I have fallen in love with electronic music, so who am I to complain about vocal pitch adjustments.
The use of digital pitch correction software on vocal recordings
To my mind, this practice is fraught with dishonesty.
The most obvious issue is:
- with digital pitch correction software applied to it, a vocal recording presented to the listener is done so under the pretense that it presents the human voice singing, when in fact any number of moments therein are the result of a program shoehorning the human-produced tones into a “perfect” tone” (whether it may be a Bb, C, F#, Db, or whatever), thereby negating the human expression and negating the validity of the pretense.
Much like a photo portrait of a human body post-airbrushing ceases to be a “true” presentation of that body, the viewer is not being presented with a faithful representation of that human form.
The next issue is:
- rampant apologia within the industry.
I’ve even heard an industry insider say, “pitch manipulation software does nothing we couldn’t do in the ‘70s and ‘80s. It just lets us do it for a lot less money.”
That’s a cute thing to say, but incorrect.
The finished vocal recording that was changed by the implementation of pitch correction software is, by definition, different from the finished vocal recording featuring none.
I am welcoming the thoughts of Audiogon members regarding this practice.
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@javaruke I’m sorry, but would you please clarify what a “pension fund concert vocal” is? Your inquiry as to whether or not digital pitch correction may be used in live applications is not a “hijack” at all, but a great question. |
Very important observation for me...
The moving pulse coming from an interpretation is located in this fine line or border between perfection and imperfection... If you artificially created "perfection" you loose the expressive vulnerability and the power of this internal struggle in the artistic gesture which is a tool in the artist body...If you dont master singing for sure "imperfection" as a constant state cannot be a transient expressive tool anymore used by the artist... This pulsating borderline between perfection and imperfection is the key to the expression... This cannot be artificially created...
As said the great french poet René Char : "Imperfection is the peak "
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Pitch correction allows supremely non-talented flops to proliferate in the pop music field. Hacks like Post Malone and The Weeknd, who have no actual voices outside of what was concocted with a computer have no place in the annals of music. Add to that the building superfluousness of live musicians in a recording studio, one sees the future of music as a computer-created corporate entity. Very, very sad. |
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