This is probably the most in depth I've seen anyone go with talking about the process of recording sound for a film production for a featurette. It's something I've wanted people for to understand about what production and post audio is all about! Especially since this is what I do! 🥰
@@h3eartbreakI was shocked at the compression and pitch correction choices on the official soundtrack especially when the movie versions were so clean. What is This Feeling was where I really noticed it. But other than that it seems consistent with the set audio.
we know for a fact DTL was re-recorded in the studio for the soundtrack after johnathan did his live version for the movie and if im not correct, ive heard NOMTW was show over 40 times so there's gotta be outtakes of vocals chosen for the final version, and if i gotta choose one version of DG it would be DG's movie version and not the soundtrack cuz the echos in after elphaba rises and sings the ending has a beautiful overworld echo effect in the movie if you listen to it on ur headphones
@ she has a flat tone, poor range and is overall a poor actress that has been given WAAAY too much hype.. she delivers her lines in an emotionless way, and it was obvious to the director as her lines had many of the Ozisms added.
I raised 184k and Anna Kathleen Sanford is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Anna K. Sanford is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note!:: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!
Give them the Oscar already. The best film of the year. The most intentional and most spiritually aligned movie I've ever seen. This movie moved me so much. I've watched it 5 times and still want more. Never watched a movie more than once or twice except three movies and Wicked is one of them.
This is actually not something new, they have long been using this technology in all stage shows nowadays, a small mic near the forehead, the wire worming out of the hair and the mic just sticking out of the head or side of the head.
I would love to hear a version with NO autotune (because yes, there is some. It's not overwhelming, but it's there.) because as much as it "pitch corrects" it also takes away so many tiny emotional inflections.
And the worst part is that it is not necessary at all because most of these actors can SING! You can hear it in the 'pink' scenes. The slow acapella part is her actual singing and with the background music that follows up the voice is slightly pitch corrected. Nobody will claim Ariana doesn't sound good even if she is slightly (humanly) not perfectly precisely on pitch like every 'professionally' produced music from the last 30 years. I think it actually takes away from the performance. It's not a shame to hear actual emotion and it's not a shame to hear that good live singing is done live.
@@MrAronymous EXACTLY. I (for one) want the inconsistencies. I want the times the singer is slightly under a note and the building into the tuning because the emotion is building up with it. That's PART of the music and the performance! These women are talented! And sure, if a note was really off on the day for whatever reason, I don't mind it tweaked, but overall autotune takes out the natural vocal vibration that helped make them stars in the first place. So yes, the harmonies might sound more matchy-matchy with autotune, but you lose part of the emotion. (For me I notice it most in the Defying Gravity soundtrack vs the audio in the clips of them live singing.)
It’s very obvious in the soundtrack version with the vocal mixing and mastering choices. Some parts were exactly like the movie take and other parts sounded like a separate take was spliced together and compressed so much that you could hear vocal artifacts in the mix. It’s still amazing but there’s something in raw vocals that feels more powerful than melodyne.
1:44 Talking about the set having no background noises, you know what have been really cool? Actually playing a couple seconds of live recording without music or commentary. This is like talking about how great your physical sets are and only showing bluescreen shots.
I love that they put this video out- almost like a big "F YOU" to all the people that are saying that the live singing was pre-recorded or severely edited. No.. it wasn't. Just because YOU can't sing like them, doesn't mean they can't.
The live vocals are awesome for the movie, but the soundtrack should’ve been recorded professionally in a booth because just listening to the album in the car it’s not clean, like nah I don’t want to listen to Cynthia’s voice sounding boxy in What Is This Feeling 😅
It makes me so pissed that they put in all this effort to record things live on set, and then on the soundtrack ee literally hear the autotune they did almost all of the songs have been messed with. I appreciate the effort that went into recording things live on set. But they went ahead and messed with perfectly good audio in post. So that renders the work Simon describes here, almost completely useless. Here's a list of some examples of them messing with the songs: - In the song "Popular", a vocal glitch or crack can be heard at the 1:09 mark. - In the song "What Is This Feeling" on the line "For your face" at 1:20 there is a strange cut between the words "for" and "your", as if two separate cuts were used and stitched together. - In "Dancing Through Life," the transition from speaking at the beginning to singing feels abrupt and could be more seamlessly blended. If that isn't feasible, then the speaking part might be better omitted, as it isn't essential to the song's flow. - In "Dancing Through Life", a strange echo occurs during the line “slough it off as I do” at the 1:14 mark. - In the same song, the delivery of the line “blows are glancing” at the 1:59 mark appears to have been recorded with a less-than-optimal take. - In "Defying Gravity," the transition between live and studio vocals, or between speaking and singing, is especially jarring on the phrase "it's me (speaking)" followed by "it's meeeee (singing)" at the 5:03 mark. - A significant issue occurs during Cynthia Erivo's final note in "Defying Gravity," arguably the most pivotal moment of the movie. The note appears to have been spliced together from two separate takes, resulting in a noticeable and distracting inconsistency at the 7:08 mark. - There are noticeable volume inconsistencies between songs, and even within certain songs, requiring listeners to adjust the volume frequently for a comfortable experience. - The overall mixing of the album could benefit from refinement as well. At times, the instrumental arrangements overpower the vocals, while in other moments, certain vocal parts are noticeably louder than others, creating an uneven listening experience.
