Which both Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali did. I think that honestly is related to why I don't mind the extreme autotune variation: once you're being obvious and deliberate with your transformative art, you've made a new artwork, rather than just f'ed up an old one.
I’m not an expert, but I was born into a musical family in the 40s, where music was a natural part of our daily lives. I’ve always equated singers voices as being cold or warm. I now realize what has bothered me so much about so many current singers. Their voices leave me feeling cold. I now realize it’s because of auto tune! We might as well be listening to robots! Freddie’s natural voice sounds so much better than the auto tuned version because, for me, it’s warm and full of life.
Clinical is the word that springs to min for me. Doesnt matter if it's singing or instruments it's oulr human limitations and "mistakes" that define us.
You're a million percent correct. What Freddie is doing with those slightly flat notes is the same thing world-class violin soloists do playing a bit flat to create tension. The auto-tune takes all the performance out of the performance.
It is also because of the equal temperament. Most instruments and the human voices do not produce notes in equal temperament, so naturally they are flat or sharp a little bit to form the exact intervals. Only pianos, organs, and electronic instruments produce equal temperament. Professional singers and musicians do know the difference and use different temperaments according to the time of the composer. A great singer in Gregorian chants will produce a sound of overwhelming beauty, but the pitch will be nowhere near the pitch of the equal temperament, if it is done right. BTW that is also a reason why many singers have difficulties to find the right pitch in equal temperament, the intervals don´t really match, just sort of. It took the organ builders many years to find out how to tune an organ to the equal temperament. As soon as they were able to, they looked for a way to get rid of it, because it sounds totally boring and takes a lot of the expression of a tune and it makes a huge difference if a tune is played in F major or G major.
@@Backstreets247 the listeners will eventually have enough of it. Music always evolves and each fashion goes out of fashion one day and people just won´t listen to it any longer. When I hear autotune it means different things: either the musician has no talent and his pitch is all over the place and you need it to be able to bear it, or the musician has no confidence or knowledge in what he is doing and does not hear the difference, or it is used on purpose to create unnatural sounds. In film music it might help bring new "unnatural" or "strange" vibes, if that is what the film director wants to create. In the other cases it turns music (=emotion) into sound waves (=differences of air pressure that contain the same information as traffic noise).
Queen did put "No Synthesizers!" labels on Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, and Night at the Opera. Which put them in an awkward position when THE GAME was a heavily-synthed album. The problem, I think, is purpose, as well as deception: you can use sythesizers well, by making them do things that synthesizers can do, or you can use them poorly, by making them take the place of other things and then trying to make it sound like you were using, say, horns, or strings, or a live choir. Similarly, autotune, as an instrument, is fine; autotune as deception just sounds wrong.
There is so much power and character in his voice. Utterly unique. I know he didn't like it when they tried to edit his voice on their filmed concerts, so I don't imagine he'd have been appreciative of auto-tune.
Agreed. I was intrigued when he said that we shouldn't be able to hear the first one being auto-tuned. Knowing what Freddie sounds like, it wasn't hard to pick them apart.
@@linusandersson1535 he said that, cause so many songs uses autotune nowadays, and the majority of people is so used to it that they can't tell the difference. No mainstream listener notice that, and even musicians are amongst those average music costumers that listen to shit music saying they like the rhythm, or the 'voice' of the singer (and has soon I lesten to that voice I think, well that's not him/her voice..) Only a minority relate to, and connect to music nowadays, listening to the melodies, harmonies and poesy, going inside the music, and getting emotionally involved are rare today. This is one of the reasons I myself do not listen to most of rock music today, just doesn't give me any feel, are like artificial music, not just rock of course, but rock used to be an escape of that kind of shitty music. Now there are so few good artists that are honest to the music to the public and to themselves (and still match ones personal tastes, I mean, eg. Adele IS that kind of artist, but I'm not into her music, so I admire and respect her, but is not the kind of music I like to hear...) So sad. Well there will aways be some resorts here and there.
I am a professional audio engineer, so, I may be more sensitive to this but I thought, immediately, that the first version was autotuned. It was the unnatural vibrato that struck my ear. That said, after listening to the second version I started to think the first version may have been the original, flawed tape recording. Happy to know I was right the first time. Thanks for doing this, great lesson!
I can imagine Freddie saying “I don’t need auto tune, darling - I’M the auto tune!” Thanks Fil, these auto-tune vids have been fascinating and educational
Yes! Like when he said something like: do whatever you want with music, just don't make me boring. Being autotuned would've killed Freddie if they'd done this to his incredible voice....
Yeah, that was how I could tell which version was which. The first sounded a bit lifeless compared to the original. The small distortions and natural rasp, combined with Freddy’s naturally performed vibrato really bring a lot of life and vibrance to his performances.
@@5roundsrapid263 almost what I was going to type in... I instantly felt the first one lifeless, cold, flat... not Freddy... and when I heard nr. 2 I knew I was right in my initial feeling that the first one was the processed one.
Queen used to be proud of not using synthesizers, and let everybody know it in their album covers. I imagine that if Freddie were alive, they would do the same with auto tune nowadays.
On the first example, I didn't listen to the first and think "This sounds autotuned" rather I listened to the second and thought, "This is what I remember it sounding like." Between the two the first didn't sound like what I remembered the record to sound like. Happy to see I was right.
When hearing the first track I was about 90% sure it was the autotuned version, and when hearing the second I was sure with only a tiny uncertainty if maybe I was overly self confident. After watching the entire video I went back and listened again and when hearing the first I was uncertain if I really had heard a difference, but when hearing the second I was sure I had heard it. Only way I can describe it is that the second version is warmer (I'm not a musician and I don't think I'm pitch perfect, so it must be something else I grab onto). Not sure if I would have heard it if it was a less beloved voice/song or if there was more music at the same time. Another example I find horrible (has nothing to do with autotoune) is a mashup video on youtube between Chris Stapleton and Angelina Jordan. I love her voice, but it is destroyed in the mashup process. Still lots of people seems to like it, and I can't understand why.
@@torejorgensen5344 To me, the first version sounded like there was a film over it. I don't know if that makes any sense but that's the best way I can describe it.
@Smelly Wrestling Geek there are so many singers today that couldn't and wouldn't have record contracts back in the day, Its so sad how horrible music is today, i know its such a cliche to complain about how "in my day" music was great, but it definitely was, tbe 90s was the last decade of awesome music
If you were a big Queen Fan and Freddie Mercury fan that you wouldn't even try to compare auto-tuned music to the real thing because there is no comparison
The only autotuned one which wasn't actively painful was the extreme robot one. Because once you get to Cher-Believe levels of autotune, then you're using it as an instrument on its own, and it's fine. Everything short of that, including the one that was supposed to be "undetectable" was painful in an uncanny-valley way.
Thanks, that must be the name of the song I was trying to think of in my comment higher up. And I agree in Cher's case, but I seriously did not like Freddy's extreme version.
Agreed. The “subtle” one was actually the worst to me, because you can still hear that it’s not normal, and there’s an almost… is it an exaggeration to say *sinister* vibe to the fact it’s supposed to be undetectable? Because that’s how it feels. Heavily autotuned stuff isn’t my thing, but I can actually respect it.
To be honest I didn't notice the subtle autotune. Maybe if Freddie was a terrible singer to begin with I might have. Although in that case, they just give up and pick a different singer like with Peter Andre and "Katie Price" a whole new world. I do find quantisation sounds weird on a voice, making it perfectly rhythmic.
The image is a little drastic, sorry!, but what popped into my head looking at those autotuned lines-----flatlining. (When a medical monitor shows no heartbeat or indication of life, and the line goes straight, and that monotone sound happens.) Autotune makes the music lifeless. You demonstrated this beautifully, Fil!❤️
I would be interested to know who is recording today that never uses auto tune. I heard a story that Barbara Streisand was angry when a producer removed her breaths between phrases and she felt that wasn’t how she sounds when she sings. The breaths are part of it. I like hearing Freddie’s breaths between.
There is no male singer in rock music who sang like Freddie Mercury. Totally unique, totally creative, incredible. Not just a standard singer. I loved his voice and the bands sound the first second I heard it. I couldn't believe that somebody was singing like this in rock songs. Team up that incredible voice with Brian Mays totally unique guitar tone, and it was magic.
Love the soar and swoop and passion in his voice! No, corporate music doesn’t care for passion. Songs are a lucrative product and they don’t like surprises and emotional effort on the production line. So of course, they’ll use anything they think they need to turn out a consistent cash flow. The Brill Building days were like that too - songwriters cranking out formula tunes that were handed out to session musicians and packaged as one made-up ‘group’ or another. There’s always been a lot of dreck out there; we remember the best and forget the rest.
I would love/hate to hear this done with Jonny Cash. His vocals so often sounded out of tune, especially in later works, but he's pretty much universally loved across generations because of the human quality his music possessed.
Agreed. I'll just add that as a good hippie, I often found Johnny Cash too square for my political sensibilities- but I still listened, because he was such a damned good musician.
