*Merged* Brian Wilson current album thread

[ontor pertawst]

[sigh] AutoTune - when used - is applied post recording, not in real time (which would be impossible, actually)

http://www.antarestech.com/products/detail.php?product=Auto-Tune_Live_2

Those coupla seconds sound fun, looking forward to hearing the whole album...

[Sam_BFC]

I just sighed so hard I hyper ventilated.

[Shady]

Guys I just went crazy

That songs sounds incredible. I'm officially as excited as I can possibly be for an album

[Ron]

those 10 seconds are nice but there's no way to know if it's a great tune or if it sounds like a soda jingle. Bring more!

The whole way western music works revolves around songs resolving over and over again.... which they don't in 10 seconds... so Yeah, in my opinion I have no opinion about this song based on 10 seconds. 

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

[sigh] AutoTune - when used - is applied post recording, not in real time (which would be impossible, actually)

Mark this day on the calendar. .. im actually going to correct you for the first time ever in all the years we've been friends . It is indeed possible to use pitch correction in a live setting in real time. Not just referring to the early C50 dates either (which used Melodyne... or so ive heard).Hell, ive done it myself! It's no different than any other VST plug-in,  although the accuracy used in a live setting of course will not be as good as in the studio fixing only small parts of a track.

[The Cincinnati Kid]

Even though it's only a small clip, I feel much better about the album now.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I don't hear any autotune, just about 1500 Brian vocal "double" tracks that he's singing over.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I don't hear any autotune, just about 1500 Brian vocal "double" tracks that he's singing over.

Same here

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

I don't hear any autotune, just about 1500 Brian vocal "double" tracks that he's singing over.

Same here

Better than one Brian track and 1500 Fosketts 

[SMiLE Brian]

 

[Ray Lawlor]

I don't hear any autotune, just about 1500 Brian vocal "double" tracks that he's singing over.

this

[Shady]

This would've been a nice summer song, shame it won't be released on time .

I noticed how brian grabbed his headphones when he started singing, like those famous photos of him recording when he was younger

[MarcellaHasDirtyFeet]

Sigh... Even devil horn smiley face isn't enough to convey sarcasm on this board...

[guitarfool2002]

This would've been a nice summer song, shame it won't be released on time .

I noticed how brian grabbed his headphones when he started singing, like those famous photos of him recording when he was younger

That's a thing a lot of singers do when tracking vocals. I'm no singer but I could stack harmonies when needed, and I did the same thing. You basically push the 'phones right up close to your ears, and it may just be a psychological thing but you hear the track and your "live" vocal a different way. Plus it helps "isolate" the track even more in your head. It also gives a nervous type like me something for my hands to do. Other singers may take one cup of the 'phones off, and even plug that ear with their finger to hear their own voice better. Some of those Beach Boys vocal session clips/photos showed at least one band member with his hands clutched behind his back as he was at the mic.

And still other vocalists sometimes like to record in a "live" atmosphere, so they may have the track out of phase and blasting through the monitors in their face as they do a vocal. An engineer I know personally told me they set that up for Bono when he came to that studio to do a vocal take and wanted a live feel in his performance.

It's a musician thing, you know...

[guitarfool2002]

Pun intended...Can I "pitch in" one thing or two about Autotune or any pitch correction setup in general?

It's not about whether or not it's audible where someone says they heard it, but just to repeat and clarify stuff that we discussed before.

It depends on the artist and of course the song, but there is one absolute, solid fact about Autotune. If you use it as a tool, as it was designed, it can be set to work transparently, in other words it can do it's job without leaving audible audio residue on the track your applying it to.

That's the beauty of it, when you set it up and get the parameters just right for the track, it can work without noticing an audible change. That also depends on how close the original vocal track actually was on pitch and how much the program would need to "work" in order to smooth out the notes. It's terrific for keeping a pitch steady as a singer's breath runs out at the tail end of a note, it just brings that up in pitch similar to a well-set compression unit evening out the levels.

But it's something so subtle you wouldn't necessarily be able to detect it in that capacity on either an audiophile system and great speakers or an mp4 video taken on an iPhone.

The reverse of that is that where a vocal is really, really well done, pitched very well, and delivered top-notch, you could apply Autotune and it won't trigger...because if the notes are accurate to begin with, it has nothing to correct. Try it with even a snippet of an isolated Pet Sound lead vocal or something, see how close Brian and the gang were in 1966 before all of the newfangled tech tools came around and doing a hit lead vocal was up to the skill of the singer. 

