to the manipulation of the industry and some artists. Keep up the good work, my friend. Hopefully, we will get disclaimers prior to live and recorded material we spend our good money on in the future.
😳 Oh. Have mercy! I love Bryan Adams, but I did not even recognize his voice even though I have his CDs. The unique expressions he always has, is gone. I am saddened to learn this, Fil!
I think Bryan Adams is a great example of a really distinctive voice, that we used to have and love dearly back in the day, and we just don't have in the music industry anymore. And here we see why, they have managed to make his voice much less distinctive with the pitch correction. It sounds like a Bryan Adams tribute band.
No, a Bryan Adams tribute band would probably sound better because no one would melodyne then into oblivion.
Thanks Fil, you make a great point, WHY are so many great voices being destroyed by autotune or pitch correction! These people can sing! I dearly wish they would see your videos and rise up and revolt!
I've liked this video and I'm also commenting. But I can't watch it all. I'm heartbroken. It's terrible. Thank you Fil.
Same same.
2:52 STRAIGHT AWAY.... we can see exact snapping to the notes.
Before he was famous, Brian used to drop by my studio in N. Vancouver, B.C. By the way, Fil, excellent analysis, and perhaps it explains why you may be destined to be an independent. You truly are an educator and are well-informed. Anyone today who knows about Lenny Breau, indeed, has a passion for guitar. Keep up the good work.
You must have a story or two that you could relate here ... we'd be grateful! Bryan - along with Jim Vallance, of course - are a big part of my favourite band from Vancouver and, indeed, from anywhere. :)
@@elizabethmiller7291 Those were the days when Bill Lewis Music was a hub for great guitar players. They came from all over North America to get their guitars worked on, players like Barney Kessel.
I have been singing for about 37 - 40 years now and I've never used pitch correction i only use reverb and echo to the minimum level and I have always been doing songs with the same passion as the original singer and the same way the song was created
Ditto
I love extreme reverb and echo as a stylistic choice, like how She Past Away use it. But there are few cases like that. Nothing should become a mindless habit, that is what I hate about mainstream pop since the 90s. Everything sounds the same just to be safe to spend money promoting. The autotune for big mainstream record labels it seems is just the latest way to make everything comfortingly familiar and predictable to the large cash cow minority who can be relied on to listen to any song that is compressed to one volume and limited in timbre range and narrow in pitch range and one time signature throughout and the same three chord progression options, etc.
Why is Bryan not screaming from a mountain top in his beloved British Columbia about this destruction of his voice? How is it possible that he may not know that this is happening!!!??? I've brought this sort of thing up on his official facebook page and no one in charge of that site wants to touch it with a ten foot pole as is the usual reaction or non-reaction I get whenever I try to broach this subject on any music related facebook page.
Thanks for your post-if I was Bryan, I’d be livid about what has happened. 🎶🎸🤘 2:14
I was thinking the same thing. Thanks for trying
3 metre pole,we’re metric😅
@@Whateva67 actually 3.048 metre, we're not 😅
@@nwicconsultants6640 😆 you’re splitting hares🐇🐇 or hairs ….or maybe even heirs
I totally agree Fil. Great update as always.
Given what is emerging I think I consider myself lucky to have all the vinyl purchased before the "wizards" arrived 🙂
And people complained about the quality when they went to CD, rightly, because of the compression. DVD was better, but still...
Thank You Fil. You are getting so good at explaining this disaster in the music industry. I didn't realize how good Brian Adams was.
Thankfully my teen years were in the late 70s.
Saw all these guys play live.
Some i even remember!
Same here. Saw Bryan live in early 1982 when he opened for Foreigner when I was 18.
If you can remember the 70s you did it wrong.
@@kallsop2 did you ? Or were they lip syncing back then ?
( this is not calling you out , but Fill is making me question everything I know about “ live consents “
In those days I went to be totally immersed in the gig experience, not to film it on my phone.
@@milestonowheres I will say it was live then because you could hear if the singers voice was off that night. A good example was a Kansas concert in 1981 with Steve Walsh dealing with the flu. When it came to some of the high notes he couldn't quite hit them and apologized to the crowd for not being at his best.
When I saw Bryan Adams in '82 he only had one album out and was working on Cuts Like A Knife and they tried out three songs for the album so there weren't any real tracks cut for it yet.
Also while they used echo/reverb/delay for vocals in the studio that was missing in a live performance.
Somewhere in contracts with labels or whoever, theres tiny print that says theyre allowed to do this without permission.Guaranteed.
And people signed the contract in 2004 and thought, "well that will never happen to me, that's just for those upstarts who can't really sing!"