Really appreciate all that’s said here however I wonder if more flexibility towards them re-recording in post would’ve been beneficial for the soundtrack. Theres a robotic glitch in popular, and I find it confusing why that word wasn’t just re-recorded in post rather than (I assume) edited strangely to remove prop sounds. The latter seems like more effort.
as a performer and a sound engineer I am obsessed with this whole process... now, if someone could explain to me why they did what they did to Jonathan's voice in DTL, I'd appreciate it hahhaha the autotune on his voice is appalling
@@phattjabba fun fact: Simon Hayes was also the production sound mixer on Les Mis. In an interview (with Variety, I think) he said his experience on Les Mis was the reason he said 'yes' when Jon M. Chu asked him if they could record the live vocals on Wicked. So, say what you will about the "appalling singing", but the mix was 100% quality work from Mr. Hayes.
@ I meant the production of Les Mis as a whole was terrible - mainly the fault of the director, Tom Hooper, who of course directed Cats (which was even worse). I wasn't criticising Simon Hayes specifically. However, considering how bad Les Mis and Cats were (recorded live) I am astounded that Wicked sounds so good - really a testament to the talents of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
You went through so much trouble to record live vocals which is commendable but why ruin all of that work with post processing pitch correction? Let the singers sing. The pitch correction took me out of the moment. I wish the producers hadn't done that.
okay but why then pitch correct the live vocals and diminish the performance. Everytime they show a bts video of the recording its vibrant and with so much more soul than the already great final edition thats in the movie. but everytime I hear and see what they actually captured my heart bleeds a little that we dont get to experience said live vocals.
When they said they were singing live on set, I wasn’t really impressed because surely those aren’t the vocals used in the film/on the album. To find out that they did in fact use those vocal takes on the album is mind blowing 😮 the fact that Ari’s work on No One Mourns and Cynthia’s vocals on defying gravity were actually that clear on set is so crazy
The movie sounds fantastic, the soundtrack sounds *terrible*. If everything was pre-recorded in the studio before starting filming on set, why not use those consistent vocal tracks for the soundtrack, instead of terribly edited/autotuned/cobbled together takes from on set? I'm not buying it until it (hopefully) gets fixed and the performances from the actors are done justice!
This whole film was amazing but please for god sake take all the pitch correction off. It would take it a new level that would be revolutionary for film. You may not see it but being slightly flat or sharp hear and there conveys emotion and is important. I don’t know if John or anyone has realised it yet.
they gotta do a documentary about making this movie fr
Dude I know. I would watch like a 4 hour long thing with a break in the middle
They did!
It’s called “defying gravity the curtain rises on wicked” and it aired on NBC, and is available on Peacock🌞
@@kariwick-InnerPeaceCoaching I know. I watched it when it aired
If this sound team doesn't get an Oscar nomination, there is no justice.
Agreed
Uh.. There's so much noise and hearable autotune glitches. I'm familiar with audio engineering myself and it's noticeable..
@@semvanroyen2693 they should have hired you
Autotune! You are hallucinating!
The recording quality is extraordinary
HOLDING SPACE FOR THIS VIDEO RN
Holding space and fingers.
🩷💚🩷💚🧹✨️🫧
This is probably the most in depth I've seen anyone go with talking about the process of recording sound for a film production for a featurette. It's something I've wanted people for to understand about what production and post audio is all about! Especially since this is what I do! 🥰
My partner works in film, so I've seen the immense work everyone on set does, you should be so proud! It all looks so difficult 😅
Would love to hear the live version on the soundtrack
As far as I can tell, they're identical, with apparently some unnecessary pitch correction as noted by a lot of other TH-camrs.
yes especially for what is this feeling! I need the nice precussion of the choreography lol
@@h3eartbreakI was shocked at the compression and pitch correction choices on the official soundtrack especially when the movie versions were so clean. What is This Feeling was where I really noticed it. But other than that it seems consistent with the set audio.