And as Kanye and T-Pain and the folks who made the over-correction sound with Cher a radio staple have said, the more you sing deliberately "off", the more the device will correct it and that overuse will give that characteristic T-Pain sound. If you sing it perfectly, no matter how you set it, if it doesn't detect anything out of pitch, it won't trigger.

But unless that overcorrection is the desired sound, the engineer will try to make it as transparent and inaudible of an "effect" as possible on a vocal track. And you can even set the parameters in such a way to leave breath noises and the like audible to keep it sounding human, while subtly correcting trailing notes and the like without being noticed.

Just to add to the discussion as a reminder.

[alf wiedersehen]

Well, I can say that when I'm hearing something and singing along with it - and if I do a serviceable job - I can hear my voice resonating whoever it is I'm singing along with.
Maybe pushing the headphone closer to his ear is just him trying to listen closer.

[Shady]

You're a fountain of information Guitarfool, great post 

[Andrew G. Doe]

But unless that overcorrection is the desired sound, the engineer will try to make it as transparent and inaudible of an "effect" as possible on a vocal track.

So I guess that means... Thomas intentionally made the vocals on the live album sound like robotic sh*t ?

[zachrwolfe]

‍

[phirnis]

Joe Thomas is probably just a big fan of Shania Twain.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

But unless that overcorrection is the desired sound, the engineer will try to make it as transparent and inaudible of an "effect" as possible on a vocal track.

So I guess that means... Thomas intentionally made the vocals on the live album sound like robotic sh*t ?

pretty much . Guess he thought it sounded good.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

But unless that overcorrection is the desired sound, the engineer will try to make it as transparent and inaudible of an "effect" as possible on a vocal track.

So I guess that means... Thomas intentionally made the vocals on the live album sound like robotic sh*t ?

pretty much . Guess he thought it sounded good.

Well, T-Pain fans did snatch it up by the boatload ........... right? .........

[The Shift]

A clip from Brian's song with Zooey Deschanel:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152548010452241

Sounds great to me!

Ten seconds makes it a bit difficult to judge much. I’m not particularly digging the Busy Doin’ Nothin’/Bill and Sue vibe that it seems to have. A tropical or bossa nova sort of thing doesn’t interest me. But hopefully a longer clip or full track will yield more interesting results.

I'm no expert but is this a clip of Brian actually recording a vocal or is he simply singing along to an already mastered track? The Wall of Brians in the background sounds smooth and polished to me, whereas the live track we're hearing is raw (and no less great to hear for that!). The professional recording folks here will correct me if I'm wrong but surely each overdub wouldn't get that treatment before the next is laid down, even in today's digitalised world of instantaneous gratification?

As everyone's saying, too little on which to form an opinion on the song or the album but as a ten-second clip it's fine!

[Ray Lawlor]

A clip from Brian's song with Zooey Deschanel:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152548010452241

Sounds great to me!

Ten seconds makes it a bit difficult to judge much. I’m not particularly digging the Busy Doin’ Nothin’/Bill and Sue vibe that it seems to have. A tropical or bossa nova sort of thing doesn’t interest me. But hopefully a longer clip or full track will yield more interesting results.

I'm no expert but is this a clip of Brian actually recording a vocal or is he simply singing along to an already mastered track? The Wall of Brians in the background sounds smooth and polished to me, whereas the live track we're hearing is raw (and no less great to hear for that!). The professional recording folks here will correct me if I'm wrong but surely each overdub wouldn't get that treatment before the next is laid down, even in today's digitalised world of instantaneous gratification?

As everyone's saying, too little on which to form an opinion on the song or the album but as a ten-second clip it's fine!

John ; its actually recording a first take on one of the layered background parts of "On the Island"

[Generation42]

It's very thrilling to have heard this clip!  As short a glimpse as it was, I thought "On the Island" sounded wonderfully sublime and it served to leave me eager for more.

I know it may not be everyone's cup o' tea, but personally?  I've always been a big, big fan of anything produced by Brian/The Beach Boys which exudes that kind of Hawaiian/tropical essence.  It never seems to disappoint me.

I don't know that this is the kind of music Brian had in mind for Pleasure Island (and I'm not suggesting that that's what this album will actually be), but the clip sounded pretty much how I always imagined that project could be.

I'd gladly take an entire album's worth (but I still want that Life Suite more than anything).


Mr. Lawlor, if you please:  Are you in a position to say whether we could expect any more material recorded for this project to share in a similar kind of vibe?  And this is almost certainly a reach, but have you any idea whether this wonderful new track (or, for that matter, anything else Brian may currently be working on) maybe fits into said suite, somehow?