They didn't realise that it would be applied to them regardless of their singing and apparently without any interest in musicality or expression.
Hello Fil! Some time ago I read in a comment that you were on a "crusade". I liked this expression because you really are devoting yourself to your cause with all due seriousness. Keep up the good work! I hope you don't meet the fate of the knight of the cross Richard the Lionheart.
Bryan Adams was awesome on Roger Water's The Wall Live In Berlin. Best song of the whole show IMO.
I got a tour by Bryan's manager of his home in the 80s (LA).
Crazy decor, the bathroom was a yellow submarine...
Can you imagine if they started pitch “correcting” blues guitarists’ guitar solos/licks? They probably already have, but if not, that’s where we’re heading very soon.
Stevie Ray Gone
“Autotuning” guitar solos wouldn’t fly in the guitar world (at least I’d hope so). That’d be a huge scandal and immediately out whichever guitarists were involved as massive frauds.
SRV's live alive (mid-80s) was heavily edited
13:50 autotune has a switch that let's you "ignore vibrato". They also set the correction rate too high, imo.
Thanks for this analysis, even though it makes me sad. I think I have been one of the ones who requested an analysis of Bryan Adams. It is just sad to see how much of his expression was taken away. I have just seen Bryan Adams live in concert last Saturday, and he sounded awesome. I have actually been to Royal Albert Hall when he performed that song, and it sounded so good live! We may have some crowd footage if you like for comparison.
That would be priceless coz BA doesn't allow fan footage on YT 👍
I don't know if this can be stopped. But the releases should be labeled as "pitch-corrected." Maybe if that is done, consumers will vote with their dollars. Or maybe the current generation doesn't care?
Current generation don't care.
Why would they? Everything is fake nowadays, pics, movies, food, news, bodyparts...
Why should music make an exception?
Industry sells it, people buy it.
we can make the industry to label whether it is pitch corrected, what kind of recording equipment is ued and who is the editor due to consumer right and what sort of modification is used, however it wont solve the problem they will keep pitch correcting it. Becasue it appeals to low fi community where most cash is cash not audiofools.
The only way is not buying or returning it and praises good editor to creat peer pressure and need the someone release the original version to educate the masses. Billy joel was disgusted on his cold spring harbour album which was frankesteined by the editors twice, (1 oroigianl and 1 re-released) and he gave up at the end. But the album still sell, so there are no arguments to make the publisher redact their releases.
Perhaps the current generation have heard too many robotic recordings and have been dumbed down. If so, this is a worry. All the more reason Fil's videos are so important to inform more people.
Considering there are plenty of us older generations around, and we care, I agree that it should be labeled. And I know my kids appreciate bands from my generation that Fil has highlighted in these videos. So yeah, they care. I just don’t think they know.
I agree - I don't believe the current generation cares either.
A frew years ago I was listening to some of my favorite songs when my youngest daughter said "Boy this music sounds so old". I really didn't think about it and figured she meant there was no synth or artificial instrument sounds. But just recently she said it again about Simon and Garfunkle. But this time I asked what she meant and she explained that the voices sounded odd to her ear. We talked a while and I figured out that she has been trained to listen for the processing sound of pitch correction and she associates that mechanical burr with "good" modern music. But without it she thinks the sound is antiquated and doesn't like it.
This is so so sad. When I listen to pitch corrected music, it sounds Dead. But of course I'm from an 'antiquated' generation.
That’s scary
That just broke my heart.
Remedial music appreciation instruction is in order
woww
I was at the concert in question. His voice and the band were amazing. The first half was the entirety of Waking Up The Neighbours and the second half, the rest of his hits. Amazing night. I'm not sure why anyone would think auto tune is required. I have bought the live album box set from those Royal Albert Hall concerts and didn't notice any auto tune. I'm usually quite sensitive to it, but will have another listen!
Just listen to Heaven and I'm Ready from Bryan's MTV Unplugged show. Pretty damn perfect vocals 🙂
Best moment of this video analysis - describing those few times when a great singer naturally hits the lines on a pitch graph, now and again, over the course of an entire song as the "COLATERAL DAMAGE" of having a great voice. What an absolutely apt description!
Good evening Fil, thanks for another video.
This is depressing; it cuts like a knife! I would’ve never thought our music would be manipulated like this. Leave it alone! If newer artists don’t have the chops, so be it. But, don’t mess with the older artists, it’s a betrayal.
So glad you played some of his real voice, I needed to hear that.
Pitch correcting Freddie Mercury & Bryan Adams is proof that AI has already taken over😉
The twist is, we computerised ourselves.
