The First Gig: Anselmo Valencia Ampitheater Tucson, AZ 4/24/12 (SETLIST/REVIEWS)

[runnersdialzero!]

There is autotune on Brian's voice and seemingly Brian's voice alone. An iPhone recording can not be so poor as to somehow apply autotune or something that sounds exactly like it to one person's voice. I don't hear it on Mike's speaking parts, I hear it all over all of Brian's leads. It's apparent on "Sail On Sailor" and it's extremely apparent on "Heroes And Villains". There's nothing weird about the recording, it's not a reverb effect, people aren't getting hysterical and hearing something that's not there, there is live autotune on Brian's voice on this show. "If it looks like a duck..."

[Spil Phector]

I'm also hearing autotune on Brian's (and only Brian's) mic.  He's perfectly and metallically in tune, except when the machine bumps him an entire half-step low.

Here's another view, to complement that of "OMG, they are hiding Brian behind autotune because they're ashamed of him and he can't sing"...perhaps he tried singing through it, and he likes the confidence it gives him?  Maybe he's insisting on it? After all, all signs say he's holding the cards in these proceedings.  I think the autotune is his idea.

Of course, considering how he used it on all his albums except one, I wonder why he abandoned it altogether on GIOMH...

[Ron]

[Never said I was perfect.

As a matter of fact, I sort of depend on it.

I'm not trying to pick on you, it's just that you're always memorable for some reason, that must be a good thing.  These tedious discussions though of what people imagine they're hearing, and then the inevitable realization that they didn't hear what they thought they were hearing.... are pretty incredulous.  It's just negativity for the sake of negativity.  What's the point of imagining you hear something bad, only to eventually admit you didn't hear it?  Why don't you go the other way and imagine you heard something GOOD that you didn't hear?  Why's it always negative?  

Just focus on the things you enjoy from the music.  I'll stop lecturing you now, lol.  Have a good evening Wirestone.  

[Ron]

Wait: I thought this board was full of pro-tools experts who know what 'autotune' is and what setting to set it on, and they had all agreed that it was auto-tuned, in a live setting, on only 1 microphone.  

NOW YOU'RE TELLING ME MAYBE THEY DONT KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT?Huh??

I thought it was there until I listened to the recording. Listen to Mike's speaking parts, they sound the same as Brian's singing parts. It was recorded on an iPhone for Wilson's sake.

I imagine it's something like that, I just couldn't resist the opportunity to poke a little fun at all the autotune nerds. 

You know what I saw at the mall today?  Autotune.

You know what I saw when I made breakfast this morning?  Autotune.

You know what I saw when I took my clothes out of the dryer?  Autotune.

When I looked in the closet you know what I saw?   ....  No Autotune.... but when I turned around

HE WAS RIGHT BEHHHINNNNNDDD MEEEEE

[Heisenberg]

I'm also hearing autotune on Brian's (and only Brian's) mic.  He's perfectly and metallically in tune, except when the machine bumps him an entire half-step low.

Here's another view, to complement that of "OMG, they are hiding Brian behind autotune because they're ashamed of him and he can't sing"...perhaps he tried singing through it, and he likes the confidence it gives him?  Maybe he's insisting on it? After all, all signs say he's holding the cards in these proceedings.  I think the autotune is his idea.

Of course, considering how he used it on all his albums except one, I wonder why he abandoned it altogether on GIOMH...

He didn't...it just sounded worse because he couldn't give a ant's pecker about the recordings.

[jamsvet]

I too would love a PM

[Spil Phector]

I'm also hearing autotune on Brian's (and only Brian's) mic.  He's perfectly and metallically in tune, except when the machine bumps him an entire half-step low.

Here's another view, to complement that of "OMG, they are hiding Brian behind autotune because they're ashamed of him and he can't sing"...perhaps he tried singing through it, and he likes the confidence it gives him?  Maybe he's insisting on it? After all, all signs say he's holding the cards in these proceedings.  I think the autotune is his idea.

Of course, considering how he used it on all his albums except one, I wonder why he abandoned it altogether on GIOMH...

He didn't...it just sounded worse because he couldn't give a ant's pecker about the recordings.