All I know is that years ago when I saw Freddie for the first time in a music video, wearing his half black and half white leotard, I was totally mesmerized by his beautiful voice! His performance had a unique affect on me that no other singer has ever had on me. What a voice! So sad he had to be gone so soon.
Totally agree with what you were saying at the end. People DO like honesty in music whether they admit it or not. That is exactly why people get so offended when you say their favorite artist uses auto tune. The fans want to believe that their artist has THAT good of a voice. But once they come to terms with it they feel a bit betrayed by the artist I’d say.
Wow, Fil, this video gave me a wicked headache, but it was worth it. Finally, I can SEE what my ears have been telling me for years. I was born in the late 50’s, so I quite literally grew up in a glorious musical time during which so many incredible artists helped us live through the good times and the bad times, and allowed us to express our emotions through their forms of genius. Part of why I have been a Queen fan since they started in 1970 is cuz their music ran the entire gamut of human emotion, and in extremely enjoyable ways musically. Would I buy an album that has been autotuned? Probably, if something about it touched me somewhere deep inside. But while I used to go broke buying music, in the last couple of decades, I have hardly purchased a thing. Now I know why. Thank you for this but please never, ever do that to Freddie again! 😉
I could barely tell, with the first one, but I figured it out since it just didn't have that "BAM!" in the heart with emotion. The voice just felt slightly caged to me.
To brag a little, I could easily tell which one is auto-tuned, but that is probably because this is my single favourite song in the whole world! I must have listened to this particular recording many many times. I love your videos about Queen! It is apparent that you love the band very very much, which makes it a joy to watch these :)
3:41 I know nothing about music, don't sing, have never played an instrument. _When I hear notes held precisely*, I assume it is autotune._ Freddy's singing feels to me like it _wiggles_ around a note, and it is that wiggle that has the emotion. By wiggles I mean the frequency variations smaller than what I think you maybe call vibrato. As you say, Fil, humans are not precise. And to me all those imprecisions are where the emotions and feelings (and music) are. Even that little bit of auto-tune in Version 1 removes emotion.
I’m SO HAPPY that you’re making these videos. Young people today seem to be so used to these artificial sounds that they don’t hear the artificial nature of AutoTune like those of us who matured without it.
Im a young person and i'll never be used to it. "don't hear the artificial nature of autotune" I hear it and i hate it. I can always detect when a track is autotuned.
I've always considered myself extremely music deaf. When I was in school and they were auditioning for the chorus in my class, I was the only one they skipped, I was that bad. When I heard the subtle auto tune I immediately thought it sounded wrong/badly. When I heard the 2nd not tuned version it sounded so much better. I am shocked that I could hear the difference since I consider myself music deaf for the most part.
I miss the days when autotune didn't exist. The recordings were using the singer's voice, imperfections and all. These days, with technology, even someone like me who can't sing, they can make it so it sounds like I can sing. My guess was the first version of the Queen song was auto tuned. I'm a fan of Queen myself, but I can't imagine auto tuning Freddie Mercury's voice. My favorite male vocalists are a tie between Eric Burdon, and Ray Charles. I just can't fathom you auto tuning their voices. Cheers, Fil! ✌️
I think that is why Brian May and Roger Taylor choose Adam Lambert over 1 of the imitators. They wanted a great singer who could sing their songs, not a clone of their friend, because a clone isn't real. There isn't that warmth and quirks that make us all different. I always wanted a clone of myself that liked paperwork!
@@barbaraburton8914 My dad is 91. He is a great singer. I lack the ability to sing. My paternal cousin is a music instructor (for singing), and is also a professional musician. She told me once that she can't teach someone to sing, unless they have a starting point. I recall telling her about Bob Dylan. She said that was an exception. I have the maternal genes in the singing department, but still have the musical genes, from the paternal side. Another paternal cousin is a guitarist. I like drumming and percussion. On the singing department, one of my other paternal cousins was in a choir with his dad. With certain bands, they have singers that can't be replaced. It's impossible to do.
Before auto tune is when they stopped recoding "straight takes". They'd edit the more "perfect sections" together. People like the everly brothers and Righteous Brothers basically didn't have that advantage, nor did they need it. But then, editing wasn't enough and we got the disaster of auto tune. But it got worse. Then they started being able to use it live, which has totally ruined a lot of live performances I've seen in the last couple years. I don't want to hear "album perfect" in a live show. I want to hear the human element. That's the idea of a concert, imo. Recently realized my favorite band of abt 25 years (Green Day) has slowly added auto tuning over the last couple albums. So disappointing. His imperfect(usually a little flat)was what hooked me in the first place.
I don't blame Cher, she was just making a joke. It's a case of making a joke and then being horrified when everyone takes the joke seriously. It's probably happened to all of us at some point.
That last clip that was 100% auto-tuned felt like someone was stabbing me in the ears with an ice pick! I know it was sacrilege but thank you for doing this; it really gives me an understanding of what auto-tune does. PS: relating to your last comment, as a dancer when I watch other dancers, I appreciate someone more who may have less technique in a particular style but completely dances their heart and soul out... Because they make me feel it!
Something was off in that first clip of music, but I couldn't have described it. I just knew. I think that auto-tuning is a sneaky way of conning the public into believing that every recorded singer is naturally pitch-perfect, but the audience will greatly miss out on the correct 'feeling' or emotions conveyed in REAL singing. Also the shock they'll feel when or if they ever hear that singer live without auto-tune! 😧 Freddie really was one of the greatest singers and performers.
Fil, you did such a great lesson about auto-tuning recently that now we know what to listen for. Even though you used a light hand with the first one, only the second one could grab my heart. I think that we have this inner need for authenticity. That's why I still love to listen to vinyl albums. I loved the album Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John. You could hear him take deep breaths and tap his foot but, there was so much emotion in it. When we went to CDs, music was never the same. Interesting how if you shellac a painting then, it loses all its shine. You are an excellent teacher. Sincerely, Carly 💙
I also love Tumbleweed Connection. The Vocals are incredible and the Lyrics, Music and Musicianship are fantastic. I have recommended that Album more than any other. I am so happy to hear you mention it and another person praise it. I was singing "My Father's Gun" on the way to work this morning, even though there was no Music Playing in my car.
@@williampagdon4822 The arrangements are phenomenal on that album and the different range of songs styles makes it interesting. Most of all Elton was showing such passion in his singing. Burn down the mission. I think I listened to that vinyl album hundreds of times. I introduced it to my teenage son and he loved it. I believe I have that album upstairs. Anyway, they don't make music like that anymore. Son of your father sounds country. Sincerely, Carly
@@simplyme7821 The whole Album Side is great. Not a bum in the bunch which is rare even for great artists. There are at last 3 great songs on the B-Side too.
You did this for educational purposes, which I appreciate very much. I guessed wrong on the subtle choice, even after listening twice, so you did a good job of slightly cleaning up the vocals. Very eye opening! The history of autotuning is fascinating. If its used to make every singer sound better and more pitch perfect, its almost always to make them more money. There are however bands, such as Black Eyed Peas, who used autotune as an art form for one of their entire albums, and they were striving to exaggerate their voices for the effect. I think it certainly has its place, but is most likely overused in today's music. Fantastic video, and congrats on the 202k subscribers. You earned them!
10to1, if I might butt in here... To paraphrase Shrek, music has layers. One layer is _listening_ to the technical aspects. Is that what you were doing? Trying to _hear_ a difference? You'd need a fine-tuned ear for that. Another, often more important, layer of music involves _feeling_ . Conveying and eliciting emotional responses is what music is all about. Maybe if you flop down on the sofa, blur your mind out so that the analytical part is in the shadows, and the sensing part is center stage, you'll _feel_ the difference between Freddie and autotuned Freddie. Autotune makes a song technically better, but it can remove the _feeling_ , the _emotion_ coming through a singer's voice. Removing the emotion makes a song seem a bit flatter, grayer, plain oatmeal-ish. The difference is similar to interacting with a human face to face _versus_ using technology to interact with human-imitating AI: the real human comes with real human emotions. When it's real, we _feel_ it. When someone smiles, we smile, and feel a bright spot of happiness. AI, however, is like a psychopath trying to imitate human emotions: in a psychopath, we see all the right facial expressions, sometimes even tears, but since they are faking emotions, we're left feeling cold, perhaps even creeped out. Flop and blur! See if you can't _feel_ the difference between Freddie and autotuned Freddie.
Auto tune....for science! I'm a huge nerd and I love learning and studying the ins and outs of music, vocals, recording, etc. I am SO grateful for your channel. Thank you, Fil!
Great analysis. For me as a none musician the big difference is with the sound of the vibrato, Freddie had a very unique vibrato. The first version also felt slightly sanitized. I have learned to detect autotune, but it is difficult to describe in words what it sounds like, you did a very good job of explaining it. Something like autotune would have been bad for Freddie, he sang with loads of expression and often changed around the colours in his voice, Somebody To Love is a good example of that, if you sanitize that sound you lose some emotion. Music and art is all about emotion, it is suppose to capture you emotionally. I have somewhat of a similar issue with many singers all learning the same vocal techniques these days, it makes many singers sound very similar. It is good technique, and I don't want people to destroy their voices. But some of those imperfection that people use to create their own styles and sounds are often what stands out the most. When everyone sings with exactly the same technique, it does not lead to much variation.