Exactly.
we know for a fact DTL was re-recorded in the studio for the soundtrack after johnathan did his live version for the movie and if im not correct, ive heard NOMTW was show over 40 times so there's gotta be outtakes of vocals chosen for the final version, and if i gotta choose one version of DG it would be DG's movie version and not the soundtrack cuz the echos in after elphaba rises and sings the ending has a beautiful overworld echo effect in the movie if you listen to it on ur headphones
This cast is the best it could have been. Cynthia and Ariana were AMAZING!!!❤
I just wish they didn't case Michelle Yoh
@@xecobwhy? She was amazing
@@Fantasy_Dreamer_89💯
Agreed💚🧹🩷🪄🫧
@ she has a flat tone, poor range and is overall a poor actress that has been given WAAAY too much hype.. she delivers her lines in an emotionless way, and it was obvious to the director as her lines had many of the Ozisms added.
I’m feeling truly inspired.
Can you provide additional insights about the bi-weekly subject you mentioned?
I raised 184k and Anna Kathleen Sanford is to be thanked. I got my self my dream car 🚗 just last weekend, My journey with her started after my best friend came back from New York and saw me suffering in dept then told me about her and how to change my life through her. Anna K. Sanford is the kind of person one needs in his or her life! I got a home, a good wife, and a beautiful daughter. Note!:: this is not a promotion but me trying to make a point that no matter what happens, always have faith and keep living!!
Whoa 😲 I know her too!
Miss Anna Kathleen Sanford is an incredible person who has brought immense inspiration and positivity into my life.
I meagerly kicked off with $2k, and the results have been Jaw-dropping TBH!!!
What effective way to get in to connection with this woman you'll are speaking bout?
damn every time I think there is a category of academy awards that this film should win I realise wicked would probably take home every single one
Give them the Oscar already. The best film of the year. The most intentional and most spiritually aligned movie I've ever seen. This movie moved me so much. I've watched it 5 times and still want more. Never watched a movie more than once or twice except three movies and Wicked is one of them.
the grip hold this movie still has for me since it first released oh my god that deserves an award all on its own
same! I’ve been waiting to get bored one of these days but every clip just pulls me back in. The visuals, the sounds, the actors!
This is such a fascinating way of doing live vocals, the hat mic especially is genius. Bravo to Simon and crew!
The hat mic trick is also used in the stage show! The performer has one hat mic and one full-body mic as a backup in case the hat mic goes out.
@@HaunaMyKiki I was gonna say the same! You can search Shoshana Bean performing Defying Gravity Hat Fall to see how they switch from the hat mic.
This is actually not something new, they have long been using this technology in all stage shows nowadays, a small mic near the forehead, the wire worming out of the hair and the mic just sticking out of the head or side of the head.
I’d LOVEEEEEE to hear the live recordings. Think I’d actually cry.
The sounds were good. Wicked has become one of my top favorite movies. Awesome job!
They did all the singling audio live?! Absolutely incredible in every which (*witch) way!
I would love to hear a version with NO autotune (because yes, there is some. It's not overwhelming, but it's there.) because as much as it "pitch corrects" it also takes away so many tiny emotional inflections.
And the worst part is that it is not necessary at all because most of these actors can SING! You can hear it in the 'pink' scenes. The slow acapella part is her actual singing and with the background music that follows up the voice is slightly pitch corrected. Nobody will claim Ariana doesn't sound good even if she is slightly (humanly) not perfectly precisely on pitch like every 'professionally' produced music from the last 30 years. I think it actually takes away from the performance. It's not a shame to hear actual emotion and it's not a shame to hear that good live singing is done live.
@@MrAronymous EXACTLY. I (for one) want the inconsistencies. I want the times the singer is slightly under a note and the building into the tuning because the emotion is building up with it. That's PART of the music and the performance! These women are talented! And sure, if a note was really off on the day for whatever reason, I don't mind it tweaked, but overall autotune takes out the natural vocal vibration that helped make them stars in the first place. So yes, the harmonies might sound more matchy-matchy with autotune, but you lose part of the emotion. (For me I notice it most in the Defying Gravity soundtrack vs the audio in the clips of them live singing.)
