Oh I'd also like to add that it can be a very useful tool when say trying to find a harmony that a singer is having a hard time memorizing. You can fake it, just so they can hear the notes and sing along with it, memorize it, then keep the "real" take. Once again this falls under the helping save money category.
Autotune in Metal?
- Thread starter DuchessOfDork
- Start date
Matt Crooks
www.fools-game.com
Reamping doesn't change the performance, it just allows the artist/producer to change the amp sound after the performance has be recorded.
As to the OP, I'd be shocked if there many bands that have played PPUSA that did not use auto tune on their vocalist. With recording budgets dropping so low, it's becoming very hard to have enough time to get good takes, much less great takes, in the few days each singer has to spend on an album.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
Very informative thread. I've enjoyed hearing from the musicians on the forum and their respective processes.
Azrael LenGraden
Lake Of Fire
This is the type of integrity I was speaking of in my post...I not bashing anyone or their techniques. You can tell from Albert's post he is proud of his accomplishment and that he should be... That is the approach I take in the studio with singers because from my experience, they are more satisfied in the long run knowing it was all them with no correction. My hats off to you Albert Al
HAHA yep, not everyone has $15K + to drop on an "industry standard" recording.
I for one will be looking into possibally building a computer to tackle the guitar work (reamping) and some orchestrations on the next album just to save some money. Those two processes there could soak up 5-6 days in the studio easily at roughly $1,200/day depending on what studio you're at. spend the $1,200-$2,000 on a computer to soley run protools and some apps and you have all the time in the world to nail your takes and experiment with cool shit, put it on a hard drive and go back to your studio and finish it up there. Thus, drums, vocals, midi re edits, mixing and mastering is all you have to basically pay for.
In a perfect world you would have all the time to do everything in the studio and not have to figure out how to budget cut. Hell, if someone gave me some rediculous budget that record, I promise you, would just be mind blowing. Not nessisarly the physical writing and structure of the material but all the crazy stuff you could do with say a real orchestra, and actually having the time to go back in and change things here and there..... basically like 6 months in the studio. Granted at one point all big bands were doing it the hard way before they got real budgets, today it just seems different because of the advances in technology.
Which brings me to another question. It seems to me there has become a standard of "tone" for a recording. If some awesome band has a terrible recording and sends it out their cd would probably get tossed into the pile with the rest of them. BUT if you have a "meh" band with a rediculous in your face recording.....OMG this is the next big thing.......
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
This seems to vary greatly by genre. For instance, people who are into tr00 Black Metal dismiss bands when their sound is too polished. I'm sure Jazz and Blues fans have their own production/tone idiosyncrasies. With Power and Prog, I don't want to hear a muddied mix. Obviously, if the songwriting is over the top brilliant, I'll cope. However, I just have very little tolerance for crap recordings.
you know its funny, I just saw some black metal DVD where it had guys from burzum and some other rediculous BM bands. They said when they went to the studio they wanted the most terrible recording process possible. They were wanting to "rebel" against this "so called good produciton" because rebelion is what black metal was about.
the temperature then dropped several degrees in my appartment.
dcowboys311
Member
Yes, on some of the Burzum records, Varg didn't use a guitar amplifier at all but instead plugged his guitar into a stereo system. Recorded the drums with the microphone from a telephone headset.
The rumors of some LLN bands sticking a microphone up a dead rat's ass and recording their album in a castle take the cake.
The rumors of some LLN bands sticking a microphone up a dead rat's ass and recording their album in a castle take the cake.
AngraRULES
Member
Isn't that how Brainstorm recorded the drums (especially the snare) in one of their albums?
Oh wait. It was a raccoon, not a rat.
TribunalRecords
Record Label(s)/Vocalist
you are correct and i know this, but i was referring to how it's used as something to save time than rather sit and mess with your head for hours to try and get the right tone that will transfer to "tape" the best (haha - analog reference there). jamie king used to sit in front of an amp for what seemed like a full day trying to get the tone the bands wanted. hahaha. so much has changed since those days.
It's said that Ulver recorded Nattens Madrigal (except for the acoustic section in track one) to a boom box in a forest. They allegedly spent a good chunk of the advance that Century Media gave them on designer suits, a vintage car, and blow. Century was PISSED, which was fine with the band because they also used the advance to start Jester Records.
Note the band picture in the William Blake liner notes: Car. Suits. No blow, but they might as well be holding a sign that says "Thanks, Century!"
THAT'S rebellion.
Mardoch
Defender of the Universe
Good stuff. Black metallers never cease to crack me up. What an eccentric group...amongst an already fairly eccentric group.
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
AngraRULES
Member
Hey, leave J-Dubya out of this.
Ahhh, so thaaat's why Andy was sticking some dollar bills inside J Dub's jacket backstage a few years back...
J-Dubya 777
It NEVER ends
Hey, leave J-Dubya out of this.
You bastiges makin' fun of me, dammit?
For the record, I haven't had anything recorded in my @ss, at least not that I know of......those roofies can be a bitch!
dcowboys311
Member
Ulver rumors are always great. They dispelled the Nattens Madrigal ones though, saying "there is no electricity in the forest." Short and sweet.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
There is no electricity... but there are batteries. And as all BM fans know, the Energizer Bunny is both tr00 and kvlt.
Yeah, it always smelled like bullshit to me, but so much of it retroactively makes sense that it had an air of truth about it. I've always kind of perceived Nattens Madrigal to be a parody of the black-metal aesthetic...like, it seemed that Ulver was done with black metal after Bergtatt (Kveldssanger is not a black metal album), but then Century came around and threw a stupid amount of money at them so it could have a black metal album by a band that was tangentially related to the whole Mayhem fiasco. So Ulver took the money and delivered one of the shittiest-sounding albums ever committed to tape, which may or may not have been exactly what Century wanted. It's an interesting story that I'd love to get to the bottom of someday.
Bryant
Mr. Sleepy
Very good point. In some ways, singing harmony is more difficult than singing lead. You don't have to have a "nice voice" to sing harmony as tone color is much less important than key, but to keep the harmony key correct, sometimes the notes sound very odd from what you think you should be singing and are almost hard to muster up, especially live. Musicians that are great harmony vocalists, like many of the modern country harmony singers (notorious for having nearly impossible harmony vocals) and guys like Ritchie Sambrora, and even Stephan and Gunter from Vanden Plas are not appreciated enough for that craft.
Bryant
Excellent point, Bryant. I'm always amazed by a great harmony vocalist, and the musicians you mentioned are perfect examples. If I meet a musician and I think his or her backing vocals are great, I make sure to tell them. They often look puzzled when I do this, as if no one has ever complimented them for it. I guess most listeners don't realize just how much of talent it is to harmonize vocally while playing an instrument.
Stay metal. Never rust.
Albert
Stay metal. Never rust.
Albert