I didn't expect this, but it was very easy for me to recognise the first of the two versions as "different". Freddie's voice always makes me smile and it only really worked with the second version. I feel the same way about the videos in which song parts by Marc Martel and Freddie are compared: Marc is good, but Freddie conjures this warm feeling inside me and a smile on my face.
At first I couldn't tell the two versions apart because I was focusing on the wrong things - looking for the too perfect fast snapped pitches and robotic tones I could hear in the Bublé voice (industry standard autotune) from an earlier video. Then, after reading the above and other comments, I just closed my eyes, listened, and... felt. And suddenly the the second (original) version was much more exciting and warmer. As somebody commented, the slight flats created tension, the rises towards near true pitch carried emotion, the slightly random vibrato was a personal signature!
@@metalheart16 I felt the same way: when the first version played, I thought it sounded like Freddie. But when the second version started and this smile spread across my face, it was clear that THIS is the right version. I don't have such a good musical ear that I could describe the difference, but I could feel it.
This example of one singer with and without auto tune is perfect. "Wave forms don't lie" could be an analysis of the correlation between physics, math and music. I can already feel my head exploding ;-)
I think this kind of hashes what's already been said, but I would just throw in that if a recording needs to be auto tuned, in order for it to be pleasing to the ear, perhaps a better recording would be in order (or a better voice.) If the musician themselves are looking for perfection, fair enough, but I agree with many that the imperfections are not always bad. A great example of that kind of artist is Janis Joplin. Now, don't get me wrong, that woman could flat out sing, but there was a lot of modulation and rising up into pitch in her performances. From a purely technical standpoint, you might even suggest the woman couldn't sing. However, it sounds amazing! Auto tune would destroy it.
I remember 8 tracks and vinyl.. those hisses, clicks and pops were part of the experience. At 50 my ears can no longer appreciate the perfect digital representations of music I hear on the radio.
I am 57 , to me nothing sounds as good as every Genre in 50s 60s 70 s up till early 80s My connection to it is , bass that I have been playing since 15 , way before Autotune, clic tracs , Really like your comment
@@darrylmoore127 yeah, middle 80s is where I start to loose the "groove", just going into high school and starting to listen to my own generation's music which was drastically different from my parents' with the glam rock and power ballads.. but there's some early 90s stuff that still gets me out of my seat on karaoke night lol I listen to Dr Hook, 3 Dog Night, Abba, Queen, the Eagles, Journey, Boston and such when I need comfort, Green Day and Nirvana when I want to fight. Current stuff is good too, and I like a *wide* range of country from yodeling to LilNasX but aside from Halestorm and the Hu nothing really stands out.. I know, that's a big range of genres but it all makes me feel.
I have great memories of my Queen "The Game" vinyl. On "Save Me" right at the beginning. "It started off so well" then the next eight beats had a click on top of the vocal ending right after the word "pair". I can hear it like it was yesterday.
@@darrylmoore127 I'm 51. Queen was my first love but there's still good stuff being made now...where the sun rises first (great bass player)... ruclips.net/video/nAdWnIRjGak/видео.html
Thanks for that example. This shows why some tracks sound so different in person versus recording. Love Freddie ❣️ l didn't cheat but put track one as auto tuned. Nothing like the real thing with Freddie.🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺❣️❣️❤️❤️
Yeah, nothing beats Freddie's natural voice. What a talent! Off the auto tune subject, I would love to see you do an analysis of Dave Meniketti from Y&T. He's lead vocalist and lead guitarist. And great at both!
The bottom line is that truly talented singers don't need autotune. The world would be a better place without it...and we would be spared from all the no talent posers.
Is so hard to see how autotune is rooted in the society , and in mainstream specially, that even good singers, that do not need it are being autotuned, if I myself were a singer I would never allow that, it's not just a shame is disrespectful with the music and the listeners. But the mass don't give a fuck to it, they are like 'just keep feeding me shitty music'
I'm so fortunate that I was born early enough to experience the best artists in the history of music, before their careers were destroyed by the labels. Replaced by non-artist performers (who need auto-tune and tracks during live performances), the fate of the industry was sealed. Cheers!
On the more hardcore, but not crazy auto tune, Freddy's voice was so smooth, I only hear it on that last note. I heard the little snap before he held the last note. But to me, it sounded rather natural with how close and smooth it was. Man I'm tired I edited this 10 times. Good stuff man. Good night.
There’s a reason for the phrase for ‘breathing life into something’ … thank you, Fil; I’m a year late to the party but still catching up with your immense back catalogue !
Legit, these videos are helping me feel so much better about my singing. I don't think I'm a terrible singer, but despite being in choirs almost all throughout primary & high school, I've never gotten much in the way of solos, or many opportunities to represent my school in various musical events, or won things like talent quests. I've recently started thinking "what if my voice is actually terrible & people are just humoring me to be polite" because my voice never sounds like how other peoples' voices sound in recorded songs. But now seeing how autotune is used & what it looks like compared to no autotune, I've begun to realise "huh, that's why my voice doesn't sound like theirs" and started getting my confidence back because of course my natural voice doesn't sound like an autotuned song
I swear I felt the same. I thought the first one sounded terrible compared to his normal voice. I'm not a big fan (fully appreciate him though), I was a musician since the late 80s as a metal head but injury in 2006 stopped that (still severe chronic pain and lost half the use of my right arm and shoulder).
The "Cher"d up version was PAINFUL to listen to. I agree that when you are looking to buy vocal art, you want the natural sound (with some help in post, as necessary), rather than paying the premium to get the art of the sound engineer. His/her name is not on the front of the album, and it's not vocal talent, it's engineering. You did an awesome breakdown!
Thank you! Well done! This explains really well what you talked about in your previous AutoTune video. It now makes it perfectly clear (to me at least) how AT takes soo much away from, and distorts the original voice! I'm sure Freddy would agree with this assessment and your professional analysis. Your depth of musical knowledge is very much appreciated! Well done! Btw: might as well call AutoTune "the white washing of music", since the cleaned up notes are just hung onto the line to dry.
These videos are great. I've been a producer for 25 years albeit very different music to you and I can't play an instrument to save my life, but I get a great deal from your videos. Good work.
I could tell the difference on the very first samples (and the final example was just amazing). Freddie's raw vocal was so much more real and emotional. But thank you so much for this video, for showing and explaining what auto tune sounds like, this was so illuminating.
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I definitely wouldn’t buy the music if they put auto tuned stickers on. I love the real deal and would be in constant search of those artists. Listening to Freddie’s artistry here makes me miss him so much.
The sound of Vibrato and "Straight notes" give it away every time. Not so much the even quality of the vibrato, but the levelling of the volume of the peaks and valleys. A human voice can't do that.
Hi Fil....Freddie Mercury can flat out sing without any help.......I love the singers who could sing without autotune! I think you proved Freddie was just fine on his own! ✌️
In the beginning the one with auto tune was instantly noticeable for some reason. I just listened to Freddie so much over the last few years that I instantly felt something not quite right. His imperfections made his voice all the more full and warm
Thank God there wasn't auto tune back then, but Freddie wouldn't have allowed it anyway 🙂 Love Freddie's voice, so powerfully beautiful ❤️I totally agree with you we want real not fake. thank you
I actually thought right away, before hearing the second, #1 was autotune because I did not feel as much from the song. Music is my "therapy dog". With that being said, love your teachings my friend.
I am not very acquainted with pitch correcting but I am truly amazed how much of the soul is lost in the process; although you did a great job on it, the original stands out like the northern star 🌟
Great job Fil. By the way, I pick the Autotuned version(version 1) right away and I have old ears with hearing aids! Maybe it's that I'm familiar with Freddie's voice or that I'm sensitive to the unnatural sound of Autotune like you stated. Maybe both. Again great job!
Your ears are the best analytical tool available! No machine can discern what you can actually hear. Not yet, anyway... Fantastic job, and a fantastic choice! Freddie was always so spot in with his vocals. Uncanny! Try Brad Delp with Boston. I would love to see and hear what you find! He sang his own harmonies and backing vocals. It would be interesting to see and hear what you would find about his accuracy and timing. Thank you SO much! I am with you on the autotune stickers and visual warnings. RIP Freddie! I hope that you are teaching the angels how to do it right! Thanks Fil! Rock on!
After Queen heard Angelina Jordan‘s rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody they gave her their complete approval and said on their Instagram wow. I cannot think of a better recommendations in Queen to give Angelinas a thumbs up on her magnificent performance and delivery of this iconic song. Angelina was 13 at the time and she is now 15 and has written some of her own songs which are beautiful
I thought that the second piece was auto tuned because the sound was more consistent, more full. In fact I could hear the variations/modulations in the first piece and thought it was a tremolo or lack of accuracy from Freddy. Then it became clear to me when you explained your calibration of the device. Thank you for this demonstration.