I think he did abandon it, except perhaps on some backing vocals. "You Touched Me" sure as hockeysticks ain't touched by autotune.

When things calm down around here, Imma gonna start a thread about how GIOMH is the perfect BW album, the distillation of his Briany essence.

[Jaspy]

If there's auto-tune on Brian's mic, you can hear it during the bridge of "Surfer Girl" where he sings "I would take you". He usually plays with the I and goes a bit deeper for a moment, but the machine holds him on the same note this time and it sound weird.
Too bad, man.

[seltaeb1012002]

I'm also hearing autotune on Brian's (and only Brian's) mic.  He's perfectly and metallically in tune, except when the machine bumps him an entire half-step low.

Here's another view, to complement that of "OMG, they are hiding Brian behind autotune because they're ashamed of him and he can't sing"...perhaps he tried singing through it, and he likes the confidence it gives him?  Maybe he's insisting on it? After all, all signs say he's holding the cards in these proceedings.  I think the autotune is his idea.

Definitely possible that he insisted on using it as a security blanket. But I'm not sure. He's been performing without it for the past 12 years, and I'd think if he was hearing the craziness of the autotune in his monitor, that would be more discouraging than anything.  His pitch at live shows is generally pretty on point. He seems to appear visibly frustrated when he hits a bum note. But who knows, I just hope they address this. And if they don't, well, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to carry on.  

[Aegir]

I don't hear autotune at all.

and The Little Girl I Once Knew is great! Just hearing Mike say "split man" was enough to bring a smile to my face.

[Ron]

I'm also hearing autotune on Brian's (and only Brian's) mic.  He's perfectly and metallically in tune, except when the machine bumps him an entire half-step low.

Here's another view, to complement that of "OMG, they are hiding Brian behind autotune because they're ashamed of him and he can't sing"...perhaps he tried singing through it, and he likes the confidence it gives him?  Maybe he's insisting on it? After all, all signs say he's holding the cards in these proceedings.  I think the autotune is his idea.

Of course, considering how he used it on all his albums except one, I wonder why he abandoned it altogether on GIOMH...

He didn't...it just sounded worse because he couldn't give a ant's pecker about the recordings.

I think he did abandon it, except perhaps on some backing vocals. "You Touched Me" sure as hockeysticks ain't touched by autotune.

When things calm down around here, Imma gonna start a thread about how GIOMH is the perfect BW album, the distillation of his Briany essence.

You may be onto something, I'm just as happy to hear his 'quirk' than his masterpieces, so I enjoyed a lot of that album.  "You Touched Me" that you mentioned has that incredible outro, for instance.  Also I guess it's the last time we heard the 'wall of Brian'.  

[Aegir]

I'm almost crying listening to Forever. from just listening to the audio it's like Dennis is really there.

[Alan Smith]

Darn - all the good stuff happens while I'm at work or snoozin' - if someone could hook me up, I'd really appreciate it (not Shady tho', I can't comply with his demands  )

[the professor]

review of the 1st show:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/04/live-the-beach-boys-kick-off-50th-anniversary-tour-in-tucson.html

I did not see a thread for reviews of the shows (new shows), so I am offering this from my little home-town paper; please paste it to another segment if appropriate. It's a great review.

[stack-o-tracks]

I'm almost crying listening to Forever. from just listening to the audio it's like Dennis is really there.

I got mad goosebumps the first time I listened to it. Can't wait to see it in person....

[Aegir]

all of this is so great. I hope everyone of these shows is recorded. this is what it feels like to follow a really popular band doing current things. great.

[Justin]

review of the 1st show:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2012/04/live-the-beach-boys-kick-off-50th-anniversary-tour-in-tucson.html

I did not see a thread for reviews of the shows (new shows), so I am offering this from my little home-town paper; please paste it to another segment if appropriate. It's a great review.

Posted it on page 23 of this thread....sorta got lost in the shuffle with the autotune discussions  

Yeah I think we should keep all reviews (both fan and media) under one thread.

[RickD]

It may have been lost a few pages back, but I'm still not sure if my PMs are working. Would someone mind testing it , please.

[Wirestone]

It's just that you're always memorable for some reason, that must be a good thing.

To have you say that, Ron ...

Well, I'll take it as a compliment. 