The thought that we may have gone or be on the verge of going beyond a human producer who just looks at lines on a graph instead of actually listening to how amazing a song and singer's voice sounds naturally to a machine making the decision to pitch "correct" AND how heavy-handedly that "correction" should be is quite a scary thought, indeed.
"Just to cleanse our ears". Love it. Thanks for caring about keeping music real.
What do these artists who made their best albums without correction feel about their voices being manipulated? Would be great if you could interview Adams or another victim.
Its sad that people ruin the raw talent that artists have. Hopefully we can get rid of autotune and pitch correction completely.
Agreed, but unfortunately that will never happen because the majority of singers today are more about image than virtually anything else. The quality of their voice matters little, as it can be “corrected.” 😒 And that’s reflected, perhaps, by the fact that most vocalist today sound eerily similar.
@fifthbusiness1678 So true it's sickening. 👍👍
I'v e been enjoying your videos for a couple of days now and missing "the good old days" more than ever, lol. I'm 73. You have a very good ear and I'm much appreciating the education, although I think knowing these things is raising my blood pressure.
Some of the best TV performances, at least in the US, in the past was the times the bands really performed live. Really a pleasure to watch some of these on RUclips.
Next time the same performance is uploaded to RUclips, the pitch will likely have been "corrected".
I love watching you analyze these songs😅 I thought I was going to have to turn the hosepipe on you for this one! You get so upset and rightfully so. Keep up the good work. A huge fan of your work.
When an audience pays to see a live performance and gets a pitch-corrected mime it’s like sitting down for one of Mom’s home cooked meals and she hands you a Twinkie.
The live performance was not autotuned (I was there!), the editing was just done on the video release.
Bryan Adams is not (to my knowledge) singing live with autotune.
If you go see him, you will have a wonderful truly live experience. 👌
In my mom's case the twinkie was better. 😂 I married a man who was a wonderful cook. He did the meals because I inherited moms skills.
hahaha! and Twinkies never rot... so can you digest them? I feel the same way about this stuff..
Hello from Vancouver, Canada - the home of Bryan Adams.
@wingsofpegasus
I wonder what would happen if you were to contact Bryan Adams & show him that someone is doung this? I suppose he could tell you to 'F off'....or he might go, "They are doing WHAT? Thank you for telling me, I am gonna see that some heads will roll!"
It's kinda gonna take something like that to reverse the tide of melodyne. What would happen if all the artists who havent given permission to pitch correct/autotune their vocals were to launch a giant class action lawsuit? Or just see that the producers & engineers who make such reprehensible decisions never work again?
_Something_ has to change. Thisis way too rampant now.
I would love to see BA collaborate with Fil on this issue. If there is one Canadian artist who be a great asset to have on board with Fil's impending side project, it would be Bryan Adams.
i was at that gig. bryan’s live voice is unbelievably good. he sang 3 nights, did two sets each night and recorded an album in the day time. incredible. never avoids the hard bits in songs. hasn’t tuned down.
They're not pitch correcting it, they're pitch ruining it. It's just criminal
Wow. Great breakdown. Great ears! Its so sad to me they kerp doing this correction & auto tune. Im so happy there is someone like you to raise the warning flags!!
You missed out on auto-reverse cassette players? I had one of those in my car. Loved not having to turn the tape over.😄
Hi Phil, I discovered you recently through a friend's recommendation. Thank you for your work. In cases like this, it feels like Bryan Adams should have some kind of recourse to prosecute this kind of distortion of his voice. Perhaps copyright law or defamation could apply. If the venue took his product (authentic) and then copied and altered it for commercial sale without his consent or in a manner not in keeping with what he'd approved (i.e., if he knew they were going to do it but they did it incompetently), one would hope there is grounds to prosecute. Similarly, if they did an incompetent job, that could be grounds for defamation - presenting his talent as far less than it actually is. If it stops being financially viable to hire incompetents to do this to established, talented artists, perhaps the practice would decline. Artists already have to be copyright hawks. Why not use that same clout to protect the integrity of their images against this kind of debasement? Any lawyers out there have thoughts on such possibilities?
Oh noooooo! Leave Bryan Adams' voice alone!!! 😡
Thanks, Fil! 🖤🤘🏽
Congrats for top notch quality and for the depth of your analysis on all your videos! I would really appreciate if you have the time to analyse John Sykes vocal approach ,eq on the track Riot (that's something that nobody yet had done so on youtube)
Hi Fil, I like your new hair style.
Thank you very much for posting this ! This is absolutely right !
In solidarity with the fighters for peace, love, justice & truth we express our feelings with music on our channel.