Guess it comes down to what’s better: performing or singing. The performer would want perfection. The singer would want honest entertainment. Thank goodness for singers!! Thanks Fil!
My 91 year old dad can sing. I can't. He sounds good. I think I heard that he used to sing at weddings, many years ago, but I'm not sure. One of my maternal cousins is a music instructor, (singing), and is also a professional musician. It's the paternal side. She told me once that you have to have a starting point for her to teach you how to sing.
Artists like Freddie Mercury and Bob Dylan have prided themselves on never performing a song the same way twice. Viewing footage of Queen's live performances will bear that out. Freddie used a lot more falsetto in the studio than he did on stage.
After just recently discovering your channel, I was proud to know I was correct in which one was first auto- tuned. You are making me appreciate the miracle of great musical artistry.
When an old classic like "More than a feeling" or " "Good bye yellow brick road" Are advertised as "Remastered" is this basically what they do? Great job breaking this down. Thanks...keep 'em coming!
I am no expert on the process of remastering, but I don't think it necessarily means autotuned vocals. More like cleaning it up from recording imperfections associated with the recording methods of the past.
Phil , I knew which one had the Autotune, Love how you did this , agree with how if you had to Autotune a Great Voice how you would do it ! I Love the sound of Vinyl albums nothing is as Great as the Sound of Analog Recording , natural wave length and fall , GREAT JOB ON DOING THIS
His voice is phenomenal. And it's funny that when you hear his isolated vocal, it's FULL of him being sharp, flat and other mistakes. And it doesn't matter one bit! His life force is in his voice and you can't help but be captivated by that.
I admit I got it wrong. But after watching the whole video I better understood what was happening. I went back and listened again, and I understood the difference. Another great vid, Fil! You always do interesting stuff!
I love how even when 100% autotuned, Freddie still sounds emotional. Yes its atrocious, but you can hear the emotion still, unlike other singers today...
Excellent video, Fil. Thank you for auto-tuning Freddie Mercury for the sake of education and better understanding of this controversial tool. 🖤🤘🏽 Sending a✨ kiss to heaven... ❤️ Love you, Freddie ✨✨
Wow the voice sounds so much better, even the music. I can tell the difference. Nothing to huge but indeed way better. Grate job !🙌 Oh bye the way check your Twitter please. 😂
thank you for this, i have several musician friends and i really love music, but when they say "thats auto tuned" i usually cant hear it. its really helpful to hear these side by side, and on this one i immediately recognized the first one as auto tune before i heard the 2nd, because id been listning to your other videos and training my ear for what to hear.
Just goes to show how awful auto tune makes a beautiful voice sound. Why anyone would wreck music that way is beyond me. 😢 Great job Fil! Auto tune is definitely dishonest in my opinion.
Very interesting, I couldn't really tell the difference in the less dramatic examples, but I did feel something was missing. It just felt like his performance wasn't as good, sort of the opposite to what the tool is trying to achieve
I'd prefer the AutoTune sticker be present. I want to hear what the artist really sounds like. I want to know that Joe Cocker sounds like Joe Cocker, Sam Cooke is Sam Cooke, Bob Dykan is himself, and for the French Garou is Garou even if a bit hoarce.
To piggyback off of this thought, Carlos - Imagine an artist/producer demanding a label declaring, "No Autotune Used in This Recording" as a selling point. I mean, I remember the "No Synthesizers!" declaration on the Queen album "A Night at the Opera," and the storm that declaration created. It would be a tall order, and one certain to bring out the folks who say, "Oh yeah? Let's just run it through an analyzer and see..." It would be fun to watch, for sure.
It would be interesting to hear how autotune would affect electronically generated spoken voice - say Amazon Alexa's or even Stephen Hawking. This could possibly expand what you are illustrating in these videos. Thanks for doing this, and hopefully it will show some of why this process isn't needed for talented vocalist. The ultra-processed Mercury vocal is about what you hear on current pop radio. It has become such a crutch for many acts. I do think that a lot of good singers are being shortchanged if their vocals are augmented this way. Did you imply in the Mercury/Buble video that Buble might not even know that they have autotuned his vocal? If it's not the artist's intention, that would really be a shame. If the artist isn't at least halfway to the appropriate note, can autotune be used to just change the note to a selected one? If so, do we really even need new singers for this kind of music? Why not just autotune a computer generated voice - ha! Hopefully the raw audio is being saved so that at some point in the future, we will have a chance to hear the unedited vocals. Do you also feel that artists who have taken numerous attempts to sing or play (and different portions of the track spliced together) are also giving a false impression of what they are actually able to do? What about all the other studio augmentations that have been applied to music for decades? To be fair, there are probably only a handful of songs that have been recorded live in one take and released to great success. I'm a big fan of Stevie Nicks, and I would like to see a comparison of her vocals from 3 stages of her career have changed. I would suggest Frozen Love from 1973 Buckingham Nicks, Edge of Seventeen from 1981 Bella Donna, and Mabel Normand from 2017 24 Karat Gold. Buckingham Nicks was probably close to live, Bella Donna was probably done with numerous takes, and 24 Karat Gold comes from an era where pop music tends to be augmented (like it or not.) It would also be interesting to see your analysis on multi-voice harmonies (CSN, Everly Brothers, others) and how autotune might wreck those dynamics.
Fascinating and so helpful to hear, see and then cap off the learning with your knowledgeable and caring comments. I love hearing your passion for music and musicians. Thanks for taking this auto tune issue to several layers and showing options and subtleties. Rock on, indeed!
A forensic analysis. Auto tuning Freddie is like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.
😆
Which both Marcel Duchamp and Salvador Dali did. I think that honestly is related to why I don't mind the extreme autotune variation: once you're being obvious and deliberate with your transformative art, you've made a new artwork, rather than just f'ed up an old one.
Freddies moustache?
@@m.janski I might be willing to allow that, in that case!
haha haha😂😂😂
I noticed the difference straight away. The second version “breathed” and just felt like Freddie. The first was cold and weird, a bit off.
Like how weird David Bowie sounded auto tuned.
Me too.
MTE; sounded worse autotuned.
Only after hearing the 2nd Freddie sample. Then the 1st one just didn't sound like Freddie.
I had a big smile on my face when listening to the second one. I didn't with the first. That's just crazy to me!
I’m not an expert, but I was born into a musical family in the 40s, where music was a natural part of our daily lives. I’ve always equated singers voices as being cold or warm. I now realize what has bothered me so much about so many current singers. Their voices leave me feeling cold. I now realize it’s because of auto tune! We might as well be listening to robots! Freddie’s natural voice sounds so much better than the auto tuned version because, for me, it’s warm and full of life.
Clinical is the word that springs to min for me. Doesnt matter if it's singing or instruments it's oulr human limitations and "mistakes" that define us.
I've been saying this for years..........auto tune is destroying the music industry!
You're a million percent correct. What Freddie is doing with those slightly flat notes is the same thing world-class violin soloists do playing a bit flat to create tension. The auto-tune takes all the performance out of the performance.
It is also because of the equal temperament. Most instruments and the human voices do not produce notes in equal temperament, so naturally they are flat or sharp a little bit to form the exact intervals. Only pianos, organs, and electronic instruments produce equal temperament. Professional singers and musicians do know the difference and use different temperaments according to the time of the composer. A great singer in Gregorian chants will produce a sound of overwhelming beauty, but the pitch will be nowhere near the pitch of the equal temperament, if it is done right. BTW that is also a reason why many singers have difficulties to find the right pitch in equal temperament, the intervals don´t really match, just sort of. It took the organ builders many years to find out how to tune an organ to the equal temperament. As soon as they were able to, they looked for a way to get rid of it, because it sounds totally boring and takes a lot of the expression of a tune and it makes a huge difference if a tune is played in F major or G major.
@@Backstreets247 the listeners will eventually have enough of it. Music always evolves and each fashion goes out of fashion one day and people just won´t listen to it any longer. When I hear autotune it means different things: either the musician has no talent and his pitch is all over the place and you need it to be able to bear it, or the musician has no confidence or knowledge in what he is doing and does not hear the difference, or it is used on purpose to create unnatural sounds. In film music it might help bring new "unnatural" or "strange" vibes, if that is what the film director wants to create. In the other cases it turns music (=emotion) into sound waves (=differences of air pressure that contain the same information as traffic noise).
How about record companies putting on a sticker saying "NOT autotuned". This video was a great teaching moment.
Ha! If Fil keeps putting out these auto tune videos, maybe they'll feel like they have to!
Queen did put "No Synthesizers!" labels on Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, and Night at the Opera. Which put them in an awkward position when THE GAME was a heavily-synthed album.
The problem, I think, is purpose, as well as deception: you can use sythesizers well, by making them do things that synthesizers can do, or you can use them poorly, by making them take the place of other things and then trying to make it sound like you were using, say, horns, or strings, or a live choir. Similarly, autotune, as an instrument, is fine; autotune as deception just sounds wrong.