It’s very obvious in the soundtrack version with the vocal mixing and mastering choices. Some parts were exactly like the movie take and other parts sounded like a separate take was spliced together and compressed so much that you could hear vocal artifacts in the mix. It’s still amazing but there’s something in raw vocals that feels more powerful than melodyne.
I love that you guys are still giving us more content.. please keep doing it till the second movie and for another year haha!
It’s so beautiful seeing the people who have worked behind the scenes ❤️ They ate
Let the Oscars rain for this masterpiece in every craftmenship. This is Pure Joy, hard Work and absolutely perfekt in every angle and frame.
You said it. It was perfect in every way
its so interesting to see how the magic occurs on set and how much thought it had been put in it
This one, this one, fantastic and perfect ❤❤❤
1:44
Talking about the set having no background noises, you know what have been really cool?
Actually playing a couple seconds of live recording without music or commentary.
This is like talking about how great your physical sets are and only showing bluescreen shots.
They did a little bit with Ariana at the beginning with No One Mourns The Wicked.
I love that they put this video out- almost like a big "F YOU" to all the people that are saying that the live singing was pre-recorded or severely edited. No.. it wasn't. Just because YOU can't sing like them, doesn't mean they can't.
WE HOLDING SPACE WAIT😁🤚
Them singing LIVE is something so special
YESSSS MORE VIDEOS LIKE THIS I could watch the bts process for hours and hours
Finally saw the movie this weekend. It was brilliant! Everyone did such an exceptional job on this masterpiece!
I can’t believe there are people who don’t think John Chu deserves an Oscar nomination when he’s so heavily involved in the making of this film.
The soundtrack is magical !!
As a Filmmaker that hates sound design with a bloody passion i applaud all the work put into this story!!
This movie means the world to me 💚💖
Amazing work!!! This is excellence on another level, congratulations to the whole team 🩷💚
Oh this is just incredible! The love for detail is insane and we noticed for sure
I just love how everyone involved in making this movie put so much of their heart and soul into it to make this the masterpiece that it is ❤
everything’s honestly just so spectacular with the attention to details and the balance during them singing and the current environment they’re in
this is just perfect
the film sounded amazing. Well done Simon and the team. The full production crew don't get enough credit for the amount of work put in
we are getting spoiled😀💚💚💓💓
Beautiful Sounds 💚🩷 Wicked is absolutely amazing
YES I OOVE WICKED SM
ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE
This makes me love the movie that much more!!!
This movie is my whole life now ❤
The live vocals are awesome for the movie, but the soundtrack should’ve been recorded professionally in a booth because just listening to the album in the car it’s not clean, like nah I don’t want to listen to Cynthia’s voice sounding boxy in What Is This Feeling 😅
tHIS IS ACTUALLY INSANE
This is pure perfection ❤ it is so magical
Absolutely incredible!💚🩷
Incredible work!!! Wish the soundtrack had used the same versions of the songs as the movie ❤ can’t wait for part 2
Yet some people are still denying that they actual sang live. They 100% did and I'm so tired of people hating on the movie.
Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Just incredible. 🔥
Love it. Could watch hours of BTS 💚💖
Binge watching reactions of the movie/songs for a month now. Thanks for this new vid 😭😭💖💖💖
Brilliant
Simply remarkable work guys!
HOLDING SPACE
Why am i lowkey early....
why am I lowkey early 💜
Fr
Same lol😭💕
Soundtracks make the movie more memorable ✨
just BRAVO!!!
WOW. JUST WOW.
Brilliant ❤
This is THE Oscar campaign!
best movie of all time.
Ariana and Cynthia changed everything
💚
💖💚
What will be your title for a new wicked promotion video?
Me: Sound🗿
It makes me so pissed that they put in all this effort to record things live on set, and then on the soundtrack ee literally hear the autotune they did almost all of the songs have been messed with.
I appreciate the effort that went into recording things live on set. But they went ahead and messed with perfectly good audio in post. So that renders the work Simon describes here, almost completely useless.
Here's a list of some examples of them messing with the songs:
- In the song "Popular", a vocal glitch or crack can be heard at the 1:09 mark.
- In the song "What Is This Feeling" on the line "For your face" at 1:20 there is a strange cut between the words "for" and "your", as if two separate cuts were used and stitched together.
- In "Dancing Through Life," the transition from speaking at the beginning to singing feels abrupt and could be more seamlessly blended. If that isn't feasible, then the speaking part might be better omitted, as it isn't essential to the song's flow.
- In "Dancing Through Life", a strange echo occurs during the line “slough it off as I do” at the 1:14 mark.