[ReggieDunbarJr]

Finally my login works!
Lost my password for (ReggieDunbar)
Anyway!

Seemed like a great show! Few thoughts:
- Bruce taking turns with Carl on the ending of GoK made me cry, using Carls vocals from Knebworth= genius!
- Don't back down = proves what a great drummer Cowsill is
- Bruce and Al blends really great on the harmonies, Surfin Safari really rocks!
- Brians lead, sounds confident and rocking. Autotune can fix the pitch, but theres no button for confidence and rocking. 

//RD

[Custom Machine]

The performance sounds fine to me.  

Yeah, BW's "I would take you" on Surfer Girl sounds like it could be a little suspect, but, assuming the audio I'm listening to is the same stuff heard on the PMs, this is a very low bit rate (64 kbps) aac audience recording, which by definition is going to do some weird things to the sound in the way of introducing undesirable audio artifacts.

A 64 kbps recording uses a little less than 5% of the bits found on a uncompressed CD quality recording.  Yeah, aac perceptual coding is used, but at 64 kbps you are definitely going to get some unpleasant audio artifacts.  (On the other hand, when you download That's Why God Made the Radio on iTunes, it sounds great at 256 kbps, even though that's less than 20% of the bit rate of a CD quality uncompressed recording, due to the ability of the aac perceptual coder at that higher bit rate to very closely replicate for the listener the music as it would be heard on an uncompressed CD.)

[Custom Machine]

(Darn!  Meant to hit "modify" and selected "quote" instead, resulting in this unneeded post.  So as to not waste this space, has everyone heard about the traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter?  Well, ....  Oops, sorry, lost my head!)

[Custom Machine]

(And yet another inadvertent duplicate post!  Intending to modify the unneeded post above, I once again hit "quote" when I meant to hit "modify".  Should have more carefully proofread my original post so I wouldn't have needed to add to it in the first place!)

[adavidw]

It's very curious.

Autotune is one of those things it is very hard to unhear. So once it's apparent that Brian's vocals are being processed, you can hear the effect everywhere. It's hard to listen objectively, in other words.

But none of the live audience reports from last night mention the tuning. And I can't believe that the critics, etc., in the audience were that unsophisticated. So the room itself, possibly the PA system or some other sound source, may have made it less apparent if you were actually there.

Brian has toured successfully for years. Why spring this crazy new thing on him during the highest profile string of shows he's had for awhile? Brian's also an incredibly inconsistent vocalist, so why would anyone think that live tuning would even work? If the tuning made Brian sound like an angel, that would be one thing. But at least in what I've heard, it doesn't do much of anything except make him sound strange when he's trying to hit a high note.

None of the people arranging this tour are dumb either. Say what you want about Mike, Melinda, et. al, but they are smart cookies. And they know when Brian sounds good and when he sounds bad. So why do this?

Something here doesn't add up.

I've got to echo this. I went to the show last night. I feel like I have a pretty good ear, and I can tell when auto tune is being overused or misbehaving, and I didn't hear anything like that last night. I got some sound files today that I'm listening to, and yes, some parts in Surfer Girl do sound suspect, but I am adamant when I say, this is not the way it sounded last night.

Brian sounded exactly like Brian last night, which is to say kind of bad. Let's face it, he's old, he ruined his voice with smoking and drugs, and his mental state over the years probably prevented him from putting the kind of work and practice necessary to keep his voice well. That said, I'm a huge fan, and I was there to see him. I listened intently to every note he sang that actually made it through the mix, and everything sounded exactly as I expected it to sound, without any signs of auto tune.

I was 25 feet away from Brian, and so maybe the overwhelming sound from the speakers above were hiding some things that did actually come out clearer in the back of the venue, or maybe I was just too excited last night to hear in very great detail. But maybe, just maybe, it's also possible that maybe a 64kbps AAC recording made through a little tiny crappy microphone just maybe isn't accurate enough to tell what was going on? Anyone who's trying to foment a ruckus here based just on hearing that recording ought to perhaps be quiet and reserve judgement until they can see the show for themselves or at least wait until some higher quality recordings appear.

[18thofMay]

I still do not hear Autotune after many, many listens!
100% No auto-tune, confirmed!!