Freddie’s imperfections were perfection & why he is one of the greatest voices (if not the greatest) of all time.
There is so much power and character in his voice. Utterly unique. I know he didn't like it when they tried to edit his voice on their filmed concerts, so I don't imagine he'd have been appreciative of auto-tune.
Yes. I can hear the auto tune. And if records were labeled auto tuned, I'd not buy them.
Agreed.
I was intrigued when he said that we shouldn't be able to hear the first one being auto-tuned. Knowing what Freddie sounds like, it wasn't hard to pick them apart.
@@linusandersson1535 he said that, cause so many songs uses autotune nowadays, and the majority of people is so used to it that they can't tell the difference. No mainstream listener notice that, and even musicians are amongst those average music costumers that listen to shit music saying they like the rhythm, or the 'voice' of the singer (and has soon I lesten to that voice I think, well that's not him/her voice..) Only a minority relate to, and connect to music nowadays, listening to the melodies, harmonies and poesy, going inside the music, and getting emotionally involved are rare today. This is one of the reasons I myself do not listen to most of rock music today, just doesn't give me any feel, are like artificial music, not just rock of course, but rock used to be an escape of that kind of shitty music. Now there are so few good artists that are honest to the music to the public and to themselves (and still match ones personal tastes, I mean, eg. Adele IS that kind of artist, but I'm not into her music, so I admire and respect her, but is not the kind of music I like to hear...) So sad. Well there will aways be some resorts here and there.
'If not the greatest', careful with such exaggerations, they are not a sign of respect.
I am a professional audio engineer, so, I may be more sensitive to this but I thought, immediately, that the first version was autotuned. It was the unnatural vibrato that struck my ear. That said, after listening to the second version I started to think the first version may have been the original, flawed tape recording. Happy to know I was right the first time. Thanks for doing this, great lesson!
Yes excactly it did come unnatural and Soul-les. I did got it right too first time , No doubt whatsoever.
I am not a musical expert by any means, people might even acuse me if being tone def but I thought #1 right away as well and found it unpleasant.
But don't you also hear after hearing the first one that the second one is sometimes just slightly flat? It still makes it better tho
I can imagine Freddie saying “I don’t need auto tune, darling - I’M the auto tune!”
Thanks Fil, these auto-tune vids have been fascinating and educational
Yes! Like when he said something like: do whatever you want with music, just don't make me boring. Being autotuned would've killed Freddie if they'd done this to his incredible voice....
Lmao! So true!
Once in a lifetime performer
@@vorthora They just would have auto-tuned him microtonal to keep his voice interesting. ;-)
"I don't need auto tune, darling. Auto tune needs me"
Freddie's untouched voice is pure gold. Every time I hear his bellowing vocals I get goose bumps! Every time..
Me too. After all these years.
Always … forever
It's incredible how the autotuning eliminates 99% of the soul in the voice! My conclusion after the very first example.
I totally agree. It made the first version cold and creepy.
Yeah, that was how I could tell which version was which. The first sounded a bit lifeless compared to the original. The small distortions and natural rasp, combined with Freddy’s naturally performed vibrato really bring a lot of life and vibrance to his performances.
@@5roundsrapid263 almost what I was going to type in... I instantly felt the first one lifeless, cold, flat... not Freddy... and when I heard nr. 2 I knew I was right in my initial feeling that the first one was the processed one.
My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine Alanis Morrisette's album Jagged Little Pill being recorded today?
Queen used to be proud of not using synthesizers, and let everybody know it in their album covers. I imagine that if Freddie were alive, they would do the same with auto tune nowadays.
On the first example, I didn't listen to the first and think "This sounds autotuned" rather I listened to the second and thought, "This is what I remember it sounding like." Between the two the first didn't sound like what I remembered the record to sound like. Happy to see I was right.
Me too👍
Same. Freddie don't need no stinkin' autotune! It sounded better without it.
Cool! That's a good ear!
When hearing the first track I was about 90% sure it was the autotuned version, and when hearing the second I was sure with only a tiny uncertainty if maybe I was overly self confident. After watching the entire video I went back and listened again and when hearing the first I was uncertain if I really had heard a difference, but when hearing the second I was sure I had heard it. Only way I can describe it is that the second version is warmer (I'm not a musician and I don't think I'm pitch perfect, so it must be something else I grab onto). Not sure if I would have heard it if it was a less beloved voice/song or if there was more music at the same time. Another example I find horrible (has nothing to do with autotoune) is a mashup video on youtube between Chris Stapleton and Angelina Jordan. I love her voice, but it is destroyed in the mashup process. Still lots of people seems to like it, and I can't understand why.
@@torejorgensen5344 To me, the first version sounded like there was a film over it. I don't know if that makes any sense but that's the best way I can describe it.
It's fascinating how many "imperfections" there are in one of the greatest pop-voices of all time (and how it's not a negative at all)!
Agreed!!
it just sounds better with the natural voice. Plus there's the human factor. Who wants "fabricated" songs.
@Smelly Wrestling Geek there are so many singers today that couldn't and wouldn't have record contracts back in the day,
Its so sad how horrible music is today, i know its such a cliche to complain about how "in my day" music was great, but it definitely was, tbe 90s was the last decade of awesome music
Exactly!
Many many people want fabricated songs its all we have now and its really really sad... nothing is genuine anymore
If you were a big Queen Fan and Freddie Mercury fan that you wouldn't even try to compare auto-tuned music to the real thing because there is no comparison
That’s the crazy thing - the auto tuned one sounded WORSE to me. It almost sounded… OUT of tune. 😄
The only autotuned one which wasn't actively painful was the extreme robot one. Because once you get to Cher-Believe levels of autotune, then you're using it as an instrument on its own, and it's fine. Everything short of that, including the one that was supposed to be "undetectable" was painful in an uncanny-valley way.
Thanks, that must be the name of the song I was trying to think of in my comment higher up. And I agree in Cher's case, but I seriously did not like Freddy's extreme version.
Agreed. The “subtle” one was actually the worst to me, because you can still hear that it’s not normal, and there’s an almost… is it an exaggeration to say *sinister* vibe to the fact it’s supposed to be undetectable? Because that’s how it feels. Heavily autotuned stuff isn’t my thing, but I can actually respect it.
Hard agree.
To be honest I didn't notice the subtle autotune. Maybe if Freddie was a terrible singer to begin with I might have. Although in that case, they just give up and pick a different singer like with Peter Andre and "Katie Price" a whole new world. I do find quantisation sounds weird on a voice, making it perfectly rhythmic.
Yes , Cher did use it more ,,Effect-Like,,
The image is a little drastic, sorry!, but what popped into my head looking at those autotuned lines-----flatlining. (When a medical monitor shows no heartbeat or indication of life, and the line goes straight, and that monotone sound happens.)
Autotune makes the music lifeless.
You demonstrated this beautifully, Fil!❤️
I wish I could give this comment a hundred thumbs up!!
@@TobiasTurkelton
Those lines on the graph---it's just the same thing. No squiggles=no life! Merci!
Exactly! Autotune sucks the life out of music! It becomes dead and boring.
Anytime someone in the future talk about autotune I will compare it with a heart machine. If the line is perfect straight, the voice is "dead"
“Loved” comment a million times!
I would be interested to know who is recording today that never uses auto tune. I heard a story that Barbara Streisand was angry when a producer removed her breaths between phrases and she felt that wasn’t how she sounds when she sings. The breaths are part of it. I like hearing Freddie’s breaths between.
I know a band: Hanson from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
These segments re auto tune and pitch correction have been really informative for me, thanks!
There is no male singer in rock music who sang like Freddie Mercury. Totally unique, totally creative, incredible. Not just a standard singer. I loved his voice and the bands sound the first second I heard it. I couldn't believe that somebody was singing like this in rock songs. Team up that incredible voice with Brian Mays totally unique guitar tone, and it was magic.
Love the soar and swoop and passion in his voice! No, corporate music doesn’t care for passion. Songs are a lucrative product and they don’t like surprises and emotional effort on the production line. So of course, they’ll use anything they think they need to turn out a consistent cash flow. The Brill Building days were like that too - songwriters cranking out formula tunes that were handed out to session musicians and packaged as one made-up ‘group’ or another. There’s always been a lot of dreck out there; we remember the best and forget the rest.
I would love/hate to hear this done with Jonny Cash. His vocals so often sounded out of tune, especially in later works, but he's pretty much universally loved across generations because of the human quality his music possessed.
Agreed. I'll just add that as a good hippie, I often found Johnny Cash too square for my political sensibilities- but I still listened, because he was such a damned good musician.
@@therealzilch I would say entertainer than musician.
I know nothing about music but Freddie’s classic vibrato is missing in the first piece. And I didn’t cheat. 😎
Agree! I didn't either.... how sad what autotune does.
Yup, I noticed the missing vibrato too.
I agree, I noticed that also.
I noticed as well, I felt that there was something wrong with the long notes.