- In the same song, the delivery of the line “blows are glancing” at the 1:59 mark appears to have been recorded with a less-than-optimal take.
- In "Defying Gravity," the transition between live and studio vocals, or between speaking and singing, is especially jarring on the phrase "it's me (speaking)" followed by "it's meeeee (singing)" at the 5:03 mark.
- A significant issue occurs during Cynthia Erivo's final note in "Defying Gravity," arguably the most pivotal moment of the movie. The note appears to have been spliced together from two separate takes, resulting in a noticeable and distracting inconsistency at the 7:08 mark.
- There are noticeable volume inconsistencies between songs, and even within certain songs, requiring listeners to adjust the volume frequently for a comfortable experience.
- The overall mixing of the album could benefit from refinement as well. At times, the instrumental arrangements overpower the vocals, while in other moments, certain vocal parts are noticeably louder than others, creating an uneven listening experience.
i need the acapella versions fr
Okay can we agree to riot if they don’t get best sound at the Oscar’s? Thanks
Is he the one who almost makes a hip-hop version on popular? 😅
Really appreciate all that’s said here however I wonder if more flexibility towards them re-recording in post would’ve been beneficial for the soundtrack. Theres a robotic glitch in popular, and I find it confusing why that word wasn’t just re-recorded in post rather than (I assume) edited strangely to remove prop sounds. The latter seems like more effort.
I still can’t believe a movie as wicked as this lost the best musical film (golden globe) to emilia pérez. I can’t! 🤦🏾♀️
If you believed that, when why was it altered so much? Pitch adjustment should never have been an option for these two singers. They don't need it.
God imagine being the background actors hearing all of that live 😩🤌🏻
I’m holding space
as a performer and a sound engineer I am obsessed with this whole process... now, if someone could explain to me why they did what they did to Jonathan's voice in DTL, I'd appreciate it hahhaha the autotune on his voice is appalling
When will the music videos be out I’m just wondering 🤔
YOUR GREEN?!!!!
why am i so early
I love how early I am
Elphaba
Very clever
omg why it only win 1 golden globe better win more than 1 oscar, which includes including soundtrack / score
🎉❤
i’m here :D
Sounds similar to what they did in the les miserables movie 2012 - all the actors sang live on set, made it feel more real and natural
Les Miserables was a terrible production, the singing was appalling from many of the actors
@@phattjabba fun fact: Simon Hayes was also the production sound mixer on Les Mis. In an interview (with Variety, I think) he said his experience on Les Mis was the reason he said 'yes' when Jon M. Chu asked him if they could record the live vocals on Wicked. So, say what you will about the "appalling singing", but the mix was 100% quality work from Mr. Hayes.
@ I meant the production of Les Mis as a whole was terrible - mainly the fault of the director, Tom Hooper, who of course directed Cats (which was even worse). I wasn't criticising Simon Hayes specifically. However, considering how bad Les Mis and Cats were (recorded live) I am astounded that Wicked sounds so good - really a testament to the talents of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
My queen ariana grande
6 MINITES AGO!?!?
OMGG HELLO
🫂❤️🩹♾️
🌷💗💚💫
You went through so much trouble to record live vocals which is commendable but why ruin all of that work with post processing pitch correction? Let the singers sing. The pitch correction took me out of the moment. I wish the producers hadn't done that.
okay but why then pitch correct the live vocals and diminish the performance. Everytime they show a bts video of the recording its vibrant and with so much more soul than the already great final edition thats in the movie. but everytime I hear and see what they actually captured my heart bleeds a little that we dont get to experience said live vocals.
When they said they were singing live on set, I wasn’t really impressed because surely those aren’t the vocals used in the film/on the album. To find out that they did in fact use those vocal takes on the album is mind blowing 😮 the fact that Ari’s work on No One Mourns and Cynthia’s vocals on defying gravity were actually that clear on set is so crazy
The movie sounds fantastic, the soundtrack sounds *terrible*. If everything was pre-recorded in the studio before starting filming on set, why not use those consistent vocal tracks for the soundtrack, instead of terribly edited/autotuned/cobbled together takes from on set? I'm not buying it until it (hopefully) gets fixed and the performances from the actors are done justice!
Early!❤
Sounds…
🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧
This whole film was amazing but please for god sake take all the pitch correction off. It would take it a new level that would be revolutionary for film. You may not see it but being slightly flat or sharp hear and there conveys emotion and is important. I don’t know if John or anyone has realised it yet.
Okay I’m early