Greetings from Germany ... CLUB OF THE UNCENSORED POETS
I'm glad I have a huge catalog of old pre-digital manipulation music. How much of the music on the various internet streaming services is altered after the original release? Are the old masters like Dave Van Ronk and Woody Guthrie going to be pitch corrected?
I think we have to assume that the use of pitch "correction" and autotuning and AI is pervasive across all digital platforms and radio stations and that even the old masters are not safe. Time for all of us real music lovers to start actually doing something to stop this and make our voices heard by the powers that be.
I'm starting to visit record stores looking for cds of all my favourites from decades ago that were produced before this destructive practice became the music industry standard as it may be the only option we have to preserve the real music we love and cherish. I do have high hopes and expectations, though, for Fil's side project and the positive impacts it could have on all of this!
18:20 It appears that we need to keep our old records and CDs and not buy new remasters.
Wow, Bryan Adams is known for being not only a great songwriter and overall performer, but also a great singer who has aged very well. To pitch correct him like this is quite the insult.
Thank you Fill for your patient and usefull work.
Bryan must have listened to this production. Surely they must have run it by him to okay.
We need some of the performers to speak out.
We need artists like Bryan Adams to get on board with Fil's side project and even be a part of the official launch.
I said elsewhere that these live albums were released on his own label, BADAMS. It increases the chances of him knowing about it. Thankfully, he's still singing great live
@@TheBrettWilson And, one of the best things I have found about going to see him live is that the crowd is always one thousand percent into it! Which makes the experience all the more fun and enjoyable.
@elizabethmiller7291 👍got my ticket for 7th BA concert
@@TheBrettWilson Rock! May I ask where?
One point we can say about miming on shows... the logistics of setting up a band and getting it to sound really good on a show can just be too much for one or two songs. This is one reason why you see a lot of miming and false bands on shows. They just can't set up that much equipment to replicate what they did on the records. BUT... otoh.... with so much being digitized and shrunk these days, amps don't have to be walls of Marshall stacks. You can literally get huge Marshall tones in stomp boxes (Tonex?) these days so setting up a band wouldn't be a total nightmare. Miking the drums would be a pain still. And handling stage volumes and in-ear monitoring... just a ton of work. BUT if you just show up and pretend, hey, you're done and the sound and performance is always gold.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee yeah, most people won't catch even wrong notes on guitar or keyboard anyway.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it not the job of a singer to sing, whether appearing on a tv show, a concert or in a studio? If they need a truckload of equipment to appear on a tv show to help them sing one or two songs, why are they there?
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee If you think it’s all about the “performance” rather than the quality of the singing, you probably prefer simple pop music with the “performers” miming, and silly background dancers dressed up as Liquorice Allsorts or space aliens, all to distract from the song. No wonder I don’t listen or watch pop music. Give me a metal band with a female lead singer who can sing and doesn’t need to prance around like some teenager in front of a mirror.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Yes, they bring back memories! Mind you, PP only ever performed to an audio track of a song so they “were the entertainment”.
Fil always points out that great singers still sound pleasant without backing instruments. In the same situation, a heavily pitch corrected vocal sounds irritating, no matter who is singing. I want to hear a human, not a computer.
I too listened to Reckless over and over. Wished I had the chance to see him.
This is terrible. I don't blame Bryan. I have seen him live and un-altered and his voice and stage Prescence are amazing.
Thank you Fil. We love your work and objectivity
Fil the Truth Teller!! You are the Ronan Farrow of the musician/singers world. I sense a great sadness inside you exposing this. I hope your channel becomes one of the most watched on the entire platform. Keep on rockin’
Maybe therebis an insider at the RAH that can comment. There must be some connection.
I saw BA in Vancouver with the VSO- so amazing.
I have been a Bryan Adams fan since I was a kid. His sound got really slick after working with Mutt Lange. Over the years, I have read interviews in technical publications where he would discuss recording. He is well versed in recording technology down to knowing vintage recording gear. At one point he had a huge mic closet and an SSL console in his own studio. I suspect he knows. I have heard him sing live without tuning and I never thought he needed it.
Fil, please show the singers from the Mo Town Era. They sound awesome and natural.
Good call.
You need to request something that You believe to have been manipulated with pitch correction. Rather than Fil going through hours of Motown classics trying to find one.
Let's hope that You don't find anything that's been butchered ;-)
I heard it-- on the first note! I never used to be able to hear this before. I'm so pleased. My ear training is coming along. Remarkable. 3:34 thank you Fil!
Fil, I went along to see Crowded House in Glasgow last week and I suspect a touch of auto tune being used. Would you have a listen to some of the RUclips clips to confirm. I never thought Neil Finn would need it but it looks like everyone is at it.