I don’t know what it was, just wrong…
All I know is that years ago when I saw Freddie for the first time in a music video, wearing his half black and half white leotard, I was totally mesmerized by his beautiful voice! His performance had a unique affect on me that no other singer has ever had on me. What a voice! So sad he had to be gone so soon.
Totally agree with what you were saying at the end. People DO like honesty in music whether they admit it or not. That is exactly why people get so offended when you say their favorite artist uses auto tune. The fans want to believe that their artist has THAT good of a voice. But once they come to terms with it they feel a bit betrayed by the artist I’d say.
Yes so true.
Wow, Fil, this video gave me a wicked headache, but it was worth it. Finally, I can SEE what my ears have been telling me for years. I was born in the late 50’s, so I quite literally grew up in a glorious musical time during which so many incredible artists helped us live through the good times and the bad times, and allowed us to express our emotions through their forms of genius. Part of why I have been a Queen fan since they started in 1970 is cuz their music ran the entire gamut of human emotion, and in extremely enjoyable ways musically. Would I buy an album that has been autotuned? Probably, if something about it touched me somewhere deep inside. But while I used to go broke buying music, in the last couple of decades, I have hardly purchased a thing. Now I know why. Thank you for this but please never, ever do that to Freddie again! 😉
I could barely tell, with the first one, but I figured it out since it just didn't have that "BAM!" in the heart with emotion. The voice just felt slightly caged to me.
Good description.
To brag a little, I could easily tell which one is auto-tuned, but that is probably because this is my single favourite song in the whole world! I must have listened to this particular recording many many times.
I love your videos about Queen! It is apparent that you love the band very very much, which makes it a joy to watch these :)
3:41 I know nothing about music, don't sing, have never played an instrument. _When I hear notes held precisely*, I assume it is autotune._ Freddy's singing feels to me like it _wiggles_ around a note, and it is that wiggle that has the emotion. By wiggles I mean the frequency variations smaller than what I think you maybe call vibrato. As you say, Fil, humans are not precise. And to me all those imprecisions are where the emotions and feelings (and music) are. Even that little bit of auto-tune in Version 1 removes emotion.
I’m SO HAPPY that you’re making these videos. Young people today seem to be so used to these artificial sounds that they don’t hear the artificial nature of AutoTune like those of us who matured without it.
Im a young person and i'll never be used to it. "don't hear the artificial nature of autotune" I hear it and i hate it. I can always detect when a track is autotuned.
Don't ever auto tune Freddie Mercury again! :-) Thanks Fil, that was great information.
I've always considered myself extremely music deaf. When I was in school and they were auditioning for the chorus in my class, I was the only one they skipped, I was that bad. When I heard the subtle auto tune I immediately thought it sounded wrong/badly. When I heard the 2nd not tuned version it sounded so much better. I am shocked that I could hear the difference since I consider myself music deaf for the most part.
Same.
Me to, I wouldn't be able to say it outright but I feelt it.
I miss the days when autotune didn't exist. The recordings were using the singer's voice, imperfections and all. These days, with technology, even someone like me who can't sing, they can make it so it sounds like I can sing. My guess was the first version of the Queen song was auto tuned. I'm a fan of Queen myself, but I can't imagine auto tuning Freddie Mercury's voice. My favorite male vocalists are a tie between Eric Burdon, and Ray Charles. I just can't fathom you auto tuning their voices. Cheers, Fil! ✌️
I think that is why Brian May and Roger Taylor choose Adam Lambert over 1 of the imitators. They wanted a great singer who could sing their songs, not a clone of their friend, because a clone isn't real. There isn't that warmth and quirks that make us all different. I always wanted a clone of myself that liked paperwork!
@@barbaraburton8914 My dad is 91. He is a great singer. I lack the ability to sing. My paternal cousin is a music instructor (for singing), and is also a professional musician. She told me once that she can't teach someone to sing, unless they have a starting point. I recall telling her about Bob Dylan. She said that was an exception. I have the maternal genes in the singing department, but still have the musical genes, from the paternal side. Another paternal cousin is a guitarist. I like drumming and percussion. On the singing department, one of my other paternal cousins was in a choir with his dad. With certain bands, they have singers that can't be replaced. It's impossible to do.
Before auto tune is when they stopped recoding "straight takes". They'd edit the more "perfect sections" together.
People like the everly brothers and Righteous Brothers basically didn't have that advantage, nor did they need it.
But then, editing wasn't enough and we got the disaster of auto tune.
But it got worse. Then they started being able to use it live, which has totally ruined a lot of live performances I've seen in the last couple years.
I don't want to hear "album perfect" in a live show.
I want to hear the human element.
That's the idea of a concert, imo.
Recently realized my favorite band of abt 25 years (Green Day) has slowly added auto tuning over the last couple albums.
So disappointing.
His imperfect(usually a little flat)was what hooked me in the first place.
all the good non auto tuned music still exists its just not on the radio much anymore. get searching and ignore whats popular.
I don't blame Cher, she was just making a joke.
It's a case of making a joke and then being horrified when everyone takes the joke seriously. It's probably happened to all of us at some point.
That last clip that was 100% auto-tuned felt like someone was stabbing me in the ears with an ice pick! I know it was sacrilege but thank you for doing this; it really gives me an understanding of what auto-tune does.
PS: relating to your last comment, as a dancer when I watch other dancers, I appreciate someone more who may have less technique in a particular style but completely dances their heart and soul out... Because they make me feel it!
Great example
Great analysis, Fil! I'm so happy you wrapped up with "real" Freddie so that I could get the sound of the full auto tune out of my head.
Something was off in that first clip of music, but I couldn't have described it. I just knew. I think that auto-tuning is a sneaky way of conning the public into believing that every recorded singer is naturally pitch-perfect, but the audience will greatly miss out on the correct 'feeling' or emotions conveyed in REAL singing. Also the shock they'll feel when or if they ever hear that singer live without auto-tune! 😧
Freddie really was one of the greatest singers and performers.
Fil, you did such a great lesson about auto-tuning recently that now we know what to listen for. Even though you used a light hand with the first one, only the second one could grab my heart. I think that we have this inner need for authenticity. That's why I still love to listen to vinyl albums. I loved the album Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John. You could hear him take deep breaths and tap his foot but, there was so much emotion in it. When we went to CDs, music was never the same. Interesting how if you shellac a painting then, it loses all its shine. You are an excellent teacher. Sincerely, Carly 💙
Love your way with words and so true! BTW, I also think Tumbleweed is one of the best albums ever! Best regards, Cindy
I also love Tumbleweed Connection. The Vocals are incredible and the Lyrics, Music and Musicianship are fantastic. I have recommended that Album more than any other. I am so happy to hear you mention it and another person praise it. I was singing "My Father's Gun" on the way to work this morning, even though there was no Music Playing in my car.
@@williampagdon4822 The arrangements are phenomenal on that album and the different range of songs styles makes it interesting. Most of all Elton was showing such passion in his singing. Burn down the mission. I think I listened to that vinyl album hundreds of times. I introduced it to my teenage son and he loved it. I believe I have that album upstairs. Anyway, they don't make music like that anymore. Son of your father sounds country. Sincerely, Carly
@@williampagdon4822 I also love the song, Come down in time. Such a hauntingly beautiful song. Carly
@@simplyme7821 The whole Album Side is great. Not a bum in the bunch which is rare even for great artists. There are at last 3 great songs on the B-Side too.
The quiver in his voice just grabs you , and during the autotune the quiver almost disappears. You did a fabulous job on this .
You did this for educational purposes, which I appreciate very much. I guessed wrong on the subtle choice, even after listening twice, so you did a good job of slightly cleaning up the vocals. Very eye opening! The history of autotuning is fascinating. If its used to make every singer sound better and more pitch perfect, its almost always to make them more money. There are however bands, such as Black Eyed Peas, who used autotune as an art form for one of their entire albums, and they were striving to exaggerate their voices for the effect. I think it certainly has its place, but is most likely overused in today's music. Fantastic video, and congrats on the 202k subscribers. You earned them!
Thanks!
10to1, if I might butt in here... To paraphrase Shrek, music has layers. One layer is _listening_ to the technical aspects. Is that what you were doing? Trying to _hear_ a difference? You'd need a fine-tuned ear for that. Another, often more important, layer of music involves _feeling_ . Conveying and eliciting emotional responses is what music is all about. Maybe if you flop down on the sofa, blur your mind out so that the analytical part is in the shadows, and the sensing part is center stage, you'll _feel_ the difference between Freddie and autotuned Freddie.
Autotune makes a song technically better, but it can remove the _feeling_ , the _emotion_ coming through a singer's voice. Removing the emotion makes a song seem a bit flatter, grayer, plain oatmeal-ish. The difference is similar to interacting with a human face to face _versus_ using technology to interact with human-imitating AI: the real human comes with real human emotions. When it's real, we _feel_ it. When someone smiles, we smile, and feel a bright spot of happiness. AI, however, is like a psychopath trying to imitate human emotions: in a psychopath, we see all the right facial expressions, sometimes even tears, but since they are faking emotions, we're left feeling cold, perhaps even creeped out.
Flop and blur! See if you can't _feel_ the difference between Freddie and autotuned Freddie.
And yes, I could listen to Freddie sing a cappella all day….oh man, let’s stay human 💫💞
Auto tune....for science! I'm a huge nerd and I love learning and studying the ins and outs of music, vocals, recording, etc. I am SO grateful for your channel. Thank you, Fil!
So bottom line Freddie is better than auto tune!!👏👏
Great analysis. For me as a none musician the big difference is with the sound of the vibrato, Freddie had a very unique vibrato. The first version also felt slightly sanitized. I have learned to detect autotune, but it is difficult to describe in words what it sounds like, you did a very good job of explaining it. Something like autotune would have been bad for Freddie, he sang with loads of expression and often changed around the colours in his voice, Somebody To Love is a good example of that, if you sanitize that sound you lose some emotion. Music and art is all about emotion, it is suppose to capture you emotionally. I have somewhat of a similar issue with many singers all learning the same vocal techniques these days, it makes many singers sound very similar. It is good technique, and I don't want people to destroy their voices. But some of those imperfection that people use to create their own styles and sounds are often what stands out the most. When everyone sings with exactly the same technique, it does not lead to much variation.
It's funny how Freddie had trouble speaking in conversation, yet he could sing so astoundingly well
There are many singers who might not have the ideal speaking voice, but their singing voice is unexpectedly good.
Huh? He was witty and super smart; he had absolutely no trouble speaking in conversation!
@@fq-nula He did have.
I didn't expect this, but it was very easy for me to recognise the first of the two versions as "different". Freddie's voice always makes me smile and it only really worked with the second version. I feel the same way about the videos in which song parts by Marc Martel and Freddie are compared: Marc is good, but Freddie conjures this warm feeling inside me and a smile on my face.
Exactly the same for me!
At first I couldn't tell the two versions apart because I was focusing on the wrong things - looking for the too perfect fast snapped pitches and robotic tones I could hear in the Bublé voice (industry standard autotune) from an earlier video.
Then, after reading the above and other comments, I just closed my eyes, listened, and... felt. And suddenly the the second (original) version was much more exciting and warmer. As somebody commented, the slight flats created tension, the rises towards near true pitch carried emotion, the slightly random vibrato was a personal signature!
@@metalheart16 I felt the same way: when the first version played, I thought it sounded like Freddie. But when the second version started and this smile spread across my face, it was clear that THIS is the right version. I don't have such a good musical ear that I could describe the difference, but I could feel it.
Holy cow he's literally the best singer of all time
Yup.
So true 😊
No, that was a toss up between Frank Sinatra and Roy Orbison.
This example of one singer with and without auto tune is perfect.
"Wave forms don't lie" could be an analysis of the correlation between physics, math and music. I can already feel my head exploding ;-)
We should get Brian May on that. He could manage all three areas. :-)
I think this kind of hashes what's already been said, but I would just throw in that if a recording needs to be auto tuned, in order for it to be pleasing to the ear, perhaps a better recording would be in order (or a better voice.) If the musician themselves are looking for perfection, fair enough, but I agree with many that the imperfections are not always bad. A great example of that kind of artist is Janis Joplin. Now, don't get me wrong, that woman could flat out sing, but there was a lot of modulation and rising up into pitch in her performances. From a purely technical standpoint, you might even suggest the woman couldn't sing. However, it sounds amazing! Auto tune would destroy it.
I remember 8 tracks and vinyl.. those hisses, clicks and pops were part of the experience. At 50 my ears can no longer appreciate the perfect digital representations of music I hear on the radio.
I am 57 , to me nothing sounds as good as every Genre in 50s 60s 70 s up till early 80s
My connection to it is , bass that I have been playing since 15 , way before Autotune, clic tracs ,
Really like your comment
@@darrylmoore127 yeah, middle 80s is where I start to loose the "groove", just going into high school and starting to listen to my own generation's music which was drastically different from my parents' with the glam rock and power ballads.. but there's some early 90s stuff that still gets me out of my seat on karaoke night lol
I listen to Dr Hook, 3 Dog Night, Abba, Queen, the Eagles, Journey, Boston and such when I need comfort, Green Day and Nirvana when I want to fight.
Current stuff is good too, and I like a *wide* range of country from yodeling to LilNasX but aside from Halestorm and the Hu nothing really stands out.. I know, that's a big range of genres but it all makes me feel.
I have great memories of my Queen "The Game" vinyl. On "Save Me" right at the beginning. "It started off so well" then the next eight beats had a click on top of the vocal ending right after the word "pair". I can hear it like it was yesterday.
@@darrylmoore127 I'm 51. Queen was my first love but there's still good stuff being made now...where the sun rises first (great bass player)... ruclips.net/video/nAdWnIRjGak/видео.html
@@danithompson1693 I have the original pressing on vinyl. It’s amazing.
I've only just discovered your channel, but my favourite thing about it already is the way that your face lights up at Freddie's voice!
Thanks for that example. This shows why some tracks sound so different in person versus recording. Love Freddie ❣️ l didn't cheat but put track one as auto tuned. Nothing like the real thing with Freddie.🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺❣️❣️❤️❤️
Yeah, nothing beats Freddie's natural voice. What a talent!
Off the auto tune subject, I would love to see you do an analysis of Dave Meniketti from Y&T. He's lead vocalist and lead guitarist. And great at both!
The bottom line is that truly talented singers don't need autotune. The world would be a better place without it...and we would be spared from all the no talent posers.
I agree. Auto tune is a curse. I can hear it everywhere these days. I spotted the first example in this video as auto tuned straight up.
Is so hard to see how autotune is rooted in the society , and in mainstream specially, that even good singers, that do not need it are being autotuned, if I myself were a singer I would never allow that, it's not just a shame is disrespectful with the music and the listeners. But the mass don't give a fuck to it, they are like 'just keep feeding me shitty music'
That’s exactly why I don’t like artists today!! Auto-tuned no talents!
I'm so fortunate that I was born early enough to experience the best artists in the history of music, before their careers were destroyed by the labels. Replaced by non-artist performers (who need auto-tune and tracks during live performances), the fate of the industry was sealed. Cheers!
It might be interesting to hear both of the two examples of Freddie's isolated vocal at once, one each in ear.
Thanks for playing Freddie un-autotuned at the end. I needed my ears "flushed" after hearing him autotuned.
On the more hardcore, but not crazy auto tune, Freddy's voice was so smooth, I only hear it on that last note. I heard the little snap before he held the last note. But to me, it sounded rather natural with how close and smooth it was.
Man I'm tired I edited this 10 times. Good stuff man. Good night.
There’s a reason for the phrase for ‘breathing life into something’ … thank you, Fil; I’m a year late to the party but still catching up with your immense back catalogue !
👍!
Hi Fil, thank You for sharing your passion!
Legit, these videos are helping me feel so much better about my singing. I don't think I'm a terrible singer, but despite being in choirs almost all throughout primary & high school, I've never gotten much in the way of solos, or many opportunities to represent my school in various musical events, or won things like talent quests. I've recently started thinking "what if my voice is actually terrible & people are just humoring me to be polite" because my voice never sounds like how other peoples' voices sound in recorded songs. But now seeing how autotune is used & what it looks like compared to no autotune, I've begun to realise "huh, that's why my voice doesn't sound like theirs" and started getting my confidence back because of course my natural voice doesn't sound like an autotuned song
Wow, the autotune ruined his beautiful rendition as presented in the 2nd example. Was very obvious to me!
I swear I felt the same. I thought the first one sounded terrible compared to his normal voice. I'm not a big fan (fully appreciate him though), I was a musician since the late 80s as a metal head but injury in 2006 stopped that (still severe chronic pain and lost half the use of my right arm and shoulder).
The "Cher"d up version was PAINFUL to listen to. I agree that when you are looking to buy vocal art, you want the natural sound (with some help in post, as necessary), rather than paying the premium to get the art of the sound engineer. His/her name is not on the front of the album, and it's not vocal talent, it's engineering. You did an awesome breakdown!
Thank you! Well done!
This explains really well what you talked about in your previous AutoTune video. It now makes it perfectly clear (to me at least) how AT takes soo much away from, and distorts the original voice!
I'm sure Freddy would agree with this assessment and your professional analysis. Your depth of musical knowledge is very much appreciated! Well done!
Btw: might as well call AutoTune "the white washing of music", since the cleaned up notes are just hung onto the line to dry.
That is a great analogy „white washing….“, love this!👍🏻😀
These videos are great. I've been a producer for 25 years albeit very different music to you and I can't play an instrument to save my life, but I get a great deal from your videos. Good work.
Love the videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and hard work! God Bless! Greatest front man ever bar none!
I could tell the difference on the very first samples (and the final example was just amazing). Freddie's raw vocal was so much more real and emotional. But thank you so much for this video, for showing and explaining what auto tune sounds like, this was so illuminating.