Bye the way, Bryan Adams in the eighties was untouchable vocally. This just another sad example you’ve highlighted of the greatest singers voices being ruined by the technology.
Interesting. Saw them in Scotland in ‘92. Good theatre, good gig, good vocals. Yours Aye!
@@wtorules4743Bryan's voice is still untouchable live. It's just been tampered with after the fact 👍
@@TheBrettWilson ✊🏻
And again, as soon as you played just a few seconds, that robot sound clearly came through in his voice. And I've only been watching a couple of months, but those lines in red immediately looked more rigid that anything else I've seen you analyse. Despicable thing to do. I'm with you - just why?
IT'S JUST GARBAGE!!!!! Lol.
Check out “let me take you dancing”. I think it was his first hit, but the producers sped up the tempo to make his voice higher and the song more danceable. He was pissed off and
refuses to sing that song live.
Which makes me wonder why BA is letting this happen. He must know about it. I hope he isn't taking on the defeatist attitude of "it is what it is" ... a phrase that keeps popping up in ostensibly serious discussions about what can be done about the destructive course the music industry is on, especially with regard to the pervasive use of pitch "correction", auto-tuning and AI.
@Spo-Dee-O-Dee He's recently fully independent as the owner of his record company. Full creative control. Though after Fil's video, I suspect he'll dial back on the AutoTune on next year's 3 live albums
@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I would doubt that considering he's re-recording them
They've signed to the big ones ... here we go.
BTW
I believe, one of Mr. Adam's first recordings was made into a disco track ... correct me if I'm wrong.
Yeah, that continues to be a sore spot. Not for me but for BA! :)
Still, not at all about what is currently happening with regard to the pervasive use of pitch-"correction" and autotune as the current music industry standard, though.
Thank you for your work, keep going on with it👍🙏
An asterisk with a disclaimer needs to be placed on any announcement for a 'live performance' that isn't actually live.
It was live - it’s just the video release that was edited.
@@susannewampfler9264 That's his point. It has been edited, therefore it's not the live performance, despite claiming to be the live performance.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee If the sound has been edited to change it from the live vocal, it's no longer a live performance.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee You're missing the point. A piano roll is preconfigured, this performance was edited in a DAW after the fact to correct the pitch of the vocals.
@@michelvanbriemen3459 Yes, I get that, I just wanted to make clear that the actual performance at the Royal Albert Hall was fully live (I have been there on the night this song was performed). Personally, while I hate seeing that they edited this (when there was absolutely no need to!), I think there is still a huge difference to miming along to a backing track in concert - Bryan Adams didn’t do that.
I think Three Days Grace frontman Matt Walst may be using pitch correction on his mic in live shows, it's most noticeable during the couple performances last year when he shared the stage with his predecessor Adam Gontier, who I do not believe used any kind of live pitch correction. It would be great if you looked into this, if it's true it would really put a damper on the recently-announced official return of Gontier to the band alongside Walst.
Back in the days of cassettes and then onto CD''s, I most certainly "accidentally" spilled an entire gallon of Super Glue on quite a few of them 😸 Probably my first, was AC/DC "Powerage". So sad to see that so much of music that I grew up hearing, is not seen as "not good enough" as it was originally created😭
True! I agree with you, Kitty! Be careful with the super glue, kitty! You don't want to get your wiskers glued to your paws! 😂😅
@@veramilton833 ... Wish someone would have warned me about that back in the late 70's 😿
.
🐈* boop *
@@NinjaKittyBonks😂😅😊
All I can say is I'm keeping all my OLD tapes/LP's because at least I'll have the "original" vocal. The madness by whoever is doing this has GOT TO STOP ! I don't want to say this was a good analysis because it's totally depressing at an iconic vocal being destroyed 😔 But I feel your pain.
The pitch correction was really bad on this one! 😕 As soon as I saw the first note on the screen I knew what Fil was going to say! Such a shame because Bryan has such a unique voice. It would be nice if they could just leave the live performances alone so the rest of us could experience the original version too!
It made him sound like a malfunctioning robot.
excellent way to explain this situation. thank you so much for bringing this to our attention because i have learned from you about how this goes on in todays world of music. yes i have lisened to Adams for years i have alot of his album that are incredble very very good. One of the best voices in rock.
Your can,t better Bryan Adams Natural voice . One of the Best
This is so interesting, it would be great to hear what Bryan Adams thinks about your review comments on this song. 👍😎
Given he put out a copyright strike citing 12 seconds of pitch correction criticism, I don't think Bryan liked it.
Glad youtube stuck up for WoP.