Love these auto tune videos. That fully auto tuned version was horrific😧
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. I definitely wouldn’t buy the music if they put auto tuned stickers on. I love the real deal and would be in constant search of those artists. Listening to Freddie’s artistry here makes me miss him so much.
The sound of Vibrato and "Straight notes" give it away every time.
Not so much the even quality of the vibrato, but the levelling of the volume of the peaks and valleys.
A human voice can't do that.
No need to auto tune his voice, he was perfection in motion!!!!👑
Hi Fil....Freddie Mercury can flat out sing without any help.......I love the singers who could sing without autotune! I think you proved Freddie was just fine on his own! ✌️
In the beginning the one with auto tune was instantly noticeable for some reason. I just listened to Freddie so much over the last few years that I instantly felt something not quite right. His imperfections made his voice all the more full and warm
Thank God there wasn't auto tune back then, but Freddie wouldn't have allowed it anyway 🙂 Love Freddie's voice, so powerfully beautiful ❤️I totally agree with you we want real not fake. thank you
Agreed!!
That last bit actually hurt my ears lol. Atrocious is right! Can't believe how talented you are..
Thank you fil!🌷
I actually thought right away, before hearing the second, #1 was autotune because I did not feel as much from the song. Music is my "therapy dog". With that being said, love your teachings my friend.
Very cool video, I've been enjoying your breakdown of different application of auto-tune quite a lot. Thanks for the hard work, Fil!
"Wave forms dont lie "
There we have it ....
I am not very acquainted with pitch correcting but I am truly amazed how much of the soul is lost in the process; although you did a great job on it, the original stands out like the northern star 🌟
Great job Fil. By the way, I pick the Autotuned version(version 1) right away and I have old ears with hearing aids! Maybe it's that I'm familiar with Freddie's voice or that I'm sensitive to the unnatural sound of Autotune like you stated. Maybe both. Again great job!
Your ears are the best analytical tool available! No machine can discern what you can actually hear. Not yet, anyway... Fantastic job, and a fantastic choice! Freddie was always so spot in with his vocals. Uncanny! Try Brad Delp with Boston. I would love to see and hear what you find! He sang his own harmonies and backing vocals. It would be interesting to see and hear what you would find about his accuracy and timing. Thank you SO much! I am with you on the autotune stickers and visual warnings. RIP Freddie! I hope that you are teaching the angels how to do it right! Thanks Fil! Rock on!
After Queen heard Angelina Jordan‘s rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody they gave her their complete approval and said on their Instagram wow.
I cannot think of a better recommendations in Queen to give Angelinas a thumbs up on her magnificent performance and delivery of this iconic song. Angelina was 13 at the time and she is now 15 and has written some of her own songs which are beautiful
I thought that the second piece was auto tuned because the sound was more consistent, more full. In fact I could hear the variations/modulations in the first piece and thought it was a tremolo or lack of accuracy from Freddy. Then it became clear to me when you explained your calibration of the device. Thank you for this demonstration.
Guess it comes down to what’s better: performing or singing. The performer would want perfection. The singer would want honest entertainment. Thank goodness for singers!! Thanks Fil!
It's whether someone chooses to be an entertainer or an artist. Very few can pull off both.
My 91 year old dad can sing. I can't. He sounds good. I think I heard that he used to sing at weddings, many years ago, but I'm not sure. One of my maternal cousins is a music instructor, (singing), and is also a professional musician. It's the paternal side. She told me once that you have to have a starting point for her to teach you how to sing.
Artists like Freddie Mercury and Bob Dylan have prided themselves on never performing a song the same way twice. Viewing footage of Queen's live performances will bear that out. Freddie used a lot more falsetto in the studio than he did on stage.
After just recently discovering your channel, I was proud to know I was correct in which one was first auto- tuned. You are making me appreciate the miracle of great musical artistry.
I could tell the first sounded less live and reverby, flatter. And guess right. Freddies vocals has much more power as the second one demonstrates.
When an old classic like "More than a feeling" or "
"Good bye yellow brick road"
Are advertised as "Remastered" is this basically what they do?
Great job breaking this down. Thanks...keep 'em coming!
I am no expert on the process of remastering, but I don't think it necessarily means autotuned vocals. More like cleaning it up from recording imperfections associated with the recording methods of the past.
Phil , I knew which one had the Autotune,
Love how you did this , agree with how if you had to Autotune a Great Voice how you would do it !
I Love the sound of Vinyl albums nothing is as Great as the Sound of Analog Recording , natural wave length and fall ,
GREAT JOB ON DOING THIS
Wonderful breakdown and tremendously educational. Now I have to go wash my audio palate and go listen to some Queen!
If anything that shows how pure Freddie's voice was... How tiny the changes were to make it "right"
D B... Amen...
Very true!
His voice is phenomenal. And it's funny that when you hear his isolated vocal, it's FULL of him being sharp, flat and other mistakes. And it doesn't matter one bit! His life force is in his voice and you can't help but be captivated by that.
I admit I got it wrong. But after watching the whole video I better understood what was happening. I went back and listened again, and I understood the difference.
Another great vid, Fil! You always do interesting stuff!
I love how even when 100% autotuned, Freddie still sounds emotional. Yes its atrocious, but you can hear the emotion still, unlike other singers today...
Excellent video, Fil.
Thank you for auto-tuning Freddie Mercury for the sake of education and better understanding of this controversial tool.
🖤🤘🏽
Sending a✨ kiss to heaven... ❤️ Love you, Freddie ✨✨
Wow the voice sounds so much better, even the music. I can tell the difference. Nothing to huge but indeed way better. Grate job !🙌 Oh bye the way check your Twitter please. 😂
thank you for this, i have several musician friends and i really love music, but when they say "thats auto tuned" i usually cant hear it. its really helpful to hear these side by side, and on this one i immediately recognized the first one as auto tune before i heard the 2nd, because id been listning to your other videos and training my ear for what to hear.
Just goes to show how awful auto tune makes a beautiful voice sound. Why anyone would wreck music that way is beyond me. 😢 Great job Fil! Auto tune is definitely dishonest in my opinion.
Thanks for taking on my suggestion 😁👍
Very interesting, I couldn't really tell the difference in the less dramatic examples, but I did feel something was missing. It just felt like his performance wasn't as good, sort of the opposite to what the tool is trying to achieve
Awesome vid! Never knew and saw the comparison between Freddie and Blubé as well. Can't beat original Freddie! Beautiful voice!
I'd prefer the AutoTune sticker be present. I want to hear what the artist really sounds like. I want to know that Joe Cocker sounds like Joe Cocker, Sam Cooke is Sam Cooke, Bob Dykan is himself, and for the French Garou is Garou even if a bit hoarce.
To piggyback off of this thought, Carlos - Imagine an artist/producer demanding a label declaring, "No Autotune Used in This Recording" as a selling point. I mean, I remember the "No Synthesizers!" declaration on the Queen album "A Night at the Opera," and the storm that declaration created. It would be a tall order, and one certain to bring out the folks who say, "Oh yeah? Let's just run it through an analyzer and see..." It would be fun to watch, for sure.
You hit the nail on the head with the word emotion…No computer can apply emotion to a vocal and that’s what makes it art.
It would be interesting to hear how autotune would affect electronically generated spoken voice - say Amazon Alexa's or even Stephen Hawking. This could possibly expand what you are illustrating in these videos.
Thanks for doing this, and hopefully it will show some of why this process isn't needed for talented vocalist. The ultra-processed Mercury vocal is about what you hear on current pop radio. It has become such a crutch for many acts. I do think that a lot of good singers are being shortchanged if their vocals are augmented this way. Did you imply in the Mercury/Buble video that Buble might not even know that they have autotuned his vocal? If it's not the artist's intention, that would really be a shame.
If the artist isn't at least halfway to the appropriate note, can autotune be used to just change the note to a selected one? If so, do we really even need new singers for this kind of music? Why not just autotune a computer generated voice - ha! Hopefully the raw audio is being saved so that at some point in the future, we will have a chance to hear the unedited vocals.
Do you also feel that artists who have taken numerous attempts to sing or play (and different portions of the track spliced together) are also giving a false impression of what they are actually able to do? What about all the other studio augmentations that have been applied to music for decades? To be fair, there are probably only a handful of songs that have been recorded live in one take and released to great success.
I'm a big fan of Stevie Nicks, and I would like to see a comparison of her vocals from 3 stages of her career have changed. I would suggest Frozen Love from 1973 Buckingham Nicks, Edge of Seventeen from 1981 Bella Donna, and Mabel Normand from 2017 24 Karat Gold. Buckingham Nicks was probably close to live, Bella Donna was probably done with numerous takes, and 24 Karat Gold comes from an era where pop music tends to be augmented (like it or not.)
It would also be interesting to see your analysis on multi-voice harmonies (CSN, Everly Brothers, others) and how autotune might wreck those dynamics.
Fascinating and so helpful to hear, see and then cap off the learning with your knowledgeable and caring comments. I love hearing your passion for music and musicians. Thanks for taking this auto tune issue to several layers and showing options and subtleties. Rock on, indeed!